The issues that enmeshed me in 1990 are not going to go away. I became involved as a writer and journalist, because I felt it was right. Having made that decision, I intend to stand by my commitment. I expect to stay involved in these issues, in this debate, for the rest of my life. These are timeless issues: civil rights, knowledge, power, freedom and privacy, the necessary steps that a civilized society must take to protect itself from criminals. There is no finality in politics; it creates itself anew, it must be dealt with every day.

The future is a dark road and our speed is headlong. I didn't ask for power or responsibility. I'm a science fiction writer, I only wanted to play with Big Ideas in my cheerfully lunatic sandbox. What little benefit I myself can contribute to society would likely be best employed in writing better SF novels. I intend to write those better novels, if I can. But in the meantime I seem to have accumulated a few odd shreds of influence. It's a very minor kind of power, and doubtless more than I deserve; but power without responsibility is a monstrous thing.

In writing HACKER CRACKDOWN, I tried to describe the truth as other people saw it. I see it too, with my own eyes, but I can't yet pretend to understand what I'm seeing. The best I can do, it seems to me, is to try to approach the situation as an open-minded person of goodwill. I therefore offer the following final set of principles, which I hope will guide me in the days to come.

I'll listen to anybody, and I'll try to imagine myself in their situation.

I'll assume goodwill on the part of others until they fully earn my distrust.

I won't cherish grudges. I'll forgive those who change their minds and actions, just as I reserve the right to change my own mind and actions.

I'll look hard for the disadvantages to others, in the things that give me advantage. I won't assume that the way I live today is the natural order of the universe, just because I happen to be benefiting from it at the moment.

And while I don't plan to give up making money from my ethically dubious cyberpunk activities, I hope to temper my impropriety by giving more work away for no money at all.

Conspiracy fiction. I've come across a pair of especially remarkableworks in this odd subgenre lately.

Paul Di Filippo's treatment of the conspiracy subgenre, " My BrainFeels Like A Bomb" in SF EYE 8, collected some fine, colorfulspecimens. Di Filippo theorizes that the conspiracy subgenre, anchoredat its high end by GRAVITY'S RAINBOW and FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM and atits low end by quite a lot of cheesy sci-fi and gooofy spy thrillers,is unique to the twentieth-century, and bred by our modern(postmodern?) inability to make sense of an overwhelming flow ofhigh-velocity information.

This may be true. I'm not inclined to challenge that sociologicalassessment, and can even offer some backup evidence. Where is thatpostmodern flow of information more intense, and less basicallycomprehensible, than in the world of computing? Thus is bred theinteresting sub-subgenre of computer paranoia fiction -- hackerconspiracy! I now propose to examine two such works: the movie (andbook) SNEAKERS, and the novel (and prophesy?) THE ILLUMINATI.

Let's take the second item first, as it's much the more remarkable ofthe two. The ILLUMINATI in question today has nothing to do with theRobert Anton Wilson ILLUMINATI series; in fact, its weltanschauung isutterly at odds with Wilson's books. Wilson's paranoid yarn isbasically a long, rambling, crypto-erudite hipster rap-session, butLarry Burkett's ILLUMINATI is a fictional work of evangelical Christianexegesis, in which lesbians, leftists, dope addicts and other tools ofSatan establish a gigantic government computer network in the year2001, with which to exterminate all Southern Baptists.

I recommend this novel highly. Larry Burkett's ILLUMINATI has alreadysold some 100,000 copies through Christian bookstores, and it seems tome to have tremendous crossover potential for hundreds of chucklingcyberpunk cynics. To my eye it's a lot more mind-blowing than any ofWilson's books.

The Robert Anton Wilson oeuvre is perenially in print in New Agebookstores, and quite well known in the SF category racks. Thereforethe CATSCAN reader may already be aware that the so-called "Illuminati"were a freethinking secret society purportedly founded in the 1770s,who had something to do with Freemasonry and were opposed toestablished Church authority in Europe.

So far, so good. It's not surprising that a with-it hipster dude likeR.A. Wilson would use the historical Illuminati as a head-tripspringboard to mock All Things Establishment. The far more surprisingmatter is that some evangelical Christians, such as the Reverend PatRobertson, not only take the 217-year-old and extremely deadIlluminati seriously, but are also currently dominating the socialagenda of the Republican Party. Reverend Robertson's latest"non-fiction" tome, THE NEW WORLD ORDER, is chock-a-block withstraightfaced and utterly paranoiac Illuminati-under-the-bedterrormongering. Robertson publicly credits the "satanic" Illuminaticonspiracy with direct authorship of the French Revolution and theBolshevik uprising, as well as sponsorship of the Trilateral Commissionand the comsymp "Eastern Establishment" generally. The good Reverendalso expresses the gravest possible reservations about the occultMasonic insignia on the back of the one-dollar bill.

George Bush himself, best-known public advocate of a "New World Order,"is cast under suspicion in Robertson's work as an Illuminati tool, andyet Bush gave his accuser prime-time TV in his party's NationalConvention. One can only marvel!

As a comparative reality-check, try and imagine Robert Anton Wilsondelivering his Hail Eris rap at a Democratic Party Convention (whilethe audience, nodding on national television, listens in sober respectand acts really glad to be clued-in). Odd enough for you? Nowimagine ontological anarchists re-writing the Democratic Party platformon abortion, sexual behavior, and federal sponsorship of the arts.

Larry Burkett has taken this way-out sectarian extremist theo-gibberishand made it into a techno-thriller! The result is a true mutant amongnovels. How many science fiction novels begin with a disclaimer likethis one?

"My biggest concern in writing a novel is that someone may read toomuch into it. Obviously, I tried to use as realistic a scenario aspossible in the story. But it is purely fictional, including thecharacters, events, and timing. It should not be assumed that it isprophetic in any regard. As best I know, I have a gift for teaching, atalent for writing, and no prophetic abilities beyond that of any otherChristian."

I was so impressed by this remarkable disclaimer of Mr Burkett's that Itracked down his address (using the CompuServe computer network) and Isucceeded in interviewing him by phone for this column. I learnedthat Mr Burkett has received some six thousand letters about his novelILLUMINATI from eager readers, many of them previously aware of theIlluminati menace and eager to learn yet more. And yes, many of thosereaders do believe that the Mr. Burkett novel is an inspiredprophecy, despite his disclaimer, and they demand his advice on how toshelter themselves from the secret masters of the coming Sataniccomputer-cataclysm.

Even more remarkably, a dozen correspondents claimed to have once beenIlluminati themselves, and they congratulated Mr. Burkett on hisinsights into their conspiracy! Mr. Burkett described this lastcategory as featuring "three or four letters that were fairly lucid."