Copy Me: & Other Science Fiction Stories

by Laston Kirkland

  We were told to stop doing that. Angry Telecoms demanded we not encroach on their monopolies. We pointed out that we did not use their telephone poles, or their underground cables. We had built our own, and were communicating without any of their infrastructure.

  Government agencies became deeply annoyed that we were not monitoring traffic and did not bother to track where packets were coming from or where they were going. They demanded to install devices at our gateway that let them monitor traffic. We publicly and loudly refused, and the governments backed off. We then designed better gateways, with multiple paths to gain backbone access. Things that would bypass governmental attempts at control. We would not censor our own connections, nor would we monitor them the way the government demanded.

  Public officials who considered themselves moral watchdogs told us that if we did not monitor and block what they considered objectionable, that people would suffer. We pointed out that there is a difference between catching a criminal already a suspect, with warrant and due process; and the act of watching everybody because there was a chance they might be doing something someone doesn’t like.

  What we did was always legal, by specific wording of the law, but strongly frowned upon by various agencies. And we were very public with anything requested by these officials. We remained legal, but we walked a fine line.

  Our practice of anonymity itself came under attack. We pointed out that identities were reputation based, and the older the identity, the more reputation it earned. We know each other fully by these reputations, and it would be difficult, in fact nearly impossible, to assume another’s identity. We could abandon and create identities easily, but with the amount of data we worked with, it would be incredibly hard to falsify.

  Those who commit crimes were condemned within the movement itself. However, our list of crimes was quite small, compared to the outside world. No violence was tolerated either as a criminal act, nor as a sanction against a criminal act. One who committed a criminal act had the option to submit to the decision of the rest of the monastery, or be expelled. If the crime was serious, local authority would be waiting outside the walls.

  And then the attacks began. Attempts to describe us as a dangerous cult were the most common. News agencies misreported events to show us in the least favorable light possible. We responded swiftly to each allegation by showing the situation in context, and explaining our side. We also used the multitude of social media sites skillfully. Our lengthier, annotated, and citation-heavy version of events often reached the audience before the slanted sound-bites of the news agency.

  Nevertheless, those sound-bites took their toll. Repeated often, and loudly, they affected a large portion of the population who now believed we were dangerous. The danger of course was their own reliance on a single source of information. The danger was not us. We were neither violent nor confrontational. We were anonymous, but not invisible.

  We responded by releasing into the public domain the countless improvements we had made, and began giving away the machines and devices we had created. Better batteries, CAD printed parts, completely sustainable materials used to make just about anything. We gave them away.

  Our monasteries became a store of wonders. People in the mainstream still thought of us as dangerous wackos, from all the often repeated erroneous messages. But now we were USEFUL wackos who would give you clever things for free, show you how to make them yourself, and help you fix stuff.

  But the forces against us weren’t finished with us yet. Next came regulation committees. These were people who demanded we add and remove things from our structures to meet with various safety and planning guidelines. This attack we thought we were prepared for. We had already made sure we complied, but then they changed the rules. Often at the last minute before an inspection.

  At this point, I will talk only of our own monastery. This was happening to many of our locations, more or less simultaneously. But, as I write this, we are the ones physically attacked.

  A water pond on our property, outside our ringed compound, was listed by the regulators as too large, and in danger of flooding. So, over three nights, we drained it, and created three smaller ponds, separated by hundreds of feet. We added retaining walls, and a draining pump system leading to a field of plants chosen specifically for their ability to clean and purify. Our water leaving the property was cleaner than tap water. And would remain fresh in a flood twenty feet higher than highest recorded levels.

  When you have access to just about any tool and clever people to use them, this was considerably less hard work than they had intended it to be. We resolved their request before they had even finished their own paperwork. Ha!

  We then assimilated and codified all known regulations, and ran semantic searches to point out to the various Inspectors where they contradicted each other. When engineering is part of your religion, unreasonable demands are just a challenge.

  The Inspectors began to make demands designed specifically to shut us down, and we complied with clever solutions that left us better and stronger.

  We knew what was really happening. Pressure to shut us down was coming from many directions. We recorded and shared every attempt, revealing a pattern of abuse that began to embarrass the Inspectors. People were calling them out wherever they went for their obvious bias. Our water left our property cleaner than it came in. We produced an excess of power. All refuse was recycled. Our buildings were more natural disaster resistant than anything regulations required. Our food healthier. We built our monasteries off the beaten path. We ran our own schools, and our children were testing far above national averages. There was not one category the Inspectors could find that we did not excel at, yet they continued to demand more and more things.

  For instance they demanded that our food forest be coated with insecticides. We pointed out that we hand washed each vegetable, and hand inspected every one. We did not have an insect problem due to the way we grew our gardens.

  The demands grew more unreasonable. Our walls were above city ordinance, we pointed out that our complex was built well outside of city limits. They responded by increasing city limits with a gerrymandered leg extending twenty miles to specifically include our structure. We lowered the height of our complex by building up a hill around it, moving earth until our structure appeared to be well under the limit. It gave us useful terracing as well.

  They demanded we include electrical meters, and give full access to the meter inspector. We explained we did not use city electricity, and provided a spot outside of the complex they could choose to hook a meter to, that would consistently show negative values. They demanded a contractor inspect the number of emergency exits and fire escapes. We pointed out we had very detailed and ritualized mantras on that sort of thing, and sang the hymn of emergency preparation with verses for fire, flood, volcano, earthquake and zombies. (The evacuation, by the way was part of the zombie mantra.) The demands continued, daily and from multiple sources.

  We grew tired, and eventually explained that we would no longer allow inspections to continue. It was our refusal they wanted. They had been waiting for this. This led to police demanding access with the Inspectors.

  Again, we refused. And here we are now. Well, here I am.

  The forces outside, the ones who sent in bulldozers, and tried to burn us alive?

  Building Inspectors.

  Because we had the gall to refuse to comply anymore.

  I can hear the bulldozers now, above me. Also, gunshots. They are tearing the place down from the inside. The walls will stand, but our living space will need to be fully rebuilt. They will eventually find this tunnel. I’ve already got the bots pulling down the tunnel away from here, closing it off, keeping it hidden. They will be unable to find the way that the rest escaped. I will probably be forced to tell them, but I will hold out until I have been assured the rest are safe. Then when I do tell them, it will be too late for the
m to find the tunnel. It will have filled itself in! Ha!

  I stayed behind. I had to.

  My name is on the deed to the property. My original name, not one of my identities. This was required when we established the property. Each monastery has one person who retains their name for these purposes. My name signed all the papers, made all the contracts, paid all the taxes. I was listed as the owner. A ridiculous concept. One man can’t own all of what we did. The ponds, the workshops, the aquaponics garden.

  But this way, I will take the blame.

  It is a small honor, but mostly it is a duty. I am not rich, I make no rules because of my name on the deed. We use tokens, not money, inside each monastery, and hoarding them accomplishes nothing.

  While everyone else remained undetectable to the outside world, I had to be the face that interacted beyond the walls. They will capture me. They will demand I release the names of my associates, which of course I do not know. No one outside the private baptism ceremony knows the original name of a Copymist. I don’t even know my wife’s name, only her identities. Well, I know three of them, there may be more.

  If I am not killed, I will be arrested. I will probably be held in contempt of court. It’s doubtful they will believe me when I tell them I do not know the names they demand from me. I will probably go to jail. However there are many lawyers now who are also Copymists. I will eventually be freed. Our monastery will probably be sold. Another Copymist will likely buy it.

  I will meet up with my family when I have finished my sentence, if they let me out. My family has already selected our next monastery and have changed their Copymist identities. They will be living in another country by then. I don’t actually know which yet. The day I leave the jail, I will resume my duties. The day my probation ends, I will vanish, and never use my name again.

  Each time they shut one down, we will build many more. We learned from our mistakes here. We have a new plan.

  That’s what we do.

  Information wants to be free.

  •

  Courtesy Call

  “Hello?”

  “Sir, this is Officer Bluson of the Happy Valley Police Department. We noticed you are carrying a model Saiga semi-automatic assault rifle and walking down a public street towards town.”

  “It’s my right. I don’t need a license because it isn’t concealed. I’m carrying this rifle wherever I go!”

  “Absolutely, Sir.”

  “You can’t stop me! As long as I don’t go near to a school or into a private establishment! I know my— What did you say?”

  “I said, Absolutely. We won’t stop you.”

  “You won’t?”

  “Nope.”

  “Uh, Why?”

  “The police force recently purchased nine Aeolia hydrogen drones, each with camera systems. And Argus system software. Six of them are slowly circling above of us right now. According to my screen, all of them can currently see you. They recognized the rifle, it triggered a flag, which is why we chose to call you.”

  “Why did you call if you weren’t going to take it away?”

  “As a personal courtesy, and to warn you. While the weapon is visible, the drones have you in target sights as standard procedure. Should the rifle appear to be “brandished” or should the subroutines determine you are acting in an overly hostile manner, the drones will alert the officers on duty, and we will have to make a ‘fire’ decision. We will probably dispatch a patrol car first—if it looks like we have time.”

  “Wait a minute, let me make sure I understand this. As long as I carry this rifle, you are pointing a sniper gun at me?”

  “Yes, Sir. In this case, six of them. Also long range rubber rounds. And four taser net rounds report they have a lock. It’s a small town. Not much happening today. You are getting a lot of attention.”

  “What? How?”

  “The new Argus software can handle several thousand simultaneous targets without effort. It’s directly tied into the Aeolia drones which have quite a collection of weapons and sensors. The drones can float up there for about nine months before needing to be serviced, using solar panels for power and artificial photosynthesis cells to convert water into hydrogen for the gasbag. Every now and then they skim a lake to refuel. Mostly we only ground them to reload the ammunition.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  “Which part, Sir?” the officer asked pleasantly.

  “You can’t just arbitrarily point weapons at people!”

  “Technically, the weapons are at rest and not actually pointed at you, just the targeting system. However, if we give the go-ahead, that changes fast.”

  “You can’t let a robot shoot people just for pointing a weapon!”

  “No Sir. We have officers at computer monitors, watching live streaming video, seamlessly connecting to every other camera in our network. We would be the ones shooting. A lot like my game controller at home. Remarkable how smoothly I can pan and zoom the cameras.”

  “That’s—that’s horrible!”

  “Well, Sir, look at it this way. If we pull our own service revolvers, Argus instantly targets us as well. Lots of cameras on police in the field now. With Argus, we should have a lot fewer reasons to use a gun at all.

  “Ah.”

  “Just so you know, we have tied Argus automatically into the detection of your cell phone signal. Your movements will now be tracked wherever you go within city limits. That’s going to last for thirty days, due to the visible firearm, after which a review will be made on whether to continue.”

  “I am a law-abiding citizen! You can’t do that!”

  “Actually, Sir, your record shows ten arrests over the last six years, all for disturbing the peace. All involving Constitutional rights. And all resulting in misdemeanor charges and a little jail time. Technically, you are still on probation. We can do that. And we just did.”

  “But I have done nothing wrong!”

  “We know, Sir. However, we felt it was important to let you know where you currently stand. At this moment, Happy Valley has over five hundred interest targets that the Argus system is tracking. While I am talking to you, I’m also tracking a couple kids climbing over fences, one after another. We will send a patrol car to talk to them. A partner I sit next to is making a call to a person dumping his truck-load of old appliances on an empty road.

  “It’s really the same thing as a patrol officer seeing you, but why use a patrol car, when we have Argus? And why should we put an officer in harm’s way, when we can simply call you?”

  “Wait a minute. How did you get this phone number, anyway?”

  “Well, Sir, once you were spotted, I ran the recording back while following the various feeds to where you got out of your car. I then referenced your license plate. Your phone number was on file. We could have triangulated your cell phone signal and used the SIM Card identification to determine who you were. But tracing back the license plate was faster, and we didn’t have to contact the cell company.

  “Or we could have run it through a face recognition program, that’s getting fewer false positives than it used to. Records show your wallet has an RFID chip on your driver’s license, but you haven’t passed a reader since Saturday, so that wouldn’t have helped that much. We used that method to find the names of the kids hopping fences, their school ID’s have radio emitters in them, and we ran tape back until they came out of the mall. They passed a reader that tagged their names there, and the time stamp positively identified them. I’ll probably be the one to call their parents.”

  “You are recording all this stuff?”

  “Argus keeps all information. Our own office has a Yotabank, and it’s tied into and sharing drive space with every other Argus equipped station in the country. Every camera on every street corner, the drones, the ones in all official vehicles, all hooked up to Argus. All officers are
required to carry a camera while on duty, also hooked to Argus. We now record everything.”

  “Wait. Can I see this information?”

  “You can legally request any recordings if you wish. Any public location, at any time since Argus has gone live is now available on request. There is a fee. A lot of businesses will probably use the data. I suspect Arguscorp will become very large, very fast.”

  “Wow. This is monstrous. What about non-public information, can Argus see my backyard?”

  “Yes. However all designated private locations are blacked out before information is released to private entities. If you can prove a location is your property, Argus will release data to you.”

  “But I don’t want them recording that in the first place!”

  “Sorry, Sir. If it can be seen from a plane or public area, it will be recorded. All we currently promise is we cannot request Argus give us information on a private location without a court order or a crime being committed, like the kids hopping fences.

  “We aren’t going to stop the kids for a while. The department is getting a lot of interesting data from the yards they hop into. Looks like a lot of construction projects without licenses on Evergreen Road. I’ll be sending those over to a building inspector this afternoon.”

  “But this means from now on, you can just scroll back on a video until you see what happened! Anything in town a bird has seen, the police can too!”

  “Exactly, Sir! We will also be archiving all files by location, day, month and year. We expect the drop in crime to be quite impressive. Especially once the new smaller drones come online.

  “Each of those little quads will also be hooked into the Argus system, and will have an interchangeable weapon point, a taser, mechanical arm, flashing lights and a loudspeaker. If we had the little drones now, we’d send one of those after those kids, instead of a patrol car.”

  “Why are you telling me all of this?”

  “Well honestly, Sir, two reasons. First, I peeked at some files I’m not supposed to have access to. They plan to lay off seventy percent of the Valley police force next month, and there’s not a lot I can do about it. I’m a little annoyed. Second, when I looked up your file, I noticed you’ve been arrested ten times for various things that can really only be described as defying authority and demanding your rights.