Brave New Worlds
Page 58
Stanuel kicked forward and Pepper glanced back at him. "I think Stanuel objects. "
Pan sighed. "Yes, a few will be disaffected. They will always be disaffected. That was why I created outlets for the disaffected, because they are a part of me as well. But my plea to you, Pepper, is not to break this great experiment. I can offer you more money, a place of safety here whenever you would want it, and Haven as a powerful ally to your needs. "
Pepper nodded and sat in the air, his legs folded. "I have a question. "
"Proceed. "
"Why do they call you Pan?"
"They call me Pan because it's short for panopticon. An old experiment: if you were to create a round jail with a tower in the center, with open cell walls facing it, and the ability to look into every cell, you would have the ultimate surveillance society. The panopticon. In some ways, Haven is just that, with me at its center. "
Pepper chuckled. "I'd half expected some insane military dictator wearing a head of antlers calling himself Pan. "
Pan did not laugh. It leaned closer. "Pepper, understand me. This is not your fight. I'm the naturally elected ruler of Haven. The choice To remove me, that isn't yours. I did not bring you here to destroy me, but for other reasons. "
"The choice?" the word affected Pepper in some way Stanuel could not figure out. He looked over at Stanuel. "then if you're a benevolent ruler, you will escort me off Haven, leave Stanuel alive, and move on to other things. After all, it was your orders that set Stanuel down this path. "
"Of course. It's that or a sentence in one of Haven's residential rooms. You'll be locked in, but comfortable. There do have to be ways to handle such things. Exile, or confinement. "
"Okay, Mr. Pan. Okay. My work here is done. " Pepper moved towards Stanuel with a flick of his feet. "Come on Stanuel, it's time to leave the tower. "
Stanuel could hardly look Pepper in the eye. "I can't believe you left there. "
"Pan made a good argument. "
"Pan offered to pay you more. That's all. "
"There's that, but I won't take it. " Pepper scratched his head. "If I destroyed Pan, what would you do?"
Stanuel frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You said the emulations wouldn't be allowed to hold direct control, earlier. Does that mean you'd allow the emulations to come back and decide votes for you?"
"One assumes. We might have not gotten them right, but if we can fix that error, things can go back to the way they were. "
Pepper unpacked his suit and stepped into it. It crinkled and cracked as he zipped it up. "And then I'll be back. Because you'll repeat the same patter all over again. "
"What?"
"For all your assumptions, you're not quite seeing the pattern. Deep down, somewhere, you all want Pan. You don't want the responsibility of voting, you want the easy result. "
"That's not true," Stanuel objected.
"Oh come on. Think of all the times princes and princesses are adored and feted. Think of all the actors and great people we adore and fawn over. "
"That doesn't make us slavish followers. "
Pepper cocked his head. "No, but we still can't escape the instincts we carry from being a small band of hunter-gatherers making their way across a plain, depending on a single leader who knew the ins and outs of their tiny tribe and listened to their feedback. That doesn't scale, so we have inelegant hacks around it.
"Stanuel, you all created a technological creature, able to view you all and listen to all your feedback, and embody a benevolent single tribal leader. Not only was it born out of your unconscious needs, even your own emulations overwhelmingly voted it into power as sole ruler of Haven. "
Stanuel raised his hand to halt Pepper. "that's all true, and over the last four days we've argued around all this when we found out about the vote. But, Pepper, whether perfect or not, we can't allow a single person to rule us. It goes against everything we believe in, everything we worked for when we created Haven. "
Pepper nodded. "I know. "
"And you're going to walk away. "
"I have to. Because this wasn't some power grab, it was the will of your people. There was a vote. Pan is right, it is The rightful ruler. But," Pepper pointed at him, "I'm not leaving you empty-handed. "
"What do you mean?"
He handed over the backpack and pressed a small stick with a button into Stanuel's hand. "the E. M. P device is in the backpack. You won't get anywhere near the tower to take out just Pan, but if you trigged it in the hub after I leave, it will shut Haven down. Pan will have backups, and his supporters will protect the tower, but if enough people feel like you do, you can storm it with the guns in that pack. "
"You're asking me to. . . fight?"
"You know your history. The tree of liberty needs to be watered with some blood every now and then. Thomas Jefferson, I think, said that. Most of your ancestors fought for it. You could have kept it, had you just. . . Taken the time to vote yourself instead of leaving it to something else. "
"I don't know if I can. " Stanuel was bewildered. He'd never done anything violent in his life.
Pepper smiled. "You might find Pan is more willing to fold than you imagine. Think about it. "
With that, he stepped into the airlock. The door shut with a hiss, and the spacesuit faded into camouflage black as Pepper disappeared inside whatever stealth ship had bought him to Haven.
Stanuel stood there. He pulled the backpack's straps up over onto his shoulders and made his way toward the gardens, mulling over the mercenary's last words.
A hologram of Pan waited for him at the entrance to the gardens, but no goons were nearby. Stanuel had expected to be captured, with the threat of a long confinement ahead of him. But it was just the electronic god of Haven and Stanuel.
"You didn't understand what he meant, did you?" Pan said. It really was the panopticon, listening to everything that happened in Haven.
"No. " Stanuel held the switch to the E. M. P in his hand, waiting for some trick. Was he going to get shot in the head by a sniper? But Pan said it didn't use violence.
Maybe a tranquilizer dart of some sort?
"I told you," Pan said, "I also created the resistance. "
"But that doesn't make any sense," Stanuel said.
"It does if you stop thinking of me as a person, but as an avatar of your collective emulators. Every ruling system has an opposition; the day after I was voted into power, I had to create a series of checks and balances against myself. That was the resistance. "
"But I was recruited by people. "
"And they were recruited by my people, working for me, who were told they were to create an opposition tame as a honey trap. " Pan flickered as he walked through a tree. An incongruous vision, as Stanuel floated through the no gravity garden.
"Why would you want to die?"
"Because, I may not be what all of you want, just what most of you want. I have to create an opportunity for myself to be stopped, or else, I really am a tyrant and not the best solution. That is why Pepper was hired to bring the
E. M. P device aboard. That was why, ultimately, he left it with you. " "So it's all in my hands," Stanuel said. "Yes. Live in a better economy, a safer economy, but one ruled by what you
have created. Or muddle along yourselves. " Pan moved in front of Stanuel, floating with him.
Stanuel held up the metal tube and hovered his thumb over the button. "Men should be free. "
Pan nodded sadly. "But Stanuel, you all will never be able to get things done the way I can. It will be such a mess of compromise, personality, mistakes, wrong choices, emotional choices, mob rule, and imperfect decisions. You could well destroy Haven with your imprecise decisions. "
It was a siren call. But even though Pan was perfect, and right, it was the same song that led smart men to call tyrants leaders and do so happily. The promise of quick action, clean and fast decisions.
Alluring.
"I know it will be messy," Stanuel said, voice qua
vering. "And I have no idea how it will work out. But at least it will be ours. "
He pressed the button and watched as the lights throughout Haven dimmed and flickered. Pan disappeared with a sigh, a ghost banished. The darkness marched its glorious way through the cavernous gardens toward Stanuel, who folded up in the air by a tree while he waited for the dark to take him in its freeing embrace.
Civilization
by Vylar Kaftan
Vylar Kaftan writes speculative fiction of all genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and slipstream. Her work has appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, GigaNotoSaurus, Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Cosmos, Escape Pod, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Sybil's Garage, The Way of the Wizard, and in the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology Paper Cities. She lives with her husband Shannon in northern California.
If you were young in the 1980s, you probably read at least one Choose Your Own Adventure novel. Getting to pick your own way through the story always seemed so thrilling, until you came to the end and realized no matter what choices you made, it always turned out the same. Sometimes you even found yourself stuck in a loop, repeating the same stupid action over and over.
It was good training for real life, wasn't it?
Our next story isn't a cautionary tale of government gone bad or a social principle run amok. It's quite simply an analysis of civilization, and the chilling recognition that for good or bad, people in groups just can't seem to get things right. Historians will agree: society after society keeps making the same ridiculous mistakes.
Just like your characters did when you steered them through those Choose Your Own Adventure books.
1. Beginning
You have a civilization! It doesn't matter which one—let's say it's modern Western civilization. It's got fast food and sporting events, which is all you really need. Western technology gives you great military power—you have fantastic unstoppable tanks, and heat-seeking missiles to keep you safe. It's a good place to start.
You could also have chosen a remote aboriginal tribe in the center of Australia—one with nuts and berries, and spears and ropes. Or you could have chosen Communist China, or that group of scientists living in Antarctica. But let's stick to modern Western civilization. Let's give you people, too. We'll call them John and Jane. If you have a civilization, then you probably have at least two people in it.
Now, with your civilization comes a political system. Maybe your system is a democracy, and everyone gets a vote except the felons and child molesters. Maybe your system is a republic, and you market it as a democracy because it looks better on the brochures. Maybe your system is totalitarian, and you force everyone to enjoy the sound of that complicated word. Totalitarian!
But! A major choice awaits you. Are you traditional, bound by the past, certain that the old ways are the best because "we've always done it that way, so there"? Or are you radical, lured by the future, always hoping that the new ways will be better than the old because "we've never done it that way, so there"? Be warned, the future of your civilization depends on your choice. John and Jane's lives are at stake.
If you choose tradition, go to section 2.
If you choose radicalism, go to section 5.
2. Tradition
You're a traditionalist. Or a blind follower. Or just someone who reads everything in order, from start to finish. It doesn't matter; you end up in the same place anyway.
So, you have a civilization. You have TV dinners and expensive cars. You hold elections. This is the way it's always been done, and this is the way it must be. Never mind those fruitcakes in wigs who fought against the colonial powers. They were supporting Freedom and Liberty and other words that make great advertising. The corporations live off the people and the people trust the corporations. John and Jane relax, knowing that everything around them has worked for centuries.
Things stagnate. You hold more elections, or pretend to. The people in power have always been in power. The world is the way it's always been. The police have always arrested people in the streets. The freedom to speak has always been restricted in the name of security. The corporations destroy the people and that's the way it's always been, and why would you question that, citizen?
Congratulations! You've got fascism!
Go to section 3.
3. Fascism
How nice for you, that you look so good in jackboots and a uniform! Your secret police are so dangerous that they're sexy. They kick the enemies of the State in the street, like Rockettes in steel-toed boots. You sleep with national security books on your nightstand and a revolver under your pillow. Or maybe you just have secret meetings of secret societies in secret boardrooms, sealing fates with secret handshakes. The artists fill the gulags, and hey—cheap labor! So what if it's not fair and equal? Equality is for hippies. John and Jane trust you to keep them safe at all times.
When you're fascist, you're always right, because God or Satan or your left boot told you what to do. Divine power is with you! that means that you're right, and you'd better make sure everyone else knows it too. Let's go to war!
Go to section 7.
4. Complacency
You've been in power an awfully long time now. Why pay attention any longer? there's too many good shows on TV (or in the bullring, or in the arenas, or whatever you've got). You talk about the great sporting events on television and visit fast-food drivethroughs. You worry about whether your toothpaste is really doing all that a toothpaste should. After a while, you stop paying attention to anything at all. John and Jane are off doing something, but you're not sure what. This is the way it's always been, and this is the way it will always be. Is this progress? You aren't sure.
Go to section 2.
5. Radicalism
You decide to experiment. Artists love your society. Painters color skyscrapers, and sculptors make art of garbage. Directors shoot movies in black light and show them in darkened theatres. Musicians shred the works of previous centuries. Corporations hold festivals to mock their own logos.
People are changing things from the way they've always been, just to make changes. Broken furniture becomes the new fashion. Everyone lives with six uncles and an aunt. John and Jane change their names to Isthmus and Quagmire. No matter what the new idea is, it must be better than the old. You remember that you haven't changed governments in a while. Throw out the old! Bring in the new! It's time for a revolution!
Go to section 6.
6. Revolution
You hand out pamphlets in the street. Citizens march in protest of everything. The Hero of the People takes over in a bloodless coup. The former powers all commit a penitent suicide: on the same day, in the same prison, under your watchful eye. How convenient! You take note of all the former rules—because if that's how they did it, now you must do it differently. You charter a new Constitution in a different font from the old one. Oh good, this regime is much better than the last one!
You suppress the counter-revolutionaries. They want to change everything. Any disagreement in society must be squelched. John and Jane must have their freedom. For the good of the new regime!
Go to section 4.
7. War
Oh boy, it's war! Your regiments march like clockwork toys. Colonel Mustard is your general, with his dashing moustache and monocle. Your hats are quite classy, with a feather for each soldier (for officers, two!) On the streets, your noble supporters weep with pride as their loved ones march past. The people support the Cause (both sides, if it's a civil war). Or if they don't, you silence them, for national security. Jane blows John a kiss as he shoulders his weapon and heads away. He'll come back a hero, and they will marry.
Your soldiers fight bravely. They pose for photos every time they save a small child from Tyranny. There's no blood—at least, not in the photos. The enemy can't oppose the side of Truth and Justice, which you're quite certain is you.
Congratulations! You've won the war! Now for the next step: What kind of society do you want
to build? Is your future an ideal Utopia, or a dark Dystopia?
If you build Utopia, go to section 8.
If you build Dystopia, go to section 9.
8. Utopia
Medicine: Disease has been eliminated, and people live to be 120 in perfect health. As a result, your people have more time to contribute to society and to enjoy their lives.
Agriculture: Food is mass-produced by advanced techniques so that there is plenty for everyone. Special additives in the food guarantee nutrition and health for every citizen.
Employment: Everyone is guaranteed a job that pays a living wage, so that all people have the means to support themselves.
Housing: No one is homeless. Citizens are guaranteed safe, affordable housing.
Education: Citizens may study any available information. The government provides the entirety of human history and current events, and encourages people to read.
Law: All issues are decided by fair courts. Mistakes are never made.
Government: the government wants to make sure the citizens are happy.
Wow! What a wonderful world you've built for yourself. Now, all that remains is to help everyone else enjoy Utopia!
Go to section 10.
9. Dystopia
Medicine: Disease has been eliminated, and people live to be 120 in perfect health. As a result, your world is overpopulated and resources are scarce.
Agriculture: Food is mass-produced by advanced techniques so that there is plenty for everyone. Special additives in the food guarantee obedience to the government.