In the 22nd century, mankind flew. It was in 2107 that man knew revolution.

Fire, the wheel Writing, Electricity, Fission; ten thousand years of innovation and mankind knew nothing of true power, or true freedom. Ten thousand years; mankind saw the fire and wanted it and needed it and reached for it. Ten thousand years, he had been denied it; until finally he built himself a tower, and snatched it from the Gods. It began with the creation of the internet: a primitive global information network that connected the computing machines of the world in to a magnificent whole. Innovative, revolutionary, but a pathetic obsoletion compared to what was to come. The internet was limited at first, obscure, unknown, used only by those who knew, useless to those who knew not. Then things were simplified, streamlined, universalized. The internet became global, became important; became necessary. Mass distribution of cellular devices made the internet miniaturized; people became connected and democratized and powerful. The masses had a voice, the faceless multitude a means, the organized mobs a method. Businesses started, profited, rose, became giants, became necessary. Speed and efficiency was everything, information was power, and access to information was the social imperative, then, the social norm. But this was not the way. Miniaturization led to the need for greater connection. And information was pushed through cables near the speed of light, as fast as they could be pushed. But this too was not the way. Around the same time that corporations pondered, governments convened, in secret, to begin the Morpheus Initiative: a military science project. Create realistic combat scenarios without equally realistic casualties. The result was the NSN, the Neural Sense Network; mankind had finally created a perfect Virtual Reality. Too perfect. Dead soldiers suffered brain damage and went into a catatonic state. They were healthy, but they were not alive. The project was scrapped and forgotten. But progress has a will of its own, and in 2054 the project was salvaged by a small telecommunications company Singularity. They obtained it with one purpose: Create a new form of communication. With limited equipment, shallow pockets and brilliant minds, they succeeded. They created a virtual space that could be shared between two users allowing for virtual face-to-face meetings. Singularity sold this product as Sivinn (pronounced seven), for SIngularity VIrtual Neural Network. At first the product had abysmal sales. The equipment was expensive, unwieldy, inefficient; unattractive. The discovery and creation of nano-scale room temperature super-conductors changed this, and everything else. Singularity reinvented Sivinn, making it smaller, streamlining the production process, hiring marketers to make it look chic and beginning a global marketing campaign that would cost Singularity every penny of their profits and reserves since their inception. The end result was a ring shaped structure that covered the eyes and ears and went around the head. Superconductors made energy efficiency a laughable concern; streamlined production

processes and cheaper synthetic materials made it inexpensive. Neural connections were maintained by nano-wires which entered through the ear canal and connected to the brain. Safe, easy, and new. All other forms of communication were abandoned. Hundreds of telecommunication companies went bankrupt; larger corporations refused to surrender. They created their own Virtual Networks, and in a few years Sivinn Network was competing against 15 other Virtual Networks, and a number of privately run and underground networks, whose existence was well-heard of but not well-known. But this was only the spark. Sivinn was primitive, the dangers of the Morpheus Initiative demanded limitation. One case of death, one fool with a purpose and billions would be lost; progress would lose its momentum, humanity would be pushed back, stumble, miss a rung in the stair of ascension; better to be limited, primitive, then risk losing everything. But progress always has a will of its own. No one is exactly sure when, but sometime in the year 2062 a group of underground networks began playing a game in the Virtual Space. Catch. The virtual space, thought to be finite and limited, was an infinite space waiting to be manipulated. There were no rules, until you made them. There were no limits until you set them. It was infinite until you made it finite. What was once lost, scrapped in fear, forgotten in haste, was finally remembered. From there it was only a matter of time and money. The game spread to the commercial networks. The game was taken up, modified, remade, remarketed and resold by Sivinn. Competition led to innovation. The danger of virtual death, whimsically called the divide by zero problem was circumvented. Have them disconnected from the network before they die, create a failsafe that would prevent brain damage, create it, test it, deliver it and do it fast, do it before everyone else does it and do it right. It was done. And then, new prospects, programs could be written, the spaces could be made bigger, allow more users, ten minds made a building. What would a million minds make? Then virtual cities arose. A billion minds? Then virtual worlds were created. Reality became a choice. The laws that so long bound our hands and bowed our heads were forgotten as shackles of an old era. Freedom from the uncontrollable, independence from the unexplained, immunity from the inevitable. But still there was limitation. Still there was necessity. The fever raged, better simulations, larger worlds, ever greater freedom, but still anchored to the cohesive mass. A single cell among the organism. And the still greater annoyance: the necessity of return, the basic need, food, shelter , rest; reality. Only an escape, only a respite, a vacation, a temporary flux, not reality, not true freedom. Technology, however much it advances us, however much it profits us, however much it separates us from our baser natures, however much it defines our character, always reaches a threshold. One born of heart rather than mind, and soul rather than cell. It comes down to a simple question: how much of our humanity are we willing to sacrifice for Godhood? How much

of our morality to go beyond morality? How many of our fingers to grasp the fire? Here lies the barrier, here is the wall. And when we go forward, when we break this wall and dissolve this barrier, we may look back, but we cannot go back. We may step back, but only half a step, not the full step. What we see and learn, beyond that barrier and over those walls, we can never unsee nor unlearn. Whatever sacrifice we make to break that wall we cannot recover, whatever blood we spill or may spill is as lost as the hands that spill them, the red hands that no water will make white again. For the wall is us and the barrier is man; the threshold is conscience, morality, humanity. For to make something new is to destroy something old and the farther we rise the more of ourselves we lose, until what we were is forgotten and we what are is a prelude an intermission to what we can be. So we are cautious and we are careful, but we are curious too, and even the caution of the many cannot halt the curiosity of the few. To be con.