"Rudy Rucker - Chu and the Nants" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

back what they've done. The boss said he didn't want to roll them back, and his chief techie ass-kisser
said that my idea wouldn't work anyway because of random external inputs, and I said the nants see their
pasts as networks, not as billiard-table trajectories, so they can too undo things node-to-node even if
their positions are off, and I had to talk louder and louder because they were trying to change the
subject--and that's when security came. I'm outta there for good. I'm glad." Ond continued eating. He
seemed strangely calm.

"But why didn't you do a better presentation?" wailed Nektar. "Why not put your code on your laptop
and make one of those geeky little slide shows. That's what engineers like to see."

"Nothing on computers will be safe much longer," said Ond. "The nant-brain will be nosing in. If I put my
code onto a computer, the nants would find it and figure out how to protect themselves."

"And you're saying your strings of symbols can stop the nants?" asked Nektar doubtfully. "Like a magic
spell?"
Silently Ond got up and examined the electric air cleaner he'd installed in the dining-room, pulling out the
collector plates and inspecting them. Seemingly satisfied, he sat down again.

"I've written a nant-virus. You might call it a Trojan flea." He chuckled grimly. "If I can just get this code
into some of the nants, they'll spread it to all the others--it's written in such a way that they'll think it's a
nant-written security patch. They mustn't see it on a human computer--and for that matter, I wouldn't
want them to see these papers. I've been trying to memorize the program, but it's too long for me. But,
listen, if I can get my code into some of the nants, it'll spread to all of them right away, and an hour later
it'll actuate--and everything'll roll back. You'll see. You'll like it. But those assholes at Nantel--"

"Assholes," chirped Chu. "Assholes at Nantel."

"Listen to the language you're teaching the boy!" said Nektar angrily. "I think you're having a mental
breakdown, Ond. Is Nantel giving you severance pay?"

"A month," said Ond.

"That's not very long," said Nektar. "Maybe it's time I got a job. You can shop and make the meals and
clean the house and be there when Chu comes home from his school."

"If I don't succeed, we'll all be gone pretty soon," said Ond. "So it won't matter."

"Are you saying the nants are about to attack Earth?" said Nektar. "Is that it?"

"It's already started," said Ond. "The nant-brain made a deal with President Doakes. The news is coming
out tonight. The nants are turning Earth into a Dyson sphere too. That'll double their computational
capacity. Huppagoobawazillion isn't enough for them. They want two huppagoobawazillion. What's in it
for us? The nants have promised to run a virtually identical simulation of Earth. V-Earth. Each living Earth
creature gets its software-slash-wetware ported to an individually customized agent inside the V-Earth
simulation. Doakes's advisers say we'll hardly notice. You feel a little glitch when the nants take you apart
and measure you--and then you're alive forever in a heavenly V-Earth. That's the party line."

"Quindecillion," said Chu. "Not huppagoobawazillion. More food." He shoved his empty plate across the
table toward Nektar.