"Charles Stross - Missile Gap" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

semi-open society, inadequately controlled. A bunch of astronomers get together on their own
initiativeтАУacademic conference, whateverтАУand decide to spend a couple of thousand bucks of research grant
money from NIST to establish communications with the nearest disk. How are we supposed to police that
kind of thing?тАЭ
тАЬShut down all their radio telescopes. At gunpoint, if necessary, but I figure a power cut or a congressional
committee would be just as effective as leverage.тАЭ
тАЬPerhaps, but we donтАЩt have the SovietsтАЩ resources to work with. Anyway, thatтАЩs why I dragged Sagan in for
the CAB. ItтАЩs a Potemkin village, you understand, to convince everybody he contacted that something is
being done, but weтАЩre going to have to figure out how to shut him up.тАЭ
тАЬSagan is the leader of the тАШtalk-to-us, alien godsтАЩ crowd, I take it.тАЭ
тАЬYes.тАЭ
тАЬWell.тАЭ Gregor considers his next words carefully. тАЬAssuming heтАЩs still clean and uncontaminated, we can
turn him or we can ice him. If weтАЩre going to turn him we need to do it convincinglyтАУfull TellerizationтАУand weтАЩll
need to come up with a convincing rationale. Use him to evangelize the astronomical community into shutting
up or haring off in the wrong direction. Like Heisenberg and the Nazi nuclear weapons program.тАЭ He snaps his
fingers. тАЬWhy donтАЩt we tell him the truth? At least, something close enough to it to confuse the issue
completely?тАЭ
тАЬBecause heтАЩs a member of the Federation of American Scientists and he wonтАЩt believe anything we tell him
without independent confirmation,тАЭ Brundle mutters through one side of his mouth. тАЬThatтАЩs the trouble with
using a government agency as our cover story.тАЭ
They walk in silence for a minute. тАЬI think it would be very dangerous to underestimate him,тАЭ says Gregor. тАЬHe
could be a real asset to us, but uncontrolled heтАЩs very dangerous. If we canтАЩt silence him we may have to
resort to physical violence. And with the number of colonies theyтАЩve already seeded, we canтАЩt be sure of
getting them all.тАЭ
тАЬItemize the state of their understanding,тАЭ Brundle says abruptly. тАЬI want a reality check. IтАЩll tell you whatтАЩs
new after you run down the checklist.тАЭ
тАЬOkay.тАЭ Gregor thinks for a minute. тАЬLet us see. What everyone knows is that between zero three fifteen and
twelve seconds and thirteen seconds Zulu time, on October second, sixty two, all the clocks stopped, the
satellites went away, the star map changed, nineteen airliners and forty six ships in transit ended up in
terminal trouble, and they found themselves transferred from a globe in the Milky Way galaxy to a disk which
we figure is somewhere in the lesser Magellanic cloud. Meanwhile the Milky Way galaxyтАУwe assume thatтАЩs
what it isтАУhas changed visibly. Lots of metal-depleted stars, signs of macroscopic cosmic engineering, that
sort of thing. The public explanation is that the visitors froze time, skinned the earth, and plated it over the
disk. Luckily theyтАЩre still bickering over whether the explanation is MinskyтАЩs copying, uh, hypothesis, or that
guy Moravec with his digital simulation theory.тАЭ
тАЬIndeed.тАЭ Brundle kicks at a paving stone idly. тАЬNow. What is your forward analysis?тАЭ
тАЬWell, sooner or later theyтАЩre going to turn dangerous. They have the historic predisposition towards
teleological errors, to belief in a giant omnipotent creator and a purpose to their existence. If they start
speculating about the intentions of a transcendent intelligence, itтАЩs likely theyтАЩll eventually ask whether their
presence here is symptomatic of GodтАЩs desire to probe the circumstances of its own birth. After all, we have
evidence of how many technological species on the disk, ten million, twelve? Replicated many times, in
some cases. They might put it together with their concept of manifest destiny and conclude that they are, in
fact, doomed to give birth to God. Which is an entirely undesirable conclusion for them to reach from our
point of view. Teleologists being bad neighbors, so to speak.тАЭ
тАЬYes indeed,тАЭ Brundle says thoughtfully, then titters quietly to himself for a moment.
тАЬThis isnтАЩt the first time theyтАЩve avoided throwing around H-bombs in bulk. ThatтАЩs unusual for primate
civilizations. If they keep doing it, they could be dangerous.тАЭ
тАЬDangerous is relative,тАЭ says Brundle. He titters again. Things move inside his mouth.
тАЬDonтАЩt do that!тАЭ Gregor snaps. He glances round instinctively, but nothing happens.
тАЬYouтАЩre jumpy.тАЭ Brundle frowns. тАЬStop worrying so much. We donтАЩt have much longer here.тАЭ