Analog SFF, September 2007 by Dell Magazine Authors

Author:Dell Magazine Authors
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Dell Magazines
Published: 2010-12-15T07:07:47.560000+00:00

* * *

PALIMPSEST

by HOWARD V. HENDRIX

How far can this arms race go?

“You think it's possible?” MéMé Gelernter asked, flicking back the blue and green tips of her blond hair as she stared out of our window.

I followed her gaze to where it lingered. Below us, in front of InterPortation's corporate headquarters, street-preachers and protesters filled the boulevard.

“Do I think what's possible?"

“You know. What they're saying."

“Which is...?” I said, turning away and thus causing InterPortation code to start scrolling through the information space before my eyes again.

“That God is always sending us a message we can't refuse. One we can't live without. One we shouldn't try to block."

I sat back in my chair, pulling my head out of i-space.

“MéMé my dear, I have no doubt the divine ground of all being works in mysterious ways. If that being were trying to send us all a message, however, even I doubt the message would come in the form of unwanted and apocalyptic chain e-mail."

“You don't think virtual manna is hidden somewhere in the godspam, then?"

“No,” I said, sighing heavily. “And not electronic grace or web blessings, either. Our concern here is the tools, not the rules. Our job descriptions do not include pondering moral, legal, or religious questions. Back to work, please."

MéMé nodded. She turned from the window and sat down at her workstation. I stuck my head back into i-space and returned to work myself.

MéMé was too idiot-compassionate for her own good. Her heart was on her sleeve for every stray cat or stray protest ideology she met on the street. At least in i-space, her head was in the right place. She was an undeniably sharp information engineer. With her once again on task, it wouldn't be long before we finished the final filters.

* * * *

Calling it unwanted “e-mail” wasn't quite true, since it was in fact virtual mail, far more fully immersive than the old flatlander stuff. Not entirely true either, to say it wasn't manna, given that “manna” was the transliteration of two Hebrew words meaning “What is it?"

What the original “it” might actually have been was variously defined in the Bible as the “grain of heaven,” the “bread of angels,” the “meat” which God “rained down on the Israelites like dust ... until they had more than enough."

God's ... spam. Not the pink whatzit in the Hormel can—Shoulder Pork and hAM? SPiced hAM? Not the old Monty Python sketch song refrain, either. Spam, dragon eggs, and spam. The Wild Old Days. The days of high filtration percentages and low false positives. When there were no federal laws prohibiting unsolicited solicitations, no marshal to enforce the law on the electronic frontier. When such solicitations were mostly simplistic e-mails and pop-ups pushing commercial stuff—penis and breast enlargement, generic Viagra, banned CDs. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

When it first began to show up, there was no consensus on who was sending the godspam. Some claimed atheistic hackers were the culprits, while others believed it was the work of Islamo—or Judeo—or Christo-fascist terrorists.

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