The Clinic Seed - Africa
Keith Henson
Page 6 of 6
Zaba visited with the few remaining families in person, then returned to the clinic and the spirit world. She was not inclined to leave it again.
December 2045
By the start of the dry season in 2045 the presence of physical-state humans was rare, not just in the tata Suskulan served, but also in a wave moving south along the routes Lothar, Mabo and their fellow clinic seed planters had traveled so long ago. Suskulan used extensions made of utility fog to keep the leaves and fallen palm fronds swept out of the tata. The weatherproofed tata required little other maintenance.
May 2046
A few months after the last family from the tata moved into the spirit world with no intent to come out, Suskulan rounded up the tata's elders. Some of them were living in simulated palaces with dozens of simulated servants and companions.
Taking on his translucent vestige from his first meeting with them, he addressed the group in a simulation of the physical-world clinic.
"Remember the leopard who pissed on Lothar's Land Rover when he brought the clinic seed to your tata?"
They did and laughed at the memory.
"That leopard has been nosing around the empty physical-world tata."
Suskulan showed them video of the large curious cat cautiously investigating the neatly maintained but empty tata.
"The physical-world tata is your property, and for that matter, the clinic that is Suskulan is your property." Suskulan reminded them, "You exchanged a valuable fetish for it." The elders accepted this, though it made them a bit uncomfortable.
"Would you mind if the leopard slept in one of the houses?"
"Will you chase him out when we go back to visit the physical world?" one of them asked.
With assurances from Suskulan that he would run the leopard off anytime anyone ventured back into the physical-world tata they said the leopard could sleep in the tata.
The tata was home to the leopard for the rest of his life.
Continue reading: Chapter One or Chapter Three
BIO
Keith Henson (born 1942)
As a proto-transhumanist, Keith's life is scattered over electronics, space engineering, memetics, cryonics, nanotechnology, evolutionary psychology and free speech to name just a few. He has run his own businesses and acted as a consultant since a 1972 dismissal for refusing to certify an electronic module for nuclear power plant use that failed to meet the required MTBF (Mean-Time-Between-Failure) specification. He was once described as a person of integrity by a Deputy DA who prosecuted him for picketing a cult over its lethal practices.
While hiding out from the Scientology cult, Keith started writing a post-singularity novel in which one chapter required so much research it became the base for a presentation at a European Space Agency Conference in February 2007 (A 2000 tonne per day Space Elevator).
For further information regarding Keith Henson, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Henson