Distraction - Bruce Sterling [224]
The President drew a deep breath. “Because the spin-offs of their research built American capitalism, wrecked American capitalism, made the seas rise, poisoned the topsoil, wrecked the ozone layer, scattered radioactivity, filled the skies with contrails and the land with concrete, caused a population boom, caused a reproductive collapse, set Wyoming on fire … no, it’s even worse than that. It’s much, much worse. Now they’ve got our brains laid out like a virgin New World, and every last human being is a backward, undeveloped Indian. Someone has to deal seriously with these people. I suspect that you are just the man.”
“I think I understand you, sir.”
“They don’t have any grasp of political reality, but they’re going to blow the doors off the human condition unless something is done with them. I’m thinking: something subtle. Something attractive. Something glamorous, something that would make them behave less like Dr. Frankenstein and more like artists do. Modern poetry, that would be excellent. Costs very little, causes intense excitement in very small groups, has absolutely no social effect. So, I’m thinking mathematics. Nothing practical, just something totally arcane and abstract.”
“You can’t trust abstract mathematics, sir; it always turns out to be practical.”
“Computer simulation, then. Extremely, extremely time-consuming, complex, and detailed simulations that never do any harm to reality.”
“I think that’s a lot more likely to produce your intended result, sir, but frankly, no one in the sciences takes cybernetics seriously anymore. That line of research is all mined out, it’s intellectually dowdy. Even bio-studies and genetics have been mostly metabolized by now. It’s all about cognition now, sir. That’s the last thing left to them.”
“You must have suffered from that. Maybe you can convince them to try something much more pretty. With more sheer wonder in it.”
“Mr. President, there is one issue here. Aren’t you asking me to infiltrate them and betray them?”
“Oscar, I’m asking you to be a politician. It’s not our business to blow the damn doors off the human condition. That’s not in our job description. The job is to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, and promote the general welfare. A job we politicians signally failed to do. You know something? It’s not a pretty thing to watch a nation go crazy. But it happens. To great countries sometimes, the greatest peoples on earth. Japan, Germany, Russia, China … and we Americans have just had a bad, bad spin in the barrel. We’re still very groggy. We were lucky. It could be the fire next time.”
“Sir, don’t you think the scientific community—such as it is—should be told all this? They’re citizens too, aren’t they? They’re rather bright people, if a little narrowly focused. I don’t really think that deceiving them is a tactic that can prosper in the longer term.”
“We’re all dead in the longer term, Oscar.” “Mr. President, this really is a dream job that you’re offering me. I recognize its importance, I’m very impressed by your trust. I even think I might have the ability to do it. But before I engage in something that is this—what can I call it? So Benthamite/Machiavellian—I need you to tell me something. I need you to level with me on one issue. Are you in the pay of the Dutch?”
“The Dutch never paid me a thing.”
“But there was an arrangement, wasn’t there?”
“In a manner of speaking … I’d have to take you out to Colorado. I’d have to show you the timber. You know, ever since we Native Americans got into the drug and casino businesses, we’ve been buying