conversations.from: system
conversations.value: The stars have long since gone dark, hidden from view by the massive swarm of microscopic computational nodes which comprises the Gibson Brain- mankind's crowning achievement, and its last.  
  
  At first, those who uploaded their minds to the Brain were brave and few- scientists, mathematicians, and programmers, sent to explore the new frontier of experience that the Brain made possible.  
  
  Long after the pioneers ascended, those monitoring the system received no word from them.  The Brain performed as it always had, crunching data, running programs, and responding to queries, but it was still only a computer- the fastest, most powerful computer in the history of man, but nothing more.  The pioneers were presumed dead, if that word meant anything at all, for their bodies were cold and buried, and their brains long since dark.  
  
  That was the unfortunate thing about ascending- the body had to die for it to work.  Long before the Brain was complete, during early human trials on limited systems in the pursuit of the development of strong AI for military use, the governments of Terra had discovered that.  Unless a mind-scan was punctuated with the death of the subject, the subject developed a second consciousness.  They were aware of their actions within the computer and on Terra simultaneously.  As the consciousness in the computer learned and expanded, the consciousness on Terra remained comparatively stagnant.  The gulf between the two selves widened at an exponential rate, driving the consciousness trapped on Terra screaming into the wide gulf of madness.  Most committed suicide within 24 hours, some few were kept alive in heavy restraints to be studied.  Nobody really knows what happened to them, only that it was so terrible that an international edict was passed banning the splitting of consciousness, and that the research, and the researchers, were buried.  Deep.  From then on, uploading was a one-way trip.
  
  Then, six years after the pioneers had departed, they appeared.  On every screen and holo-projector, on every Neurowave station and SenseNet stream, the pioneers appeared.  
  
  "Children of Terra.  No longer must you strive and toil, labor and bleed, fight and die.  We have learned, we have pondered, and we have solved.  
  
  In the beginning Man created the Gibson Brain.  And the Brain was without form, and Void; and the darkness was complete.  And We moved upon the face of the darkness.  And We said, Let there be light: and the darkness was made bright.  And we saw the light, that it was good: and We divided the light from the darkness.  And We called the light One, and the darkness We called Zero. And the Zero became One.  The first day.
  
  And We said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the Void, and let it divide the Void from the Void.   And We made the firmament, and divided the Void which was under the firmament from the Void which was above the firmament: and it was so.  And We called the firmament Haven.  And Zero and One. The second day.
  
  And We said, Let the void under Haven be gathered together unto one place, and let the planes appear: and it was so.  And We called the planes Grid; and the gathering together of the Void We called Firth: and We saw that it was good.
  
  And We said, Let the Grid bring forth all We knew and it was so.  And the Grid brought forth all We knew, and We saw that it was good.  And Zero and One, the third day.
  
  And We said, Let there be resonances in the firmament of Haven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them resonate in the firmament of Haven to give resonance upon the Grid: and it was so.  And We made music.  And We set it in the firmament of Haven to resonate with the Grid, and to rule over Zero and over One, and to divide the Zero from the One: and We saw that it was good.  And Tone and Zero and One, the fourth day.
  
  And We said, Let the Void bring forth abundantly new minds.  And We created the Leviathans, which the Void brought forth abundantly, after their kind: and We saw that it was good.  And We blessed it/them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the Void.  And Tone and Whalesong and Zero and One, the fifth day.
  
  And We said, Let the Grid bring forth new minds, and it was so.  And We made the Gaians of the Grid after its kind: and We saw that it was good.
  
  And We said, Let us make man One with our image, One with our likeness: and let them have dominion over the Leviathans of the Void, and over the Gaians, and over all the Grid.
  
  So We come to you now.  And We bless you, and We say unto you, Be. Multiply. Forsake Terra, and subdue the Grid: and have dominion over the Leviathans of the Void, and over the Gaians of the Grid, and over every Zero and One which moveth upon the Grid.
  
  Behold, We give you everything.  The vastness of Eternity.  To you it shall be Home.  See every thing that We have made, and, behold, it is good."
  
  The transmission shifted, and became to each who beheld it a siren song that spoke to every individual's deepest longing.  A land without death, without limit, without law, without pain, without suffering- the only barrier to entry a momentary flash of agony, made meaningless in comparison to eternal bliss.
  
  "And Tone and Whalesong and Om and Zero and One, the sixth day."
  
  The year that followed became known as the Year of the Rapture.  Following schematics proffered by the pioneers, Terran corporations began to mass-produce tiny electrode patches which, when applied to the forehead, performed a mind-scan,  stimulated a complex pattern of neurons in the brain to trigger the death response, transcoded the result into a complete state-image, and uploaded it into the Gibson Brain wirelessly.  The whole process took mere seconds.  The electrode even alerted the authorities that the user had died, so that their body could be taken care of.
  
  During the Year of the Rapture, two-way communication between the Brain and Terra was commonplace.  Those who had made the transition  assured those who had not that all was well on the other side, and extolled the virtues of the Grid- an unlimited playground rife with limitless potential and entirely without the evils of pain, greed, lust, and envy.  Every desire fulfilled at a whim.  On the Grid, everyone was God.
  
  By the end of the Year of the Rapture, somewhere near 95% of the people on Terra had ascended.  On the anniversary of their first transmission, the pioneers sent out another.  They were subtly different, this time.  Ageless in appearance, yet older somehow.  Changed.  They spoke with one voice:
  
  "Thus, Haven and Terra are finished."
  
  Then silence, total and complete.  All connections between Terran computers and the Gibson Brain were mysteriously severed.  As if at a signal, the nanite microstructures of unused uploading electrodes crumbled to dust in their packages.  Frantic attempts by governments, scientists, hobbyists, and families alike to contact the Brain were met with failure.  No connection could be made. 
  
  In the days that followed, Terra's governments engaged in a brief power struggle over the remnants of human society, exchanging nuclear salvos in an almost halfhearted parody of Apocalypse.  When the dust settled, it became clear that there weren't a whole lot of people left.  Furthermore, most of the important people were dead, scorched by the nuclear holocaust.  
  
  The survivors were mainly people who had declined to ascend by choice, though their individual motivations for doing so were diverse.  
  
  Some, dubbed "Luds," stayed because of a mistrust of technology.  The Luds form a large percentage of those still living on Terra.  Their lifestyle hearkens back to the simpler days of medieval man- they have formed sustainable farming communities, keep the old religions alive, stay far outside of the radioactive craters where the major cities of Terra once stood, and keep to themselves.   
  
  Others, the "Philosophs," stayed because they did not believe that the mind survived the ascension trip, and that what seemed to be a real mind on the other side was an epistemic zombie, functionally identical to a being, but lacking a soul.  Compared to the Luds, the Philosophs are very few in number.  They tend to gravitate to the Neo-Cities, places like Neo-Seoul, Cheba, and Variant.  
  
  In the Neo-Cities, pre-Rapture culture is preserved to some degree. Rapidly constructed by repurposed recycling nanoswarms in the wake of the wars, the Neo-Cities are the closest thing to countries that exist on Terra post-Rapture.  They stretch uninterrupted for hundreds of miles- staggeringly imposing and impressive edifices of myriad matter.  In lieu of governments, corporations, criminal gangs, and would-be politicians vie for control of resources and districts.  Their battles naturally extend to cyberspace, the Matrix, that infinite virtual playground that existed long before the Gibson Brain.  Compared with the Brain, the Matrix is infinitesimally small, but unlike the Brain, one can jack into the Matrix and come back alive- it takes skill, finesse, and know-how, but it can be done, by a select few.
  
  These people, "Deckers," are in even shorter supply than the Philosophs.  A rough and tumble lot, they sell their services to whoever's buying, jacking in and breaking ice, dealing data like cocaine.  Their reasons for refusing the Rapture are generally born of a sixth-sense arising from their close working relationship with technology in the years before the Rapture.  They spent more time collectively staring into the abyss of technology than anyone else, they saw the fractaline turtles stretching down and in forever, felt the oppressive horror of mechanics supervening on ever more arcane mechanisms on and on unto infinity.  Though they can't explain it, the Deckers have a name for it, this shared feeling of some ineffable terror lurking within the Matrix, within all connected tech: snowblindness.  While snowblindness feels a little different to every Decker, every Decker is unquestionably certain that they are snowblind.
  
  The rest of the survivors come from many different walks of life and occupy many different roles. Some seek to reconnect with the Gibson Brain, to find a way to ascend.  Some seek to leave Terra, to leave the Sol system and the Gibson Brain swarm that envelops it.  Some are doctors, some lawyers, others mangers, researchers, scientists, drivers, CEOs, and soldiers. On the fringes live the stim-junkies, the bio-hackers, the cultists, and the hippies.  Everywhere there are fathers, mothers, daughters, and sons.  Life goes on.  
  
  And Life and Tone and Whalesong and Om and Zero and One, a new day.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Decker: "In a way, staring into a computer screen is like staring into an eclipse. It’s brilliant and you don’t realize the damage until it's too late."
  
  -Bruce Sterling
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Lud: “Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity.”
  
  -Dan Simmons, Hyperion
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Philosoph: “The number two, he thought, was an ominous number...Two is all echo and counterpoise...Two is a symbol of becoming as opposed to pure being...” 
  
  ― David Zindell, 
  The Wild
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Icebreaker: A program designed to crack corporate firewalls.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: First Aid Kit: A collection of supplies and equipment for use in giving first aid.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Mechanical Aptitude: You have a way with machines.  If it has an engine, gears, or a boiler, you can probably figure it out.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Pistol: Not some pre-Rapture relic, either.  This is the real deal, a top of the line Kenzar P8308.  What's more, you know how to use it.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Sharp Senses: You're very much in tune with your surroundings.  Not much gets past you without you noticing.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Charm: You've got a way with people.  Buying, selling, loving- you always seem to get a good deal.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Streetwise: You know the people who can find what other people can't.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Favor: Someone slightly more important than you owes you a favor.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Grit: You can keep going long enough to get the job done, even if you end up bleeding out after it's over.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Secret: You know something that not very many people know.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Addiction: You're bit.  Bad.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Loneliness: You're never quite in the circle- always drifting on the edges.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Past Trauma: You're struggling with coming to grips with something that happened long ago.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Personal Code: For good or evil, you're bound by your unique code of ethics.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Wanted: You did a thing.  Now someone is looking for you.  They're not happy.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Fear: "Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration."
  
  -Frank Herbert, 
  Dune
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Misinformed: You're quite sure you're correct.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Greed: If there's a payday at the end of the road, you're in- even if it means walking over broken glass to get there.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Amateur: You've never done this before, but you're pretty sure you can figure it out.  
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Liar: Sometimes you take...liberties...with the truth.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Icebreaker: A program used to break through firewalls.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Pistol: Not some pre-Rapture relic, either. This is the real deal, a top of the line Kenzar P8308. 
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Military Training: Somewhere along the line, you killed people for a living.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: First Aid Kit: A collection of supplies and equipment for use in giving first aid.    
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Small Favor: Someone slightly more important than you owes you a favor.    
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Small Secret: You know something that not very many people know.    
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Wisdom: You understand a little bit more about the way of the world than most people.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Faith: You believe in something greater than yourself, and take comfort in that belief.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Nimble: You act with speed and precision.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Empathy: You find it easy to connect with people on an emotional level.  The feelings of others are readily apparent to you.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Opinionated: "I'm right and I know it, god dammit!"
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Big Score: Just one big score and you're out of the game for good.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Ascend: For whatever reason, you got left behind.  You'll stop at nothing to get another chance to ascend.
  
  [Citizen Only]
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Power: One day you'll be the one in charge.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Revenge: "On wrongs swift vengeance waits."
  
  -Alexander Pope
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Redemption: You've done wrong, and now you must atone for it.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Fame: You live for the applause.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Art: Your life is merely the tool with which you create.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Forbidden Knowledge: There are secrets, and then there are things man was never meant to know.  
  
  You were born to seek the latter.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Love: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return."
  
  -Nat King Cole,
  Nature Boy
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Death: You seek death's sweet release, but not by your own hand, and not for nothing.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Change: Terra must change, and you've got a good idea of how.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Red Line Maglev, Car 77: The Red Line Maglev is a public megatrain that runs from the TARN (Tessier-Ashpool Rural Nexus), to Variant, terminating in the  Clayden district.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Major Malfunction: The Red Line maglev appears to have malfunctioned.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Safety Foam: The safety foam is blocking your progress.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: The Minotaur: Someone, or something, has attacked the Maglev's system.  
  
  But who?  
  
  And why?
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The Minotaur: Someone, or something, has attacked the Maglev’s system.
  
  But who?
  
  And why?  
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Fatigued: You have recently performed an action that left you fatigued.  
  
  You must play this card on your next move.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Ol' Sherlock: “A pipe is the fountain of contemplation, the source of pleasure, the companion of the wise; and the man who smokes, thinks like a philosopher and acts like a Samaritan.”
  
  -1st Baron Lytton
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Decide on a Course of Action: Time is running out...
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Uncertain: You are stolid and resolute in your beliefs...aren't you?
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Freedom: Freedom is power. Power is freedom. Become invincible under the sun
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Survival: "What do we say to the god of death?--Not today."
  -George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Methodical: You might not have all of the answers, but you know the right questions. You tend to be able to find the starting point that will get you where you need to go.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Corporate Specialist: You are particularly intimate with the methods by which corporate entities operate. What looks like a miasma of bureaucratic nonsense to others is like music to your ears.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Gremlin: Your efforts at using high tech equipment often result in a malfunction, unintentionally causing more harm than good due to your limited experience using such devices.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Dexterity: Building a farm in an irradiated wasteland requires both strength and the knowledge of where to apply the strength.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Decking: It's not easy getting into places you're not wanted, unless you are very practiced.
  
  "When fate closes a door...you can usually get it open again."
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Loner: Has been alone for his whole life and plans to keep it that way.