A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
DISCLAIMER - This draft short story excerpt is a work of Science Fiction designed to communicate insights about the actual "Real World" in which we live. Any similarities to the places, people, and events of that world are either a coincidence or a deliberate attempt to ridicule specific elements of that world that ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Excerpt 2 - Specialization is for Insects
Marty: Hey Doc. I just finished reading through your technical paper and I've got some questions.
Doc Brown: Which paper Marty?
Marty: Um, Doc's Fictional Guide to the Brown EOS (BEOS)...
Doc Brown: Oh, yeah, sorry I didn't have time to bind it and put in the footnotes and references yet.
Marty: That's OK Doc. Uh, I've never heard of a scientific paper with the word "Fictional" in the title.
Doc Brown: Well Marty, we'll be auto-deploying that document into millions of parallel universes to stimulate the collection of comments and FUD to help the probe recognize which one is ours. Most of them have scheming authorities paid to use anything I say that disagrees with their master's view of the universe to throw me in the slammer. If I go posting a real technical document they'll find a typo somewhere and I'll be wanted in every fork of the universe. That could amount to millions of instances! Marty, I just don't think I could take that kind of rejection!
Marty: But Doc, the Libyans are after you in our home universe over a matter of 80 megabucks worth of plutonium. Surely, some federally fabricated fibs can't compete with that...
Doc Brown: You've got no Idea, Marty! They take something innocent you say, find a way to interpret it technically as a felonious False Statement and then twist all their other byzantine laws to amplify that into a case of fraud, money laundering, terrorism, genocide, treason and serial jaywalking! Next thing you know you're looking at three consecutive life sentences! You just don't dare make a factual statement of any kind in most of the universes we'll be exploring. But a work of fiction? Hard to make a false statement when the fictional universe is what you say it is!
Marty: If you say so Doc. But in this universe I guess we have to go along with whatever our All Knowing Author says. While it may be fictional in our real universe I've got to assume its real in our fictional universe...
Doc Brown: Precisely Marty! You're getting the hang of this!
Marty: Whatever Doc. Anyhow, your current edition of Doc's Fictional Guide to the Brown EOS (BEOS) seems to be saying that you'll be launching a...
Doc Brown: "Releasing", Marty, someone else will have to do the launching from somewhere free and safe. It could be a different jurisdiction in each universe so we just have to put the code out there and let geek nature take its course. We won't have to lift a finger. Just make it open source! You know there's someone in every universe who want's to be The One who launched the Next Big Thing!
Marty: ... ok, releasing a clone of the EOS Main Chain to serve as a companion side chain for BitShares. I get that part, but why are you making all those changes that specialize it into niche like "Jurisdictionally Agile Blockchains". I've got no idea what that means, and I'm pretty sure no one else will either. Would't it be better to launch a chain that is everything to everybody? Specialization is for insects!
Doc Brown: Marty, you've got to start thinking N-dimensionally! Each of these universes already has an EOS Main Chain, well, except for those where Dan Larimer gets hit by a bus or something.
People in these universes aren't going to start using BEOS unless it does something profoundly different from the Main Chain. So we're going to offer them a highly specialized chain that selects which jurisdiction each block is signed in and in which each smart contract is allowed to execute. In addition to having high-speed interconnectivity that doesn't use the internet, each node will be specialized for ultra high performance and located in pre-selected jurisdictions like Utah, Malta, the Caribbean Ocean or International Space...
Marty: Space! Doc, we can't even get your time machine working, how are we gonna put stuff in space?
Doc Brown: Come out to the lab, Marty, I've got something new to show you!
Other posts in the Sovereign Sky Series
All My Free Speech is Fiction
Sovereign Sky Excerpt 1 - A Proliferation of Parallels
Sovereign Sky Excerpt 2 - Specialization is for Insects
Sovereign Sky Excerpt 3 - The Fall of Empire
Sovereign Sky Excerpt 4 - Doc's Darwin Awards
Doc's Fictional Guide to the Brown EOS (BEOS)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Way to ridicule the Beast, Stan!
You've put big smiles on my face here... Not to mention that RAH is my fave sci-fi author of all time... ;)
😄😇😄
really like ur short stories Stan
super fun to read:)