"This is our lodge," Papa Lo says to me quietly, and I start a bit at the sound of his voice. I almost forgot he was there. "Our lodge?" I say, not knowing why I speak so softly other than the strong feeling I have that this is a sacred place. "It is our place to touch the power of the inner world and the spirits," he says. I look around the room and I know for certain this is like no lodge that I have ever seen or heard of before. "Aren't lodges supposed to be full of skins and furs, crystals and herbs, with a big smoldering fire pit in the center? You know, drek like that?" I say. Papa Lo makes a low sound in his throat that I take as approval of my question. If he notices or is offended by the vulgarity, he makes no sign of it. "It is good you can recall such things," he says. "No, this is a different kind of medicine lodge. Quite unlike almost any other in the world. While the shamans work their magic by calling on the Awakened spirits of the land, we are in touch with something different. We touch the magic of the modern age, the Digital Age. Instead of the ancient powers of the land, sea, and air, we commune with the spirit of the Machine, the intelligence of the Matrix." "And who is 'we'… the Netwalkers?" "Not entirely. We are part of the tribe, but we… you are special. Like the shamans to their tribesmen, we are the intermediaries between them and the otherworld. It is for those of us with the knowledge and the ability to travel into that world and bring back the knowledge it contains for the good of all. "We live outside of the so-called 'civilized' world, the world of the megacorporations and their wageslaves," Papa Lo says, and the disdain in his voice for that world is clear. "We live off the land like the tribes of old, only our environment is the city and not the re-grown forests or plains of the Native American Nations. We live in a different wilderness, but we know its secrets better than most. "You set out into the wilderness to gain a vision as people have done since time began and I think you have found it, and it has changed you in the process. The vision is a rebirth that makes a new person of you, transforms you so you are a true walker between the worlds of the physical and the mental world of the Matrix, a technoshaman, like Taki here." He gestures to the boy sitting on the floor. "He and two others are the only children of the tribe to experience the Resonance and make the breakthrough to the other state of existence I knew existed out there in the Matrix. And now you. You are the oldest student to be able to find the Resonance. I had given up hope of finding anyone older than a child with the Gift." He beams at me in obvious pride and I feel a bit self-conscious about the whole thing. I know I should know this man who is supposed to be my teacher and mentor and feel happy he is proud of me. Why do I feel guilty about Papa Lo's pride and the fact that I have succeeded in his goal for me? "You keep talking about a transformation," I say, looking for an explanation of my feelings. "But, apart from not being able to remember what happened, I don't feel transformed. How am I supposed to be different?" Papa Lo makes his way over to one of the collections of computer hardware stacked high like a totem pole reaching for the ceiling and picks up a cable lead that he holds out tome. "Why not find out for yourself?" he says. I'm frightened by the prospect of jacking into an unknown machine, of trusting this man who says he is my teacher and friend, but part of me hungers for the jack he holds out to me like a worshipper for the touch of the sacrament. Or an addict for a hit of a drug. Either way, it is a desire I cannot refuse. I take the cable from his hand, sit down on the floor, and plug in the jack. In an instant, the electron world of the Matrix opens up all around me, like a fractal flower opening up in my mind. I haven't done anything other than slot the cable and I realize there's nothing between me and the computer systems that make up the Matrix. No cyberdeck, no workstation, no terminal running the ASIST transformation algorithms to take the electronic ones and zeroes making up the worldwide information network and turn them into images and sensations the human brain can perceive and understand. There's just me and the machine. Somehow, I'm doing it all myself, making sense of the flowing electrons in my head. There's nothing but my mind and the Matrix, together like one. This is the difference. Other people like Papa Lo can access the Matrix through a jack, but they need hardware and software to do it: a computer running the right programs to synchronize the complex operations of the human brain with the equally complex workings of the Matrix, to let them communicate and create the portal through which to enter the virtual world. I don't need any hardware or software, just the jack to connect through and my wetware; my own brain. I can hear the hum and heartbeat of the world-grid pulse through the electronic reality all around me and I understand what Papa Lo is talking about. I'm home and I know who I am, even if I can't remember my life before I came to the tribe. I know who and what I am now and I know my purpose in life. My name is Babel, and I am a technoshaman.
8
The slumbering giant of Renraku Computer Systems has awakened hungry. In the last year, Renraku has shown amazing growth and innovation in the production of computer hardware and software systems. Always a leader in computer architecture, Renraku has moved into the software and hardware fields with a vengeance, grabbing up market share with their cutting-edge developments in optics, program algorithms, adaptive systems, and other new technologies. The corporation's surge of success has clearly proven attractive to Renraku CEO Inazo Aneki, who continues to turn down opportunities for retirement to remain at the helm of the corporation. The seventy-year-old Aneki has guided Renraku since the founding of the corporation some thirty years ago and has "no intention of stepping down until Renraku secures its position as the leader in computer and Matrix innovation." The corporation's sudden success came as a surprise to market analysts, who were predicting troubled waters for Renraku due to the corporation's heavy investment in their Artificial Intelligence Project, which to date has still shown no results. -"Profile: Renraku Computer Systems," excerpted from the online magazine Corpwatch, 3 May 3059 Inazo Aneki sat and studied the print on the wall of his office in Renraku corporate Headquarters in Chiba, Japan, contemplating the news he had just heard and the meetings he was about to have. The windows behind him afforded a
view of the streets and buildings of Chiba and the sparkling waters of the Pacific in the distance through the afternoon haze that hung over the city. The painting was entitled "The Wave of the Future," and was based on the famous wood block print known as Kanagawa oki namiura by Katsushika Hokusai. It showed a great wave cresting in the sea off of Kanagawa, with the white cone of Mount Fuji rising in the background. A twentieth-century artist had scanned the original painting and altered it so that the graceful woodcut curves of the tidal wave morphed into a pattern of colorful computer-graphics against a black sky. A twenty-first-century artist had further altered the painting. He had added a woodcut design of a serpentine dragon coiling around the peak of Mount Fuji, its body twisting around the mountain, a sleek-scaled, photorealistic representation of the great eastern dragon Ryumyo as he had first appeared, flying above Mount Fuji, in late December of 2011, the herald of a new age of magic and myth. Aneki had admired the print from the day he first became CEO of Renraku. He liked to think of the company in much the same way: ancient and honorable tradition adapting to a world of high technology and rapid change, where nothing was certain apart from the company and the need for the company to provide its workers with a solid center to their lives. Renraku had always done that for as long as Aneki had been involved with it, and he intended to ensure the prosperity of his company and its community for a very, very long time. Long after he was gone, if karma would allow. Inazo Aneki was not a young man, but he had the finest medicine both science and sorcery of the twenty-first century could provide, so it was likely he would live a good many more years still. Perhaps he would one day take his retirement on board the Zurich-Orbital station. Perhaps the zero-gravity environment would add a few more precious years of life for him to make sure his company would always be there, which was all the immortality Aneki wished for himself.
A musical tone from the telecom screen on one side of Aneki's desk brought him out of his reverie. He touched the illuminated button on one side of the display screen to acknowledge his assistant's page. "Yes?" he said into the air, and a voice, chosen for its soothing and professional quality, replied. "Chairman Watanabe to see you, Aneki-sama." Aneki gave his assent and a moment later the door of his office was opened by his secretary to admit the Chairman of the Renraku Computer Systems Board of Directors, Yukio Watanabe. The secretary executed a flawless bow and withdrew, closing the door behind her. Watanabe walked smoothly to a respectful distance from Aneki's desk and executed a slight bow that was little more than a nod, as befitted her status as Chairman. Aneki returned the gesture and motioned for her to take one of the comfortable chairs in front of his desk. In Aneki's father's time, it would have been unthinkable for a woman to be involved in business affairs, much less to rise to a position of power as great as Yukio Watanabe. But times are different now, Aneki thought with a glance at the print on his wall. Women in the business world of Japan were a small change by comparison to things such as the rise of magic, the twisting of a tenth of the world's population into creatures like orks and trolls, and the world-spanning influence of the Matrix. Still, women such as Watanabe-scwza had to work hard to prove themselves in the traditionally male-dominated world of business. They had to be more capable, confident, and efficient than their male counterparts in order to achieve the same results. That meant, Aneki had learned, that women in business, especially successful women, were people to be respected. He had watched Watanabe's rise to her current position and, even though he and the Chairman didn't see eye to eye on every issue, he respected her opinion and her skills as a businesswoman. Under their mutual guidance, Renraku Computer Systems had prospered. It only remains to be seen, Aneki thought, whether our efforts will secure the company's future or seal its fate.