Bolo Rising by William H. Keith Jr

Author:William H. Keith Jr. [Jr., William H. Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0-671-57779-4
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 1998-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Within his corner of the moon called Delamar, DAV728-24389 considered the advantages of multiply layered and nested communications . . . as well as the problems they could cause. There were some things, unfortunately, that lower-level !°!°!, with fewer in-series processors and simpler paraneural networks, simply could not comprehend.

Message nesting was inherent to !°!°! thought, at least to the type of thought enjoyed by the more intelligent and complex of the !°!°! hierarchy. It figured in most of their communications and symbology and was a part of their very image of self and their relationship to the cosmos.

The symbol "!°!°!," for instance, all but unpronounceable by most organics, was not easily translated either. Rather than being a single word or phrase by which a relatively simple thought or image could be conveyed, it was a polydimensional nested construct, a symbol of meanings embedded within meanings devised to communicate different but related concepts on different levels. At its most basic, !°!°! could mean something on the order of "We Exist" or, possibly, "We Are." At a higher level, however, that simple pattern of alternating sounds added shades of meaning, even whole new concepts to the basic one of simple existence. "We Who Shape the Cosmos" was one such concept; "We Who Exist Because We Create Order Within the Cosmos" was another, depending on how the base "!°!°!" was transmitted, and in what context.

Only !°!°! with five or more brains could grasp the highest-order definition of the race name, which for them might have been expressed as something like "We Who Form Interlinking Patterns of Communications and Control Along and Among Multidimensional Hierarchies That We May Express Order and Unified Pattern Out of Unthinking Chaos."

It was far more efficient to express simply the clucking phonemes of the !°!°! name. The !°!°!, above all else, were efficient, even in their use of sounds. Generally, they told their subject races that "!°!°!" represented simply the word/concept "Master," and let it go at that, since such sophisticated communications modes were generally far beyond the grasp of lesser intelligences.

Much of !°!°! language was similarly nested, in fact. A curt, succinctly worded command to first- or second-level machines contained subsets of elaborations and flavorings that expanded to something more like a conversation with third- and fourth-order intelligences, and expanded again into encyclopedic discourse with high-end !°!°! cognizants.

The concept allowed for great efficiency in communication, but it possessed disadvantages as well. Lower-ranking intelligences often had trouble communicating special or unusual problems or needs in any detail to multiple-brained higher-ups.

Low-level !°!°! machines rarely showed anything like initiative, and emotion—even so much as a sense of urgency or pride in a well-done task—was completely beyond them. They did what was expected of them, what they'd been told to do, and nothing more.

DAV728-24389 did feel pride in his position and in what he did, one unanticipated side effect of his newly acquired brain and hierarchical position. For that reason, the stinging defeat suffered some twenty-two trillion nanoseconds ago by the three

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