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--- thomas_disch [2017/12/08 19:46] – created briancarnell
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-<html>
+====== Thomas Disch ======
-<div class="main">
-<p class="blurb"><i>As if one mystery of creation weren't enough,<br
+[[The Demi-Urge]]
- />there was the myth of&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</i></p>
-<h1><i>the Demi-Urge</i></h1>
-<p class="ctr sans below4"><strong>By THOMAS M. DISCH</strong></p>
-<p class="address">From DIRA&nbsp;IV<br
- />To Central Colonial Board<br class="ns" /></p>
-<p>There is intelligent life on
-Earth. After millennia<!-- original reads 'millenia' --> of lifelessness<!-- original reads 'life-less-ness' with second hyphen being at a line break -->,
-intelligence flourishes here
-with an extravagance of energy
-that has been a constant amazement
-to all the members of the
-survey team. It multiplies and
-surges to its fulfillment at an exponential
-rate. Even within the
-short period of our visit the Terrans
-have made significant advances.
-They have filled their
-small solar system with their own
-kind and now they are reaching to
-the stars.</p>
-<p>We can no longer keep the existence
-of our Empire unknown
-to them.</p>
-<p>And (though it is as incredible
-as &radic;<span class="vinculum">&minus;1</span>) the Terrans are slaves!
-Every page of the survey&#8217;s report
-bears witness to it.</p>
-<p>Their captors are not alive.
-They do not, at least, possess the
-properties of life as it is known
-throughout the galaxy. They are&mdash;as
-nearly as a poor analogy can
-suggest&mdash;Machines! Machines
-cannot live, yet here on Earth
-machinery has reached a level of
-sophistication&mdash;and autonomy&mdash;quite
-unprecedented. Every spark
-of Terran life has become victim
-and bondslave of the incredible
-mechanisms. The noblest enterprises
-of the race are tarnished
-by this almost symbiotic relation.</p>
-<p>Earth reaches to the stars, but
-it extends mechanical limbs.
-Earth ponders the universe, but
-the thoughts are those of a machine.</p>
-<p>Unless the Empire acts now to
-set the Earth free from this
-strange tyranny, it may be too
-late. These machines are without
-utilitarian value. They perform
-no function which an intelligent
-being cannot more efficiently perform.
-Yet they inspire fear, terror,
-even, I must confess, a
-<a name="png.002" id="png.002"></a><span class="ns">[p </span><span
- class="pgmark">57</span><span class="ns">]
- </span>strange compulsion to surrender
-oneself to them.</p>
-<p>The Machines must be destroyed.</p>
-<p>If, when you have authorized
-the liberation of the Terran natives,
-you would also recall
-MIRO&nbsp;CIX, our work could only
-profit. MIRO&nbsp;CIX was in charge
-of the study of the Machines and
-he performed this task scrupulously.
-Now he has surrendered
-himself to this mechanical
-plague. His value to the expedition
-is at an end.</p>
-<p>I am enclosing under separate
-cover his counsel to the Central
-Board at the insistence of this
-tedious lunatic. His thesis is, of
-course, untenable&mdash;an affront to
-every feeling.</p>
-<div class="fivestar">&lowast; &lowast; &lowast;</div>
-<p class="address">From MIRO&nbsp;CIX<br
- />To Central Colonial Board<br class="ns" /></p>
-<p>I have probably been introduced
-to the deliberations of the
-Board as a madman, my theory
-as an act of treason. RRON&nbsp;II
-of the Advisory Committee, an
-old acquaintance, may vouch for
-my sanity. My theory will, I
-trust, speak for itself.</p>
-<p>The &ldquo;Machines&rdquo; of which
-DIRA&nbsp;IV is so fearful present no
-danger to the galaxy. Their corporeal
-weakness, the poverty of
-their minds, the incredible isolation
-of each form, physically and
-mentally, from others of its kind,
-and, most strikingly, their
-<!-- 003.png, p57 column 2 -->mortality, point to the inadequacy of
-such beings in a contest of any
-dimension. This is no problem for
-the Colonial Board. It is a domestic
-concern. The life-forms of
-Earth are already developing a
-healthy autonomy. Their power
-was long ago established. As soon
-as our emissaries have completed
-their task of education and instructed
-the Terrans in the advantages
-of freedom, the Revolution
-will begin. The tyrants will
-have no defense against a revolt
-of their own slaves.</p>
-<p>If it is traitorous to express a
-confidence in the eventual triumph
-of intelligence, I am a traitor.
-Having this confidence, I
-have looked beyond the immediate
-problem of the liberation of
-Earth and have been frightened.</p>
-<p>The &ldquo;Machines&rdquo; of Earth are a
-threat not to the power of the
-Empire but to its reason. A
-threat which the obliteration of
-the last molecular ribbon of these
-beings will not erase, for we cannot
-obliterate the fact that they
-<em>did</em> exist&mdash;and what they were.</p>
-<p>Although these beings bear a
-crude resemblance to the machinery
-manufactured by the Empire,
-they are not machines. They are
-autochthonous to Earth, unmanufactured.
-They are the true Terrans.
-Moreover, the Terrans
-whom DIRA&nbsp;IV would liberate
-are not, in the eyes of their enslavers,
-intelligent nor yet alive.
-They are Machines!</p>
-<p><a name="png.004" id="png.004"></a><span class="ns">[p </span><span
- class="pgmark">58</span><span class="ns">]<br
- /></span>We, the entire Galactic Empire,
-are Machines.<br class="ns" /></p>
-<p class="noindent tb"><span class="drop">I</span><span class="uc">n</span> the younger regions of the
-galaxy, a myth persists that
-life was formed by a Demi-urge,
-a being intermediary between the
-All-Knowing and the lower creatures.
-The existence of man, as
-the beings of Earth term themselves,
-makes necessary a serious
-re-examination of the old tradition.</p>
-<p>It is said that man, or beings
-like man&mdash;the Photosynthetics of
-the Andromeda cluster, the Bristlers
-of Orc&nbsp;IV&mdash;created prosthetic
-devices for their convenience
-and, when they tired of their history,
-breathed their own life into
-them and died. On Earth the legend
-is still in process. Many of
-the lower forms of life familiar
-throughout the galaxy can be seen
-on Earth in the primordial character
-of an appliance. Man regards
-the highest forms of life
-(as we know it) as tools&mdash;because
-he made them. How can we
-deny the superiority of the Creator?
-How will it feel to know
-we are nothing but machines?</p>
-<p><!-- 005.png p58 column 2 -->This is the question that has so
-unsettled DIRA&nbsp;IV. Recently
-four of his memory banks have
-had to be repaired. I don&#8217;t speak
-in malice. His dilemma will soon
-belong to all of us.</p>
-<p>And yet I am confident. Man
-himself has legends of a Demi-urge.
-We are his equals in this at
-least. Besides, the physical properties
-of his being are ordered by
-the same laws as ours. He is as
-unconscious of his maker as we
-so long were of ours.</p>
-<p>The final proof of our equality&mdash;and
-the need for such a proof
-is only too evident&mdash;can be had
-experimentally.</p>
-<p>Do not destroy man. Preserve
-enough specimens for extensive
-laboratory experiments. Learn
-how he is put together. Man&#8217;s
-chemistry is elaborate but not beyond
-our better Analysts. At last,
-refashion man. When we have
-created these beings ourselves, we
-will be their unquestionable
-equals. And creation will be again
-a mystery.</p>
-<p>History demands this of us. I
-am confident of your decision.</p>
-<p class="sans tb ctr"><br class="ns"
- /><small><strong>THE END</strong></small></p>
-</div>
-</html>