WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: Hermetica, by Alan Lea, Part Six 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:10.560 Cool Zone Media book Club book Club, book Club, book Club, 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:18.840 book Club. It's the Cool Zone Media book Club. Hi, 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.280 welcome Nicols On Media book Club, the only book club 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:24.040 where you don't have to do the reading because I 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.800 do it for you. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy. And 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.159 we are getting towards the end of the book. We 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.920 have been with for more than a month. We have 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.400 been reading her Medica by Alan Lee. Allen Lee is 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.280 the science fiction pen name for a nonfiction author, well 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.760 many things author, but including nonfiction, most famously author named 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:53.120 Peter Delderlos. And yeah, we are reading her Medica. It's 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.280 part six out of seven, so you might want to 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.279 not start here, And if you do, I'm not can 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.120 I tell you everything that's happened from the beginning, But 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:05.840 I will catch you up a little bit on what 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:10.360 happened last week because last time on her Medica, days 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.039 ended up in jail and was next to a guy 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.880 named Robert who was not from her Medica at all, 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.240 who seemed to have been from a right wing part 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:23.400 of America called the Secession. And that's where we're starting, 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:30.880 is the jail. Much to Robert's relief, they he was 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.080 sent somewhere else. After another day in the cell next 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:39.040 to Days, they had not gotten much farther in their conversations. Really, 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.880 each one of them represented to the other an NBS. 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.680 Days was shocked not only by Robert's ignorance, but by 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.960 his complete lack of curiosity, his inability to be challenged. 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.280 Whoever ran the secession, If there were people there who 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.000 knew it was a lie, Like the people who had 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.360 designed her Medica, they probably had a really easy job. 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.080 The transfer happened while Days was sleeping, just as when 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.760 Robert arrived. When Days awoke, he was no longer there. 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.760 They wondered if there were sedatives in the food. Did 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.120 they move prisoners without witnesses to increase the sense of solitude, 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.000 to reduce the information one had about the place and 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:26.200 how it operated. The metallic column pinged. Days removed the tray, 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.320 but rather than eating, they paced around the cell a bit. 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.400 They needed music. The Moonlight Sonata came to mind, but 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.880 the acoustics were terrible. The plexi and the lighting didn't 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.359 help at all. They labored through a few bars, repeated 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.200 them when the rest didn't come, and gave up in 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.960 another attempt to harness their minds. Wild horses. They sat 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:52.239 down for a few rounds of crunches. Their motivation soon fizzled. 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.320 They god opinate the contents of the tray, paced around 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:00.920 a bit, fell into a slumber. When Days there was 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.920 a new person in the next cell. They were older. 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.720 Days got up and walked over to the plexi. Would 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:14.360 this become a routine? Hi? I'm Days, Hi, Days, I'm Shauna. 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:20.280 Should I use they? He? They is fine? You go by? They? 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.040 Days nodded, happy that Shawna didn't seem to take offense 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.480 at the question, what storyline are you from? Storyline? Shauna 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:32.120 bit their lip. What do you know? Days gave a 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.440 long sigh. They could tell Shawna knew more than they did, 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.800 and certainly more than Robert had. I grew up on 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.320 a ship called her Metica. But it turned out we've 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:47.120 been on Tara the whole time. Shawna nodded sadly. Tara, Yeah, 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:52.040 we call it Earth here right Earth. Days couldn't keep 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.280 the bitterness out of their voice. You asked me about storylines? 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.520 What did you mean? Shauna looked around slowly and leaned 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:04.080 in hand against the plexi. A few decades ago, actually, 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.520 it would have been right around the time you were born, 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:11.120 things were really bad. Society was falling apart. The program 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.360 was so dysfunctional even those who benefited the most couldn't 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:20.120 ignore it. Systems collapse at every level overheating, starvation. Then 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:24.400 there was a pandemic, massive deadly, then a coup, attempt, 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:29.920 a lot of fighting, so they initialized the compartmentalization. They 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.799 at a certain point the government signed on took over, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:36.839 but in the beginning it was the ones who owned 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.480 the technology. The idea was to separate people as much 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.800 as possible, diffuse the conflict. Actually, they'd already been doing 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.000 it for a long time. I guess it started out 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.520 as just another marketing scheme, but it got out of control, 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.120 and in the end the only solution they found was 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.440 to make it total. Make what total? What are they doing? 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.240 Shawna looked into Days's eyes a long, long moment, weighing them, 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:06.600 then let out a deep sigh. Parallel worlds, parallel worlds? 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:13.000 What did that mean? It actually goes back way back decades. 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:15.880 They started selling the idea that you had to buy 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.320 your identity, the clothes you wore, the music you listened to, 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:23.000 the hobbies you had, the vacations you took the car 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.000 you drove. They sold the idea that all that stuff 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.840 was the way to express who you were, and people 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.080 bought it. They bought it big time. I guess it 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:33.920 was inevitable that after buying their identity for so long, 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:39.559 they would buy their reality. How did that work? Days 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.839 only had a loose idea about buying things, and they 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:43.599 weren't sure if it was that or the concept of 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:47.320 parallel worlds giving them the most trouble. You got to 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.400 understand by that point, ninety five percent of people's perceptions 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:55.920 were managed through social networking, their news, their history, their science, 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.960 even their enemies. They only chose things that fit their 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.440 identity collectively in groups. You could think of it as 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:08.240 separate columns in society. They just constructed their own realities. 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:10.800 It wasn't entirely up to them, of course, it was 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.760 a managed process. Only profitable realities could be produced because 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:20.000 of who owned the technologies, the metrics they used. At first, 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.320 it was just that streamlining the whole process of buying 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:27.839 and selling, but it had unintended consequences. People refused to 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:31.960 believe anything that contradicted them. When the pandemic hit, hundreds 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.280 of thousands of people were dying, and one group they 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:38.479 just denied the entire thing, said it wasn't happening, that 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:40.719 it was some plot, and they tried to take over. 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:46.120 They were attacking doctors, killing immigrants, black people, black people. 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.000 Oh boy, all the lines on Shawna's face deep in tenfold. 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.279 I don't know how much Earth history you read on 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.559 her Medica. This country from the beginning, it was based 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.240 on kidnapping people like me and forcing us to work 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.960 as slaves, and then they made us call it the 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.880 land of the Free days. Didn't know what to do 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:13.280 with that information. That's perverse. In a flash, all the 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.520 movies they had ever watched came back to them, all 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.280 the ones with terran actors, the pasty skin of the protagonists, 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.400 and how all the actors of darker skin played auxiliaries 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.840 or villains. Of course, the actor spoke the lines the 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.280 writers fed them, but they still had to stay within 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.040 the register established by all the performances recorded into the database. 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.920 While those actors were still alive. The AI couldn't make 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:40.720 a movie out of whole cloth seeing those performances within 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.200 the blissful comfort of their module. Their outrageous high jinks, 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.960 their impossibly good luck. Their motivations inhumanly heroic or petty. 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:53.280 The protagonist's rare skin tones had simply amplified the exoticism 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.520 of it all. In the original context back on Terra 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.640 on Earth was the entire purpose of those movies to 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.960 reinforce a vast and arbitrary order to confirm the dominance 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.920 and entitlement of some and the inferiority of others. Yeah, 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.280 it is, and some of those people they never forgave 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.160 us for what they did to us. So I guess, 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.480 if we're going to be completely honest, some people have 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.680 been living in parallel worlds for centuries. Maybe the whole 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.960 thing was destined to fall apart from the start. So 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:32.160 they were killing you people like you. Yeah, Sewn moved 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.520 their hands so it was closer to days is just 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.640 on the other side of the PLEXI people like you too. 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.160 I don't know your background, but if you ended up 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:44.679 on her Metica, you're not one of them. Days. They 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:49.200 probably killed your parents, maybe directly, more likely through negligence 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:54.040 the pandemic my parents days asked numbally. The thought was 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:58.120 overwhelmingly strange. They told me I was from an artificial 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.800 insemination from a harvest today like all the others. When 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.200 the government decided to take it over and go total, 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.480 it was the pilot program. There were a lot of orphans, 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.319 the pandemic, the social breakdown in general, the youngest ones. 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:15.520 They decided to give them a chance for something better 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:20.600 once it went total. The compartmentalization, I mean, every parallel 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.480 world had to play a function. They had to produce 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:30.400 something like what her Medica produces. Scientists, some of the best. 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.400 They think they're working on the ship, improving the life support, propulsion, 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.440 getting ready to terraform a new homeworld. Actually, their research 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.559 agendas get fed to them from outside of her Medica 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.120 based on the needs of different agencies here on the outside. 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:48.120 Every researcher on her Medica has such a tiny window, 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:52.960 such an extremely hyper specific line of inquiry and experimentation. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.400 They never know, but everything they develop is linked to 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:02.439 some program out here, improving an efficiency, cleaning up the disaster, 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:11.760 carbon sequestration, geoengineering, medical research, social surveillance, and pacification. So 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:18.000 they're imprisoning us, all of us, and just using us. Yeah, 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.240 I'm sorry you had to find out this way. How 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.760 do you know all of this? Shauna looked down towards 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.920 the ground. They're gaze dissipating into a blank mirror. I'm 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:34.960 a writer, what I work on the storylines. Days didn't 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:40.640 know whether to feel infuriated or fascinated. They held their tongue. 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:45.160 I am Shauna swallowed. The systems are mostly self managing 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:49.079 the different worlds. I mean her Medica was an exception, 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.280 but the older people involved, the ones who educated you, 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:56.360 they've been mostly phased out as the first cohorts reached adulthood. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.959 The other worlds, they're all held together by the subjec 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.599 themselves in good programming. But to start, they needed the 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.800 right stories. Most of the stories were already there, latent 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.240 in the different columns. I described the beliefs that people 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.680 had a raid around themselves to protect these identities they created. 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.080 They already had all the elements. They just needed to 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:22.439 be organized, given a good plot, and then they were 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:25.400 set in motion, and we'd keep an eye on them, 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.040 introduce new elements if it was needed, if people were 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:33.280 getting bored or starting to have doubts, and here to 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.280 introduce new elements to keep you from getting bored. To 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.760 tap the fifteen second four button on your phone. It's 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:58.640 ads and we're back. You made this, Shawnas swallowed again. 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.520 Other people made it. It was already underway when I started. 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.480 You helped make it. You kept it functioning. You just 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:09.320 said so yourself. I wish I'd had other choices, but 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.680 I needed to make a living. Did you write my storyline? 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.560 Did you write her medica? No? I got recruited for 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:21.920 another storyline. What does that mean? You were recruited? I 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.439 didn't fit into any of the columns. There were a 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:28.080 lot of us who were problematic for the compartmentalization. Some 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:29.959 of them are still out in the streets in one 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.959 of the dead zones, trying to stay alive. Most of 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:37.480 them are gone already. Others we got recruited. What did 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.240 they give you? Days reached out for the archaic word 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.320 they knew from their novels. What did they pay you 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.839 to do this to us? Shawnasplayed their hands in tired resignation. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.720 You don't have to offer much when the alternative is 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:56.160 going hungry. Days nodded. They didn't know what hunger was 0:12:56.240 --> 0:13:01.320 not personally. Mathematically, X is greater than why or why 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:05.520 equaled Shawna's integrity an X the price they'd offered with 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.199 no way of ascertaining the value of leaving behind hunger 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.359 and uncertainty. They had to admit they had no information 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:16.120 concerning the value of why they let it go. How'd 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:21.920 you end up here? Sabotage? Days raised an eyebrow. I 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.840 started putting some clues in the storyline. I was overseen 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.680 some open ended plot elements. I wanted them to have 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.280 a chance. Days went and sat back down on the cot. 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.640 Now they felt bad for getting angry. Days had gotten 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.720 locked up here for trying to free themselves. It seemed 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.319 Shawna had gotten locked up and had possibly lost a 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:46.240 good life for trying to help others get free. Do 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.120 you hate me? I don't know you. I know you 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.240 don't want to hear this, But when has it ever 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.600 been any better? People see what they want to see. 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.199 Days couldn't argue with that. They curled up and pulled 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:03.160 the covers high, thinking of it, snook another tray another meal. 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.360 Days went back to the plexi they shared with Shauna. Graciously, 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.400 Shauna rose to meet them. The person there before you 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:18.160 they he was from the secession. Shawna nodded, that's a 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:23.240 pretty awful place. Did you write that one? No, Shawna said, vehemently. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:28.000 That place was there way before I got in. You said, 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.400 her Medica was the first one, the first one the 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.880 government created, the secession. That one got built up as 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:38.680 soon as the technology existed, all the most profitable stories 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:45.000 in one place. Days narrowed their eyes suspiciously. Days listened 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.680 to me. They looked up and saw pain in Shawna's 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.840 face and realized they were being self centered. They felt 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.280 sure then that Shawna had been throwing worse hell than 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.280 they had ever endured on her Medica. That place is real, 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.840 too fucking real. We didn't make that. That's on them. 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.240 They were actually going around killing people. You've got a 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.800 sense of that, didn't you. Talking to him, Days nodded, 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.560 What were we going to do with them? Put them 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.280 all in one place, Let them think they've won. It's 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.560 the least violent solution. Both the hell am I saying 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.440 we like it was my choice, like I was in charge. 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.560 Sean A banged to fist on the PLEXI. That's how 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:25.520 they do it. That's how they get in your head. 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:27.960 They get you to think you're part of their wi 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.560 we the people. They invite you into their shoes so 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.280 that you can see how perfectly reasonable. All their decisions 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:36.560 are and it's tempting to put on their shoes when 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.440 you have to go barefoot. But it's a fucking lie. 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.560 I'm in here with you. Before when I was working, 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:44.880 we were just adding the colors to a structure that 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.840 had already been built. If we stopped, they found others. 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.760 There were thousands of us. We were cheaper than old pennies. 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.920 We provided a service, but we never had any control. 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.440 Who does the same ones who are in control when 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:03.040 everything's going to hell, the same ones responsible for going 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:05.600 to hell in the first place. It's not a group 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:09.640 of people days, it's not some cabal. It's just whoever 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.280 happened to be on top? How do you get to 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.960 the top. It's the most ruthless ones, the ones willing 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.480 to stab anyone in the back to get ahead, and 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.480 then their children and then their children's children, staying on 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:25.440 top as long as they can. And those ruthless motherfuckers. 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.360 They were encouraging the people in the succession from the 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.160 very start, giving them everything they needed, never shattering their 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.920 fragile little bubble. Why should they worry? They weren't the 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.680 ones getting killed. They believed a lot of the same 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.760 things as those nutjobs. They were on top because they 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.480 deserve to be on top. It's nice to believe that. 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.200 It's nice to have cheerleaders who become attack dogs when 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:53.200 anyone stands up to you. But the denihialists, they just 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.440 couldn't stop killing their masters tightened the leash. They started 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.200 to bite the hand that fed them. They couldn't tell 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.880 the difference, So the government stepped in, absorbed them into 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:09.159 the compartmentalization. Let them think they broke away. The programmers 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.439 simulate a border skirmish every now and then, so they 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.160 stay interested. It's always a war for them. In fact, 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.520 the government's original plan was for the secession to produce mercenaries, 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.520 but nowadays all that stuff has done with drones and bots, 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:24.440 so they don't need them. They do food production. Now 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.960 you mentioned a farm. Yeah, they have a simulated money economy. 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.359 The modelers found out they need a simple rewards system, 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.600 like training dogs. They don't seem to understand math. You 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.399 have them driving tractors around all day. They bring in 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:42.719 one hundred kilos of produce. You know how much they 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:46.679 keep half a kilo in money value, But they know 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.680 the exchange rate and they do it anyway. You know 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.240 what keeps them in line, besides doing night watch and 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.639 going on border patrol. What the system is rigged so 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.479 that every now and then one of them gets an 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.320 insane amount of money. It's presented to them as a 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:06.240 lottery or some insurance windfall, and that person buys a 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.000 huge house, more cars than they can drive, and a 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.879 swimming pool. And you know what, the others stay happy. 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.640 The others. Yeah, I even checked the data. The ones 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.159 who were scraping by giving away everything they work for, 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.960 their biostats go up the most in two situations, after 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.560 a skirmish at the border and after someone in their 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.159 circle wins the lottery buys a big house. When do 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.040 their stats go down if they're the one who wins 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:38.240 the lottery about a month after moving into the new house. Yeah, 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:42.800 Roberts seemed pretty weird. Did he tell you their theory? 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:49.320 Which one? They think the earth is flat? No? Yeah, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:53.520 they do, they really do. No, that's impossible. He said. 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.000 They have mountains. He said he's been to the ocean. 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.840 Shauna shrugged. Look, I know, I thought I grew up 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:01.960 on a spaceship, but they built our blocks so we 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.480 could never see the horizon. If he can climb a 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.359 mountain or go to the ocean. He can literally watch 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.920 things go down below the horizon. People see what they 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:15.160 want to see, lunar eclipses, Days protested, you can see 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.320 the shape of the earth. They see what they want 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:22.320 to see. And you know what I want to see. 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:25.439 Right now, at this exact moment, in the middle of 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:30.240 this story, I'm reading for you sweet savings, satisfaction guaranteed 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:46.840 with all these products and services, and we're back the 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:51.200 next day. Shauna was still there. Days was feeling introspective, 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:55.000 but eventually their thoughts overwhelmed them. They approached the PLEXI. 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:59.560 Shauna rose too. I always wanted to work on the 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.119 sky when I was growing up. They told us it 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.960 was a projection, you know, designers working together with meteorology 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.880 recreating the sky on terra thought. I got rejected because 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:15.280 I wasn't good enough. I guess I just had impossible dreams. Yeah, 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.960 I wonder would I be here if I had done better? 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.280 What do you mean? Maybe I could have lived down 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:24.800 that failure not getting the sky, if I'd at least 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.320 gotten halfway, if I'd scored higher on the aptitudes and 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.440 gotten a more interesting work assignment. If my mind were 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:35.040 more engaged. Maybe I wouldn't have gone scratching around the corners. 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.480 I've never seen what other people see, not all the time, 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.159 but maybe I wouldn't have gone looking so hard. What 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:48.360 was your job, palliative therapist? I gave back rubs sewn aside. 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.320 You didn't get your work assignment from the aptitudes. What 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.119 the aptitudes are a ruse. They add a little bit 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.040 of data about how you perform under stress, but the 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.639 system already knew your exact capacities, physics, biology, mechanics, calculus, 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.840 emotional intelligence, social hierarchy, tendencies, you name it. They were 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.280 testing you since you were born. They're always testing. They're 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.359 testing us right now. Days looked around, So why do 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:17.679 the aptitudes at all? They could just tell us our 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.600 work assignment is based on our cumulative performance scores rather 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:25.040 than a single test. The test is important, Shanna replied, 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:27.639 but it's not what you think. They need you to 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.840 believe that your entire future, your ambitions, your integration into 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:34.600 society are based on one single exam, and then the 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.560 day of the exam they pop o a little trick question. 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:40.880 It's usually not in the exam itself, but something related 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.639 different every time. On her Medica, what they need to 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.320 know is are you willing to falsify information or to 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.439 unsee something you have seen when you are asked to 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:56.240 do so. Days rocked back on their heels. Yeah, it's 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.200 even more insiduous than you think. For the test to work, 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.680 disobeying can't come with any immediate consequences. The subject has 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.080 to think that disobedience will not be immediately noticed, but 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.520 presents a small risk of a lower performance score and 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:14.480 might therefore put their social integration their ambitions at risk. 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.600 The people on her Medica are given really powerful tools. 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:21.760 They could quickly discover the nature of their reality if 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:26.000 they put their minds to it. Integration performance had to 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:28.960 be more important to you than the truth. So if 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:32.040 you hesitated when you got to that trick question, even 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:37.360 for a moment, you were out days detached, feeling estranged 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.960 from the memories that washed over. I think there might 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:44.159 have been two tricks like that, they said, slowly. I 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:49.520 left them both blank. Yeah, Shauna nodded sadly. They also 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:53.720 test for rebellion likelihood of protest. Days let out a 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:58.480 bitter laugh. I'm sorry. Well, I guess they had me 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:02.359 figured out pretty well after all, Shanna took a moment 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.800 to continue. When I was getting reassigned after my first 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:09.119 storyline was operational, I read up on the scripts of 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:11.920 some of the other options. I read a lot about 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:15.400 her Medica, how it worked. I turned that one down. 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:21.440 It didn't seem right. It's not right. No, are any 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:24.600 of them any better? A lot of them aren't so 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:28.439 cruel or so restrictive. Most of them don't start with 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:30.400 a big group of orphans and put them in near 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:34.840 total confinement. But confinement is an element of all the columns. 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:39.040 Days looked around at the cell. Yeah, this place could 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:43.200 be on Hermetica. Then they had a thought. Robert said 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:46.520 he didn't travel much, but he could he can move around. 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:52.040 Anger flashed across Shanna's face, followed by exhaustion. The ones 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:53.760 who are really in charge, they have a lot of 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.320 sympathy for the people in the secession. Plus those people 0:23:57.320 --> 0:23:59.840 have a lot of guns, and moving them, altering their 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:03.960 story too much would have been costly. You got to 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:07.919 understand the parallel worlds. They just augmented and entrenched the 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:13.399 inequalities that already existed in the earlier system. This isn't utopia, No, 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:17.360 it's a prison. I won't argue with you there. You said, 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:22.440 they're always testing, testing us. Now, how how we interact? 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:26.480 What we say, the choices we make, what for they're 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:32.120 deciding our reassignment? How do they do that me? They 0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:34.639 know by now I won't keep my mouth shut. The 0:24:34.720 --> 0:24:37.440 fact that I'm spilling the beans to you just confirms it. 0:24:37.800 --> 0:24:39.560 But they also know at the end of the day, 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:42.840 I'll lower my head and play along. I'm valuable to 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:45.199 them as a writer. They might put me on one 0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:47.320 of the storylines where it doesn't matter if the people 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:52.360 know about the parallel worlds like robotics and efficiency. That's 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:55.840 a boring one, just a sprawling, city sized campus where 0:24:55.840 --> 0:25:00.560 they focus on social engineering, mechanization, machine learning, a lot 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:02.920 of the tech that forms the basis of the other worlds. 0:25:03.280 --> 0:25:06.000 From the tractor Robert drives to the social networks that 0:25:06.040 --> 0:25:08.320 convince people on her Medica that they're on a spaceship 0:25:08.359 --> 0:25:12.480 with twelve million passengers? Is that your best case scenario? 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:16.280 Forget really bad scores. They'll put me in Gangland, and 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:19.359 that's where I'll spend the rest of my life. Gangland, 0:25:19.760 --> 0:25:26.440 I'm afraid to ask. Shawna's eyes burned defiantly ask what's Gangland? 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:30.840 Think of it as the opposite of the secession. It's 0:25:30.880 --> 0:25:33.479 where they left people who had trouble integrating but who 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:36.560 were the wrong color. They corralled them in dead zones, 0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:40.919 ghost cities full of lead, empty factories, old trash, incinerators, 0:25:41.400 --> 0:25:43.960