Y2K Symposium
"Almost all anciant cultures share a common myth
of a doomsday. they
come under different titles, from armageddon and ragnarok to Judgement
Day, but
the common theme that is read in every culture is the concept of the
end of
time. Our convention has dedicated so much of it's focus to years of
enlightening the masses to the true nature of time. We've shown the
world that
time is a constant. We have gone so far as to synchronize mankind's
perceptions of time--an hour in Bangkok is the same as a Kansas City
hour.
We've gotten on track and boldly marched into a new uniform age, but
our
saddest discovery was that time is also a commodity. As seemingly limitless
as it may appear, time has a destination. So sadly we have to throw
our hats
in with the less civilized and admit that we too have a judgement day.
The
superstitious and weaker of the fearful masses believe that the coming
of
the year 2000 marks the end of time. Even though i feel that time will
continue far past the millenium, the presence of the Y2K dilemma is
a sad
harbinger indeed.
As we have led man into the information age, this
convention has also
found itself dependent on the vast network power of the computer as
well.
The threat that Y2K poses to the economic systems of the world is widely
known. As we speak, construct after construct is battening down the
hatches
to either prevent this storm or weather it's consequences. What I feel
is
neglected, however, is Y2K's threat to time itself. the temporal engine
in
Washington, (widely known as the atomic clock) could possibly suffer
a
systems crash, thus destroying one of the union's most valued assets.
Also,
although temporal admintrators feel that the engine has been safeguarded,
it
is the millions of networks that depend on it that will suffer as
connections and analysis of temporal data will be lost. Uniformity
of time
will be no more. Exchanges will not meet. Time zones will shatter.
Our
clockwork efficient system will wind down. The year 2000 is now the
end of
time, but it may well be the end of time as we know it."
Syndicate seat Alex Muir
Construct: US Treasury Department
"...It dismays me that on midnight, January 1st 2000,
the GPS satellite
network will fail unless requests for assistance from our sister conventions
are answered. The GPS system is merely an extension of our immense
Oracle
network. If the Oracle crashes, and I assure you at our current pace
it will,
all correspondent orientation will be lost. What this means is that
all
sensory systems will become useless, from ground radar arrays to our
own
astrogation. We will become blind to the heavens gentlemen. Air travel
will
become too hazardous to attempt. Satellite orbits will decay, causing
them to
fall to earth. Even orbital platforms will lose their integrity and
rain a
fiery death onto the populous. The people we have strived to protect
will
wake up to find that the sky is falling. Our ships will be lost and
outposts
will be cut off.
Our plea for assistance was issued over a
year ago, and frankly the
lack of response can only lead us to believe that you don't percieve
how
important our work is. This is merely typical of the "out of sight,
out of
mind" attitude that the Union has shown time and time again.
Gentlemen, the loss of the satellite systems
also means the defense
grid will be shattered, leaving us exposed to the outside. But perhaps
our
mistake was choosing language that is too soft. I hope the words "full
scale
alien assault" will lull you to sleep tonight. Thank you for your time
gentlemen."
Void Engineer seat Admiral Su Xen Wo
Construct: Hainen (former captain of the Shenzhou II)
" ...I don't want to bore you all with revelations you already know.
Not
only are computers vulnerable here, but any technology with computer
components is at risk. that includes pretty much evey device you employ.
The
Iteration has been working on the massive scale recall for 2 years
now.
We've managed to debug at least 94% of our equipment. I'm not as impressed
however by the rest of the Union's response to the recall. If you haven't
brought it to us, please do so soon. Time is short. A man is only as
capable
as his tools."
Iteration X seat Taki Watanabe
Construct: Mitsubishi
"...Our hardware issues have been resolved. as far
as our work goes, Y2K
is an irrelevant situation. An expiration date is far from a new concept
to
us. Our organization is lively and capable to adapt. Life takes precaution
for any catastrophe, where it cannot repair itself, it can replace
itself.
Perhaps it's not too late for you to learn some lessons from the living
machine's perfection of design."
Progenitor seat Maria Tobin
Construct: The Brazilia Collective
"...The true magnitude of the information we gather
is difficult to
comprehend.Iit's a labor that has been undertaken over so many generations.
To think that it could all be destroyed in a mere nanosecond is terrifying.
We have initiated the effort to transfer these files onto hard storage
with
round the clock attention. Y2K will destroy a lot of information, but
I am
proud to say that we have taken succesful measures to preserve everything
of
significant value.
This is going to be a dark hour for this Technocratic
Union. The masses
are already in a panic due to the intelligence leaks of the Y2K threat.
If
we cannot contain this, we will lose all control of the populous. We
did not
build society as we know it only to see it fall into anarchy.
Importantly also is the fact that most means of
surveilance we posess
will cease to function properly. For a time, our enemies' actions will
go unseen. This is a state of emergency. Expect attack from every angle
on
New Year's Day. Never before has there been an event like this. It
will be a
time for every malcontent to make thier move. We're going to have a
hard
time seeing them coming. Prepare for the worst. The antiquated council
will
surely attempt to destabilize us further, as will the lower class,
the
hacking community, the militias, terrorist cells, discontent regimes,
self
motivated intelligence organizations, religious fanatics, and even
(snicker)
aliens.Tthe NWO is prepared to preserve order by any means necessary."
New World Order seat Charles Lindsay
Construct: NSA.
Written by Chris Renfroe
Edited by Conrad Hubbard
totem is Copyright © Conrad Hubbard
