"David Langford - New Hope for the Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Langford David)

EGANs can no longer be restarted. But, you know, you wouldn't feel a thing.

We understand your viewpoint. So much, then, for the first and easiest option.

Plan two has the droll motto, "Poverty is nature's way of telling you to slow down!" What happens here is
that to all intents and purposes you continue your luxury electronic afterlife exactly as at presentтАФbut
with substantial savings achieved by slowing your clock rate and reducing processor load. A
thousandfold reduction, for example, would make no subjective difference butтАж

Well, yes, you would inevitably lose contact with other posthuman friends running at normal clockspeed
in the EGANverse. And, indeed, a century would pass in little more than five weeks. But try to look on
the bright side: you could see the glittering wonders of the future. Who would have thought, even a few
years ago, that scrotties would prove to be of such momentous significance today? What other
fascinating surprises await?

Ah, so you doubt our troubled world's ability to sustain life, high-information technology and thus your
own digital substrate for as much as another century. Just between you and ourselves, Mr. Hormel, we
agree. One doesn't want to go actively looking for future shock.

So it seems as though you'll be opting for plan number three. As our client-advisers like to explain this
one: "You're dead but you needn't lie down!" Posthumous vocational choices are restricted by a variety
of union agreements, but there are still opportunities for EGAN personalities to carry out useful and
profitable work!

Your key marketing point is the unparalleled humanтАФ sorry, posthumanтАФability to perform advanced
pattern recognition. No, not SETI radio-telescope data scanning. That was a good guess, but surprisingly
crude software can handle the mere search for alien signals. For you we have a much subtler, trickier and
constantly mutating challenge.

According to your premortem life record (we apologize for the intrusion, but Clause 9(vii) grants us
direct access to your stored memories under the present circumstances), your highly profitable career as
a Florida-based disseminator of unsolicited commercial e-mail should make you ideally qualified for this
filtration job. Everyone knows your old catch-phrase: Just Press Delete.

It's a simple, straightforward task, with VR rewards for accuracy and disincentives for wrong decisions:
see Clause 9(xvi) regarding valid occasions for negative reinforcement via simulated discomfort. You
merely need to use your posthuman powers of judgment to separate relevant content from the
surrounding white noise of coded promotional material for p0rn, HyperViagra, illicit scrotties and the
likeтАФ plus, of course, all solicitations with any hint of a Nigerian accent.

Here are your first ten billion e-mails.

Scan them rapidly, diligently and well.

And as you come to each undesirable itemтАж Just Think Delete.