Mic has posted in the left frame paragraphs from Doc's Place, one of his copyrighted stories. I'm moderating chat here in the right frame. I post every day, but I don't post everything. I have formed a secondary group from which I may also post comments.

You were right, Benny. That was so quick and efficient it was anti-climactic.

Not that law enforcement cares, but a couple eyewitnesses believe they can vouch for Jill's presence at the bar at the time of the assault. Beyond that, only a few people on the planet know or care that Jill Price was even in Reno, Nevada that night, let alone that she might have perpetrated this assault.

Someone cared because I received the contract on Jill and the front money mere hours after this assault. As I mentioned, I was on my way to Reno a short while later.

Who could have predicted how your contract would eventually end, Alice? Not only do you end up working for Jill but also, years later, you're participating in the forum that discusses the significance of those events. Truth is stranger than fiction, no?

Jill is manipulating these events so that, eventually, she can visit devastation upon the old man who went after her in the first place. Alice, you are one part of Jill's machinations.

You used the metaphor of a chess game earlier, Benny. Is Alice simply a pawn?

Alice is not simply a pawn, Lucia. Her role is too significant. She is a piece—at least a rook, perhaps a bishop.

Thank you, Benny. It's so much better being a piece than a pawn.

Alice was a piece in her younger years, but not now.

And thank you, Doug. At my age, I'll accept any sexual innuendo—even at my expense and even in the form of a backhanded compliment like yours; however, you're not my type.

Spies and other such people planted by competitors are assets, of course. Incompetents are less interesting but still have their uses.

If no one minds, I have more questions about the previous topic. I wasn't finished yet. How does Pere deal with internal security issues such as competitors' spies or ordinary incompetence?

Pere employs numerous spies, several of whom receive payment from both our enemies and us. If someone has been at Pere a short time and proves incompetent, we fire the individual. If they have been with us longer, we retain them. However, instead of disabling or restricting access, SIA creates a virtual maze we call a nautilus which appears to be an entire organization. Many who use such access have become valuable assets for passing misinformation. Using nautiluses over the years has helped SIA persuade our competitors to waste billions chasing investments that they were certain had value to us. I'm not saying these investments have no value; they simply have no value to us. We have also persuaded them to sell their interest in properties we want.

You also use spies to get information about your competitors and enemies, right?

Using spies to gather information has been less necessary since the late 90s when Pere began accessing all information regardless of where it resides or what restrictions it has.

Correct, Cyril. Beyond that, we have had access to all systems throughout the world since the late 80s; if it's digital and it stores data, we have access to it. Regarding spies however, we still employ them where the objective is not necessarily information but manipulation or simply an agent in place to commit a single act before withdrawing in some innocuous or spectacular way as necessary, depending upon the circumstances.

Does Pere experience security breaches?

All the time. Every open portal in the Pere network, real or fake, has one or more nautiluses available with rich information resources available such as credit card numbers and so on. When these numbers begin showing up against expenditures, we track down the phreaks, crackers or hackers so we can employ them for our own purposes, whether they realize it or not.

But they're just hacking the ordinary binary network, right? No one has cracked the organic network, have they?

Yes to the former and no to the latter. No one knows it exists. If they do, they don't know how to access it. Even if they figure it out, where do they look for data? Sagebrush in Montana? Cephalopods in the deep coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific? Bacteria in Carlos' septic tank? Each of those examples has the potential to store infinite amounts of data. Once you've found data, what do you have—Thomas Jefferson's DNA or a history of the California redwoods?

I haven't mentioned this yet, but almost the entire organic network has a natural latency; that is, it's slow on retrieval. Some of the direct queries we initiated back in 1997 are still running and producing data—albeit slowly. Those queries may run forever for all we know. Since direct queries into the organic network produce data but at an insufferably slow rate, we developed an interface that uses predictive, interactive queries.

Finally, if anyone has the talent to crack the organic network, or the neural network as we call it, they work for us whether they know it or not. We're the only ones who recognize such talent in children and give them direction and purpose. Most so-called experts consider such children to be idiot savants, autistic, hoodlums, juvenile delinquents and so on.

National and other levels of government can be both customers and competitors of Pere, can they not?

Yes; Pere and Midori have long- and short-term contracts with governments throughout the world. Where a government will not do business with Pere on our terms, SIA recruits spies to take over one of its bureaus—most often a nationalized industry.

How do you communicate on the neural network? Just talk, nod and so on?

Yes. The neural network stores as data every individual's verbal and non-verbal cues or signs within relevant context that gives meaning to such cues or signs. It embeds this data within wider relevant context such as family, peer group, culture and so on.

Wait. Are you saying that a satellite with cameras in space can detect your nod or shrug?

No, but the implants detect such small motions and store them as data. The satellites pick it up and then download it to earth-side stations, which interpret the data and store it on organic network nodes where it is accessible to us.

Anthropology and the social sciences call it thick description: detailed explanations of verbal and non-verbal cues or signs within relevant context.

Correct

Why do you bother storing look-up tables on the organic network, Lizzie? Just encrypt your predictive, interactive queries and the resulting data within the current body of human knowledge. Knowledgeable users know where to find and retrieve the query keys to retrieve data. Use algorithms that cache most-frequently-used and most-recently-used communications, queries and data in unexpected patterns in clear text and images. Hackers will see it on the binary network—the Internet—as just that, text and images. They won't realize that the clear text and images contain embedded, encoded queries and data because those queries and data form unfamiliar patterns. Use the organic network's infinite storage potential to archive backup copies and the least-frequently-used and least-recently-used data.

I've been programming for almost 30yrs and I see familiar phrases in what you just posted but I don't understand it, Benny. What are you talking about?

You've just proven my point, Alan. Programmers like you won't be able to see what is right in front of your face because you won't expect to see it. Do you understand what I'm saying, Lizzie?

I'll be damned. That's an excellent idea, Benny. To be honest, no, I don't understand you but Sara does. In fact, she has already begun implementing your idea and has a few questions for you off-line. Anyone else have questions on the neural network?

How do you put up satellites without the scientific and military communities knowing about it? And don't tell me you hide your satellites within current payloads because every ounce is accounted for on space vehicles.

As far as putting up our payloads, yes Cyril, technicians account for every ounce of payload going up but they ignore what doesn't return. We embed our payload in what eventually becomes debris and space junk, which gradually assembles itself in orbit. We assembled the first satellite in 1997, the second in 1998 and redundant satellites after every launch since. Pere has placed organic materials on payloads in every launch since 2000. When these organics appear to die, the crew or ground controllers jettison them. Once they're free, the organics make their way to a nearby satellite where they take up their abode and begin fulfilling their function. Pere has had to replace only 2 of these satellites in 9 years. Even with antennae and solar collectors extended, our satellites are no larger than your hand, and they are filled with organic material. Space agencies simply ignore as space junk such tiny objects without a detectable energy signature.

I can't find a single patent to protect these developments.

Pere has never applied for a patent and never will do so because it attracts attention. Instead, we encourage someone within one of the global cartels to apply for or to buy up all the best patents and then sit on them. Pere or a government bureau develops the patented technology or process and uses it but doesn't produce it for sale so no one knows or cares.

Has anyone else noticed how many times "What?" or some form of "damn" has appeared in this post session and the last? It's probably fair to say that all of us have learned things we either had never conceived or never thought possible until now. I think it's funny that hiding queries and data in plain sight within unexpected patterns never occurred to Sara and yet Pere has been using the identical method for hiding their communications satellites for decades. Even experts can't see the data and the satellites because they are hiding in patterns that the experts don't expect to see.

This reminds me of the movie, A Beautiful Mind, about the mathematician, John Nash, Benny. He sees unexpected patterns but society shows him that he is paranoid and delusional.

I think it was Kurt Cobain who said, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you," or something like that. To paraphrase, "Just because you see patterns that others can't see doesn't mean that the patterns aren't there or that the patterns have no meaning." This brings me to my next question. Why tell us now, Lizzie? Since you are telling us now, why use this medium?

What do you imagine is the reason?

I can imagine a couple: it no longer matters or you want recognition for what you've done. More likely, however, it's time for specific things to happen. Putting out the word like this will catalyze events that will make those things happen. As for using this medium, few pay attention to one more blog site among the thousands on the Internet.

There's more to it than just catalyzing events. You are right however, about the time being right for specific things to happen. Part of it is that we want people to begin accepting the idea of a benevolent dictatorship of women. We have a few male figureheads prepared but everyone may as well get used to women taking over permanently.

We will reveal the rest of our reasons and the details behind them in time. One of the patterns we cannot predict with much accuracy at all is how this discussion will develop. We have actually tried based upon the participants and their conversational patterns but every time Mic or Lucia adds someone and every time Benny or Amalie come up with a new idea, it throws off our predictions.

Of course, we could not possibly have predicted the appearance of either Amalie or Benny. Both of you have been pleasant surprises.