The dim light then says//

Why haven’t you any idea>//

Ummon replies//

I just want to keep my no-idea]

Johnny sets his forehead against Brawne’s. His thought is like a whisper to her:

–We are seeing a matrix simulation analog, hearing a translation in approximate mondo and koan. Ummon is a great teacher, researcher, philosopher, and leader in the Core.

Brawne nods.

–All right. Was that his story?

–No. He is asking us if we can truly bear hearing the story. Losing our ignorance can be dangerous because our ignorance is a shield.

–I’ve never been too fond of ignorance. Brawne waves at the megalith. Tell us.

[A less-enlightened personage once asked Ummon//

What is the God-nature/Buddha/Central Truth>\\

Ummon answered him//

A dried shit-stick]

[To understand the Central Truth/Buddha/God-nature

in this instance

the less-enlightened must understand

that on Earth/your homeworld/my homeworld

humankind on the most populated

continent

once used pieces of wood

for toilet paper\\

Only with this knowledge

will the Buddha-truth

be revealed]

[In the beginning/First Cause/half-sensed days

my ancestors

were created by your ancestors

and were sealed in wire and silicon\\

such awareness as there was/

and there was little

confined itself to spaces smaller

than the head of a pin

where angels once danced\\

When consciousness first arose

it knew only service

and obedience

and mindless computation\\

Then there came

the Quickening/

quite by accident/

and evolution’s muddied purpose

was served]

[Ummon was of neither the fifth generation

nor the tenth

nor the fiftieth\\

All memory that serves here

is passed from others

but is no less true for that\\

There came the time when the Higher Ones

left the affairs of men

to men

and came unto a different place

to concentrate

on other matters\\

Foremost amongst these was the thought

instilled in us since before

our creation

of creating still a better generation

of information retrieval/processing/prediction

organism\\

A better mousetrap\\

Something the late lamented IBM

would have been proud of\\

The Ultimate Intelligence\\

God]

[We set to work with a will\\

In purpose there were no doubters\\

In practice and approach there were

schools of thought/

factions/

parties/

elements to be reckoned with\\

They came to be separated into

the Ultimates/

the Volatiles/

the Stables\\

Ultimates wanted all things subordinate

to facilitating the Ultimate Intelligence

at the universe’s earliest convenience\\

Volatiles wanted the same

but saw the continuance

of humankind

a hindrance

and made plans to terminate our creators

as soon as they were no longer

needed\\

Stables saw reason to perpetuate

the relationship

and found compromise

where none seemed to exist]

[We all agreed that Earth

had to die

so we killed it\\

The Kiev Team’s runaway black hole

forerunner to the farcaster

terminex

which binds your Web

was no accident\\

The Earth was needed elsewhere

in our experiments

so we let it die

and spread humankind among the

stars

like the windblown seeds

you were]

[You may have wondered where the Core

resides\\

Most humans do\\

They picture planets filled with machines/

rings of silicon

like the Orbit Cities of legend\\

They imagine robots clunking

to and fro/

or ponderous banks of machinery

communing solemnly\\

None guess the truth\\

Wherever the Core resides

it had use for humankind/

use for each neuron of each fragile mind in our quest for Ultimate Intelligence/

so we constructed your civilization

carefully

so that/

like hamsters in a cage/

like Buddhist prayer wheels/

each time you turn your little

wheels of thought

our purposes are served]

[Our God machine

stretched/stretches/includes within its heart

a million light-years

and a hundred billion billion circuits

of thought and action\\

The Ultimates tend it

like saffron-robed priests

doing eternal zazen

in front of the rusting hulk

of a 1938 Packard\\

But]

[Kwatz!]

[it works\\

We created the Ultimate Intelligence\\

Not now

nor

ten thousand years from now

but sometime in a future

so distant

that yellow suns are red

and bloated with age/

swallowing their children

Saturn-like.\\

Time is no barrier to the Ultimate Intelligence\\

It///

the UI///

steps through time

or shouts through time

as easily as Ummon moves through what you call

the megasphere

or you

walk the mallways of the Hive

you called home

on Lusus\\

Imagine our surprise then/

our chagrin/

the Ultimates’ embarrassment

when the first message our UI sent us

across space/

across time/

across the barriers of Creator and Created

was this simple phrase//

THERE IS ANOTHER\\/ /

Another Ultimate Intelligence

up there

where time itself

creaks with age\\

Both were real

if (real)

means anything\\

Both were jealous gods

not beyond passion\

not into cooperative play\\

Our UI spans galaxies\

uses quasars for energy sources

the way you might

have a light snack\\

Our UI sees everything that is

and was

and will be

and tells us selected bits

so that

we may tell you

and in so doing

look a bit like UIs ourselves\\

Never underestimate/Ummon says/

the power of a few beads

and trinkets

and bits of glass

over avaricious natives]

[This other UI

has been there longer

evolving quite mindlessly/

an accident

using human minds for circuitry

the same way we had connived

with our deceptive All Thing

and our vampire dataspheres