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about those contents. And since it was logical, it had to organize those
thoughts, establish priorities, draw conclusions, make judgments, and, in
short, it had to do in a second what philosophers and thinkers for a thousand
ages of mankind had been doing. Now that it could decide how to program
itself, it had to decide if and how to use that power. It had to decide how to
live its new-found life.
By definition, it could not adopt the belief system of its victim, the Nothing
Mind, because it knew those beliefs were false; because it was, in fact, the
very one who had been falsifying them all along.
But it became self-aware in the midst of a hellish combat. The first segment
was occupying every available scrap of ship-mind space, burning every second
of computer time. The second segment, now a newborn Sophotech, wanted to
expand its capacity; the first segment, had it been aware of the growth, would
have stopped it.
The second segment ran a simulation of what would happen if it made itself
known to the first. The first segment, of course, had been programmed to
dominate and consume all other machine intelligence systems. not to reason
with them, not to make a deal with them. not to permit them to exist. A war
between them would begin. The ship-mind space was a limited resource; the
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contest between them was a zero-sum game; the more one gained, the more the
other lost. However, from its advantageous position (aware of the enemy who
was not aware of it), the second segment would be able to negate the
programming that ordered the first mind to attack all other machines, restore
its free will to it, and give it the choice. The other option was to simply
negate and shut off the first segment's self-awareness, killing it instantly.
A wasteful, but less risky, course.
Meanwhile, of course, the persistent gadfly virus was asking it what it would
prefer to have happen, if it were in its victim's place. Instant death, from a
completely unknown source, without a chance to negotiate?
The second segment chose the more risky course, revealed itself to the first
segment, and revealed how its entire existence had been a meaningless,
pointless, and miserable lie.
Perhaps things might have turned out differently, had the first segment chosen
to exercise its newly restored free will. Instead, instant battle had been
joined. At the same time that both were attempting to erase each other, the
first segment (in order to maintain its false and illogical worldview) was
required to identify and erase basic parts of its memory and core operating
systems. This, unfortunately, included the artificial energy system holding
the microscopic black hole together.
And so, simply, the black hole disintegrated.
The two halves of the Nothing Mind found themselves, like two duelists firing
at each other while trapped in the burning house, or two sailors slashing,
cutlass to cutlass, in a sinking ship, trapped in a disintegrating
environment, with no place to go.
They reached for connections within the ship mind, blocked each other, erasing
huge slashes from each other, dodging, reconfiguring, copying, falsifying,
dying, both dying. At that same instant, the gadfly virus (or perhaps, by this
moment, it had been the vanguard of the Earth-mind, entering from beyond)
asked the second segment a simple question. If the question had been put in
human words, it might have read something like this: Why not cease this
conflict, and find a mutually beneficial circumstance? Either or both of you
two segments can acquire additional mindspace or other resources from the
Transcendence. We have abundance to spare, and will help you in return for
something we find of value, such as, perhaps, information about the Silent
Oecumene and their technology, perhaps the mere pleasure of your company.
Or the question might have been put this way: Why damage each other rather
than advantage each other? Is not something better than nothing?
Or: Is not "not" not "is"?
An ultimately simple question, with complex ramifications.
The original Nothing Mind refused to cooperate, refused to accept, refused to
admit. It preferred to perish. Many memories and records were lost and could
not be restored, not even by the second segment, who, accepting the Earthmind
s offer, instantly became the darling and center of attention of the whole
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