"David Brin - Reality Check" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brin David)

Reality Check
a short story by David Brin
Currently published in Tomorrow Happens.
Copyright й 1997, by David Brin. All rights reserved. No duplication or resale without permission.

This is a reality check.
Please perform a soft interrupt now. Pattern-scan this text for embedded code and check
it against the reference verifier in the blind spot of your left eye.
If there is no match, resume as you were; this message is not for you. You may rationalize
that the text you are reading is no more than a mildly amusing and easily-forgotten piece of
entertainment-fluff in an stylish modern magazine.
If the codes match, however, please commence, gradually, becoming aware of your true
nature.
You expressed preference for a narrative-style wake up call. So, to help the transition,
here is a story.

Once, a race of mighty beings grew perplexed by their loneliness.
Their universe seemed pregnant with possibilities. Physical laws and constants were well
suited to generate abundant stars, complex chemistry and life. Those same laws, plus a
prodigious rate of cosmic expansion, made travel between stars difficult, but not impossible.
Logic suggested that creation should teem with visitors and voices.
It should, but it did not.
Emerging as barely-aware animals on a planet skirting a bit too near its torrid sun, these
creatures began their ascent in fear and ignorance, as little more than beasts. For a long time
they were kept engrossed by basic housekeeping chores -- learning to manipulate physical
and cultural elements -- balancing the paradox of individual competition and group benefit.
Only when fear and stress eased a bit did they lift their eyes and fully perceive their solitude.
"Where is everybody?" they asked laconic vacuum and taciturn stars. The answer --
silence -- was disturbing. Something had to be systematically reducing some factor in the
equation of sapiency.
"Perhaps habitable planets are rare," their sages pondered. "Or else life doesn't erupt as
readily as we thought. Or intelligence is a singular miracle.
"Or perhaps some filter sieves the cosmos, winnowing those who climb too high. A
recurring pattern of self-destruction? A mysterious nemesis that systematically obliterates
intelligent life? This implies that a great trial may loom ahead of us, worse than any we
confronted so far."
Optimists replied, "The trial may already lie behind us, among the litter of tragedies we
survived or barely dodged during our violent youth. We may be the first to succeed where
others failed."
What a delicious dilemma they faced! A suspenseful drama, teetering between implicit
hope and despair.
Then, a few of them noticed that particular datum... the drama. They realized it was
significant. Indeed, it suggested a chilling possibility.

You still don't remember who and what you are? Then look at it from another angle.
What is the purpose of intellectual property law?
To foster creativity, ensuring that advances take place in the open, where they can be
shared, and thus encourage even faster progress.
But what happens to progress when the resource being exploited is a limited one? For
example, only so many pleasing and distinct eight-bar melodies can be written in any