The Oracle Trilogy Book One Ohm's Node

Advanced World Building

preface

Part one

This was the fourth one, probably the most prolific if you included the short stories. Once the decision had been made for everything to be on the table, the heights of imagination had burned through the newly formed consortium like wildfires raging over the planet. Ted and Naomi braced themselves for another rough go in their search. They were both sitting in the Gazebo next to the two-acre pond, an acre away from their home surrounded by drones perched in the trees for both protection and surveillance. They were glad to be away from the noise of business and the frantic pace of change happening with the newly established Alliance.

'We have to talk about Somer. She'll be in the swirl of things and even though we've left her to her own devices, there have got to be some guard rails thrown up soon.'

'Yeah, she won't like it. Remember what happened last time?'

'Well, she's always loved the old camp. Maybe that will be enough to get her mind off things. Let's try and relax, honey. I'm really looking forward to this. How old is he now?"

'God, must be in his early nineties.'

God, indeed.'

'LUNA summarized his attitude as intrigued, articulate and prepared.'

'He did have the initial array of crisper tweaks with no negative side effects like some and the last short piece he did afterwords was brilliant, so we'll see. Lunas' analysis will tell the tale.'

'We saved the best for the last.'

'Oh', Ted looked out into the forest that surrounded their compound. On hundred acres of protected wild space in the foothills of the Rockies. A piece of heaven that was being threatened with refugees fleeing the heat. 'LUNA has finished setting up the phycological grid and will begin doing profiles of all major players. We of course have the final say.'

'And those who will be invited to participate?"

'Same, you think?

'Of course, no psychopaths allowed.'

Ted laughed, glad for the release of tension that had begun to settle in over the past weeks.

They were both eager to meet him on strictly a personal level, but they knew as before that this was not just business but a critical decision that brooked no mistakes. They couldn't let their love of reading his stories growing up cloud their choice.

'I'm going to offer some tough love.'

And there he was. They both laughed because he looked like an old hippy with an old, ragged tie-dyed tee, patched jeans and sandals. His long hair, tied back in a pony and the wire rim glasses together with a patina of aged wisdom mapped through each fold of skin, each a story rendered, she thought. That large one across his tanned brow had to be the one that had addicted her as a young girl.

'It's an honor, believe me! We saved the best for last', Naomi saying the quite part out loud.

'But we do have to repeat what we've said to the previous writers as a base line, being on the same page so to speak.

'Shoot! So, the takeaway is that we have fifty years to make a difference, then around a hundred to completely stop it and turn it around and another hundred to begin returning to normal, is that right? '

'Yes and in the meantime, we have to adapt our environment so we can outlast this transition and are scouting for imaginations who have been in the business creating fictious worlds to help us with a real one.'

'Mostly, technologically, we think we can do this, but the problem of time exists. We lost nearly two billion people and counting and the loss of other species is growing. One of the Nodes is dedicated to that, at least saving the DNA from everything that's endangered.'

'Nodes?'

'Created by a large consortium of vested interests who have dedicated all their resources and brain power to stop this thing. The Node in the Adirondacks will be dedicated to what a new Social Imaginary will look like and testing a genomic drug that hopefully will rid us of any genetic defects. All are on tops of mountains and secured by a military base nearby.

'It's amazing what can happen when wives withhold their pleasures, is it not?"

'Yes', laughing, more a release of tension then funny, Naomi thought, 'and of course scientists refusing to work and millions clogging cities worldwide.'

'I followed every nuanced detail of it and commented until we lost band width.'

'Yes, unfortunate that. This is our last shot, hopefully not in the dark, where literally everything is on the table, a Hail Mary if you will save our sustainable planet and as many species as possible.

'And in the meantime, creating a way to survive until things return to more habitable conditions?"

Yes, so let's hear your thoughts.'

'So, I read what you sent a few times, slept on it and a few things popped up immediately. PR, Kids and your already established base. First, your Imagination base. When in Rome. We humans have a rich history of really cool stories concocted from our imaginations on alternate realities, right. We have desert planets with worms that secrete a sacred spice, a forbidden planet that has a survivor in control of a technology that turns thoughts into reality, a spaceship whose computer won't let it human crew disable its computer and fantastical stories of giants, Orcs, goblins and wizards, what we've been raised on. Use the language! Make people understand that we're there, that it will be uncomfortable at first but the calvary is on the way. Everything is on the table, nothing being dismissed, unexpected consequences dealt with. Be prepared for the greatest sci-fi story ever told, and you're going to be part of it. Which leads me into kids. They're the survivors who will face the worst of it, also alive and aren't dying from the continuous bombardment of variants. If you alter anything with a chip or augmented something, it should be them. It's their story now, their show so include them in all the way. Of course, watch, guide and oversee but make it about them because it is. They are your protagonists. At first a core than a million.

My only big idea is to involve everyone because everyone is involved. I don't know what you have yet or are working on but I'm certain from what I've gleaned from available reports by informed people that yes, everything is on the table, nothing discarded. Playing god is a dicey game on any level, but doing it thoughtfully, empathetically, yes even lovingly will go a long way in convincing people to at least listen. That's what you want. All ears, their attention, their eyeballs and their pounding hearts. Whatever way you decide to go, you must become the new world builder that everyone wants to participate in, nay stumble over themselves to help, to dream it out loud. Questions?'

'No, no keep going.'

'Okay, I'm sorry this can't be with my actual physical body because you may be missing nonverbal signs of excitement by yeah, whatever. Okay, first you understand that you're the enemy. The age of disinformation pushed us backward but thanks to a few innovations along the way and deniers finally seeing what we wrought, or you wrought and science as a possibly a good thing, it could be a lot worse. So, a concerted effort at PR, even handing out goodies, you know like more band width for them to do more, like in the old days.'

'We're not ..'

'Oh I know but they eventually will understand with your help, right. The second thing that is ageless, part of our DNA is story telling. With the minimum use that those Croaks?? allow, it doesn't give them enough space to share, to hope, to cry, to dream. One proposal is that you open the airways to a story told by a million souls. Engage them in rewriting a new history for Earth. Your new thing with their overlay. Make them heroes, what they want most of all, how they see themselves living in this new world.'