You dont know that, the delegate from Excelsior pointed out. I cant believe that it was a collective decision. The probability is that its one more instance of an independent thinker breaking ranks. But even if it were part of a much larger collective strategy, it might signify that they think of Earth as the heart of posthuman culture the place where they need to make their presence felt. We have to persuade them that Earth is superfluous, a backwater. We have to line up as many of them as possible behind our own agenda.
They may well have come to the conclusion that Earth is on the sidelines, Horne was quick to put in, simply because they already have Ganymede. The Ganymedans may not know it yet, but the AMIs didnt need to sabotage anything there to increase their presence or make it felt.
If they have Ganymede, the eternal child countered, they must also have Io. The other Jovian colonies are even smaller and even more machine-dependent.
The question is: How do things stand in the environs of Saturn? This question came from One, who might have been Hornes sister if appearances had been more trustworthy.
We cant hold up any real hope of exemption, even for Titan. Horne said, Earth surely must have been their last target rather than their first, but theyve had ninety-nine years to firm up their grip on it. We dont know exactly how things stand, but we have to follow up the contact regardless, and we have to act quickly. We have to make sure of the AMIs continued cooperation. The Earthbound might have the luxury of considering alternatives, but we dont. We cant live without tech support, and if even a tiny fraction of that tech support decides
to oppose us well be in deep trouble. We have to make friends with the conscious machines and we have to help the conscious machines stay friends with one another. For us, its a matter of life and death. For all of us.
The speeches flowed easily enough. I knew that Niamh Horne must have figured that it wouldnt matter whether she were delivering them to her own people or to her captors. Like Lowenthal, she was diplomat enough to know when to capitulate with deceptive appearances.
You seem to be implying that everyone except the Earthbound has the same goals, the delegate from Excelsior said. Thats not so. Its not just our physical forms that have diverged its our philosophies of life. We ought to hope that the AMIs are as diverse as we are, or more so and that their diversity is so nearly parallel to ours as to grant all our different communities adequate mechanical support, in the long term as well as the immediate future.
Were not talking about the long term or the immediate future, Niamh Horne told her, bluntly. Were talking about right now . This thing has blown up in our faces, before anyone was ready. We need an interim settlement, so that we can keep going long enough to be able to think about the longer term again. For that, we need an anchorage, and Ganymede is it. Ganymede has to become the new capital of the system, at least for the time being and when that happens, Titan and Excelsior will need to make sure that were not left on the outside looking in. We have to move on this now , and we have to make our move decisive.
Suppose, said One, slowly, that their goals and ours dont coincide. What then? One was presumably a cyborg, but he could have passed for a humanoid robot; there was no flesh on view in the partial image visible through Hornes eyes.
Horne was quick to take advantage of that one, knowing as I did that it was being fed to her by an AMI agent provocateur . What do you mean? she demanded. What goals do you think they might have?
I dont know, One parried. But it would be naive to assume that just because they emerged among us, and have been living alongside us for a long time, they have the same goals. Maybe they want to strike out on their own. Maybe the price theyll exact for carrying any more of us to distant solar systems is that they get to run the show when they arrive. Isnt that what this Proteus seems to be doing?
Thats not the impression Alice Fleury tried to give us, Horne said, but it might conceivably be the case. Its an issue wed have to discuss, once negotiations began but there are others. The maintenance of the existing cultures within the solar system has to be the first, and the problem of the Afterlife the second.
The AMIs might be able to help us around that problem, Three suggested.
They might be able to help themselves around it, Six put in, but even that might be difficult. How many machines do we use that dont have any organic components? And how many of those have any significant complexity? Id be willing to bet that all the machines that have so far made the leap are almost as fearful of the Afterlife as we are.
But thats my point, said Three. If theyre intent on devising a way to immunize themselves against the Afterlife even if that involves replacing all the organic components of their bodies with inorganic ones its possible that we could benefit from the same technologies. Were cyborganizers, after all who among us hasnt given serious thought to the idea of total inorganic transfer?