distinctions between the three legs of the system have begun to blur as the OCHRE Corporation's successors have imbued their bots with limited intelligence, and software programmers have embedded their own medical standards rather than rely on outside storehouses of information.
While the techniques of creating bio/logic programs have changed radically over the years, the principles remain the same.
Bio/logic software is a series of instructions a user can transmit to his or her OCHRE machines to perform a specific function. In Surina's day, programming was performed through the manipulation of a series of machine 'languages,' software was stored on miniature 'chips' implanted within the body, and instructions were broadcast to the machines inside the body through radio waves.
Programming itself has evolved from a primitive linguistic model to today's more sophisticated visual model. This evolution enabled programmers to visualize logical structures instead of spelling them out. Advances in the science of holography allowed the invention of MindSpace, which allowed programmers to interact with their programs through a three-dimensional interface. The capabilities of MindSpace programming have been significantly expanded by the development of special tools for the medium, the bio/logic programming bars. A typical set of programming bars consists of twenty-six entities (marked A to Z after the Roman alphabet), with each bar containing three to six separate functions. Most MindSpace bubbles also recognize a common set of twelve hand gestures.
The data itself, once stored on plastic chips, is now stored in protected molecular chains scattered throughout the civilized world. Prengal Surina's Universal Law of Physics and Aloretus Monk's discovery of subaether transmission have made it practical for programmers to store information on an atomic level virtually anywhere in the world.
Libertarian elements of the government have been particularly active in promoting a renewal of competition in the hardware and information legs of Sheldon Surina's three-legged system. Proposals include privatizing Dr. Plugenpatch and breaking up the three main companies that have divided up the OCHRE spectrum between themselves. But detractors have pointed to the chaos of the bio/logic programming industry as reason to keep these industries heavily regulated and centralized.
The bulk of current bio/logic research is dedicated to improving the energy capacity of the human body. Users often encounter problems when bodily resources that run bio/logic programs are overtaxed, and some industry watchers predict severe resource limitations in the human body within the next twenty to thirty years.
APPENDIX D
ON THE SURINAS
The line of scientists, politicians, freethinkers, and programmers that began with Sheldon Surina is perhaps the greatest dynasty humankind has known since the Caesars. Not only did the Surinas lead the way out of the chaos of the Big Divide and give the world trust in technology again; they also enriched that world in ways no family had done before or has done since.
Like most of his peers, Sheldon Surina was taught to shun the achievements of the scientists and programmers that led to the Autonomous Revolt. During Surina's formative years, the world was still feeling the aftershocks of that cataclysmic event and the disasters that followed it (although by this time, the world had regained a modicum of order, and New Alamo's fanaticism was already beginning to taper off). His parents sent him to the Gandhi University at Andra Pradesh for a spiritual education. It was during his long apprenticeship at the Gandhi University that Surina became enamored with the ancient wonders of biotechnology. Against the warnings of his proctors (who considered the sciences to be a heretical course of study), Sheldon embarked on a project to recreate the achievements of the biologists of antiquity.
When he was 41 years old, Sheldon published his seminal work, Towards the Science of BiolLogics and a New Direction for Humanity. The first words of this manifesto were a shocking call to arms: 'There is no problem that we cannot solve through scientific innovation.' He then proceeded to outline a new discipline of science that would allow computer programs to interact with the systems of the human body. Surina called his new discipline 'bio/logics.'
The work caused a firestorm of controversy in the academic world, with many educators denouncing Surina as a heretic bent on causing another Autonomous Revolt. Within a decade, Surina had crafted the first working bio/logic program: HeartMonitor 1.0, which could make rational decisions about cardiological treatment on the fly. Using this and several other successful prototypes, Surina raised funds for the first bio/logic corporations. His investments in these firms eventually made him and many of his proteges phenomenally wealthy. One of his disciples, Henry Osterman, founder of the OCHRE Corporation, would be a lifelong collaborator (and sometime competitor).
Surina's growing fame and influence began to upset the balance of power among the fragile nation-states. Many of these states owed their survival to delicate anti-technology treaties designed to prevent another Autonomous Revolt. During the years 35 to 37, Surina became the target of numerous assassination plots hatched by the splinter East and West Texan governments. These threats largely ended with the overthrow of the West Texan regime in 37.
In the years that followed, Sheldon Surina had a hand in nearly every major technology to come down the pike. He created or co-created the key tools and practices of the bio/logic programming industry (including MindSpace and bio/logic programming bars). He made important contributions to the development of the multi network, and with Henry Osterman sat on the board of the original Dr. Plugenpatch company.
Growing fear of the power of bio/logic corporations led to the creation of the Prime Committee in the waning years of the Reawakening's first century. Sheldon Surina decried the Prime Committee as an 'insidious evil' and became the world's leading opponent of centralized governmental authority. (Surina and Osterman had widely diver gent views on this issue and eventually ended their friendship over the formation of the Defense and Wellness Council.)
Surina spent the opening years of the second century railing against the Council and the Committee and seeking their dissolution. A firm believer in individual empowerment and unbridled personal freedom, Surina believed that any centralized authority (no matter how limited) would lead to totalitarianism. The majority of public sentiment was against him, however, and in his last years Surina even began to advocate open rebellion and violence. He died in 116, a bitter man with waning political influence.
Prengal Surina was never as tempestuous a figure as his grandfather Sheldon, but many have argued that his influence on modern society was even greater.
Because of the family's vast bio/logic fortune, Prengal was raised with great wealth and privilege in India. He followed in Sheldon's footsteps by attending the Gandhi University at Andra Pradesh, and eventually attained a permanent post on the faculty. Prengal tended to shy away from politics, however, despite the increasingly desperate urging of his grandfather and other anti-Prime Committee forces. Upon Sheldon's death, Prengal and his companion Ladaru organized Creed Surina in his honor, but disappointed many by insisting that the group be strictly apolitical.
At the age of 42, Prengal published what many consider to be the most significant scientific breakthrough of humanity since antiquity: the Universal Law of Physics. Prengal's theorem neatly tied together the previously disparate fields of quantum and classical mechanics. By revealing the ways in which matter and energy are intimately connected throughout the universe-in ways that transcend space and time-Prengal made possible the fields of teleportation and anti-grav itation. Without the Universal Law of Physics, multi projecting over great distances would be impossible.
Prengal Surina's breakthrough was poorly understood for many years. Unlike his grandfather, Prengal was not a charismatic figure who trumpeted his own accomplishments. As his work grew in stature and importance, however, the system began to view him with an almost mystical reverence.
