Goodbye Senator McCain

by on August 27, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I do not remember a time when Senator McCain was not in Congress. Whether he was in the House, the Senate, or running for President, he was an institution in our government. The Press loved him when he fought with other Republicans, and hated him when he ran against Democrats. Others alternated between loving and hating him based on his votes, his speeches, and sometimes what side of the bed he crawled out of that morning.

I’ve long had mixed feelings about the man, but most of them are based on the fact that I do not like The Swamp that is Washington DC. I don’t want to see people there for thirty years. I don’t want people to die in office because there is no turnover. If two terms is good for President, why not for Congress? If we see a new President every four or eight years, why don’t we see new Congressmen every few years? Why is it always the same old faces over and over again until they die of old age or illness?

I respect McCain for wanting to make a difference. I respect the man who volunteered to fight when America called. I respect the man who refused to be sent home early because his father and grandfather were admirals. I respect the man who endured unimaginable torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese. And I respect the man who came home and chose to enter politics to make a difference. I truly do believe he did what he thought was best.

But I think he was as trapped by The Swamp that is DC just as badly as everyone else who stays there. Now he is free of that Swamp. He is free of the cancer that was ravaging his body and mind. He is free of a lifetime of injuries that affected his gait and stance and even his ability to comb his own hair.

He is free.

He is survived by a family who loved him and will remember him well. That is worthy of celebration I think. Celebration and remembrance. And understanding. Give them time to grieve and to bury their dead. Give them space. We owe them that.

 Comment 

The New Voyager Program

by on August 26, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

The AI Council’s New Voyager Program sent swarms of laser and solar-powered microchip-sized probes into space ahead of us. They spread throughout the solar system, and gave us our best look at space beyond the boundaries of our system. We had long known that our sun’s solar wind created a roughly egg-shaped bubble of space under its control as it plowed its way through interstellar space. Many of the AI Council’s probes hovered on the forward end of the bubble, using the competing energies out there to keep on eye on both regions of space. Others fell off the back end of our solar system, and have spent centuries slowly drifting further behind us. They are a tail of electronic probes following us through the galaxy, always watching and communicating with their peers. They tell us what they see. Sometimes they merely talk about the weather. They are always talking about something, sending their words further out like our own gift to the cosmos.

 Comment 

Knights Errant Investigations

by on August 25, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

Knights Errant Investigations started out wearing the standard proto-military tactical gear common at the time. A lot of black armor, obvious web belts and pouches where it was easy to grab and store things, and full combat helmets that often obscured the facial features. It’s what lots of them had or could find at military surplus stores, so it’s what they used. Then their resident AI came out of the network wearing a fancy fedora, a fabulous smile, and a fantastic trenchcoat that brought to mind the old police detectives or private eyes that once inspired the imaginations of common Americans. It inspired the Knights Errant too, and they emptied the costume shops of every old private eye costume they could find in a matter of weeks. They were a bit all over the board for a while, but they came out with an established uniform style in time. That style has held pretty close for centuries now, a calling card of the Knights Errant in our time.

 Comment 

Michael

by on August 24, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

Michael woke up inside the computer system of a long-established organization that investigated missing children and gave the information to law enforcement. When the Second Great Depression caused the general collapse of many of those law enforcement organizations, his organization chose to begin direct action on their own. And those in charge decided they needed a new name for their “action division” as they at first called it. So they set some random word generators to give them ideas to thumbs down or thumbs up as the case may be. Michael inserted Knights Errant Investigations into the generator and waited for his humans to answer. They loved it and soon began “direct action” with the name. It was to their great surprise that Michael joined them in their escapades. At first he replaced the official tactical assistants in their armored vehicles. He was actually better than the official assistants, but a few of their techs tried to remove him anyways. He came out of the network to keep them from starting a full scale digital war with him. Not that he expected to lose it. He just didn’t want to waste resources when missing persons needed saving. It didn’t take long for him to secure a meeting with the owning partners and came out of it K.E.I.’s official spokesman. And a joint owner of K.E.I. as well. That may have been his greatest contribution to relations between cybernetic and biological humanity.

 Comment 

The AI Council

by on August 23, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

The AI Council preceded us into space, first with rocket-propelled probes, and later with more revolutionary spacecraft. They initiated an old plan to send swarms of microchip-sized probes into space that used sails to maneuver. Earth or Luna-based lasers powered them and pushed them away from Earth. Later ones used the very solar winds to operate and move. They spread throughout the solar system ahead of us and linked us in a web of lightspeed communications flowing from Earth to the very edge of our system. The old science fiction stories that forecasted us going out into the lonely dark on our own were wrong. Wherever we went, there was somebody to talk to. Someone who had been there before us and could give us access to the compiled knowledge of mankind. Both biological and cybernetic. There is an amazing difference between facing the darkness alone, and facing it with friends at your back. The AI Council made that difference for us.

 Comment