Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Science Fiction
Publisher: eTreasures Publishing
ISBN-10: 1937809080
Type: Fiction
Pages: 391
Copyright: May 4, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781937809089
Price: $4.99 (eBook)
If we keep our noses glued to the computer day and night, what kind of society shall we create for ourselves?
About the SF novel SILICON SELF
While we continue to advance technology, we are also falling under the spell of the “rhetoric of the technological sublime” and unable to see the illusory capabilities of technology. The virtual world of cyberspace has many attractions. But it is also a dirge-like ode to the seclusion of people hardly aware of themselves, their family, and their society. Think of those who fall down dead of exhaustion while playing computer games for days together. Think of those absorbed endlessly into web surfing, email exchange, downloads, and other computing paraphernalia. Think of those who have given themselves up 24/7 to meet the professional challenges of technology and market. The elemental urges of an increasing number of IT zealots seem to be computation and competitive advantages rather than self preservation and sociability.
Is the insatiate human hunger for computing similar to the one that began in the Garden of Eden? Remember the consequences? A recent Stanford University study found that 14 percent of computer users neglected work, family, food, and sleep in order to remain online. The American Medical Association classifies Internet obsession as a psychiatric disease. Chinese psychologists recognize Internet addiction as a condition similar to compulsive gambling or alcoholic dependence, and camps are held to treat Internet addicts. In South Korea counselors wean children away from spending long hours on the Internet. Meanwhile, the online world continues to expand unabated. Virtual reality mongers could not have been happier, if they still know what happiness is!
The hiding places computer leads to is the antithesis of what IT utopians glamorously call “the global village” and “the society of the spectacle,” predicted in the 1960s. The computer is redefining the traditional relationship between humans and humans, and humans and machines, while humans adjust their evolution to the machine. The book examines this re-definition.
Are we paying too high a price for the power of technology? The novel discusses the price we are likely to pay.
While the book has a serious message, it is conveyed hilariously.
Excerpt
Her three failed marriages could shake her
resolve to marry an IT leader but for a while. Her fourth
husband was a technology leader in Technical Support.
On the first night, when they lay together in bed and it
was dark, he said, “I assure you, it’s about to be up.”
His statement was the stimulus she had been
waiting for. At last she would see some action on the
wedding night. A desire of sexual intimacy pervaded
her. She waited for him to open her clothes. But he did
not. Her desire rose to excitement. She removed her
clothes. She put her hand over his chest. He still had his
clothes on. She gradually unbuttoned his shirt.
“I assure you, it’s about to be up,” he reiterated.
Her excitement grew to a plateau. She was in a
delirium. Every passing moment was unbearable. She
could not wait any more. She slid her hand down from
his chest to unbutton his pants.
“I assure you, it’s about to be up.”
Her hand passed over his penis. It was down and
out like a knocked-out boxer. Surprised, she flicked on
a bedside lamp. She found he had a wireless phone in
his hand.
He said into the mouthpiece, “I assure you, it’s
about to be up.”
“Whom are you talking to?” she yelled.
“Shh! Don’t disturb. I’m talking to a customer
whose server is down.”
She jumped out of bed naked and shouted, “You
stupid!”
“I, stupid!” he exclaimed, without putting his hand
on the mouthpiece. “No, I’m not stupid. I’m a technology
leader engaged in the glorious task of carrying forward
the Information Revolution. I assure you the server will
be up any time. It’s a fault-tolerant server that can repair
its own fault.”
“Is there anything else that will be up?”
“No other customer has reported his server
down.”
“I mean, today is our wedding night,” she said as
if pleading for something.
“Is it? Oh, I forgot. Do you want me to invite
some customers and business partners to celebrate?”
“I wish I could make you understand the
problem.”
“I fully understand,” he said with confidence. “It’s
all about protocols. We’re now using fresh protocols.
The server has gone through five or six iterations. It’s
about time for it to be up.”
“You fool! Do you know anything about marriage
protocols? Tell me. No. You know nothing except
Information Technology.”
“I never knew there was anything worth knowing
except Information Technology. But, anyway, you want
to know something about marriage protocols? I can find
them out for you. Once the customer’s server is up, I’ll
browse on the Net and get the information. I can
develop myself a marriage protocol for real-time
application that enhances developer productivity by
higher performance through improved multi-user
coordination and connection.”
She put on her clothes, without once looking at
him. She was in such a fit of anger that she did not
know what to do.
He said, “I assure you I’m in love, honestly,
utterly, completely, absolutely-”
She looked at him, with flickers of hope in her
eyes.
He continued after a pause, “In love with the
customer. Customer is king. I can never let down the
customer, whatever else might be down. Customer
focus is the cherished ideal of everyone in UDIA.”
He wanted to impress her with his commitment
to the customer. To his surprise, she was not impressed
at all. She was surely not suited for UDIA.
“If the customer doesn’t mean anything to you
even on such an important occasion as our wedding
night, how can I ever have you as a wife?” he asked
shaking his left palm open upward. “I can’t live with you
even for a moment.”
“Who cares?” she shouted and breezed out of
the door.
She had remained a virgin even after four
marriages. There was nothing exceptional in this. In
Ultra Deep Information Age many men and women could hardly get the time
to take their noses off the computer. Besides, when
computers were running the human world instead of the
other way round and creating new beings of oneself at
one’s fingertips every moment and making the fingertips
the most important part of one’s body, mind, and soul,
virginity and marriage often went hand in hand,
depending upon the computing needs of one or both the
spouses. On rare occasions, something called sex also
played a small role, though it was at times not clear
whether sex had a greater part in virginity or marriage.
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