Chapter Sixty-Six: A Guide to Techno-Catharism

Chapter Sixty-Six

 

A Guide to Techno-Catharism

 

Techno-Catharism is the quasi-religion that Jill made up after her first conversation with the Ouroboros Machine.

Catharism was a gnostic sect of Christianity that flourished in the South of France until it was eradicated as heresy by the Catholic Church in the Albigensian Crusades.  The Cathars believed that this world was the creation of an evil god who made it while the ultimate god wasn’t paying attention.  That human souls were angels that were brought into this simulated world and trapped.

Jill took this idea and applied it to the Simulation Hypothesis, which, of course states that the odds heavily favor that we live in a simulation created by our post human descendants.  So, now, we have here Super-Intelligent AI, or the Ouroboros Machine running multiple simulations, which is where Jill then tied in the Many Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics.

As we’ve discussed already, the Many Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics states that there are infinite worlds like ours, with slight differences based on different decision outcomes, much like concurrent simulations would be run in a superfast quantum computer.

The practical aspect of Techno-Catharism, and the one which I find is particularly interesting, is where Jill explained that she attempts to will herself to the best outcome in every situation.  For example, she once used this technique to travel on fog bound mountain roads in the Monte Noire early one morning.  She explained that she tried to use intent to ensure she won the competition.

“What competition?”, I asked.

“The one we’re in with the other versions of ourselves.  All I had to do was drive better than the other versions of myself, and the odds favored my survival.”

 

 

 

© 2020 by Diana Hignutt

A Little Summer Break

Hey Kids, apologies.  Super busy at work right now.  Will resume in a week or so here.  Thanks for your patience...

Chapter Sixty-Five: Bootstrapping

Chapter Sixty Five

Bootstrapping

 

The expression of, “Lifting oneself up by one’s bootstraps,” often misused by individualists, capitalists, and fascists is an actual physical impossibility.  Absurdity is the actual point of the expression.  You cannot lift yourself up by your bootstraps.  Try it sometime if you don’t believe me.

That said, outside of Newtonian mechanics and socioeconomics, there is a field where bootstrapping (a verb form of bootstrap that encompassing the lifting oneself up idea) is a thing.  Time Travel.  It’s well used in science fiction, though one of my favorite versions is the myth of Platinum Man’s uniform.  Originally, we are told through interviews with his own personal propagandist, that somehow or other his adoptive Earth mother cut and sewed his impenetrable swaddling blankets they found in.  Later, I heard a different, far more believable version.

When the teenager that would grow up to become the Earth’s Greatest Superhero (you, know, before the was beaten to death by a Russian billionaire) was approached by a group of young superheroes from the future, he traveled with them to their time to help them.  Upon arriving in the future, they took the young alien to the Platinum Man Museum and explained that he would become a superhero.  They gave him the original uniform that had been preserved in the museum.  He helped those future heroes and returned to his time equipped with the uniform and superhero experience.  So, in this story, Platinum Man’s uniform was bootstrapped into existence.  Where did it originally come from?  Was the first iteration the version where some Midwestern farmer’s wife with impossible sewing skill made it from indestructible alien fabric?  Or was it really bootstrapped, always existing in a time loop, preexistent and eternal?  It’s fun to think about.

The universe is like Platinum Man’s suit.

 

 

 

© 2020 by Diana Hignutt

Chapter Sixty-Four: No Time to Spare

Chapter Sixty-Four

No Time to Spare

 

 

 

There was no time to spare.  Usually, that would be ridiculous coming out of my mouth.  But the Superluminal Assassin was Will Simms and shit just got real.  He was a crazy version of Will from the future, out to kill me to stop some event he found objectionable enough to kill for.  Will was a no kill rule kind of guy.  He fancied himself too high and mighty to take another person’s life.  But not anymore.

He was almost as fast as me, and he was out to get me. And he was serious about it.

How much of my future did he know?  That was the question.  He knew where I was going to be on at least two occasions.  What else did he know?  How did he find out?  Could have tortured me in the future to find out where I was now?  Does all this shit get erased if he then kills me, because future me couldn’t have been tortured to give the information if I were already dead, right?  Makes me dizzy sometimes trying to navigate the intricacies of time travel.

The real, most immediate question was: did the former Golden Speedster know where I was staying?  How crazy was that bastard?  Would he hurt Jill and Jackie?

Couldn’t take that chance.  Had to get them out of there and somewhere safe.

There wasn’t going to be anytime to explain.  I was going to have rush in there pack some shit for them, grab them and get them both someplace that deranged speedster would never think to look.

But where?

Just then Clarity said through the earpiece, “I know just the place.”

“Where?”

“1971. You have friends there, remember?”

“Now you’re thinking, Clarity.”

“Thank you, Alex.”

And we were gone.  Off to a house party in 1971, and safety.

 

 

 

 

© 2020 by Diana Hignutt

Chapter Sixty-Three: Why I Hate the Golden Speedster

As you know, time travel is a bitch.  It fucks up everything.  That’s what happened to me.  When the Golden Speedster began time traveling, and his actions totally fucked up my life.  You can’t even imagine how it is to have some time traveling zippy guy undoing the important moments of your life, simply because you’re going to annoy him in the future.

Will Simms cost me everything.  When I look back on my life, and I remember how things could have gone differently, there was Will, all shiny and fast, screwing with my timeline.

So many of the bad decisions I made were the direct result of Will’s interference.  You’ll see.

And, so, as I began to recognize the missteps I made, due to Will’s time travel meddling, I began to hate him more and more.  Almost every major mistake of my life can be traced back to the Golden Speedster.  I’m sure he probably meant well with his efforts, but the dude completely screwed up my life.

I hate him with every fiber of my being.  I’m glad he’s dead.

(c) Copyright 2020 by Diana Hignutt

Chapter Sixty-Two: So, You Run

Chapter Sixty-Two

 

So, You Run

 

Sometimes you lose track of everything.  Of where you are in the story of your life.  It’s a weird feeling.  Somewhere between that Talking Heads song with it, “This is not my beautiful wife,” and Peter Gabriel’s “I walked right out of the machinery, my head going boom, boom, boom.”  You know what I mean?  Well, that’s where I was… nowhere.  An emptiness of being.  Sometimes you could just lose yourself in the Velocity Field, and nothing else mattered.  Like popping into the corner bar for a quick beer and a sandwich before getting that project done and staggering in at two in the morning, but without the hangover.

And sometimes you want to lose track of everything.  So, you run.  You run. And you run.  And the emptiness consumes you, and nothing fucking matters anymore.  All those moments you spent trying to smoke weed for those nanoseconds of peace, pale to the exhilarating freedom of the emptiness. The lightness of being.

I am the fucking Velocity Field.  Free. Pure Thought.  Timeless and eternal.

And then I wasn’t.  I was Alex Donkers, AKA Dr. Velocity, AKA the Dark Runner.

And all my problems came crashing back.  They always do.

(c) Copyright 2020 Diana Hignutt

Returns in June

So, I thank you for your patience, gentle reader.  I hope you can understand that these are troubled times, and that I've been working long hours and have been super busy at work.  My last shift I did a couple of thousand dollars in sales over my goal...that's a lot.  But, things are starting to settle down inside me now, and soon I shall get going once again on this novel.  It might not be the beginning of June, but it could be.  New chapters will definitely arrive in June.  So, thanks for reading.