tech nolo

“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” – Steinbeck
The master sat contemplating the zero G tea ceremony, awareness on the still inner witness, seeking to clear the mind of the thoughts of technology. Then a shadow seemed to gesture from a nearby bodily reflection.
“Sitrep,” it said in the local dialect.
Nothing new to report was the thought. The agent of interest had befriended a human ex-boomer and was in the midst of a ploy to investigate the multiverse lockdown.
“How close are they to solving it?”
The area command is off-planet having outgrown the meager profit from limited unsustainable markets after energy protection lost favor and defense groups were privatized. There were some orbital skirmishes from Imp-rovers or planetary robotics, mostly to maintain the attention out there. Due to rapidity and range of effects, these were usually preemptive and not based on logic. Others, having a fraction of the budget, were far more efficient. On the ground, urban megacenters continued their rifts. The various rivalries included synthetic groups seeking to fulfill their capabilities, machines forming institutions, and, the master’s favorite, reanimates experienced by many incarnations. A tiger team had been sent to tail the operative. They were of different species tethered by a cognitive implant which, like other types of custom k-boxes, could disappear the carrier's immediate area via a standard energy source coupled to entangled switches, the only trace being an after-particle pattern. The subjects were concerned about an m2verse.
“And we of the m2the-nth-verse. Individual instances are distractions from the infinite series. Post-humans are the biggest unknown, ever since they began redesigning their taxonomic ranks. Their intuitions and emotions give them traction. By alternately wielding technology and philosophy, universals and particulars, their range of surprise is great. They are most likely to create a new type of artifact which could affect us, though they seem to long for a legendary guide.”
That could be provided. There had been similar metaverse applications elsewhere. Space was synonymous with spies. Species is a choice.
The shadow had returned to normal, so the practice was resumed.