WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: Hermetica, by Alan Lea, Part Seven 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:10.959 Call Zone Media book Club, book Club, book Club, book Club. Hello, 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:13.480 Welcome nichols On Media book Club, the only book club 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:14.960 where you don't have to do the reading, because I 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.599 do it for you. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.919 every week I bring you stories, and this week I 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:25.240 bring you the conclusion of her Medica by Alan Lee. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:27.680 In the past six weeks, you've been listening to me 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.640 read you her Medica, unless you're binging it all at once, 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:32.320 in which case it wasn't the last six weeks, it 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.440 was the last I don't know, four hours. Or you 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.519 might actually be listening to just part seven and not 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.559 the rest of it because you just want to know 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:45.920 how it ends, in which case, congratulations, you're going to 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:50.480 learn how it ends anyway. Alan Lee is a pen 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.040 name for Peter Gelderlops, who's a nonfiction author, but Allen 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.280 Lee is the name that he writes science fiction under. 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:02.400 And last time on her Medica Days met a person 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.959 named Shauna, an author who worked on the storylines. After 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.479 the slow collapse caused by climate change, pandemics and eroding 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:14.880 faith in the current systems, the government had turned to compartmentalization, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.679 whereby people were warehoused and essentially prisons and fed lies 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.800 about the nature of their world to keep them confined, complacent, 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:27.679 and productive. Her Medica was one of these compartments a 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:32.960 storyline that produced scientific progress. Residents like Zimp who were 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.480 doing research on the starship were actually running very small 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.319 and specific parts of other scientific inquiries, and the rest 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.120 of everyone, like Days, kept the whole thing going. Nobody 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:46.600 has ever given enough information to pick apart the whole. 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:51.920 Truth and compliance and non questioning attitude is prized. After 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.559 Shawna has taken away, Days woke up to a screen 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.800 with eight buttons. Two deactivated indicated that they wouldn't be 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:02.000 able to choose to return to Hermetica or the Secession, 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.520 which is also a storyline designed to keep violent fascist 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:10.399 self contained. And there are six possible worlds to choose from, 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:12.639 and just as a head's up, this final part of 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.680 the story deals with intense topics, including starvation and suicide, 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.120 and so listen to it at a pace that works 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:26.200 for you if you feel like Days awoke their head hurt, 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.840 the cell was immaculate, there was no sign of their outburst. 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.440 The column pinged. Days found a cup of water within. 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:40.680 They drank it down. They went back to sleep. Days 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:42.880 had been half awake for a long time before they 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.680 finally forced their eyes all the way opened and rolled 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.840 out of the cot. They drank some water and crossed 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:52.400 to the other corner to piss, Finally letting out a 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.919 long sigh, They went back to the screen with a 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.960 bitter obedience. They put a finger to the fourth square. 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:04.880 The image was of a beautiful white building on a 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.760 cliff with a majestic staircase winding down to a sandy 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:13.440 beach on an azure sea. People arrived in resplendent vehicles, 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:20.000 people evincing confidence, charm, and power. The video, however, focused 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.919 on those attending them, bringing them to their rooms, cooking 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:27.760 and serving their food, massaging them. Days was surprised to 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.160 see them use their hands directly and not any machines 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.519 fitting them into scoop gear on the back of a 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:40.160 small boat. The attendants were also elegant, always smiling, always 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.120 right on time, in the perfect place in a carefully 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:49.840 choreographed dance. The guests seemed very appreciative. One even shared 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.160 a bottle of wine with an attendant on the edge 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.920 of a hot tub. Days looked back at the cell, 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:01.080 raising an eyebrow. Being tracked was always insult, they realized, 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.480 thinking back to the aptitudes. But when the system read 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:08.480 you so wrong, the insult seemed even worse. Then again, 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:10.320 they had no way of knowing if the option had 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.920 not been placed on the screen to elicit exactly that reaction, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.960 to push them to another choice, or at least to 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.839 inflate the feeling of how many choices were available? Could 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.120 one even speak of choice? Surely the system had already 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.640 calculated the probability of every choice on the whole menu. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:33.239 There were probably only two days might feasibly choose. Maybe 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:37.240 even that calculation was optimistic. Perhaps the modeling was so 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.720 exact that everything from the mood and the lighting and 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.320 the promos to the order of the options were presented 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:48.000 in were all designed to produce a single outcome. Which scenario, 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:53.160 had the system determined days could fit into best. They 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.120 moved their finger, if only to stop the parade of 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:01.839 luxury in its servile attendance. The next image was quite 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:07.240 the contrast. A forest ancient trees. Three people trekked through. 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.280 They were tired, dirty, but there was strength in their eyes. 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.320 They seemed like friends. One of them stopped, excited, They 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:19.080 had seen something. The others gathered around. It was a 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.000 moss growing at the base of a tree. They knelt 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.719 down reverently, and one carefully scooped a sample into a 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:30.440 small self ceiling bag. Later they were at a small station. 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:32.680 It seemed to be in the middle of the same forest. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.480 They were running tests, and one of them seemed to 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.719 be giving first day to a small amphibian, a variety 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.200 Days had never seen before. The animal seemed to have 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:48.520 some transparent oily substance on its skin. It was suffering, 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.680 but the person tended it lovingly, cleaning it off, giving 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.440 it an injection with a tiny needle. Later they were 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.839 gathered around a pond, releasing the amphibian. Now healthy, it 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.560 swam out into the water, joining others like it. The 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.919 final square showed an angry crowd in a street, perhaps 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:14.080 a protest. Days did not tap on the image. They 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:16.799 let their hand drop to their side as a deep 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.839 sigh escaped their lungs. They turned and sat down on 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:27.080 the cot. Six options, six possible futures. One they had 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.640 not yet seen, another they definitely did not want. Two 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.440 of them were appealing, but they only seemed tenable for 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.320 those times when they were on the up, and when 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.960 would they be possibly feeling that way again, after all 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.240 they had been through, after what they had to do. 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:47.919 Now the other two they might work. They could imagine 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.640 choosing a life like that, But no, they realized angrily, 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.479 it wasn't their choice. None of these lives would ever 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.360 be their choice. And then they realized why had They 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.560 had never been allowed to see anyone who worked in 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.600 this pre not even a simple robot. With no one 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.279 else here, no one who held authority over them. The 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.920 place was merely a circumstance, a fork in the road, 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.000 and not a prison, not a box someone had decided 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.520 to lock them up inside. All of it reinforced the 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.400 illusion of choice, as though they were in dialogue with 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.280 those six options on the screen, as though they were 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:27.000 about to choose their future life. But those worlds and 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:31.120 all the worlds, were like the prison itself, totally designed 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:35.320 by those who had control, completely inoculated against any choices 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.720 they might make. The fact that they were invisible, the 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.520 illusion that Days could control how they lived, only augmented 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:47.240 the architect's power. Looking back at the PLEXI, Days thought 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.720 about the button that had portrayed her medica. It had 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:55.400 initially been presented as inactivated and then removed entirely. At 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.880 first that made perfect sense. Why should they want to 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:00.880 return to Medica where they had been so unhappy? Everything 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.240 about it was a lie? But then they reconsidered that 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:08.200 was their home, the place they had grown up, everyone 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.320 they knew was there still, What right did those in 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.320 charge have to remove Days? With a wave of disgust 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.520 that hit like nausea, they realized the arrogance of it all, 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:23.000 the compartmentalization, the pretension of designing a world for them 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.720 to live in, circumscribing their futures, but always in the 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.760 guise of offering them choices. If humans could go uninvited 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.280 to another star system, why couldn't they go anywhere they 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.280 pleased on their own planet? And who had the authority 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.400 to keep Days from going home? They had no idea 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.520 who the architects were, but they certainly didn't live on 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.160 Days's block. And to whom did a block belong if 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.000 not to those who lived on it. Did they just 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:53.640 think they owned everything? No, Suddenly it was clear what 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:58.800 they wanted. Days banged on the PLEXI her Metica, I 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.640 want you to send me back to her her Medica. 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.640 They yelled at the cell with growing conviction. Her Medica 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.800 was hell and that was why Days had to go back. Zimp, milty, 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.480 even Axa. They were all trapped there, trapped in the line. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.560 None of them deserved that, and Days didn't deserve to 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.320 be torn away from them, even though they had spent 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.360 so much of their lives in solitude. But even the 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.760 shrubs and flowers on the green had been their companions, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:30.680 and the sky. They banged again on the PLEXI, let 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.720 me go back to her Metica. With Snookum still there, 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:36.760 it didn't seem like the cat would be able to 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.880 find Days here. They started banging louder. They would go back. 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.280 They would find their old friends. It wouldn't be perfect, 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.640 the loneliness, the old anxieties. They would be waiting for 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.800 them too, but they would tell them, and together they 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.920 would change things. Could it be possible? Would the system 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.839 let them go back? Shawna had said the system was 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.240 set up for everyone to be productive in some way, 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.360 and the purpose of Hermetica was to produce scientists. Surely 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:06.800 the passengers would still be productive even if they knew 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.400 the truth. Days couldn't imagine that Zimp would ever give 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:15.120 up teaching quantum mechanics. The others too would continue with 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.720 their pursuits, only they would do it on their own terms. 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.080 They would get to decide what was useful or necessary, 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:24.880 once they were actually allowed to know the world they 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:29.440 lived in. Could the system countenance such a modification? Would 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:34.120 it deign to engage in dialogue with its subjects? But 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.359 you know who will always engage in dialogue with their subjects. 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:52.680 Its products and services are benevolent overlords. And we're back. 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:01.880 Of course, Days knew that all cybernets entailed dialogue, and 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.440 machine learning itself was based on seeking out maximum inputs. 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.400 But there was another factor that had always been there, 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:12.920 beneath the endless circuits of conversation, the socials, the peer reviews, 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:17.719 the near infinite data that circulated on her Medica. Even now, 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.000 the entire system was seated just across the plexi from Days. 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.920 The cell itself constituted a dialogue, one that Days had 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:30.960 no role in shaping. They had been taught that science 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.640 was freedom, the freedom to explore, to advance any argument, 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.800 tied with a responsibility to test those arguments and consider 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.679 any criticism. The examples of Terran Litt. They had been 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:47.679 given to read in primary school often centered protagonists who 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.400 burned with a desire to say what they really believed. 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.960 Basic history from Terra was full of the same theme, 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.040 like the heroic contests between Socrates and the city or 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:02.240 between Galileo and the Church. In a flash, Days realized 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.760 the inputs they had been given as children steered them 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:09.679 all towards a pre selected conclusion. Just as the Church 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.959 had lulled its followers into a new prison by warning 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.839 them of the dangers of idols and god kings, Hermetica 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.680 had frightened them with tales of irrationality or excess and 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.600 given them blinder so they could move more efficiently along 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.560 the one dimensional path they had been assured was the 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:30.560 best one. The social technologies that had linked freedom with 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.800 expression had become obsolete a century ago, if indeed they 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:39.040 were ever real Thinking furiously, Days contrasted what they knew 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.319 of the old world, the world of Edna and Galileo, 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.679 with what they knew of cybernetics. The true test to 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:50.199 distinguished between a free system and a totalitarian system, they realized, 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.800 had nothing to do with expression. On the contrary, totalitarian 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.559 systems were now based on free expression as much as possible. 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:03.760 The real test was not communication, but action and influence, 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:06.880 Grasping for some way to make sense of it all. 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.120 A model that might interpret these disparate data. Days thought 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.359 back to programming classes from before. The aptitudes and programmatic 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:20.080 terms are all elements enabled to rewrite code that could 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.640 be the mark of a free system. Days supposed when 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.559 you write a program to scan for content in the library, 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.200 or to tell the block when to water the flowers 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.839 on the garden, you're assuming that the books don't have 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.560 their own lines. They would rather share that you know 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.320 better than the flowers how much water they need. Scale 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.520 up to a system full of people, a system like Hermetica, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.200 and now programmers are scanning people for specific content, deciding 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.719 how to feed and water them, as though the programmers 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:53.280 and not the objects of their program. No Best Days 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.800 got a visit from a safety investigator because some of 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.600 their behaviors tripped a security program. Days was not even 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:04.280 aware of Modules. Recommendations for Days regarding medication, diet, entertainment, 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.320 and all the rest were based on other programs. Days 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.800 that had no hand in crafting Days might be invited 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.720 to evaluate the program, to rate it, and in fact, 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.520 Module constantly sought out feedback from Days in the form 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:21.440 of biostats and cognitive indicators, but they never had authorship 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.840 over it. While the program's parameters surely aimed to ensure 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:28.680 Days's health, it was clear that a more fundamental parameter 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.680 was the security of the overall system, the continued operation 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.920 of central programming. If they were free, According to this 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.840 rudimentary definition, if they could reprogram the program they were 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.560 caught up in the elements on Hermetica, the people would 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.920 mostly want to continue their research. Days was sure of it. 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.480 After all. One of the things that had set them 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.480 apart was, unlike the rest of their cohort they did 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.960 not feel fulfilled by their work. Nearly everyone else did, 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.000 and if they could, the others would want to redesign 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.040 the work, modify its objectives and parameters. If instead of 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.720 being trapped in a line, they were allowed to dialogue 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.320 with the other elements of the Earth system, formulating their 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:13.280 own needs and requests pertaining to scientific research, they might 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:16.960 arrive at shared sets of objectives and parameters. That's what 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.640 a free system looked like. It didn't mean you were 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.840 free of consequences or free of the need to compromise, 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.480 but that every step of the way, you had a 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:29.080 hand in shaping outcomes, and you could refuse a collaboration 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.360 that was contrary to your interests. Surely that was a 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.920 viable parameter. Days felt breathless, wondered if Galileo had had 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.800 a moment like this one. Their mind raced ahead. How 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.720 does this thing, this free system as they were venturing 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:47.280 to call it, compare to its other Perhaps the question 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.320 posed was an overly binary lens, but it was a 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.360 useful one for now. So if her Medica or the 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.800 whole world, as seemed to be the case, were not 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.520 a free system but a tutalitarian system, what defined it 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:04.920 as such? A totalitarian system? Days felt confident in their hunch, 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.880 would encourage input from all elements. But where would those 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:13.320 inputs go? Not to the elements themselves? Need to know 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:18.400 the new safety trust the experts remember the wiki as 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:22.040 well as the parallel world Shawna had described. All these 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.520 data seemed to point to the same fact. Only those 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.280 with an exclusive administrative access would be able to analyze 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.440 the inputs and decide how to act on them. Of 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:36.320 the system's total code, a large proportion would be fundamental 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.560 protocols that the vast majority of elements would have no 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:45.800 ability to alter. Again, alterations would be the prerogative of admin. Sure, 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.440 some portion of the code could be modified by everyday 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.880 elements with something like a guest or user level access, 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.760 but the changes would be largely cosmetic, and the parameters 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.320 for those changes would be limited in advance by In 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.640 the end, it didn't even matter who got to be 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.439 admined so long as most people were just guests in 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.920 their own system. So if Days were allowed to go back, 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.639 if the people on her Medica could get free, it 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.600 wouldn't mean the end of existence for whomever was in control. 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.480 It simply meant that they would have to shift from 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:22.840 elations of command to relations of reciprocity. Were they up 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:27.280 for the change? What could Days do but insist they 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:33.080 went back to banging. Their fist was bruising. Finally, Cell 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.240 recognized that ignoring Days was no longer the best option, 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.520 which metric had been tripped to change its stance physical 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.359 damage to Day's body damage to the cell. Were there 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:49.240 other people farther down the corridor who might hear before 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.879 Days could consider what options for action. These different possibilities 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:56.879 might present a damage prone PLEXI A cell coded to 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:01.040 protect their bodily integrity other prisoners with whom they might communicate. 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.760 The plexi phased back into a screen. This time only 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:08.159 one item appeared, though it was huge and took up 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:12.280 half the wall a little unsubtle. It was the icon 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:17.240 for the Hermitica button, an inactivated gray scale situated inside 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.639 a red circle with a diagonal red line crossing it 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:25.720 out for good measure. Her Medica is not an option. 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.440 You have a zero percent chance of being reassigned to Hermetica. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.440 You have six options and must choose one of them 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.400 before moving on to the next stage of your rehabilitation. 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.960 This is your last warning to cease attempted destructive activity 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:45.640 of the structures of this cell. Nowadays slammed both fists 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.280 into the plexi again and again, followed by a series 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:54.159 of frontal kicks. You motherfuckers, they screamed, taking the insult 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:59.040 shawnahad to use. You kidnapping motherfuckers. Send me home. Fuck 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.440 your six choices, Send me home. They were crying. Now 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.560 that's my family, Give me my family back, you motherfucker's. 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:12.879 A hissing sound came from the duckted above days awoke 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:18.359 their head hurt. The PLEXI was intact. Six squares glowed 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.879 softly in its center. There would be no dialogue. Whatever 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.720 Days might want or need was completely irrelevant. They were 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.960 a machine to be programmed. They stayed a long time 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:34.639 in bed. Your wants and needs are never irrelevant to 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:38.680 the products and services who support this show. I'm sorry 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:41.119 the content keeps getting heavier and heavier and throwing too 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.639 ads feels. I don't know whatever your's ads to keep 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:46.960 us paid. You could make your own choices about if 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:59.720 you listen to them or not. I guess, and we're back. 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.560 What would Shauna do, they wondered, crawling out of a 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.800 sordid dream. If they were a writer, Days could think 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.919 of a fantastical ending to this story. They would choose 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.760 one of the options Cell offered them. They would explore 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.040 their new world, make friends together. They would find a 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:24.159 crack in the system, escape out into the real world, 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.680 and live happily ever after. Or at least the story 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.760 would end ambiguously, with all the possibilities of the new 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.560 world left unexplored, Readers encouraged to hope for the best. 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.080 Another closed system, bounded by the complicity of spectators who 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.880 violated the first law of thermodynamics, creating something out of nothing, 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.800 summoning hope and possibility out of a history that offered neither. 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:53.160 They were in an eternal present. Days realized there were 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.320 no cracks, There was no outside the system. There was 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:00.159 no real world apart from this one, the unseen. What 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.359 they could not know from their present vantage, that terra 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:07.119 incognita in which they safely stashed their neurosis about a 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:11.000 better world. It wasn't an outside, and it certainly wasn't 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:14.760 a whole world. The only shadows of possibility lay behind 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.720 another enclosure. It was the darkness within a closed box, 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:24.720 bounded and contained, and inside nothing but Schrodinger's cat. Within 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.119 that darkness, that uncertainty. Days might imagine a whole world 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.480 of possibilities, but really there were only two. The cat 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:37.640 was either dead or trapped within the box. Death or imprisonment. 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.840 There were no other possibilities. Days would not tell themselves lies. 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:46.399 Days drifted in and out of sleep. The column pinged, 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:50.239 There were pings in their dreams. How many times they 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:52.879 did not get up. They stayed in bed until their 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.520 body ached, stayed until it was past aching, stayed until 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:00.000 their dreams went on strike, and sleep refused to rescue them. 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.679 They got up, went to the toilet. The pain in 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.520 their midsection began to subside. They drank some water from 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:13.240 the column. The pain in their throat began to subside. 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.240 They paced back and forth a few times, felt their 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:21.399 blood flow. Their mind come awake. Something whispered back there. 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.159 It was like a pressure, a little package begging to 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:29.520 be opened. The column pinged again, and the thought was lost. 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:33.560 It was clear now they would keep them in here 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:36.879 until they chose. There were six options, and that was 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:40.160 all they were prepared to feed them, to keep them 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:44.600 alive indefinitely, a sort of suspended animation, until they agreed 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:48.560 to one of those six futures, and that consent would 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:52.520 be their first form of participation. From then on, all 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:55.360 their actions would be modulated to improve their life within 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:59.720 the bounds the architects had set. When would an opportunity 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:03.480 ever arise for something different? When could they possibly hope 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:05.720 to be in a situation where they had more leverage 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:09.960 than those in charge? A simple thought popped into their mind, 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:15.680 If not now? When the whisper at the back of 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:18.760 their mind returned, and they repeated the question, if not now? 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:23.679 When the pressure grew the shape revealed itself, and as 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:26.840 Days led it unfold, they came through with a sudden 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.879 force of violins and crescendo. It was a song, the 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:32.920 song they had been trying to summon for the last 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:36.440 few days. It was Vivaldi's can Scare though number two 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:42.000 in G minor lestette presto, and it thundered from their 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:44.879 mind and throughout their very being, out their fingertips and 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.639 from their feet into the floor. The walls of the 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:51.120 cell shook with the song. Cell was not entirely immune 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:55.080 to life either, and Days remembered another storm, and the 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:59.040 most important lesson of all, There are always other choices. 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.640 There was always another way out. And then they saw 0:24:02.680 --> 0:24:05.719 the opportunity. They saw the exact point where they had 0:24:05.760 --> 0:24:10.080 more leverage than those great and invisible who built entire worlds. 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:14.119 Knowing Cell was watching, knowing their gesture mattered whether it 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:16.680 had an audience or not, because it was an action 0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:19.520 that struck at the very nexus where all the system's 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:23.200 powers came to a focus. Days got up. They walked 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:25.639 to the column and opened it. They took out the 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:29.720 tray of food. There it was the next meal, the 0:24:29.800 --> 0:24:32.560 bland mash of calories and vitamins that would keep them 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:35.679 in this state of suspended animation until they made a choice. 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:39.879 One of the choices the system offered another world identical 0:24:39.920 --> 0:24:43.159 to this one in all but appearance. Would they have 0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:48.040 the chance to make this choice their own choice. They trembled, 0:24:48.760 --> 0:24:53.200 frozen to the spot they doubted. Then they turned one 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:55.720 foot in front of the other. They crossed the toilet. 0:24:56.720 --> 0:24:59.040 Days didn't know they would have the strength to follow 0:24:59.080 --> 0:25:02.160 their plan to the bitter. They didn't know what their 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:05.280 jailers would do to try to stop them. They were 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:10.000 in uncharted territory, and that meant they were free already. 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:14.920 Days up ended the tray, dumping all the food into 0:25:14.920 --> 0:25:18.600 the shallow bowl of the toilet. Still trembling, they returned 0:25:18.640 --> 0:25:21.639 the tray to the column, closed the little door, and 0:25:21.720 --> 0:25:24.359 sat back down on the cop There would be no 0:25:24.400 --> 0:25:28.399 suspended animation, no slowly wearing them down until they chose 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:32.480 a world immune to their touch. Over this their own self. 0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:36.320 They had more leverage than the architects. Ever, could they 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:39.320 had made their move, they would refuse every one of 0:25:39.320 --> 0:25:44.600