"Vernor Vinge - Fast Times at Fairmont High" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

 Fast Times at Fairmont High
by Vernor Vinge


teachers feel that when you're thirteen years old, it's better to
concentrate on doing a few things well. You'll have plenty of
time for jumble lore in the future. Your other concurrent
exam will beтАФMiss Washington?тАЭ
Patsy Washington came to her feet, and Juan realized that
sheтАФlike BertieтАФwas only present as imagery. Patsy was a
San Diego student so she had no business being virtual at a
physical assembly. Hmm. тАЬLook,тАЭ she said. тАЬBefore you go on
about these concurrent exams, I want to ask you about the
naked skills test.тАЭ
Bertie gave Juan a grin. тАЬThis should be interesting.тАЭ
The Alcalde's gaze was impassive. тАЬThe тАШunaided skillsтАЩ
test, Miss Washington. There is nothing whatsoever naked
about it.тАЭ
тАЬIt might as well be, Mister.тАЭ Patsy was speaking in English
now, and with none of the light mocking tone that made her a
minor queen in her clique. It was her image and voice, but
the words and body language were very un-Patsy. Juan
probed the external network traffic. There was lots of it, but
mostly simple query/response stuff, like you'd expect. A few
sessions had been around for dozens of seconds; Bertie's
remote was one of the two oldest. The other belonged Patsy
WashingtonтАФat least it was tagged with her personal
certificate. Identity hijacking was a major no-no at Fairmont,
but if a parent was behind it there wasn't much the school
could do. And Juan had met Patsy's father. Maybe it was just
as well the Alcalde didn't have to talk to him in person.
Patsy's image leaned clumsily through the chair in front of
her. тАЬIn fact,тАЭ she continued, тАЬit's worse than naked. All their
6
 Fast Times at Fairmont High
by Vernor Vinge


lives, theseтАФweтАФhave had civilization around us. We're
damned good at using that civilization. Now you theory-
minded intellectuals figure it would be nice to jerk it all away
and put us at risk.тАЭ
тАЬWe are putting no one at risk ... Miss Washington.тАЭ Mr.
Alcalde was still speaking in Spanish. In fact, Spanish was the
only language their principal had ever been heard to speak;
the Alcalde was kind of a bizarre guy. тАЬWe at Fairmont
consider unaided skills to be the ultimate fallback protection.
We're not Amish here, but we believe that every human being
should be able to survive in reasonable environmentsтАФ
without networks, even without computers.тАЭ