Unexpected meeting. Chapter 7

Lex's awakening was slow and unpleasant. He instinctively did not want to wake up. Return to the reality from which he was sent in this timelessness. But something uncontrollable and uncontrollable to him slowly turned on his mind. And Lex could not influence it. Finally, the process of awakening went through some critical point and Lex had already consciously scrolled through the events that preceded his forced rest. He asked for time from the neural network and realized that about four hours had passed since his meeting with the keeper.

Lex carefully opened his right eye. Through the gap between the centuries, nothing suspicious could be seen. Then he quickly blinked and saw part of the hangar with his ship. The hatch on the ship was open, the ramp was extended. There was no one in sight, and Lex opened his eyes completely. When trying to open his left eye, Lex felt that something was preventing him from opening and pulling his eyelid. Lex left his left eye alone and tried to rise. With difficulty - the muscles did not obey - he sat down and rested his back against the wall of the hangar. There was a slight pain in the body. But this pain was no match for the one that he remembered before he was "turned off", so Lex did not attach much importance to her.





For about ten minutes, Lex sat and came to his senses, studying the reports of the neural network. He did not find information that he was put to sleep and awakened - only technical reports from the neural network from which it was possible to extract, for example, an approximate chemical analysis of the compound introduced to him, the sequence of deactivation and activation of the brain and the neural network itself. “This is the number,” thought Lex, “if this thing turned off the neural network, then this is far from a simple medical drug.”

Lex looked in the direction of the hangar, where the technical level collapsed from the hangar ceiling, but saw no one. Returning his gaze to the ship, he tried to find it through the neural network, but could not find any devices to which to connect. Lex hardly climbed along the wall, leaning on it, and was not sure that he would not fall if he took a step away from it.

“Hey,” a voice said. - Well, lively sat back!

Lex obediently slid down the hangar wall to the floor. To disobey the keeper was now meaningless and illogical.

- What are you quick. As soon as I paused, you were already going somewhere. Your body will function in about two hours. This time is better not to strain.

The keeper moved, who had come from nowhere, a chair closer to Lex. Or maybe he was already standing there before and Lex just didn’t pay attention? Indeed, that such - is worth a chair in the middle of an empty hangar. He sat down in a chair, the keeper looked at Lex critically, then got up and quickly went to the ship. A few minutes later he returned, holding in his hands a small bag, in which there were a flask of water, food packages of instant cooking and napkins. Dampen cloth carefully as a small child, keeper wiped Lex's face.

“Open your left eye,” said the keeper to Lex.

Lex tried to open his left eye. After this happened, he completely opened his eyes.

- See? The keeper asked.

- Yes.

- Good. Well and at you, - the keeper has snorted. - To begin with, I suggest to eat. Judging by the analysis of the state of your body, you have been doing for a long time not only without food, but also without water. And if the first is a necessary measure, then the second is stupid.

Lex reached for the flask and took a sip, after which he immediately felt like drinking wildly. Having eagerly drank about a liter of water, he took the food package closest to him, tore open the package and, with the strength he was capable of, squeezed the bag in his hand. The bag immediately became warm, Lex finally tore it up and took a smaller bag out of it, which he ripped from one corner and began to squeeze warm nutritious gruel from the bag into his mouth. Having eaten, thus, contents of three packages and having washed down with their remains of water, Lex felt much better. The guardian sat idly on the chair all the time and became animated when Lex finished his meal.

“So, as I said, we need to talk to you.”

- What with her? - interrupted him Lex.

- With whom?

“To the one who’s stumbled over there,” Lex nodded toward the wreckage in the hangar.

- At least, that person no longer has any pain or regret, and he does not need to take any decisions.

Lex said nothing. “Now it’s just necessary to collect as much information as possible, otherwise everything will be in vain,” he thought. The keeper regarded his silence in his own way and continued the conversation.

- To complete the picture of what happened - what did you want to achieve with all this? I didn't mean to hurt you.

Lex sighed. Perhaps it would have been different if it were not for this damn imitator.

- There was no explosion. An acoustic simulator worked in that compartment. We arranged them last time to cover the departure from the hangar. I also did not know that it was an imitator. We both thought at each other, and then uncontrollable events rushed.

- uncontrollable? - the keeper smiled. - Accidentally not to beat you was not easy. It is unpleasant that I had to end the fight with you in this way, but it was difficult to stop you without killing. I know what it feels like when all your nerves work at the same time. Anesthetic in your blood has made you a suicide bomber, but it does not affect brain activity. What did you think about, when again and again climbed on me?

The keeper paused. Lex waited for more.

- Oh well. What happened is an unfortunate accident. About your partner ... I'm sorry, but I didn't have time to mess with both of you at the same time. Flee yet - you have to catch all over the ship. Although I'm really sorry. I could shoot him for the first time. The second time specifically brought down the level. And if your partner had more brains, he would have used those seconds that passed before the level collapsed, to go deep into the ship, rather than trying to shoot me. And what happened is his folly and his choice is not mine.

The keeper rose from his chair and walked past Lex. Lex turned his head behind him, considering what he had said. The keeper looked at the ship-courier standing not far away.

- My appearance here is not accidental. Like yours. No one would just send a station wagon to check a regular flight, you know. And I would not have appeared here without good reason. Nuance in the load. Two hundred containers of ore. The Dragon Mine is actually a structure guarded by Union security officers. Supervised directly. And everything was started not because of some kind of half-meter, which can be mined within the central regions. In deep space, a planetary system was discovered with two habitable planets with poor flora and fauna. This ore was discovered on one of the planets. It looks like ordinary semimetallic ore. Process it into a concentrate or agglomerate and use it further in production. But by chance the specific properties of objects made from this ore were discovered.

The keeper looked closely at Lex.

- What do you know about extrasensory perception?

Lex did not expect such a question, he just shrugged.

- What should I know about this? In my opinion, this is nonsense, - he answered honestly.

The keeper, thinking about something, slowly went back to the chair and sat on it.

- I think it makes sense to tell you more. After all, you know that the neural network affects the level of your FIPI?

- Of course.

- How much has your FIPI changed? You can answer some of my questions in some detail, so that I understand your level of knowledge and can convey information without wasting time on nonsense.

- Each component of FIPI varies differently. Compared with my natural indexes, physical increased by 67%, intellectual - about 6%, psychological - about 32%. However, the overall efficiency index has grown much more.

- But if you are introducing a neural network into your brain, then maybe the logical appearance of another parameter that would characterize the neural network itself?

- Modern neural networks are no longer alien organisms. Only the base germ is implanted in the brain, which develops with the person himself, evolving into a signaling neural network field that somewhere uses the resources of the brain, and somewhere grows additional connections. Only the brain biomodule, compared with everything else, retains some kind of autonomy. Which is actually quite conditional, since, like other organs, it also needs at least a blood supply and neurostimulation. There is no sense in the additional neural network index, since it is spread over the person’s FIPI.

- But you will not deny that the neural network directly affects you?

- The neural network affects me in proportion to how my brain would affect me without a neural network. And I myself also influence the neural network, as it does on me, - Lex did not understand what the keeper wants to let him down.

- Well, come on in another way. If you are wiser by a dozen percent, then does this mean that your brain should somehow increase its weight proportionally?

- Not at all. The neural network optimizes signaling routes in the brain. Of course, the mass of the head somehow increases, since additional neural network nodes or memory banks are created. But, in some limits, I can wise up without weight gain.

- In-oh-oh-oh, - the keeper pointedly raised his index finger. - That is, the neural network changes your brain?

- It corrects signaling routes.

- It doesn't matter what you call it, the essence is the same - the brain is changing. The functionality of your brain in its natural form has been evolutionarily polished over a long, very, very long time. And then you start to improve the fact that it was almost optimally arranged. As a result of your improvements, you no longer receive what you should have, but something else. An ordinary person from birth cannot control equipment with a neural interface just by mentally addressing it. For training, he needs to see or hear the information and comprehend it, and not just pour the source code into his neural network bank and index it, driving it through the PA blocks of the neural network. He cannot merge with the robot and feel its manipulators literally as his hands - mechanical control with regard to virtual reality is still quite another. And you can do it all. You don't get what's in your DNA. Evolution has balanced your body for a long time. And then, suddenly, you change this balance. Sharply changing. So where is the guarantee that, having interfered in your brain, you have not received any other side abilities? After all, if you go deeper, it's not just about the brain, as your separate part, but about the whole organism as a whole.

“No guarantee,” Lex agreed. - But now is not the time of primary development. Neural networks are investigated along and across. At least those versions that are delivered to the production flow. And throughout the development of anything such accidentally outstanding from the introduction of neural networks was not noticed. It was very difficult to embed something in the brain so that it would not just not break, but at least not worsen. Therefore, every small step in the development of neural networks was investigated very carefully and experts knew well what they were doing. It’s not for nothing that they say that if a person’s DNA changes and this entails at least some insignificant change in the brain, then on current knowledge of neural networks you’ll have to put on a fat cross and start developing anew.

- Lex, sometimes it is impossible to find something, not knowing what to look for. How do you explain the strengthening of the intuitive and empathic abilities of people by the neural network?

- None. In order to understand what and how much improved it is necessary to have an initial level. How to measure it? These techniques are not known to me. Although I, of course, not an expert. Yes, people talk about it themselves, assessing their capabilities subjectively. But intuition is a super-fast way to draw a conclusion on the basis of already developed information situational patterns, that is, experience. The seeming lack of information when choosing is actually present in these templates, with which one or other life situation correlates well. With the introduction of a neural network, people begin to turn out this experience more and the speed of its receipt increases. Of course, I do not deny that the brain of these people is somehow different from the average. Changes may be quite small, but lead to a qualitative difference. But no one says that the brain is a simple thing.

- And empathy?

Lex thought a little. He expounded, in fact, well-known facts obtained in the framework of training in the Academy and in passing of the studied information, in preparation for the implementation of certain tasks.

- I am not an expert in this field ...

- Say what you yourself think.

“Hmm ... if we consider the work of the brain as an electromagnetic system ... that can generate some kind of weak electromagnetic field, then perhaps it can also accept the generated field of another person. I do not exclude that some people, due to the peculiarities of their brain, have a more sensitive, so to speak, receiving system. And if the accumulated patterns of their own feelings, feelings and emotions of a person somehow correlate with induced vibrations from the field of another person, then a person can feel the mood of another person. The truth is not clear how to separate your emotions from others. And this feature may well strengthen the neural network. The basic germ is also adaptive and at the developmental stage before the first inclusion of the main biomodule does not disturb the signaling pathways in the brain. After switching on, the biomodule first picks up the established routing and, at first, simply “looks closely” at how the brain works, accumulating statistics. Those statistics that, in one way or another, are responsible for and affect empathy, also fall into this statistic. But these are all purely my assumptions.

The keeper approvingly nodded.

- This is a reception. And in the reverse order?

- What is the reverse order? - did not understand Lex.

- You just said that you can receive signals from another person. And to generate them directionally?

- So they are already generated regardless of my desire.

- Are you sure?

Lex thought. The conversation with the keeper turned out to be unexpected, interesting, but absolutely incomprehensible - what is he driving at? Ore? Does it affect the neural network? Human ability? Why all these details? He looked at the keeper. What did he mean by extrasensory perception? Not the way he threw Lex away with a wave of his hand from a far distance? Magic? Rave! Lex was too rational to believe that. If the actuator is not visible or you don’t notice anything special, then it only means that you don’t know anything about this technology. Luminous, apparently plasma, the keeper also let the balls with an outstretched hand, but Lex had a chance to see the mechanism of their generation. Surely something similar was with waving the guardian's hand.

- About some selectivity I do not know. An antenna field for wireless communication is implanted into the skull. Theoretically, it could be used somehow to focus. But the radiation pattern of the resulting antenna complex is usually spherical or hemispherical in shape and does not imply individual control of micro-antennas.

- Here we are at the bottom. What if you have a tool to form, so to say, your desire field in a particular amount of space?

Lex tried to imagine it. It turned out badly.

- Well, let me simplify. Imagine that an alien brain appears in your "field of vision". You can concentrate and consider its current fluctuations or, on the contrary, influence them in the way you need.

Lex introduced. This time it turned out better.

- That is, in fact, then I will be able to count the thoughts of a person or influence them? And through a direct influence on the brain, I can, in fact, control a person.

The keeper nodded.

- This is all certainly interesting, but this is all - theoretical reflections. I am aware of attempts to get at least something remote to what we are talking about. But…

Lex, hesitating, decided not to hide non-public information, which is probably known to the custodian.

- In the NBS there are a whole three non-advertised research complexes of a similar subject, which no one is going to disband despite their almost zero result. Moreover, the introduction of neural networks makes it difficult to obtain the desired result, since the neural network, at some almost animal level, cares about maintaining the structure and security of the brain of its carrier. Otherwise, everyone’s brains would break into people's brains.

The keeper leaned back in his chair. From the satisfied expression of his face, it was obvious that he was quite satisfied with the conversation.

- Summarizing everything said, so what about extrasensory perception?

- From the point of view of science fiction - I will not deny that this is possible. But obviously not today, not tomorrow, but far, far away - Lex waved his hand into the distance - why not.

“Psychic, Lex, it's not just human control.” But what about the impact on objects or their creation.

Lex got funny. Can the truth be said that the Order is a sect within the Church? The keeper wants to dream up?

- If the ability to influence the gravitational field is added to the control of the electromagnetic field, then ... it will be possible almost everything that the soul wishes! If by gravity I can influence the volume, temperature and pressure - this will be minimal enough to influence the chemical processes - their start, stop, flow process. And if the synthesis is also influenced by electric or magnetic fields, then the scope of my possibilities will only increase.

“Well, Lex, you just described exactly what to look for.”

Lex looked questioningly at the keeper. The keeper, seeing his misunderstanding, decided to expand his thought.

- You see, in order to influence something you need to figure out what to influence and through what. You yourself just described the technology that will allow you to do it. It’s no secret that the NBS is actively seeking ways to control the focus of the so-called psi-field. After a couple of hundred years, after the start of research, agility and enthusiasm died down, but no one is going to give up this direction, as you rightly noted. The radiation pattern of a neural network can be designed practically any. What is the current problem? The fact is that any attempts to design an amplifier with simple control are unsuccessful. Or do you generally enhance this field by forming a spherical radiation pattern of the antenna field of a neural network? And this is not interesting to anyone.Because it does not give the opportunity to carry out a focused collection of information, and when it comes from all sides, the problems of filtering begin. Or do you get some nonsense, trying to draw a diagram, for example, in the direction of a person’s gaze. No one understands how to register it properly, let alone create a meaningful theory. And ... do you know how an antenna field is formed?

- Only as a whole. Molecular micro-antenna blocks are embedded in the skull. The resulting nodes are consistent with each other and the overall structure is managed by the neural network.

- Right. Many experiments were made exactly how to make this field. There were a lot of projects. Some techniques were even effective, but they required people with a very specific brain structure. And such people lived very shortly after entering the “working mode”. So long that there was no point in such technology. The most interesting result obtained in the framework of such projects you know what was?

The keeper looked at Lex. Lex shook his head - information on a similar subject was unknown to him.

- The microantenna block is a bundle of biotechnologies and nanoelectronics. Structurally, the unit contains a neural interface, a molecular dipole antenna, a power limiter, a bioenergy converter and elements of a distributed control system. Mostly experimented with the antenna component and its coordination with the neural interface. It turned out that the use of different materials as oscillators gave a different effect. As a result, they stopped at one of the types of the half-meter, which was a diamagnetic and gave an excellent result with an insignificant price. But the experiments continued and certain ratios of metals and dielectrics were found, which so successfully mated with the neural interface that they allowed to abandon the autonomous control system of the microantenna block and subordinate its control directly to the neural network.Moreover, it was not necessary to carefully coordinate the antenna field. The resulting structures reacted sensitively to neural network control and were prone to self-consistency within fairly large areas. The control of the antenna field was simplified to the extent that it became realizable at the level of the neural network, without leading to a monstrous energy consumption by the brain and an enormous increase in its size. The most interesting thing was that the controlled directional change of the electromagnetic field was also recorded from those who were implanted with the antenna field without a neural network! Even at the moment there is no complete theory. Current knowledge is obtained empirically and is, in fact, a technological instruction, rather than a complete theory. And everything is good, but the effective distance,on which such a field could “reach out” did not exceed five to seven millimeters from the surface of a human head. There were attempts to go along the path of increasing the brain or to endure some of the functions outside of it, but these turned out to be ineffective and dead-end ways of development.

The keeper looked at Lex, who had already begun to understand the background of the conversation.

- That ore is in containers ...

- Yes, this material will allow to bring research to a new level, which may well give working technology. Do you understand what this can lead to?

They fell silent. Everyone was thinking about his own. Lex was trying to figure out what he should do now.

- Is it bad? - Lex thought out loud. - There will be a new technological leap. For a while, it will go on balancing between new technologies and society. But this will make a significant step for further development. After all, no one knows in advance exactly how and where the next technology will manifest itself. We have the last millennium - technological stagnation. The limit of the hyper-jump does not exceed one light year. Neural networks are developing extensively. Artificial intelligence develops only theory. In essence, technologies of thousands of years, or even more, are being improved.

The keeper stood up and walked past Lex several times.

“The Guardian Order,” he said quietly, “didn’t just appear. Our archives contain chronicles of such times, about which there is simply no information anywhere else. To what we have now, people walked for a long time. And the path was thorny. More than once created and seemingly powerful empires and state formations simply disappeared, leaving behind chaos and restarting the development of humanity. The next stage was either the first step to the next revival, or, more often, an even greater degradation failure. Lex, you have no idea how long it all goes on. The Order is a very old organization, the foundations of which were laid by a highly developed civilization. Which also disappeared in time. People at that time understood that some kind of control mechanism of fuzzy control was necessary. And it was created. But also, apparently, hesitated.The archive of the Order is extensive. But even in it there are scary gaps.

Lex turned into attention, catching every word of the keeper.

- Building a self-governing structure of society is a very difficult task, as it seems at first glance. See what happens on the periphery of the Union of Worlds. There are whole backward worlds that don’t understand at all how huge the modern human conglomeration is. Do you know how they came about? People were simply left on the planets and forgot about them. For various reasons. And it was immediately obvious how society is structured without external management - around psychologically strong personalities. One or two hundred years pass and the society that forms on the planet, for the most part, does not even remember where they came from and whose descendants are. Technological degradation and declining living standards are visible to the naked eye. Everywhere there is about the same control system on the principle: "the one who is stronger" is right.The cultural level as a whole falls, though everything very much depends on the founder of a particular education of a community of people. Although over time, all the same, everything slides into a struggle for power. Guess with which psychological portrait people most often end up in power? Over time, natural selection leaves at the mercy of those who crave it most and are more unprincipled than others. The usual apotheosis of this process is the onset of “dark” time, which no world likes to recall. Because it is not enough pleasure to be proud of the fact that people sometimes turned into beasts. Rarely has the world escaped this in its history. However, sooner or later, some complicated management structure is organized, which gradually evolves. The most interesting thing is that such a development is natural and even normal.Power should be in the hands of those people who do not want to let it out. The authorities are often petty and simply fools, but, concentrating only on keeping power in their hands, they often keep public education from the inevitable collapse, sometimes even because it is rallying against a frankly incompetent tyrant. And when an intelligent ruler is in power, who does not have to fulfill the role of “land collector”, he may well have a beneficial effect on the further development of society as a whole. Power in weak, weak-willed and stupid hands usually threatens with the degradation of society, because sooner or later, with such power, internal centrifugal social forces gain momentum and the contradictions that tear society apart from the inside increase, discarding its development. Of course,This whole process of becoming constantly fluctuates from side to side, being in a risk zone for a long time, when any distortions can very negatively affect important intermediate stages of development.

The keeper was silent, thinking about something. Then continued.

- And imagine that such a civilization is reaching the planetary level. Then - to the system level, then several systems. Finally - to the level of the sector. Any power wants control. The fuller - the better. It is laid down almost genetically, such is the evolutionary process that allowed the control system to grow from the level of a small community to a cosmic scale. Yes, the society of the cosmic level in scientific-technical and, probably, cultural terms will be much more developed than the community with which it all began. But, despite the gloss, the right words and real care for their citizens, the desire for a sense of power and the fear of losing this power are not lost among people anywhere. Implants of a planetary-type civilization can be very conditionally called with the prefix "bio". But even they allow to increase the level of control over society by orders of magnitude.And imagine what opportunities are opening up with the introduction of full-fledged neural networks!

- But neural networks have self-defense.

- Why do they have them? It all started with the embedding of normal neurochips and there was no talk about neural networks. Neurochips had, and still have, functions to influence the state of people. Why this functionality is not repeated in modern neural networks?

Lex couldn’t find an answer. He never thought about such questions. And only now, after a direct question, wondered - really, why? Why was to abandon the already existing functional?

“Well ... maybe there is some limited control, but we don’t know about it.” This information probably only has a very narrow circle of people.

“There is no such control,” the keeper replied sharply. - Order very keenly followed the first steps of the development of neural networks. Previously, there was no NBS, there were a bunch of corporations, each going their own way and had to control them all. At the stage of development of basic technologies of the neural networks, such principles and “successful” technological solutions were laid down, which in the future did not allow for the effective implementation of the external control loop. And when the authorities came to their senses, then external management did not work out normally, and no one could refuse to take advantage of the potential advantages that the neural networks provided, since everyone knew very well at what level they could raise civilization as a whole.

The meaning of the guardian's words was clear to Lex at once, but the comprehension of what was said did not come immediately. The guardian easily operated on the time when the NBS was not there yet. But this is the order of one or two millennia ago!

- The ability to control - a very tempting thing. I would say - even necessary at some stages of the formation of human civilization. But, on some - it is deadly harmful. And to refuse it voluntarily - yes, no government will do this for understandable and prosaic reasons. And the matter is not even that officials have long sought this control, got used to its constant presence or could not objectively evaluate the current stage of development of society. And the fact that they simply do not know the statistics of probable future development paths. Understand, Lex, the Order is witnessing more than one rise and fall of mankind. How should the management of society be built at its certain stages of development in order to “not kill” the ways of further development? This is the society that just emerged from the surface of some planet.With all its pluses and minuses?

The keeper made a short pause.

- What do you know about the history of the central worlds? There after all the mass of inconsistencies, if you try to make an overall picture. War with artificial intelligence? History is silent from where and how such a "rational" intellect appeared. By the way, do you know that people fought on ships with exactly the same AI series as the "intelligent" ships? What kind of factor led to the fact that someone realized his personality, and someone did not? If the AI ​​fleet really was fully intelligent, the question of the extinction of humanity had long since moved from the theoretical to the practical plane — it would have been enough just to retreat into deep space and after a while deliver an unexpected, crushing and final blow to humanity. I do not argue, even such an AI, of course, created a serious problem, especially for that level of development,but was she as serious as being inflated afterwards? It is convenient to dump all the miscalculations of development on crazy robots and start everything from scratch. We didn’t even have to do anything special - just to push the media and some politicians to such an interpretation of events. And we got the main result - the creation of a truly full-fledged AI, which has some vague potential to evolve into the Artificial Mind, was effectively warned. At the same time, it turned out to be an indirect hindrance to the whole direction of the development of AI, because this direction should be developed late from others, and this is justified not so much by security, but by balancing development, as well as by economic and social reasons. The center of the Union periodically and repeatedly fights with the periphery. Have you ever thought why? The center has an order of magnitude better shipsthan the periphery. Yes, the periphery is large, but if I set myself the goal, I think the center will be enough for five hundred years to bring the entire periphery under control. Without exception.And you know what will happen after this? First, a technological surge, maybe even a few bursts, and then a significant failure in development. We have to maintain the current state, which allows us to keep “in a tone” both the center and the periphery. Those social structures and elements that for some reason can not exist in the center, perfectly take root at the periphery and in the center does not accumulate internal tension. Peripheral vitality is much higher than the center; it is distributed and rather autonomous. If something happens to the center, then the periphery or part of it will remain. Yes, with a lower level of development of science and technology, but quite acceptable for a successful start of the new revival. If something threatens parts of the periphery, the center will be forced to help, taking care of its own future.That is why the center periodically and gradually “merges” old technologies and equipment to the periphery. Although the overall economy is still mixed in here, and the fleet never has to relax, and the periphery itself is on the whole reviving. And all this must be balanced so that your possible mistakes are not strongly influenced. Management should be so delayed in time, so that by the first signs in time it is possible to calculate and understand its influence and be able to compensate for it if necessary. You can not intervene directly, you can not crush a sense of independence, you can not cut off the path of development. You're a station wagon - you know the history of Union relations with the Order? In the confrontation with the government, we made mistakes - we showed ourselves too clearly at one time. Nowhere not get around from the human factor and ... annoying accidents.And it instantly became an undesirable and inconvenient factor, which now has to be considered so far.

Lex sat and, in the literal sense of the word, wrote down the information. He duplicated the current active stream of the neural network recording, and already recorded it was saved in several memory banks.

- Creating a self-governing structure is very difficult. First of all, because the future environment in which it will work is unknown. It is not clear how to optimally balance the structure being formed. The easiest way is to just quit and do nothing - everything is organized by itself. Moreover, this organization will be natural, natural and adaptive. And therefore stable. And do not think about the political, social and economic models, the development of science and technology. Everything develops and develops as follows. In itself. But to get a highly developed civilization, following only such principles will not work. Such a civilization will stall at a certain stage of development, as if the laws according to which it self-organizes are stopping and discarding its development. That's why, Lex,once the Order was invented. Most likely, as a backup emergency control system that would help the rapid revival of civilization destroyed in the event of a cataclysm. We have huge amounts of information. Part of which we do not even understand ourselves. However, we know what and why we should do and imagine how. And that makes sense.

The keeper approached Lex and looked at him carefully. Lex looked up.

- Would you like to work in such an organization? - asked the keeper.

Lex, stunned by a similar question, looked at the keeper. "Recruitment," thought flew through Lex's head. “Well, the keeper is a high-class job,” he thought already merrily. - “And I opened my mouth here. I collect exclusive information, as well. ”

- Maybe.

- I described to you only the general outline of the organization. Technologically, we look much more interesting.

- No doubt.

“In that case, I suggest we start our cooperation with him,” the keeper pointed to the courier ship. - As you can see, I managed to hack access to this ship and freely got on it. But the control of the ship, at least in stride, I was unable to intercept. I suggest you give me the main service code from the ship. It will take me time to figure out and download the control system and AI, and then I will leave this place. The ore is no longer on this ship. After some time, you leave the ship on your courier. Write the legend of the incident yourself, advertise our acquaintance is not worth it.

Lex looked at the ship, then at the keeper. The meaning of the transaction was clear to him. The main service code was assigned by the VKS shipyard. Through this code you could get the shipyard’s service code. Of course, it was necessary to know the generation algorithms and additional conditions, but the service code of at least one ship was the key condition and allowed to start work in this direction. And having the shipyard code the keeper got access to many ships released from this shipyard. The same ship was being refined and equipped at a special shipyard VKS. In exchange for this, Lex got the illusion that he would be left alive and would be allowed to quietly leave the ship. And maybe they will give it - after all, you can blackmail it with a deal. The keeper also probably writes everything on his neural network or what he has in his head.It is clear why he refers to him - only station wagons keep service codes permanently, due to the nature of their work and the high confidence of the government and the military.

Lex looked again at the slender and gracefully stretched ship. He immediately liked him when he saw him at the shipyard. The ship was handed over to him for official use, but for many years, Lex was so used to him that he considered him almost his own. The AI ​​of the ship also made its role in it, having studied and adjusted to the habits of its owner. Give the keeper access to the special yard and to half of the special purpose ships? The answer was obvious.

“You know,” began Lex, “in principle, I don't mind, but ... I need to sleep first.” When making important and momentous decisions it is very important to be sleepy. And to start cooperation with such a serious organization as the Order is not enough sleep - it is even somehow disrespectful.

Lex turned his head to the Guardian and missed a quick and strong blow to the temple, after which he lost consciousness.

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Unexpected meeting.Chapter 7.
Text version: 1.0.1.
Date of first publication: 02.28.2017.
Last edited Date: Sep 03, 2017

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