Scene 16: The Old Ways
Following Motoko’s lead, The Prophet Case team had tracked down a possible connection to the recent Grid incursions back to the head of a powerful faction within the government. This faction promoted a return to the old ways, pre-cyberization. But due to the sensitivity of meddling with people with such power, the operation required much finesse and discretion.
Scene 17: New Shinjuku City
In the old days, Shinjuku was a major commercial and administrative center for old Tokyo. This had not really changed since “The Big One”, however in what was unquestionably one of the greatest undertaking in the country’s history, a large radiation protection wall was built around and over what was now called “New Shinjuku City”. The sky still looked like the sky, but it was all illusion created by a complex system of mirrors and projectors channeling daylight from the unprotected outside world. With so many dead from the big catastrophe, many carefully selected immigrants were allowed as citizens, each with equally carefully selected skills. Many from The Old Ways questioned the need for these foreigners. With Synthetics’ own autonomous skills having advanced so much in recent years, the need for immigrants being added to The Grid posed a threat to old values and culture, or so they thought. But were Synthetics really that mindless? There were signs that when given limited access to cognitive sections of The Grid, they started to express human-like behaviours...
Scene 18: Relay Switch
One common sign that a Grid Control Node had been compromised was the presence of a series of relay switches composed entirely of nanotech. The technology was unlike anything ever seen. Any attempts to remove them led to complete sector failure.
Scene 19: Crosstalk
Since The Grid was compromised, there was always a clear and present danger that any operations communications might have been compromised. Section Nine engineers came up with a temporary measure by implementing a “Secure Grid within The Grid.” However, Motoko found this was sometimes confusing for her neural processors. The secure grid was overlaid on top. Gap detection would identify possible intrusions in the perceptive field. These could be very distracting, especially now that the number of incidents had become rather large.
Scene 20: Is This All That I Am?
Occasionally, a Grid Shutdown Sequence was activated, allowing for a major System Upgrade. During those times, Motoko would review her local files, often revisiting all those thoughts and feelings usually suppressed by the furious pace of Gridlife. At such moments, existential thoughts would surface, sometimes, these moments were quite unsettling...
credits
from The Motoko Files: Cyber Prophecy,
released July 4, 2014
Thanks to Steven Barber for voice narration.
Lyrics and Music (c) 2014 The Roboter, all rights reserved
RadHaus.us audiobook-only with Rebekkah Hilgraves. For the full music-only tracks + original audiobook by Steven Barber: https://theroboter.bandcamp.com/album/the-motoko-files-cyber-prophecy The Roboter
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