CRUSADE
AGAINST THE
MACHINES
Novel by Franklyn Santana
Science Fiction
English Edition:
Translated from German by C. Florius Lupus
Copyright © 2020 by Franklyn Santana
All rights reserved.
Cover by Franklyn Santana
Inner Cover Model: Yudelka de Paula Carrión
Excepts from:
Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)
David Price/Samuel Butler: The Notebooks of Samuel Butler (1912)
Theodore J. Kaczynski: Industrial Society and its Future (1995)
Theodore J. Kaczynski: Technological Slavery (2008)
Original German Edition:
Copyright © 2012 by Franklyn Santana
Original Title: Aufstand gegen die Maschinen
available at www.amazon.de/dp/B008XKFEFK
ASIN: B008XKFEFK
Franklyn Santana
E-mail: [email protected]
The technological singularity has arrived. And man has become the obsolescent model. Man or machine? The battle for Earth has begun. A man, who has witnessed this last of all wars with his own eyes, gives his report about the events. But things are not as they seem.
A book about a threat that will inevitably become reality in just a few decades. And everyone who is still alive then will have to face this reality. The singularity will come. And nothing can stop it.
Abbreviations
3-D
3-Dimensional, refers to the three dimensions of space as opposed to the two dimensions of the surface of a paper drawing or image
6G
6th Generation Broadband Cellular Technology, successor of the discontinued 5G technology, which had serious negative health effects and technical limitations
AI
Artificial Intelligence, computer programs that mimic cognitive functions such as learning and problem solving
AM
Ante Meridiem, = (Lat.) morning hours
ARI
Augmented Reality Interface, portable device that merges the real-world environment with computer-generated images
CAIR
Council for American-Islamic Relations, Mohammedan civil rights and advocacy group headquartered on Capitol Hill
CCTV
Closed Circuit Television, video surveillance system
CGI
Computer-Generated Imagery, any use of computer graphics to produce still or moving images
CU Summit
Continental Unions Summit, meeting of representatives of the eight continental unions (NAU, UNASUR, MU, Union State, SAU, USEAN, AU, and PU)
D. C.
District of Columbia, also Washington, D. C., federal capital city of the U. S.
DFD
Detroit Fire Department, later Detroit Fire and Security Department that became the law enforcement agency in Metropolitan Detroit after 2051
DJ
Disk Jockey, person who plays and mixes recorded music for an audience
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic Acid, carrier molecule of genetic information in all known biological organisms
DNS
Domain Name System, naming system of Internet devices that assigns domain names to IP addresses
EMP
Electromagnetic Pulse, short burst of electromagnetic energy that can disrupt or damage electronic devices
FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation, domestic intelligence and security service of the U. S.
Fed
Federal Reserve System, central banking system of the U. S. and later the NAU
GOP
Grand Old Party, another name for the Republican Party
GRU/ΓΡУ
Главное Разведывательное Управление – Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, foreign intelligence agency of the Union State
HSBC
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, multinational investment bank and financial services holding company with its principal seat in Hong Kong
Humvee
actually HMMWV, High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, four-wheel drive lightly armored car of the U. S. Military
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation, multinational technology company that produces and sells computer hardware and software
ID
Identification, assignation of a unique code or name to an individual
IP
Internet Protocol, principal communication protocol to route data packets through the Internet
IR
Infra-Red Light, electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength between 700 nm and 1 mm
LED
Light Emitting Diode, semiconductor light source
MagLev
Magnetic Levitation train system that uses rails with strong electromagnetic fields instead of wheels in order to reduce friction and allow for higher speeds
MU
Mediterranean Union, formed out of the European Union and North African states, principal members: France, UK, Turkey, Egypt
NAU
North American Union, formed out of NAFTA, principal members: U. S. A., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico
PDA
Personal Digital Assistant, mobile computing device that unifies the functions of a smartphone, credit card and identification card
PFC
Private First Class, military rank between private and corporal held by junior enlisted personnel
Pepco
Potomac Electric Power Company, public utility company that supplies electric power to Washington, D.C. and surrounding communities in Maryland
PM
Post Meridiem, = (Lat.) afternoon and night hours
RFID
Radio-Frequency Identification, technology to tag and identify attached objects
RNA
Ribonucleic Acid, polymeric molecule that is involved in decoding, regulation and expression of genes, sometimes carrier of genetic information itself
RPG
Rocket Propelled Grenade, shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon
$
North American Dollar, born out of the U. S. Dollar, the Mexican Peso and the Canadian Dollar after the Treaty of Toronto in 2035 and valid until 2051, when the exchange rate had dropped to $150,000 for 1 ounce of gold
SAU
South Asian Union, formed out of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, principal members: India, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia
SkyCom
Sky Telecommunications Ltd., phone company and Internet provider in the U. S.
SSA
Social Security Administration, independent agency of the U. S. federal government that administers retirement, disability, and since 2040 unemployment benefits
TV
Television, technology to transmit moving images and sound
UAW
United Auto Workers, American labor union that represents workers in the car industry
UNASUR
Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (Union of South American Nations), formed out of MERCOSUR and the Andean Community of Nations, principal members: Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia
Union State
formed out of the Commonwealth of Independent States, former Soviet Union, principal members: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan
UDXC
Universal Data Exchange Connection, industry standard for cables and connectors for high speed data transmission
U. S. A./U. S.
United States of America, formed out of several former British colonies in North America
; USB
Universal Serial Port, industry standard for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply between computers and peripherals
USEAN
Union of Southeast Asian Nations, formed out of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations + 3, principal members: China, Japan, Korea, Thailand
VIP
Very Important Person, designation that grants special privileges
Wi-Fi
Wireless Fidelity, wireless network protocols commonly used for local area networking and Internet access
Chapter 1
New Detroit, 2111
It was Monday, March 16, 2111 in the morning at just before eight. The little cab brought me to school. It was still pretty cold that time of year up here in Michigan. It had snowed that night, and even so early in the morning the temperature was still below freezing. At my age I found it harder and harder to bear this cold. My joints ached and I could clearly feel my old injury in my left leg again. It would have been better to settle down somewhere in the south. But it was too late for that now. I could no longer undertake such a long and dangerous journey across the former United States. After all, there was no functioning traffic network anymore, and different militias and gangs of robbers made the country unsafe. Of course, if I had been thirty or forty again, I would certainly have taken my chances. Nor would the uncertainty of how I would make my living in the south have kept me from doing so. But this was now a purely academic question.
Besides, I had a job here in New Detroit. I was a teacher at the small school of the village. The kids needed me. Who else was going to teach them a decent education these days? Nothing was ever the same again. Ignorance had been declared a virtue. Even if you could repair a wind-powered generator, you looked suspicious to some people. But I was determined to teach my students what they needed to know to maintain at least a minimum of human civilization. Or should we all become savages?
The cab clattered past a row of wooden houses to the end of the village, where the wooden palisade began. At the top of the watchtower I could see a man in fur and leather armor rubbing his hands to keep them warm. The wooden wall blocked the view down to the ruins of Detroit. But I could see smoke rising from far. Had the gangs in the ruined city fought again overnight? Or were they burning some garbage? I didn’t care. What went on in the old metropolis didn’t matter to us in the village anymore. Should the Neo-Luddite fanatics cut each other’s necks there! Anyway, the ruins had been an epidemic zone for many years. We could not let anybody from there into the village, if we didn’t want to bring in the plague, tuberculosis or anything else with him. That was why the guards on the walls and the towers were constantly on watch.
The one-horse carriage turned to the right. Now I could see the school in front of me. It was one of the largest buildings in the village with a small bell tower on the roof. On Sundays a church service was held in the assembly hall, so in a way it was not only a school but also a church. But today was Monday. A new school day had begun. I saw about a dozen children walking through the gate of the schoolyard. The school bell began to ring to call the children to class.
My hackney carriage came to a halt at the schoolyard gate. I struggled to get out. Nothing was really easy anymore at an age of eighty-five.
»Shall I help you, Magister Dexter?« asked the coachman, who had climbed down from the coach box and helped me.
»No, no!« I shook him off. »I’m all right. I’m fine. Thank you.« I couldn’t stand being treated like I was decrepit. I didn’t feel that bad. It was just the cold that morning, and it had stiffened my bones. When I finally got out safely, I grabbed my walking cane and the small folder. Then I pressed a few copper coins into the coachman’s hand.
»Thank you, Magister Dexter,« he said. »I’ll pick you up this afternoon, as usual. «
»Yes, yes,« I hummed, supported myself with my right arm heavily on my walking cane and fiddled around with the folder to clamp it safely under my left arm.
Some kids ran past me through the gate. One boy shouted, »Good morning, Mr. Magister.« I nodded at him and then limped through the gate. I didn’t recognize him clearly. Although I actually needed glasses, I still hadn’t gotten any. The things that I absolutely needed to see, I was still able to see. Glasses would just be an annoyance to me. At the main entrance to the school I greeted two of my colleagues, the gaunt Reverend Carter, in my eyes a religious nutjob who should have no business at a school, and old Miss Doyle, yes, Miss – that was what she insisted to be called. In all, we were only five teachers at the school. There were no more classrooms in the building. Only from time to time someone from the village would help out, when one of the teachers was absent due to illness or some other reason.
I didn’t feel like having a casual conversation with my colleagues that morning, so I didn’t go to the teachers’ canteen, but walked directly towards my classroom. I was late anyway. The bell had already rung for my class. After all, I wanted to set a good example to my students. They shouldn’t get used to the fact that their teacher was always five minutes late.
Most of my students were already in the classroom. Only three boys were still standing in the corridor. But when they saw me coming, they hurried off to the classroom immediately. My walking cane clacked with every step as I approached the door. Without stopping I walked through. The boys and girls rose from their benches, as I had taught them. I was probably the only teacher who emphasized such formalities, but something like that helped to maintain discipline. I was in charge of the seventh grade. The students were all between twelve and fourteen years old. That was a particularly difficult age. Without the necessary discipline, a teacher could easily lose control. That was also the reason why my colleagues had chosen me for this class.
The school building had a heating system, which was very pleasant in the cold outside. The caretaker operated a central wood burning stove, which supplied the radiators in the classrooms. This meant that the school was better equipped than most private houses, which had to make do with a chimney fire. At least the children did not have to sit on the benches in fur coats. There were no school uniforms. The pupils wore the clothes that are common today, which were either tanned leather or hand-woven fabrics. The boys usually wore leather pants and wide, coarse fabric shirts, the girls long fabric dresses or skirts that reached down to their shoes or boots, and long-sleeved blouses. Today’s clothing had become very conservative. Only a few shirts and blouses were decorated with embroidery. The colors brown, beige and a washed-out yellow dominated, as there were no more synthetic fabrics or dyes. I myself still wore remnants of the old-fashioned industrially produced clothing that had been made before the end of the Crusade, except for my boots. They were manufactured more recently. To many, I might have looked like a walking museum.
The classroom had a wide blackboard that occupied almost the entire front of the room. In front of it were the wooden teacher’s desk and a wooden chair. Opposite it were the wooden benches and tables, a total of four rows of three tables each, at which the students stood in pairs. Some of the seats behind them were empty.
»Good morning, Magister Dexter!« the students welcomed me to the choir. I looked around. One of the boys in the back row had been rather late to get on his feet. It was Steve Jenkins, a rather fat, red-haired lad. Not a bad student. That’s why he thought he could get away with more than the others. But I had to get that attitude out of him.
»What is it, Steve? You can’t get your lazy butt up, can you? You’re mind is probably still in a weekend mood,« I said to him. The other kids laughed. I hit my walking cane on his desk. Scared, the laughter subsided. »Silence in the hall!« I shouted. Then I looked at each of the nineteen students furiously. And finally I said: »Good morning, students! Take your seats!«
Obediently the class took their seats. I myself kept standing. I only put my folder on the desk. Over the weekend I had corrected last Friday’s exam paper in mathematics and wanted to return
it first thing. Other colleagues took a week or more to do it, but I wanted to get such papers off my desk. I pulled the bundle of sheets of paper from my folder and showed it to the class.
»Here I have Friday’s exam,« I explained. »That was anything but pleasant, with a few exceptions. I think I’m gonna have to get a little tougher on you from now on.« Our school was fortunate to have paper available. In many other villages there was no such thing. Paper was hard to make these days. But old Jimmy at the sawmill had developed a process that supplied the school. Of course the paper was not of the same quality as when I was young, and it was not really white, but rather sort of brownish, like the wrapping paper we used to have. But you could write on it with a graphite pen. Normal ink would have faded into the fibers. There wasn’t a printing press or a photocopier. That’s why I had to write the exams on the blackboard first, and then the students copied them by hand and solved them.
Everything at school worked this way. There were only a few books. Even before the Crusade, there had been very few books on paper. I could only remember one or two occasions when I had held a paper book in my hands. Everything had been converted to digital documents and e-readers, none of which of course worked these days. After that, only a few books had been printed, and most of them were religious writings and some works of the so-called Fathers of the Crusade. In the school library we had a number of books, but of course there were not enough for every student. So a teacher usually took one of the books and brought it to the classroom where he read it or had it read aloud, and the students wrote some selected passages by hand in their notebooks. In this simple way, the remaining knowledge of mankind was now copied, which had previously been simply downloaded as a digital file from the Internet. Yes, the world was no longer recognizable. The world in which I was born and grew up no longer existed. It was a different world. But a better one? – I did not know.
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