Page 81 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

Cannon’s Last Case

removing the few barriers remaining between governmental and
corporate networks and databases. In return the members of the
surviving populace could allay their suspicions of everyone else’s
motives through examination of those newly integrated and now
freely-accessed networks and databases. The worst feature of the
public and private sectors—secrecy—was abolished, and order was
restored. All unnecessary institutions and functions were eliminated,
saving an immense amount of energy; what was abandoned was
unwanted, anyway—vestiges of failed political and economic systems
responsible for humanity’s plight in the first place. But again I am
wandering away from my purpose—how many more laps do we have
left?”
“Less than two. I’ve had enough background. What is the scam?”
“Scam?” Mary blinked. “Oh, I get it. My difficulty: like everyone
else—except Retronomes, of whom you are a prime example—I am
accustomed to displaying myself to the maximum and making certain
that nothing is left out of my entry in the Me Museum. Why? It has
become a competitive arena for people my age. How? Because apart
from the universal data provided by the Complex, individuals can add
to their own display, ornamenting and embroidering everything and
anything they can—but not with falsehoods and illusions. We
establish links and create categories based on existing data, almost a
subculture. This is perhaps the last bastion of creativity: a harmless
shuffling or reinterpretation of known elements to impress others. As
you might imagine, it has become a showcase for young people to
attract mates, somewhat analogous to what the extinct bower birds
used to do or why girls produced samplers in Colonial America. A
more recent similarity would be to the web logs created on the old
Internet.”
She paused, frowning.
“A curious aspect of this voluntary embellishment by the subject is
that it becomes itself part of the Complex, stored and protected by all
the same access restrictions as other, more sensitive data like
objective statistics. The difference is that each person can alter only
his or her own additions to the exhibit—although a dozen prior
versions are retained in the Complex’s inactive files, again accessible
only by their originator. That access is controlled by a three-way
security scheme: the embedded hand chip—I don’t know if you

80