Evolution is a hoax!
There is only one true Savior!
Devin met with a "Host Inaccessible" error when he pushed on the twin glass doors, and he shook his head sadly. Once again the Religionists had successfully orchestrated a denial of service attack against the organization, preventing Devin from accessing the facts he needed to inconvenience their Post-Intelligent Design arguments in the "Origins" Forum.
He opened a window with his personal organizer and located the address for the Legion of Discord, an organization of hackers that had been around for decades. Every time the International Web Authority thought they had shut the group down, they sprang up somewhere else on the Web. Devin's successful hack of an algorithm for searching research papers caught an LoD member's notice, who was now sponsoring him for membership.
Devin was practically ecstatic over this possibility. It was rumored the LoD had backups of the Library of Congress they gave to members. Devin didn't know if it was true or not, but it did earn the group the nickname "Keepers of the Lame" among the Vectorialist pundits, but to Devin it sounded like a paradise. What would it be like to swim in so much data?
He instant messaged his sponsor, and a connection established. Sun Wu Kong, the immortal shape-shifting samurai monkey king of ancient Chinese legend appeared in an explosion of smoke before him. He carried a bo staff in one hand and was covered in elaborate armor made of virtual bamboo, cloth, and ring-mail.
"Hello Omni," he said and a tiny world map with most of Asia highlighted appeared above his head to indicate his words were being translated from Mandarin to English through babble fish software.
"Hello Mr. Kong," Devin replied politely. "You said to check back and see if he was free."
"Let me ping him," Sun Wu replied.
"Thanks again for sponsoring me," Devin said, but Sun-Wu did not reply. Devin waited uncomfortably for several moments before deciding to break the silence with some small talk, "How'd your date go Friday night?"
Sun Wu Kong waved a hand dismissively, "Turns out it was just a chatbot trying to lure me to the Pleasure Dome Cybersex site in Thailand."
"You got tricked by a chatbot?" Devin scoffed, but choked down his laughter at the intensity of Sun-Wu's glare.
"Have you ever met a bot online Devin?" Sun Wu demanded.
"No."
"Yes you have," Sun Wu Kong replied. "You've just never realized you were talking to one. At least I know I've been duped-I've located him."
The connection established and Devin navigated to the address. The Web suddenly felt a few degrees colder, and Devin looked back at Sun-Wu, the monkey wore a smug smile, knowing exactly what thoughts he had just put in Devin's mind. Devin made a mental note to read up on the "Chatbot Identification Act" that never seemed to go anywhere in Congress.
The Egyptian God Horus, Traveler's avatar, faded into existence. Another world map with the Middle East and parts of Africa highlighted accompanied him, indicating his speech was being translated from Arabic.
"Greetings Omni," Traveler said. "Are you ready to discuss your possible membership in the Legion?"
Devin nodded, "Sun Wu said you would need to interview me. I'm guessing you're the clan leader?"
Traveler shook his avian head, "We don't have a chain of command. Sun-Wu and some other members thought I was the best choice to interview you. Do you know what it means to join the Legion?"
"It means becoming a hacker."
Traveler nodded, "Why do you want to become a hacker?"
"I..." Devin paused. This was not what he expected. He was thinking there would be tests of logic and programming in store for him, but this was something else. "I hate that I have to pay for every single experience online. I love data sanctuaries, but there isn't enough information in them. Why do I have to pay others to know anything?"
Traveler smiled, "Have you ever heard of the Library of Alexandria?"
"Only that it's ancient," Devin replied.
"It was once the greatest library on Earth," Traveler said. "Knowledge from all over the world was gathered inside it. History, Science, Culture-everything the ancient world knew about their world was contained there. Do you have any idea what we could learn about our ancestors from the scrolls it contained Omni?"
Devin shook his head.
"We will never know," Traveler continued, "because the Library was destroyed after centuries of data was collected inside of it. Centuries of data, Omni. Wiped out, and do you know why?"
Devin paused, "Ignorance?"
"Maybe," Traveler shrugged slightly. "Whether there were motives or if it was an accident we don't know, but we do know that much of that data was centralized in one place. It wasn't replicated into many locations.
"Today we have the ability to replicate data all over the world, but do we?" Traveler asked. "Instead we hoard it, make it proprietary, copyright it and manage content. Data has become the most valuable commodity there is, and only because people have engineered it that way." Traveler spread his hands out in front of Devin, revealing a glowing data cube.
Devin's breath caught in his throat at this, the Library of Congress.
"This library was once free Omni," Traveler said. "Just as the Internet once was. Unix, Apache, WWW-the technological innovations that triggered the Communications Revolution were established on free software." Traveler waited to let this last sink in. When he spoke again his tone was one of bitterness, "Then the Vectorialists divided it all up. They replaced Apache servers with Microsoft, phased out World Wide Web for Quality of Service-" he stopped, regarding Devin. "You want to say something."
Devin nodded reluctantly, "Those... market innovations, MS servers and QoS-they had their advantages, didn't they? We learned in school they brought greater controls to how the Internet was run-"
"At what price?" Traveler broke in. "They were innovations that allowed the existing corporations to prevent the emergence of competing innovations. They engineered all of this," Traveler gestured around him, at the Internet, "to squash the competition."
"Hm," Devin found himself suddenly burdened by all of this. "I see your point of view... but... I don't wholly accept that complete data... uh... liberation is the solution."
"The Vectorialists are destroying innovation," Traveler countered. "Their hoarding of ideas leaves nothing for others to build on."
Traveler regarded him in uncomfortable silence for some time. Finally he said, "I think you'll make an excellent addition to the Legion of Discord, Omni."
Devin was surprised, "You think I'll make a good hacker?"
"That I don't know," Traveler shook his head, "but when presented with a paradigm, your first reaction is to challenge it. You challenged me just now. When we part ways you will be immersed in their paradigm once again and you will challenge that. If it is as wrong as I believe, then you will help tear it down. If I am the one who is wrong, then theirs' was meant to be."
"Maybe balance is the answer," Devin offered.
"Here," Traveler reached out and placed the cube in Devin's possession. "This is why we hack Omni. Keep it safe."
Devin's real hands trembled as he held up the cube on a virtual pillar of energy. It was terabytes worth of data. "It's like holding the ocean in my hands," he gasped.
"Maybe fifty years ago," Traveler said. "Now this is only a drop in the information seas. The Legion of Discord is an entity with decentralized controls. We are all leaders and we must all preserve data to share with others. What you hold in your hands is invisible to copyright enforcement bots. I don't know how. Some guru from long ago developed and lost the secret to that encryption.