the OverSoul was indeed inspired by Christianity. Hardly surprising since it was the most widespread religion before the OverSoul. If economics and religion are the foundations of society as Marx and Weber asserted, respectively, so long ago, then the OverSoul has her bases covered.”
The doctor popped a steamed silkweed roll into his mouth, chewed loudly, swallowed, and then said, “In any case, it is important for the OverSoul to have a core mind. Without it, imagine a deity with a rapidly oscillating personality.”
“The definition of anarchy!” BoBo exclaimed.
“Correct, but at the same time her mind could not be static. The OverSoul was designed to ‘scale.’ In this context that means to adapt to social and technological change over millennia.” The doctor washed down the sentence with a gulp of nectar wine.
Love_Monkey pointed a small index finger at her father. “But as you already said, such change is risky. To change the core mind is to change the personality. What if the core mind was changed to that of a psychotic tyrant? I mean, how does it know right from wrong? Even human ethics shift over time.”
Lily fielded the question. “The OverSoul needs human beings to teach her,” she said. “That is why D_Light was able to access the source tree. The deep scan revealed that his intentions were derived from…” Lily paused momentarily and then finished her sentence in the gentlest of whispers. “From love.”
The doctor’s wine-stained lips parted into a smile of satisfaction. “Yes, and there she mimics Christianity again-‘God is Love’-perhaps the core belief of Christianity. And although it may not yet be possible for the OverSoul to directly experience love as humanity thinks of it, she can detect such love in a subject’s brain signature using a deep scan.”
Love_Monkey was skeptical. “Haven’t you heard of a ‘love-struck fool’? You’re telling me this is how the OverSoul evolves personality? If so, it’s a wonder we haven’t all been obliterated or worse by now.”
BoBo laughed. “Yeah, if love was running the show, then every day would be Valentine’s Day by divine law!”
“And we would have to kiss everything we see, even things that aren’t cute,” Love_Monkey added.
“And constantly wear pink,” Curious_Scourge chimed in.
The jokes ceased as Hal, the analyst, pounded the table as hard as his feeble muscles would allow while shouting for them to stop.
After they all had quieted, the doctor said, “Yes, yes, early phases of romantic love are biochemically very close to some forms of mental illness.”
“The deep scan takes that into account!” the analyst screeched, desperately wanting the tedious dialogue to end so he could resume his work. “In order to gain direct access to the core mind, your brain signature must fall within specific parameters. Please, this conversation is pointless. May I return to my calculations?”
The doctor ignored the question. “Hal is correct, you can’t just be ‘sporting a chubby,’ as they used to say, and change the mind of a god. By ‘love’ I’m not necessarily referring to romantic love. I’m referring to a purity of purpose, clarity of mind, and an altruistic intent.”
BoBo scrunched her face and adopted a pensive expression. “So, D_Light had this flaccid love state of mind when he hacked into the OverSoul source code, er…the core mind, and changed Lily’s status to human?”
The doctor sighed. “It was not a hack, dear. As already stated, D_Light was subjected to a deep brain scan. The OverSoul essentially knew what D_Light planned to do and permitted it. This is my point. The OverSoul allows herself to be taught by those worthy of teaching her.”
The priest now joined in. “Taught what? Taught a lie?” He bowed his head to Lily. “No offense, but Lily is not human.”
“That’s what I tried to tell D_Light, but he sure didn’t listen,” the doctor replied and sighed with a smile.
“Aw, what could be more romantic!” BoBo exclaimed as she dropped a scrap of meat to her begging nubber. “What our almighty wetgineer father could not do with gene therapy, D_Light accomplished with good ol’ fashioned love.”
The doctor grimaced.
“But,” the priest blurted out, “the ramifications of this…this contradiction!”
The doctor nodded while mining his ear for a bit of loose wax. “Indeed, it is a contradiction in the core mind. This is how revolutions are born.”
“Revolution? Revolt against oneself?” the priest asked incredulously.
“Indeed, the purest form of the word ‘revolution’ would be a revolt against self,” the doctor confirmed.
Mistress, would you like me to publish the archive now? Smorgeous’s sedate voice pressed into Lily’s mind.
Lily had been working on an important project over the last few months. D_Light’s deep archive of the MetaGame, as well as the archives she had gathered from other familiars, were packaged together and displayed innocuously as a bloated folder in her upload queue.
My first contribution to the Game, she silently mused.
Lily was planning to spend all the points deeded over to her by D_Light to ensure that this archive received appropriate attention in the Cloud. Given the tremendous bounty she was paying and the information the archive contained, at least some of the major media outlets would redistribute it. Moreover, she knew there was a ready audience for the story. The fame of Lily and D_Light had risen ever higher as players hypothesized their fates. As one player on the NeverWorld forums asked, “Hey, whatever happened to that deviant and the hot Swedish chick?”
Dr. Monsa had put D_Light’s remains, most notably his brain, on ice shortly after his death. Theoretically, if the archive caught fire on the Cloud and generated enough points, the windfall could win D_Light his salvation and, hence, his eligibility for resurrection. It was rare to be saved after passing away, but Lily had studied one example of a player whose invention royalties won her salvation three years postmortem.
Perhaps he could win his MetaGame after all, she thought.
Lily smiled and raised her glass. “To revolution,” she declared.
The Monsa family raised their glasses and declared in unison, “To revolution!”
And with that, Smorgeous uploaded their story.
