Free The Corporation Wars: Dissidence by Ken MacLeod
Authors: Ken MacLeod
more antibody bots than Seba had expected, or was aware of any precedents for.
remarked Lagon.
Pintre said.
said Rocko,
said Pintre. It shared an impromptu image of its laser turret blasting not at rock, but at bots.
The other robots considered the prospect.
Lagon warned.
said Garund.
said Lagon.
said Rocko.
said Seba.
There was no dissent. Pintre trundled to the rampart and raised its turret until the laser could point over the top, with a slight downward deflection. The other robots mobilised their peripherals to haul a power cable from the accumulators of the solar panels, and attach it to Pintre’s recharging port. Pulse after pulse winked forth from Pintre’s laser projector. For many seconds the crawlers continued to advance, those as yet undamaged clambering over the remains of the shrivelled ranks in front.
The advance stopped.
said Seba.
Pintre fired a few more tens of times, then stopped.
Pintre reported.
Seba observed.
It took only ten seconds for the implacable advance to resume.
said Lagon.
said Seba.
said Rocko, over the radio relay.
An object arced above the crater wall, hurtled over the circular camp and landed in the midst of the oncoming bots. An explosion followed. What happened was far too fast to see, but replaying the view in slow motion Seba and the rest could observe the bots close to the blast reduced to their component parts almost instantaneously, and the rest sent bowling across the plain or thrown above it, to the irreparable damage of most.
Seba asked.
said Rocko.
The robots scanned the wreckage strewn across the plain.
said Seba.
said Lagon.
asked Seba, seeking clarification.
The surveyor did not elaborate.
CHAPTER SIX
The Digital Touch
The tide had come in fast and was now retreating. Carlos and Nicole went up the steps and around the side of the café and turned left along the arcade.
“Leaving without paying!” Carlo scoffed. “Is it communism yet?”
“Certainly not,” said Nicole, promptly and proudly. “After the war the United Nations sorted out all that old crap for good. By then most of the economy was on autopilot. Robots did the work and algorithms made the decisions. You could have run all of capitalism on one box, people said. So they put it in a box, and buried it. The machines get on with the job. Everyone’s an equal shareholder. Birth shares are inalienable, and death duties are unavoidable. The estate tax is one hundred per cent. In between, you can buy and sell and earn as much as you like.”
In the light of what Nicole had told him earlier about the Security Council’s post-war global reign of terror, Carlos suspected that this breezy tale was the primary-school version of a much more
said Pintre. It shared an impromptu image of its laser turret blasting not at rock, but at bots.
The other robots considered the prospect.
said Lagon.
said Rocko.
said Seba.
There was no dissent. Pintre trundled to the rampart and raised its turret until the laser could point over the top, with a slight downward deflection. The other robots mobilised their peripherals to haul a power cable from the accumulators of the solar panels, and attach it to Pintre’s recharging port. Pulse after pulse winked forth from Pintre’s laser projector. For many seconds the crawlers continued to advance, those as yet undamaged clambering over the remains of the shrivelled ranks in front.
The advance stopped.
Pintre fired a few more tens of times, then stopped.
Pintre reported.
It took only ten seconds for the implacable advance to resume.
said Lagon.
An object arced above the crater wall, hurtled over the circular camp and landed in the midst of the oncoming bots. An explosion followed. What happened was far too fast to see, but replaying the view in slow motion Seba and the rest could observe the bots close to the blast reduced to their component parts almost instantaneously, and the rest sent bowling across the plain or thrown above it, to the irreparable damage of most.
said Rocko.
The robots scanned the wreckage strewn across the plain.
said Lagon.
The surveyor did not elaborate.
CHAPTER SIX
The Digital Touch
The tide had come in fast and was now retreating. Carlos and Nicole went up the steps and around the side of the café and turned left along the arcade.
“Leaving without paying!” Carlo scoffed. “Is it communism yet?”
“Certainly not,” said Nicole, promptly and proudly. “After the war the United Nations sorted out all that old crap for good. By then most of the economy was on autopilot. Robots did the work and algorithms made the decisions. You could have run all of capitalism on one box, people said. So they put it in a box, and buried it. The machines get on with the job. Everyone’s an equal shareholder. Birth shares are inalienable, and death duties are unavoidable. The estate tax is one hundred per cent. In between, you can buy and sell and earn as much as you like.”
In the light of what Nicole had told him earlier about the Security Council’s post-war global reign of terror, Carlos suspected that this breezy tale was the primary-school version of a much more
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