"John C. Wright - Golden Age 3 - The Golden Transcendence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wright John C)

to him, no, he did not want to start all over again. It had been something
terrible, something stolen from him. Who was he?
He had the impression he was someone terrible, someone all mankind had
gathered to ostracize. A hated exile. Who was he? Was he someone worth being?
If you elect to commit suicide, the new personality version will be equipped
with any interim memory chains you form during this process, so he will think
he is you, and the illusion of continuity will be maintained. ...
"Stop that! Who am I?"
Primary memories written into cortex now. Establishing parasympathic paths to
midbrain and hind-brain for emotional reflex and habit-pattern behavior.
Please wait.
He remembered: he was Phaethon. He had been exiled from Earth, from the whole
of the Golden Oec-umene, because there was something he loved more than Earth,
more than the Oecumene.
What had it been? Something inexpressibly lovely, a dream that had burned his
soul like lightningтАФa woman? His wife? No. Something else. What?
Thought cycle complete. Initiating physical process. "Why was I unconscious?"
_ You were dead.
"An error in the counteracceleration field?" Marshal-General Atkins killed
you. The last soldier of Earth. The only member of the armed forces of a
peaceful Utopia, Atkins commanded godlike powers, weapons as deadly as the
superhuman machine intelligences could devise. Strangely enough, the machines
refused to use the weapons, refused to kill, even in self-defense, even in a
spotless cause. Only humans (so said the machines), only living beings, should
be allowed to end life.
There was a plan. Atkins's plan. Some sort of plan to outmaneuver the enemy.
Phaethon's exile was part of that plan-, something done to bring the agents of
the Silent One out of hiding. But there were no details. Phaethon did not know
the plan. "Why did he kill me?" You agreed.
"I don't remember agreeing!" You agreed not to remember agreeing. "How do I
know that?"
The question is based on a false-to-facts supposition. Mind records indicate
that you do not know that; therefore the question of how is counterfactual.
Would you care to review the thought index for line errors?
"No! How do I know you are not the enemy? How do I know I have not already
been captured?"
Please review the previous answer; the same result obtains.
"How do I know I am not going to be tortured, or my nervous system is not
being manipulated?" Your nervous system is being manipulated. Damaged nerves
are about to be brought back to life tem-perature and revitalized. Would you
like a neutralizer? There will be some pain. "How much pain?" You are going to
be tortured. Would you like a dis-"What kind of discontinuity? An
anaesthetic?" Pain signals must be traced to confirm that the in center of
your brain is healthy. Naturally, it would be counterproductive to numb the
pain under these circumstances, but the memory of the pain can be redacted
from your final memory sequence, so that the version of you who suffers will
not be part of the personal continuity of the version of you that wakes up.
"No more versions! I am I, Phaethon! I will not have my self tampered with
again!"
You will regret this decision.