Official Intelligent Beings: How Our Devices Became Us, And The World Consumed Itself by Josh Greenfield
Authors: Josh Greenfield
Ads: Link
anything is possible.”
“And that is why we brought you here. You live in a world of total connection. Everyone in the world shares a common thread of information—something happens somewhere in the world and everyone else knows about it instantaneously. There is no separation. Everyone is a small piece in a larger web.”
“Yes, that’s common knowledge. What’s your point?”
“If you were too look at a real web, like the one’s spiders used to spin before they were wiped out, you might just see that it is not only the web that makes up the connections, but it is what exists in between the web that really matters. It is that open space, which seems harmless, that harbors real potential for damage. It is that open space that leads people into a trap. And we, the Underground Sound, or U.S, are that open space.”
“A trap? What kind of trap?”
“We are completely disconnected from the world you live in, from the web you believe everyone is a part of. You are told that everyone in the world is connected to this web, but that is only a half-truth. In reality, anyone in the world connected to the web seems to make up the whole world, but they just don’t know about the rest of us that are completely disconnected. They don’t know how powerful we are, they don’t even know that we exist, and that is what makes us so dangerous.”
“But how can you go unnoticed for so long? How are you not connected? How have the Beings not found out?”
“Good question. Well, many years ago when it seemed like the interweb was officially taking over the world, groups of people from around the globe that weren’t happy with the directions things were going decided to go the other way, to slip off the map.
“But how?”
“For the most part we went undetected because everyone else was so consumed with being online—which we now refer to as ‘inline’—that they hardly noticed those of us that weren’t. We didn’t have profiles, we didn’t have accounts, our prim-itive devices couldn’t keep up with the constant changes in technology and eventually they became useless in your world. We had the choice of upgrading or downgrading, and we chose the later, but we literally downgraded into the world.”
“So what you are saying is that we are…”
“50 stories below the earth. Where no one can find us. You’d be amazed how easy it is to stay off the radar when the only thing keeping you on the radar is your device. We, the Uncommons , have been hiding for decades down here. Growing our own food, educating ourselves, repopulating, all while living a far more decent life compared to your standard of living.”
“But how is this all possible if you decided to disconnect?”
“The real choice came when they started implanting people with their devices, when your entire genome, your DNA, became part of the interweb experience. Your neural networking is literally connected to everyone else’s in a way that you can’t imagine. But while all of this was happening, we still had perfectly adequate tech-nology. We never upgraded to stay relevant and remain in society, but the equipment we had was suitable to sustain life and we had smart people who could make improvements as we saw fit.
“If you are so disconnected from the world above how did you even find me?”
“The beauty of going underground was that we were able to implant a few of our members into society—those that knew something wasn’t quite right but weren’t ready to go underground. They act as our eyes above soil.”
“Do you mean you have spies?”
“I suppose you could call them spies, people keeping an eye on things, staying tapped in, revealing nothing about us, collect necessary information, all for when the time is right.”
“Right for what?”
“Well, the time has come, so I might as well show you.”
Redd led Jagz out of the room and down a long corridor. The halls were tight. There was no sun-light, just the dim flickering of
“And that is why we brought you here. You live in a world of total connection. Everyone in the world shares a common thread of information—something happens somewhere in the world and everyone else knows about it instantaneously. There is no separation. Everyone is a small piece in a larger web.”
“Yes, that’s common knowledge. What’s your point?”
“If you were too look at a real web, like the one’s spiders used to spin before they were wiped out, you might just see that it is not only the web that makes up the connections, but it is what exists in between the web that really matters. It is that open space, which seems harmless, that harbors real potential for damage. It is that open space that leads people into a trap. And we, the Underground Sound, or U.S, are that open space.”
“A trap? What kind of trap?”
“We are completely disconnected from the world you live in, from the web you believe everyone is a part of. You are told that everyone in the world is connected to this web, but that is only a half-truth. In reality, anyone in the world connected to the web seems to make up the whole world, but they just don’t know about the rest of us that are completely disconnected. They don’t know how powerful we are, they don’t even know that we exist, and that is what makes us so dangerous.”
“But how can you go unnoticed for so long? How are you not connected? How have the Beings not found out?”
“Good question. Well, many years ago when it seemed like the interweb was officially taking over the world, groups of people from around the globe that weren’t happy with the directions things were going decided to go the other way, to slip off the map.
“But how?”
“For the most part we went undetected because everyone else was so consumed with being online—which we now refer to as ‘inline’—that they hardly noticed those of us that weren’t. We didn’t have profiles, we didn’t have accounts, our prim-itive devices couldn’t keep up with the constant changes in technology and eventually they became useless in your world. We had the choice of upgrading or downgrading, and we chose the later, but we literally downgraded into the world.”
“So what you are saying is that we are…”
“50 stories below the earth. Where no one can find us. You’d be amazed how easy it is to stay off the radar when the only thing keeping you on the radar is your device. We, the Uncommons , have been hiding for decades down here. Growing our own food, educating ourselves, repopulating, all while living a far more decent life compared to your standard of living.”
“But how is this all possible if you decided to disconnect?”
“The real choice came when they started implanting people with their devices, when your entire genome, your DNA, became part of the interweb experience. Your neural networking is literally connected to everyone else’s in a way that you can’t imagine. But while all of this was happening, we still had perfectly adequate tech-nology. We never upgraded to stay relevant and remain in society, but the equipment we had was suitable to sustain life and we had smart people who could make improvements as we saw fit.
“If you are so disconnected from the world above how did you even find me?”
“The beauty of going underground was that we were able to implant a few of our members into society—those that knew something wasn’t quite right but weren’t ready to go underground. They act as our eyes above soil.”
“Do you mean you have spies?”
“I suppose you could call them spies, people keeping an eye on things, staying tapped in, revealing nothing about us, collect necessary information, all for when the time is right.”
“Right for what?”
“Well, the time has come, so I might as well show you.”
Redd led Jagz out of the room and down a long corridor. The halls were tight. There was no sun-light, just the dim flickering of
Similar Books
