Page 43 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

The Browser

with unique character and capacities. But that means accepting
something contrary to your beliefs.”
Thea reacted without needing deliberation.
“I know what you mean. I was told that the brains preserved in the
next room were the earthly remains of men and women living long
ago. They could not possibly be sentient because their souls had
departed. If I grant that what I consider to be the soul is still resident
in the fragment of an ancient corpse, then the teachings of my
religion are not quite accurate.”
“Precisely. I’m afraid that you will have to live with the knowledge
that dualistic metaphysics is invalid. The mind is an artifact of the
brain, a construct arrived at through natural evolution of the human
species. All of your predecessors have gone through a similar trauma,
if it is any consolation. You will be interacting with us as peers, not as
a researcher browsing through passive files. We are perfectly happy
to pass on any information we can, as our own survival depends on
your hierocoms keeping our environment viable. But you must keep
the knowledge of our consciousness to yourself, never to be revealed
to anyone, particularly in Hierocommand.”
“Another level of secrecy! Where will it end? Why shouldn’t the
hierocoms know about you? Why do you want them to maintain
these trappings of mystery around the browser? I suppose you are
responsible for there being only one of us at a time.”
“That’s right: a secret is best kept by one person, is it not? You are
far more intelligent than any of them. That is why you were picked,
and that is why you are granting the validity of what I am saying,
despite years of indoctrination in revealed religion and unquestioning
adherence to arbitrary intellectual authorities. Your masters, if
presented with the truth, might be overcome with terror—just as you
were, initially. But you got over it. They wouldn’t. They could easily
decide it is better to destroy us than face the possibility of their
dogma being in error. That would bring down everything in a hurry.
As I said before, a world bereft of free inquiry will sooner or later do
itself in; a world with it, of course, might destroy itself, too—which
almost happened. Mankind appears destined to go from one extreme
to the other. Later we shall tell you about the final days of the old
world, how the personnel of Carillon Laboratories actually died, and
at whose hands. For now, you must decide if you are with us or will

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