13
Gracie threw up into the loo early that morning before it was light. Her period was late and she knew she might be pregnant -by the innermost.
Seth / Percival watched the curvaceous half-Asian bustle about the obscenely expansive bedroom in the run down and overgrown mansion. Her things were everywhere. He could hear the shower running, bare feet crunching over underclothes strewn on the faded, still plush carpet.
*If my half-sister is pregnant, let it be for me*
Saim Ye, we meet at last. My feelings for your Gracie are indeed profound. Have you tried Turkish delights? She’s every kind of nut to a squirrel.
*silence*
I see you won’t be provoked to reveal your predicament so I will pencil that in for you.
*Please…*
Seth -his old headstrong self bubbled up through the dry, logician mind of Percival. The innermost nodded his acquiesce, ambiguous as that was.
We have more important things to do while you gestate, Saim. Insert yourself by 6 weeks, no later. Do it yourself. There are reasons.
*You’re dying?*
So you’ve heard the rumor. The highest of principles are those of sacrifice. That a stiff wind blew a few minutes through the forest. Would you then be a redwood, a flower, a squirrel or a bee? Wise teacher, you will never be the wind. The wind: it fully gives of itself -has no home, suffers not yet knows all.
What then are desires, but the product of imaginary fairness? Fairness, Saim, doesn’t hand out second chances. Kindness does, and kindness requires the multiplication of desire with imagination. Tell me, teacher, does the square of imagination equal reality?
*Is it rather, cognition?*
If you think so, then you are indeed kind -weren’t you that way before?
A smile played on the teacher’s lips.
Following the televised funeral of Seth, with full military honors, inexact Science versus AI became a hot topic on the street corners of cities across Asia. Across the world.
Why is Erasmus Jr a power Nth? Normally we would say Erasmus III, if there were 2 before.
Erasmus Nth does not exist.
*Laughter*
Think about it, the philosophical ultimacy of succession requires at least an order of exponentiation.
Indeed the Erasmus AI matrix sold to the Chinese by the EU, and condensed into dozens of books by American psychologists had guided their nation through lean times. The precious mainframes running the cumulative parallel processes, housed deep underground.
This was as the West moved away from slaving transistors, to slaving one another, no longer with chains, or religion, but with logic gained from precision tool-making and its interface with the mind-body.
That evening, Ri watched the live televised debate while bouncing little Seth. The tubular guitar in her lap.
When you tap the Earth’s resources for the use of industry, is that a wrong premise? For centuries, clay has been fired here, to make fine China. And today, porcelain is cheap as dirt all around the world.
And when one relies on semiconductors as a crutch, is he more a fool of a hero?
The body lies to itself through the mind, America -and the rest of the world. Clay does what it is told and changes none in its obedience.
There was applause for the speaker from the eastern bloc.
Sir Percival stepped up to the lectern. Good morning, he said. It is plain truth that our bodies lie, in that people often make small, even substantial sacrifices for the greater good. When you donate a kidney, your body lies. Keep it to yourself, as is polite, and you will find your mind lies to other minds. This is either pride or envy and in suffering that eventually overtakes the best of men, he dies in jealousy.
I am not talking about the extraordinary individuals some may be, but the common man, the suffering poor, the working class. But now, look around you, you see wonder after wonder of human ingenuity. East and West alike. What connects man is Science. What succeeds man is ‘inexactness’ -the management of sacrifice and LIES.
Ri thought about what both speakers had said. Truly both had a point. She turned from the TV to wash cabbage shoots and garlic for her dinner. A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about her late husband (ChoyTham in anchovy gravy and garlic was his favorite dish). She wiped it dry against the back of her hand.
Lies! Are sides of dice any more accurate in predicting the universe than the purity of chance?
That depends on who the roller rolls for and who the roller is.
In inexactness, the universe is divided into nominal fractions by the multitudes, who decrease in chance further up the food chain of intelligence. The key is not what the decision eventually is, but who makes it.
In your country, decisions are made nominally and filtered down through experience and tradition to be executed at the mercy of chance, by men more and more alike the grassroots.
And ever so much, such decisions and chance are calculated by your AI while your youth pursue idealistic ambitions. It is prosperity on thin ice at best.
There was a long pause from the eastern speaker. Then he said,
Here in China, there are birds that lay their eggs in others’ nests. These birds are also in America. We have only agreed to their continued existence for Science. Thus we call them by a common name.
There was uproarious applause.
*It seems the matter will not be settled quite so easily*
And after she ate, she let little Seth suckle. There was a dank wind blowing through the common kitchen window. It seemed to carry ‘visitors’.
*I lost my life for you. You gave up yours for the cause. You’ve had my sister -my one ticket to rebirth. Soon we’ll be together again. And maybe you’ll be my teacher this time*
The wind seemed to smile if you could imagine that, and little Seth giggled precise musical tones. Ri suspected he might have perfect pitch. She hugged him, her cheeks studded with tiny diamonds that fizzled into the wet breeze.
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