around him. For how would they recognize him if not by his clothes? Unlike the VC, the CS believed in individual expression and freedom. This meant that in whatever deviant ways Harry talked or acted, it could always be justified by his right to express his individual self. Only his clothes could give him away, as the CS didn't produce VC clothing.

Harry paused for a moment to examine a billboard on the side of the street. Given the right advertisement campaign, he mused, VC clothing could become the newest fad for the CS. Now Harry had to laugh out loud. In this, he had no choice. Harry had been memetically programmed to perceive the deliberate ridicule or downgrading of the CS as funny. It was the only type of humor in the VC.

Harry's arrogant sense of superiority came to a quick end when suddenly everything he saw was darkness, and at first he thought he had passed out. Then for a split second he thought it must be a solar eclipse. Next he thought it must be a virtual reality world, and then there was sunshine again and Harry was standing in the middle of an empty 10-lane freeway. Two 5-meter walls stood on either side.

By this time, Harry thought he had regained his composure--he assured himself that he was clearly hallucinating, or else reality as he had known it had always been an illusion. This, of course, was possible. It would contradict the idea that men were doing things for the first time. It might even contradict the theory of natural selection and evolution. It seemed there could be a bogeyman controlling the illusion of reality who had known long ago the things that men thought they discovered for the first time.

Harry felt a sharp sensation of insecurity. Seconds ago he had been laughing to himself, thinking that the CS was powerless to harm him, and now, it seemed, the CS had sent him to an illusory world. How? With what technology? He ran over to the right wall and hit it with a sliding side-kick. The wall felt like concrete. If this is illusion, thought Harry, then it is indistinguishable from reality.

Harry felt panic for the first time in his life and he desperately wished that the VC was behind this all, that everything was under VC's control. The idea itself seemed plausible to him. He was only a 15 year old and this virtual reality world might be an unannounced conditioning process that all integrateds had to go through.

Looking down the freeway, there was no end in sight to the front, while to the back he could barely see the contours of some trucks. There was no wind and no sound. Then to the front, a projection appeared against the blue sky. In big brown letters it read:

PEDESTRIAN CHALLENGE

created by Tom Jones

"Welcome to Pedestrian Challenge," sounded a male voice, "a virtual reality adventure by Konami. The setting is Los Angeles, California in 2032. You are on your way home from work when your car breaks down in the middle of the freeway." A white '22 Toyota Corolla appeared next to Harry and the voice continued, "It appears that you are forced to go the rest of the way on foot. Your goal is to make it through all 8 levels to reach home. But beware. Traffic is very busy these days and passing all 8 levels requires exceptional athletic performance, strategic ability, and teamwork with your fellow pedestrian travellers. Unexpected hazards await you everywhere. You'll have to watch out for stray dogs, malfunctioning traffic signals, armed mailmen, and hidden trapdoors under sidewalks just to name the most obvious! This is no trivial challenge, and you should expect it to take months to succeed.

Now a brief review of the rules of the game. Pedestrian Challenge allows 100 people to attempt level 1, the qualification round. Whoever passes may continue the adventure as a team from levels 2-8. The levels may or may not be in increasing level of difficulty. The levels may be in decreasing level of difficulty. Part of the challenge is that no contestant is given prior knowledge about the game beforehand. Each level will be preceded by instructions covering your corresponding situation and objectives. If you do not understand something, be sure to ask for a clarification or repetition of what was said, but under no circumstances will additional information be revealed to you. Each contestant and team is given the exact same amount of guidance, and the game will not show any preference for particular contestants or teams of contestants."

Thoughts began rushing through Harry's mind. He considered the possibility that the VC could have kept him ignorant for 15 years of the true technological capabilities available in 2238. If I had never seen anything fly, he asked himself, would an airplane strike me as an astounding technological invention? The technology of simulating an illusory world, however, leads to the necessity of doubting the real reality as well as the illusory one. This was as far as he could think, as the voice continued,

"Dear Harry, you are the 89th person to attempt level 1. In level 1, your objective is to get off the freeway as quickly as you can before traffic catches up with you and runs over you. Unfortunately, the exit lies 1 mile ahead, while the cars, trucks, and motorcycles are only 7 miles behind you. For your convenience, you will be given up to 45 minutes to get ready and run. As soon as you cross the red line in front of you, the vehicles behind you will start their engines and begin chasing you at freeway speed, but if you do not start running after 45 minutes the vehicles will begin chasing you anyway."

There was a pause.

"Good luck Harry. You'll need it!"

A digital clock was projected and started counting downwards from 45:00:00.

"How do I exit? What if I didn't intend to play the game?" Harry spoke loudly and using the CS English he had been practicing.

"But Harry," the voice answered, "you're only one minute into the game and you want to pussy out already?"

"Yes, I am afraid and I want to back out. How?"

"Come on, Harry. Don't get discouraged. You can do it. You've practiced running a lot, haven't you?"

Harry had indeed practiced running, and he had never taken his training very seriously. He had started working out only in order to fit in with the independents, not because of any drive or interest of his own. Athletics was such a wasteful and pointless activity when conducted as an end in itself. He and his integrated friends had often made fun of it. Could it be that Pedestrian Challenge was a planned conditioning process for him after all? The game had such an independent character to it, perhaps to make him experience an uncertainty as to whether the CS or the VC controlled it.

If the VC controlled it, then his life couldn't depend on how fast he ran now. If the CS controlled it, it might not, either. He might be returned to the "real" world once he died in this one. In neither of those cases did it matter what Harry did now. The only thing that had relevance now was the possibility that things could matter. The CS was therefore conrolling it and had to be defeated. He was ready to fight to his death to succeed.

Driven now by his will to crush the CS, he started jogging back and forth across the 10 lanes. He stretched, and the freeway setting made him think what an amazingly inefficient transportation system this was that the CS had. The very idea of powering a machine 15 times the weight of the human driver for the sole purpose of getting him from one place to another. And then they were all moving in the same direction along fixed lanes anyway. And then they had all these different brands, colors, and models, when it would suffice to have three or four sizes at most. Back when he was 10, it used to be one the favorite topics of ridicule among his integrated friends.

Fourteen minutes were left, and Harry was ready to run. He stood motionless at the red line for a while and then started at his planned 5 minute 25 second per mile pace. (His personal record had been 5:45.) His whole body now focused on maintaining this fixed pace. Behind him, he could hear the faint honking of horns as the vehicles apparently drew nearer.

Not knowing whether the exit would be to his right or left, Harry stayed in the center. As minutes passed the honking of the horns grew louder and louder. At each increment in volume Harry had thought "They'll catch up to me. I must run for my life." Each time, he had resisted the temptation of increasing his pace. He saw a hole in the left wall a quarter mile ahead, big enough for him to fit through, he hoped.

It would be a close race, and Harry hated close races. Integrateds were taught to crush their opponents when they were weak and helpless, and to shy away from tough battles or challenges. Cowardice, not courage, was the sought-after trait among integrateds.

Harry pushed himself for maximum performance, and he felt panic because he felt the CS pushing him and playing with him. He wasn't running because he was in danger, but because of the CS world he was in, because of the conditions that the CS had created. He had listened to and thought about what the voice was saying to him not because he was interested in what it had to say, nor because he wanted to do well in the Pedestrian Challenge, nor because he wanted to escape death, but because the CS was making him do these things, and so he felt alarmed.

These thoughts were completely orthodox for an integrated. One did not see and accept reality as it is. Only the way the VC would eventually make it be. Near the hole, the honking became painfully loud, as if to make him despair in these last seconds. Harry slid through the hole feet first, scraping the side of his body against the asphalt. Four seconds later, four tank trucks drove past, followed by a pack of smaller cars and motorcycles. Harry didn't care to look or listen. Before he knew it, he was being hugged and carried away by some previous qualifiers. They were talking to him, and he could hardly listen. Their orthodox talking made him feel happy and secure.

They carried him into a hotel lobby, where more integrateds were waiting. There were seven of them overall. All of them had been swallowed into the pedestrian world like Harry, and none of them were wearing VC clothing, which would have revealed to them each of their rank, age, and division within the VC. The ones Harry recognized were Esan, Hilus and Bishop. He also knew the two females among them, Enteah and Haleen. There was one guy Harry didn't recognize. He noticed a tattoo on his right shoulder, proof of independence. Esan introduced him, saying, "That's Mike."

The lobby had a TV set that showed the 90th runner warming up for the level 1 challenge. The integrateds began to watch him with rapt attention, with the exception of Mike, who merely watched, as if he was seeing a movie, whose outcome he already knew. Runner #90 walked back and forth the red line until the 45 minutes were up. The integrateds could almost read his thoughts. He flipped a coin four times to randomnly choose a course of action for himself. His strategy was the same as what three others had attempted before him. Betting he was in no shape to outrun the traffic and to ensure that a range of approaches would be attempted by the 100 runners as a whole, he had randomly chosen to jog against the traffic.

"I see no point in watching this again," Mike said solemnly.

He turned around so as to announce his departure, and no one paid attention to him. Shortly, he disappeared in the elevator. At this point, Enteah decided to go after him, and took the next elevator.

The rest still had their mind fixed on runner #90. Harry asked what had happened to the 82 non-qualifiers. Esan answered,

"The tank trucks roll them flat. Until now, all the qualifiers have run the mile under five minutes thirty seconds."

Runner #90 was no different. He made a pathetic attempt to dodge the tank trucks, which ended in failure. The outcome was the same for 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, ... and the integrateds did not tire of watching every one of them get squashed. Maybe the next one would be able to think of a trick to outsmart the trucks. 97 was another good runner, and was leveled and dismembered at the 1550 meter mark. After the 100th runner was finished, the rankings were displayed:

rank contestant time age

#1 Esan 3:57 26

#2 Mike 4:35 17

#3 Hilus 4:58 20

#4 Enteah 4:59 17

#5 Bishop 5:15 19

#6 Haleen 5:19 20

#7 Harry 5:26 15

Hilus, Haleen, Esan, and Bishop were now dead tired and fell asleep on the lobby floor. The hotel staff began complaining and threatened to call the police. Harry merely apologized. Fortunately, Mike now came to his aid and started arguing with the staff in a continuous chatter. "If anyone ought to be arrested," he claimed "it was these reckless truck drivers who had committed 93 homicides." The staff was (or pretended to be) ignorant of any Pedestrian Challenge. In the end, Mike and Harry carried the integrateds up to their rooms.

The seven met for a communication session the next day after plenty of sleep, baths, and breakfast. They sat in a circle on the ground. Integrateds typically organized in Tines, which functioned as hierarchical social units of four. Outside the Pedestrian world the seven had come from different Tines, so for present purposes they would form two Tines, one with four and one with three. Communication in Tines proceeded in a modified form of English called Tine English.

Hilus began, "Hilus is he, Esan is she, Haleen is " "Timestop," Esan interrupted and he felt slightly embarrassed as soon as he had said it. Timestop denoted something of an emergency brake in VC communication, for severe cases when communication was heading the wrong way. For a communication session that had just started off the wrong track, a more modest timeslow would have sufficed.

In response to Esan's timestop, no one said anything for over a minute, and concentrated intensely on the present communication. Esan's interruption was understood by everybody. By saying "Hilus is he," Hilus had declared himself to be leader. Esan had wagered that in the Pedestrian world, he was better suited to assume the first rank, he.

For Esan to be recognized as he, all he had to do was say so. In Tines, when someone commanded something, it was taken for granted that it would be obeyed.

At this point, the integrateds still knew little about each other, with the exception of Esan and Mike. They knew Esan was a renegade. Renegades were former independents who had converted to become integrateds. Esan was clearly a renegade because no human born into the VC would have run the mile as fast as he did. Esan was clearly a product of CS, a genetically engineered athlete. Not only didn't the VC possess genetic engineering capabilities (VC was all memetic engineering), it wouldn't think of manufacturing super-athletes like Esan.

Mike had never heard of a clandestine organization named VC. He understood little of what was said and wasn't given any guidance.

Esan now resumed the communication,

"Esan is he, Hilus is she," [Esan, 1, he]

"Enteah is te," [Enteah, 1, te]

"Harry is fe." [Harry, 1, fe]

This completed the first Tine.

"Haleen is he, Bishop is she, Mike is fe." [Haleen, 2, he]

The Tines now separated and continued the communication in different rooms.

In Tine 1,

"Fe is mission 250." [Harry, 1, fe] Mission 250 referred to Harry's identifier within the VC. The name Harry was only to fit in with the independents. The role of missions in the VC was to intermingle with independents with the goal of converting one. Few integrateds were missions as the VC followed the principle of slow growth because conversion involved an extremely meticulous process. Integrateds regarded fast progress and innovation as debilitating. New converts were to be orthodox analysts, who had no interest in achieving anything within their lifetime.

"Te is mission 401." [Enteah, 1, te] The numbering of missions was not consecutive. In total, the VC had around 60 of them and only a handful were expected to succeed in converting someone.

"She is mission 211, former part of his Tine, and former link to fis Tine. [Hilus, 1, she] Linked Tines in the VC were accustomed to communicating closely.

"He is renegade 42, former part of her Tine." [Esan, 1, he] Renegade was the identifier given to converts.

Hilus now brought up the question of what "you’re on your way home from work" meant. She was aware that independents sometimes referred to lheir residences as homes, and what was work? Te and fe didn't know, either, as integrateds in general were ignorant of history. This included missions, who were trained solely in understanding the contemporary society, the CS.

"In the simple sense, work simply refers to an activity to acquire money. The 21st century marked a time when technology had not yet advanced to the stage where securing the basic necessities for survival could be completely automated. By and large, the economy was understood as a system of channeling human effort to secure society's needs through what was called work" [Esan, 1, he]

Esan's explanation took some time to comprehend. Esan was trying to convey the idea of producing something in order to be able to live, a notion that had already died away in 2238.

Meanwhile, in Tine 2, Mike was given instructions in how to talk Tine. Tine differentiates between humans of opposite races, the VC and the CS. Within the VC, there are four forms for the third person, he, she, te, and fe. The pronouns le and ke are reserved for the CS. They refers to the VC and lhey to the CS. We refers to the CS and the VC taken together. You refers to a person of the opposite race.

They had accepted Mike as the lowest ranked integrated, fe of Tine 2. Fe was told that the VC was an underground organization coming from the same place as Mike, the United States of America in 2238. Fe was told fe needed an identifier. They wanted to fim to be part of the VC. Mike was very teacheable, and fe learned Tine quickly.

"They are a team. Their goal is to pass the Pedestrian Challenge." [Bishop, 2, she]

"Fe understands that." [Mike, 2, fe] --

"Fe needs to have an identifier. An identifier should reflect a person's special skills or interests." [Haleen, 2, he] --The words should, skills, and interests were not part of the reduced expression set of Tine, and were used by Haleen to try to make Mike feel as part of the group (another obsolete term) as much as possible.

"She is base 117." [Bishop, 2, she] -

"Base is the most common identifier in VC, with no particular role." [Bishop, 2, she] -- What she hid from Mike was the fact that she was a former link to Enteah. Their motivation for running was not mentioned. Bases were skilled runners in some rare cases; either because they relied on it for transportation, or they were still young and experimenting with their bodies.

"He is base 210." [Haleen, 2, he]

"What other identifiers are there?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"Anything one can imagine. If someone specializes in construction, her identifier would be constructor. A pianist would be called pianist. Is there some field or subject in which fe has specialized?" [Haleen, 2, he] -- There had never been a constructor or pianist. The examples were used to make Mike feel free to pick anything.

"Fe loves mathematics." [Mike, 2, fe] -

"Fis identifier is math 12." [Haleen, 2, he]

"Fe is math 12." [Mike, 2, fe]

As in Tine 1, the communication started with a discussion of work.

"Mike probably understands Pedestrian Challenge more because fe knows something about history. Does fe know the meaning of work?" [Bishop, 2, she]

"Work refers to an activity to create or do something. For some, it might be driving a bus, for some painting, for some preparing food." [Mike, 2, fe]

"Then what activities are not work?" [Haleen, 2, he]

"The distinction is never entirely clear. Watching TV, for example, would not be considered work, while cleaning the house might. This is because if there was a choice, many people would rather watch TV than clean the house, while fewer people would rather clean the house. One might say that if one is doing something, but would rather be doing something else, there's a good chance that one is doing work. But in the context of what was said in the introduction of this game, work meant an activity rewarded with money." [Mike, 2, fe]

"Work refers to a payable?" [Haleen, 2, he]

"Yes, very similar to it." [Mike, 2, fe]

Revealing fis historical knowledge made Mike feel fe was useful to the Tine. An integrated in fis place would have felt some embarrassment or shame for having stored in her mind what was irrevelant outside the pedestrian world. The VC had no prohibition against learning history. Books and other media were widely available. Few had the motivation to learn much about it. History, after all, was dangerous. To engross oneself it, any integrated knew, was the surest way to learn to think independently, to some degree. What integrated would not rather keep her mind pure and thus defy the influence of independent thought?

Bishop and Enteah began to arrange secret meetings to discuss what to do about Mike. Gain lis trust, be lis special friend. Enteah knew tis mission. Following lim on the elevator had been a good first step the first night. We had spent a night together, alone. Te had asked lim again and again why le didn't want to watch the runners. Te had promised te would never tell anyone else, hiding the intense embarrassment of uttering the word promise. Bishop had said, "say it, and then keep saying it, lhey don't think it's ridiculous to talk that way." Mike didn't think the idea of keeping our communication secret ridiculous. Le just didn't trust Enteah. Before we went to sleep that night, te had said "It doesn't really matter because all I wanna do is be with you," and then tugged timself to lim the whole night. Bishop had assured her, "No, le won't ask tim why te wants to be with lim. Independents don't expect a reason in this case. Te is an attractive female by CS standards. Try to tempt lim."

Pretend to form an alliance against the oppressive VC," were Bishop's commands. Te did not conceive of obeying. Tis thoughts were hers as naturally as her thoughts were tis.

"How did fe become a math?" [Enteah, 1, te] -

"When te was a child," [Mike, 2, fe] -

"When you were a child," [Enteah, 1, te] --

"When I was a kid, I discovered that I had an interest in math." [Mike, 2, fe]

"You liked math?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"I spent most of my time alone studying math. In class, the other children would just learn it as a routine, but I wanted to understand the why and the how." [Mike, 2, fe]

"Didn't you want to be like the others?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"I wanted to be myself, not necessarily like others." [Mike, 2, fe]

"Didn't you want to join them in their activities?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"Sometimes I did, but mostly no." [Mike, 2, fe]

"Did you ever feel you wanted to be different from everyone else or be better than them?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"When I was small I did for a while." [Mike, 2, fe] -----

"And then?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"And then,"--"I no longer believed that a person can ever be better than someone else." [Mike, 2, fe]

"So you accepted them." [Enteah, 1, te]

"Accepted what about whom?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"Just that people are the way they are." [Enteah, 1, te]

"What else would people be, if not what they are?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"I won't ever tell anyone what you told me." [Enteah, 1, te]

"I don't mind. You can tell anyone you want. It's not a secret." [Mike, 2, fe]

Mike often told tim about life in the CS. Fe had tried questioning tim about life the VC, and with little success. Fe was told that the VC and the CS differ in their idea of the purpose of life. Fe could not be told what this purpose is because of their belief that it's something you're supposed to figure out yourself, and they had a rule against telling anyone. They spend their time pursuing the aim of life, and they couldn't tell fim specifically what they do, or they'd end up revealing the aim. Mike left the topic at that.

Enteah's scheme was to prove to Mike that te was like fim, unorthodox, even if to a lesser degree. Te would accomplish this by using a meme stimulant. A suitable meme stimulant was found by Bishop and identified by Esan as a CD player. Enteah took meticulous precautions to listen to the music whenever Mike couldn't see tim. It took 35 days for Mike to discover Enteah's secret activity. It happened in an unoccupied hotel room where te was hard at work, trying to look like te was engrossed in the music and enjoying it. When Mike walked in without warning, te was felt a sharp embarrassment and regret. Te thought Mike could not possibly believe that te was engaging in this ridiculous activity without a serious motive. Te pretended to be experimenting with an unkown object. Yet Mike had seen the panic in tim upon being discovered. Fe had seen tim move tis body to the tune of the music. What fe hadn't noticed was that tis body movements didn't match the tune, which Enteah alone was hearing through the headset.

"Where did you find the CD player?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"I'll show you how to operate it." [Mike, 2, fe]

Te showed no further interest in the CD player.

"I thought you wanted to know how it worked." [Mike, 2, fe]

Te refused to respond.

"Is it because I'm here? If it is, I'm sorry. It's just that in the CS, we usually listen to music with others." [Mike, 2, fe]

Te didn't show any signs of having listened.

"Enteah, are you upset with me? Can't we just talk this out?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"Mike, promise me, just don't tell any of the integrateds that you saw me like this." [Enteah, 1, te]

"No, of course I won't. I haven't told any of the integrateds about us. I wouldn't think of it. I've never gotten any closer to any of them than I was on the first day." [Mike, 2, fe] ---

"But can I know why? Is there something wrong with listening to music?" [Mike, 2, fe] ----

"Music is a creation of the CS." [Enteah, 1, te] ---

"Is that why it's wrong to listen to music?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"Yes." [Enteah, 1, te]

"Does the VC believe that some of what the CS creates is evil?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"Not some. All. The VC and the CS are enemies, Mike." [Enteah, 1, te]

"Then I'm your enemy." [Mike, 2, fe]

"We're both on the same team." [Enteah, 1, te]

"But that's only because we face a common danger, right? We're really enemies?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"You're right." [Enteah, 1, te]

"So you're not allowed to listen to music in the VC?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"No." [Enteah, 1, te]

"What would they do if they had seen you listen to music today?" [Mike, 2, fe]

"Then I would instantly lose my status as an integrated. And they'll do the same to you, Mike. Even if there was no CD player. Just for talking using the CS English, like we're doing now. So don't ever tell any of them about this." [Enteah, 1, te]

The training sessions included all they could think of. Running, hide and seek, one on one combat, and petty crime, especially theft within the hotel. They made $6243.14 and lost Bishop on the 66th day when she was arrested and put in jail. The hotel staff was a shallow set of characters. Mike had tried to talk to lhem using every approach fe could think of. Fe was good at this, and could chat with lhem on any topic ranging from politics, TV, to family life. Fe concluded that the people were not real, and programmed with a finite set of ideas and expressions. Esan held that we are all programmed with a finite set of ideas and expressions, and that consequently everyone was equally real. The staff was of no consequence to them if lhey they were in contact with lhem for only 100 days.

During workouts, Esan had improved his mile to 3:25. The others made modest improvements in running, and substantial improvements in our overall conditioning. On the 101st day, we gathered in front of a huge door right next to the freeway's exit. The voice spoke promptly at 8:00.

"In level 2, your goal is to safely travel from the freeway's exit to the nearest bus stop to the east. Take the bus to the intersection of 7^th street and Font du Lac, and you will have passed level 2. Level 2 is simple, but many challenges need to be overcome, the main one being getting money to cover the bus fares. Hurry up now. You have no time to lose."

The door opened the way to a steep slope, which led to the west side of a busy intersection. 30 minutes were spent observing the traffic. "The flow of traffic is entirely regular and repeats itself every 2 minutes and 47 seconds," conluded Hilus. Mike went first and he made it look easy. The main thing to keep in mind was never to run past a stopped car, since the drivers were programmed to run you over if lhey could. The others copied Mike, running from island to island, always waiting for the safest time to run. Harry went 6^th, and fe wasn't good at this. Fe started a bit early and a bit late a few times. At one island fe waited 15 minutes when fe got confused about the traffic pattern. Everyone encouraged fim, and when fe made it to the east side, fe received many pats and hugs. Esan went last to perform his stunt. Instead of hopping from island to island, he crossed all 10 lanes in one continuous sprint. Some cars accelerated and swerved to try to run into him, and without success. He had planned his sprint well.

"Good job Esan. That was a real boost to all their confidence." [Mike, 2, fe]

The integrateds didn't understand why Esan took the risk; certainly not to boost anyone's confidence with a spectacular show of athletic ability.

Numerous shops, hotels, casinos, and restaurants lined up along the street. Tine 2 walked to the bus stop to inquire about the fares. Tine 1 went to explore the nearby shops with the goal of figuring out where the prison was located. Mike got the answer from an old man in the street. It would be a 4 kilometer walk west. Tine 2 continued waiting for the next bus to come by. Tine 1 went back west, past the freeway intersection, across a high voltage railway intersection, and through a low income neighborhood where they were challenged to a two on two street fight. At the jail, they paid $5000 bail for Bishop, who was in good health and had been working out. Going back, they were challenged to a three on three street fight and had to cross a more difficult version of the high voltage railway intersection. At the bus stop, Tine 1 informed us that the bus fare was $200 per person.

"They could go to the casino to get the money for the bus fares." [Hilus, 1, she]

"Casinos in the 21^st century paid out less money than they took in. The probability of winning money was less than that of losing money." [Esan, 1, he]

He let them think about it for a minute.

"Were people in this era desperate enough to risk losses for a small chance of making a profit?" [Hilus, 1, she]

"For most people, it was a form of entertainment." [Esan, 1, he]

"How did it stop being a form of entertainment, and become an activity requiring the incentive of profit to keep people interested in it?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"He will give a historical overview. In the beginning, humans lived by hunting and gathering to provide the basic necessities of life. Technological advances provided for the theoretical potential of securing the basic necessities of a society with a fraction of its people. In early societies, goods were acquired through buying and selling. For everyone to get a share of the basic necessities, everyone had to have something to sell. By buying and selling unnecessary goods in addition to necessities, a society could be sustained, since everyone would have something to do. As methods of production improved, the pressure to keep people consuming more of the unnecessary increased. A threshold was reached when people simply needed to work less. A new type of economic system emerged to occupy people's increasing free time. The same governments, schools, and corporations were sustained by preserving a money-based economy. This could only be accomplished if money could be kept flowing -- certain goods and services had to be chosen for which people received money (called receivables), while others had to be chosen as those for which people had to pay money (called payables). This choice was arbitrary and determined by factors including government regulation, which imposed laws on which goods and services were receivables and which were payables, natural selection, which weeded out businesses which did not effectively produce both receivables and payables, and the imminent conditions of supply and demand, which favored oversupplied services as receivables and undersupplied services as payables.

The old businesses tended to strictly receive money for their services and pay money to the people who, in conjunction with the limited technology at the time, were necessary to create services in the first place. The new businesses gradually did away with the concept of a workforce, and became strictly suppliers of payables and receivables.

Academia transformed itself by making education a receivable for both professors and students, and its primary payable became space travel. Corporations like Pepsi and Exxon pioneered automobile recharge stations as an important receivable, and food products as an important payable. Making the services essential to existence such as utilities and housing payables, and those that were more or less luxuries receivables turned out to be a key factor in ensuring the new economy's viability. This, however, happened mostly as a result of aimless evolutionary forces, rather than the genius of some social engineers." [Esan, 1, he]

Minutes elapsed.

"One might add to that that employment in the 21^st century required work authorization and proper identification. Especially in the US, where they are right now." [Mike, 2, fe]

The extra $160 were acquired through theft by Esan at a liquor store. The incident was taped by a video camera in the store. Esan ran to the bus stop afterward, arriving 47 seconds before the next bus. The ride took 14 hours, and we were the only passengers. The stop was near a shallow river.

"Welcome to level 2. Your goal is to quickly cross the canal before the current becomes too strong. Hurry!"

Hilus and Esan took the lead and jogged ahead. By the river, Esan announced his departure and started running down the river bank, racing the current. The others marched across the river. Halfway across, Esan was out of sight. It took 12 minutes to cross, and once across, Esan was gone. They wanted to stay to look for him, but were already greeted to level 3.

"Level 3. Your mission is to traverse the parking lot."

A dog could be heard and seen in the distance. We ran toward the parking lot and climbed up a concrete wall to escape the guard dog. Signs around the parking lot read "No tresspassing. Property is protected by guard dogs."

Our situation looked like a stalemate. We were standing on a concrete wall and there was one guard dog on each side of the wall. The solution to the problem was obvious to all of us. If one sacrificed herself to the dog, the rest would have a good chance of running across the parking lot. Mike said fe'd volunteer to sacrifice fimself if no better alternative revealed itself. Hilus told fim that fe was the lowest ranked integrated and therefore the one to sacrifice fimself in this situation. Mike said that was fine with fim. For the time being, we waited.

Esan was walking down the river bank. He had run for an hour and decelerated to a walk when there seemed to be no end in sight. After walking for three hours the flow of water increased and covered Esans feet. By now, there were vertical walls that trapped him in the river. Esan made an effort to escape the river by running again. After a turn, he saw a building, the first sign of civilization he had seen in level 2. He saw that the building had a ladder leading down to the river, so he started walking again. By the time he reached the building, the water had only made it up to his knees. The ladder led to a large room with electronic controls. A monitor showed the integrateds sitting on the concrete wall in level 3. Another monitor showed a menu of game settings.

Game Settings:

1. Difficulty
2. Game mode
3. Main menu

Esan entered 3.

Main menu:

1. Game settings
2. Design game
3. Abort current game
4. Help

Esan entered 3 and he saw that the dogs disappeared on the screen. The help feature showed that the options and available tools were quite complex. He brought up a map to locate the level 3 parking lot and went to pick us up using a pick-up truck he found outside the building.

Three months later:

"They are here alone. What is the goal?" [Esan, 1, he] The question was directed at Mike.

"The goal is whatever they choose it to be." [CS, le]

"And what is that?" [Esan, 1, he]

"It's up to each of us now. While in the Pedestrian Challenge game, we had no choice, but to have the common aim of making it out of the game alive. Sometimes, that can require sacrifice. In the guarded parking lot, it was I who needed to be sacrificed for the good of them as a whole. And I accepted that I should be sacrificed as the lowest ranked integrated. Yet now that the threat is gone there is no need for us to dance in unison, thinking the same thoughts, saying the same things, and wearing the same clothes. There is no need to deny that we are all individuals, capable of thinking and living for ourselves." [CS, le]

Esan had intended this to be the beginning of a group think session. That Mike would respond to the newly achieved universe by advocating independence with so much confidence and conviction was not what he had expected. He understood that Mike had an open mind that did not seek to hide its unorthodoxy from them. Fe believed in talking things out, honestly and trustfully.

A deliberate silence was directed at Mike to create an air of tension and seriousness. Yet feeling liberated and courageous, Mike used the opportunity to chat on.

"Look, are you thinking that the CS is behind this world and you want to continue your war against it? Well, what if? If the CS is that powerful to create this world you have no chance anyhow. If the VC controls it on the other hand, the war is already won. You believe that nothing except the VC and the CS exists, correct?" [CS, le]

"Yes." [Esan, 1, he]

"Then by elimination, there's no reason to continue the war. Things have changed. It's time to show some flexibility for a change. We can waste our time fighting a war that's over, or we can start living life." [CS, le] ----

"They are living life whether or not it becomes their goal." [Esan, 1, he] ------

"Aren't they, Mike?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"Living life to me doesn't mean morphing our minds into one and acting like robots all our lives, never saying I, you, or we. I mean living life fully, experiencing what it has to offer." [CS, le]

"Why are they fighting the war, Mike?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"That's the other thing. The whole of VC's life is directed at squashing the CS. Well, what if you succeed? You have lost the only purpose that had that made you different from the CS, and then you'll finally realize that you are part of the CS yourselves. We are all part of society." [CS, le] -----

"Of what society are lhey part?" [Esan, 1, he] ---------

"ANSWER!" Esan exploded.

Mike became aware that the six minds in the room understood him perfectly, only fe didn't.

"Tell them about society." [Esan, 1, he]

"The idea of a universal society is a myth. Different societies are different." [CS, le]

"What do lhey all have in common? Out with it." [Esan, 1, he]

"Look, I'm tired of his. If you want to, remain the same narrow-minded people all your lives, that's your choice. I don't know why you'd pick it, but you're only betraying your own souls, not mine." [CS, le]

"Torture lim." [Esan, 1, he]

"Miscellaneous forms of pain were applied to Mike and le obstinately held on to lis independent ideals. Le was defending something sacred, lis soul, something that only had meaning to lim. It was amusing to watch. Here was an independent whose sincere conviction was that life should be enjoyed, yet le chose pain over letting lis mind be reprogrammed.

"So are you living life fully yet?" was Esan’s favorite joke. The integrateds never tired of laughing over this same joke. Every integrated in Mike’s place would have pretended to agree with the ideas forced on him. For some reason, Mike didn’t try to pretend.

The physical torture lasted for two days, after which le was locked into an empty room and forgotten, or at least pretended to be forgotten. Le was fed occasionally, not regularly, when someone pretended to remember lim among all the more important things in the world.

One day, Enteah came into the room. "You’re not going to survive in this world for long." Mike spoke as if le was accustomed to speaking to them daily, even though le had not seen another human being for 257 days.

"What makes you say that?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"Because you are unable to live without your enemies. If I weren’t here, your whole purpose of existence would be gone. Then what would you do? You’ll start quarreling among yourselves, dividing into new factions, each of which calls itself the true VC, while the others are regarded as the CS enemy. And you’ll keep fighting until there is only one person left." [CS, le]

"But Mike, that’s horrible. What can we do to prevent our disastrous fate?" [Enteah, 1, te] Te spoke with exaggerated emotion and concern. There was no integrated present to laugh about tis joke. But that didn’t matter. Enteah laughed about tis joke just the same.

"Just think. Who are you going to make fun of when I’m gone; when the CS is gone?" [CS, le]

"How old are you, Mike?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"Seventeen." [CS, le]

"Don’t you wanna have some fun?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"I’m not going to sleep with you." [CS, le]

"How did you know what I was hinting at?" [Enteah, 1, te]

"It’s the first thing a female integrated thinks of when having fun." [CS, le]

"Their males are the same as the females." [Enteah, 1, te]

"Exactly. That’s why you always go to bed right away with every guy you meet." [CS, le]

"But why should they wait?" [Enteah, 1, te]

Having failed in tis scheme, te left the room. Harry, who had been observing the dialogue on the monitor prepared to enter the room, engrossed in thought. Why did independents indulge in every superfluous pleasure and restrain themselves in the one pleasure that was instinct?

"Tell them more about how they’ll end up fighting each other and why." [Harry, 1, fe]

"If you really want to know, why don’t you bother finding out about the world you’re living in? Open a history book, read the newspaper, there is so much more to learn about the world than the terse explanation of the CS economy given by Esan." [CS, le]

"They have deleted all the history and news files from the control room’s computer." [Harry, 1, fe]

"Why do you always try to destroy all knowledge about the past and where you’re coming from. For what aim? What are you trying to deny? You integrateds always do things for the aim of life, whatever it is." [CS, le]

"Integrateds hold that ignorance is strength." [Harry, 1, fe]

Two minutes passed.

"Why are they going to end up fighting each other?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"Why do you want to know? I thought that knowledge would weaken you?" [CS, le]

"They are trying to clean up your mind. It’s a real mess right now." [Harry, 1, fe]

"If you want to try, feel free. You can torture me all you want, but I can tell you the outcome right now. I won’t change." [CS, le]

"And why not?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"Because I am who I am. You can’t change that." [CS, le]

"Mike, if you had the power to change them to think like you do, would you?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"No. I don’t feel the need to change anyone to think like me." [CS, le]

"Even if they threaten to destroy you?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"If it becomes necessary to preserve my right to existence I’ll do anything to change your minds or destroy you. But it still won’t make me want to make anyone think like I do." [CS, le]

"Can you accept someone who doesn’t think like you?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"I can accept people for what they are. And frankly I prefer to live in a world where we all think differently. I’d be bored in a world where everyone thinks the same things, and I don’t see what makes you obsessed with creating that kind of world.""[CS, le]

"But you can’t ever live with anyone who doesn’t agree with that." [Harry, 1, fe]

"I can live with anyone who can show respect for a diversity of opinions." [CS, le]

"Why are they going to end up fighting each other?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"You really want to know? I’ll tell you. It’s because your whole unity and cohesion relies on the fact that you have this big enemy you call the CS. You have made it the purpose of your existence and of your lives to fight your enemy." [CS, le]

The five other integrateds were watching the conversation through a monitor in the control room. Each of the five had the same questions going through her mind. What about the next generation of competivists? VC’s present methods of childhood indoctrination relied heavily on the romantic story of a violent struggle between the CS and the VC. Children growing up in a place where there was no CS could not develop the same integrated convictions as their ancestors. It was a thought they had thought about before frequently, and one they would find an answer to in the universe. It was a temporary concern in that eventually the VC, too, would acquire genetic engineering capabilities and create the most defiant, ascetic competivists yet.

Mike did not interrupt Harry’s silence.

"Why did you think they needed to know history to understand this?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"Some people do, some people don’t. It all depends on the individual." [CS, le]

"Supposing that the independents in this world outnumbered the competivists 6 to 1…" [Harry, 1, fe]

"Then the one competivist out of six would be treated with the same respect that every person deserves. And if he wants to hold on to his convictions he would be free to do so, as long as he doesn’t harm any of the others." [CS, le]

"…what kind of society would you end up creating?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"We’d create what you’d consider a CS." [CS, le]

"And unlike what they are about to create, you wouldn’t end up fighting each other?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"No, not to the extent where we destroy ourselves." [CS, le]

"But you’d still fight and disagree?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"It’s a part of life." [CS, le]

"It’s a part of pedestrian life to fight and disagree among one’s own race." [Harry, 1, fe]

"It will become part of integrated life as well." [CS, le]

"Why do you seek to create a society in which there are fights and disagreements?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"Because that’s the price I’m willing to pay in order to have freedom." [CS, le]

"Why do you seek to create a society in which there is freedom?" [Harry, 1, fe]

"Because I haven’t been brainwashed into believing that everyone should have the same opinion in everything. I want to be free." [CS, le]

"No, that’s not the reason why, my dear friend. You seek to create a society in which there is freedom because that’s the price you’re willing to pay in order to have disagreements and fights. You love disagreements, people who think differently, who quarrel and chat for no aim.

You didn’t grow up thinking that society isn’t perfect. And at some point you accepted that there is no aim, that there didn’t have to be one. You looked at the world and said to yourself, this is how it is. Things have to be the way they are. Superficially, you believed in progress, that no one knows what the future has in store for us. Yet progress had no aim for you. Progress was the ideal preached by institutions to enable them to survive in the world. No one chose progress, continuous improvement. Some preached it, some didn’t, those who didn’t eventually lost out.

The unpredictability of the future did not imply to you no limit in potential. It meant that the future was beyond your control and beyond your concern, that you were to be content doing things for yourself. You learned to accept society, to be content with what it had in store for you. You sought experiences, lest you miss out on something when you die." [Harry, 1, fe]

"And how would you know this without knowing anything about history or even today’s world? You never came to these conclusions yourself. You don’t know a single institution in the world that preaches progress. You’ve never seen any of us come to believe these things with your own eyes. You believe blindly based on faith. And there have been many before you, but of course you don’t know. There were the NAZIs, fascists, and communists, who all sought to make people believe in the collective." [CS, le]

"All of which could be fictions created by some story writers who call themselves historians. If many of them had experienced the spread of the CS ideology with their own eyes, it would be wasted time because the CS might just be an illusion. Just because the world seems to work in a particular way means nothing.

When you talk to someone, it’s not for the first time. There is no Mike who follows the dictates of pure reasoning. There is only the free individual Mike, the mind whose contents are a sampling of the ideas that were able to catch attention and reproduce themselves the best on the meme market. You are a master of adapting to present markets, the master in microcompetition. You stay away from the world of no assumptions and beliefs, which is the universe.

You have to come up with a certain idea of what the universe is, and then you interpret reality according to what this idea is. Since the dawn of memetic evolution, independents have practiced the reverse. They learned through living and observing how the world works, and then they adapted to it, they accepted. And the first act of acceptance of something contradictory to this idea, the first act of opening one’s mind to a different possibility, a different way of looking at the world, the first act of internalizing the concept of individual opinion, preference, of fairness, of art, of love, … is also the rejection of this idea, which is nsga. Independents and integrateds are discretely different because nsga is either rejected or affirmed.

The integrated mind does not mature. It holds on to the childish ideals initially conceived; it remains set on guarding it forever and at all costs. The integrated so develops an automatic immunity to the conception of responsibility, beauty, morality, and dignity." [Harry, 1, fe]

"You believe that there is hope for the realization of your unrealistic childhood impressions because for all we know reality might be illusion. Well, I choose not to believe this. I’d rather compromise and seek less ideal visions than risk spending my life chasing after the impossible." [CS, interpreted]

"Those concerned with immediate returns will do well to follow your path. Competivism (VC’s ideology) is willing to fight it out to the end to see who is right. Keep thinking the way you do, as they will keep thinking the way they do. Let us wait a thousand years and see. Whoever is left is who is right." [Esan, 1, he]