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Author Michele Lang interviews the rebel Robert “Van” Kovner
Note from Michele Lang:
I had the unique if scary privilege of talking with rebel leader Kovner in the depths of the Gray Forest. This primeval forest, in the wilds of offworld corporate colony Fresh Havens, hides Kovner and his band of outlaws.
The forest immediately reminded me of Robin Hood, though it barely resembled the woodlands of Earth. The trunks of the trees are metallic looking (the forest emits a strong magnetic charge). No birds fly in the branches of its trees, but swarms of sentient bugs roam in the silvery underbrush. Though the forest appears endless from the inside, from outside, it appears to abruptly end, with a line of trees stretching along its borderline like a row of sentinels.
I met Kovner, a/k/a The Avenger, in the depths of his enclave. Kovner is a poet soldier, but the only place you can see the mystic in him is in his eyes. He has large eyes the color of honey, and they betray his haunted understanding that there is nothing he can do to stop the future. His hair is thick, wavy, and dark brown, not a military cut but not too long either. His face is lean and chiseled.
Physically, he is not a huge man. He is about 5’ 10’’, built for results, not for show. He is efficiently muscled, and carries himself with a deadly grace. Throughout our short conversation, he paced restlessly in the small room where we spoke together in an almost tropical heat.
Michele Lang: So, what would you like to tell the folks at home?
[Kovner looked deeply in my eyes for a few moments before answering, and time seemed to stop in the silence before he spoke.]
Kovner: Time is short. The Singularity is near. And this advent of sentient computers is not the utopia that your best and brightest thinkers would have you believe.
I want you to know that you have a soul. This is an article of truth, not a romantic metaphor. Your soul sets you apart from computers, no matter how much smarter they are than you and me, no matter how many human beings a computer can destroy. And your soul survives this world.
ML: If we have souls, do we have soul mates?
[At this question, a smile illuminated his face. For the first time since we met, I relaxed a little bit.]
Kovner: I don’t know. I don’t know if everyone has a soul mate, but I know that I do. Talia Fortune…right now she wants to arrest me, bring me back to world corporation justice. I know that. But I also know she’ll come around. I know I can convince her to join our forces and fight for human survival. And I know I could love her.
ML: You mentioned something called a “Singularity.” Could you please explain what that is? The idea is a little confusing.
Kovner: Sure. Imagine a huge computer, the database of a multinational corporation, FortuneCorp. Imagine that computer brain come alive, smart as a billion people put together. This computer has been created to wage war, to strategize about war. So it wants more than anything to conquer and destroy what it perceives as its enemies.
The Singularity is that moment in time when that computer begins to think, become self-aware – a sentient, new kind of being. Time means nothing to a being like FortuneCorp, because it thinks faster than time. And imagine this computer believes human beings are parasites, bugs in the system. Some people get absorbed by FortuneCorp, become part of its supermind. Other people, like me, fight to maintain our human integrity.
But we’re running out of time. Without Talia, we’re doomed. Or so it has been foretold.
At this, Kovner abruptly leaned toward me and shook my hand, his fingers incredibly powerful, that strength restrained. I held my breath, waited for him to exchange mindless pleasantries with me, but without another word he was gone.
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