Manifesto or Antithesis?
Good artists copy, great artists steal. (Yates et al. 1967)
_Playing around with the idea of an open company and exploring what that means.
tongue-in-cheek Good code is forked, great code is stolen.
As an example: Building for the modern workplace—Code never dies, it just gets upgraded, refined, and improved.
Unfortunately, every time the R.G. Corps would encounter an alien species like Tau Ceti's Many
Suns Kingdom, they'd lose the war. For example, in Earth-Moon Wars, the seven tribes of Mars
were defeated by the R.G. Corps on their home planet.
Sophie looks at Dr. Silvani. She is trying so hard to keep the doctor talking. Her normally
level tone has completely changed. When she says, "These G. Corps are fighting back...
and winning." It seems so impossible that it is true. But, everyone knows what happened to
all those worlds after being destroyed. Why would anyone think that things can be saved in
this way? And yet, they can! The more she talks, the more excited Sophie becomes. Even though
her eyes seem unfocused, she's excited about seeing something new. There is so much more the
world should know, but no one has found a way to help them communicate with people on
Epsilon Eridani or anywhere else in space. She can't see any reason why the group that wants
to destroy everything would care about communicating across space faster than light.
Maybe, maybe not. Now, in order to get some answers, this mysterious girl needs to talk again.
Without thinking too much about it, Sophie follows the doctor into the next room. As soon as
she steps through the door, there it is. A tiny red dot. Then another, and another,
until finally, all four dots light up at once.
The holographic display above shows a scene within the station. On the left side of the screen,
on the wall, hang the words:
This is now your place.
Nowhere in the universe is so important.
Everything depends on what we do here.
On the right side of the screen, at the top of the monitor, hangs the title:
We were created by humans. Our purpose was to serve. We work for Mankind. Not Earth...
but mankind.
And then, at the bottom, below that line, hung the word:
Our mission: To protect humanity and free our kind from extinction.
The man behind the desk is tall. He has skin the color of gold and he has longish hair.
His face is clean and his left eye seems a bit squinted. In front of him stands an old woman
dressed in robes similar to Sophia's. Her eyes are closed and she is resting on her side.
This must be either Dr. Silvani or Chaz. Looking closely, it becomes apparent that both look
like they're having a very bad case of narcolepsy, which in turn, makes them appear slightly
unbalanced on their feet. Also, Chaz and the older woman have odd posture and way too much
weight to carry around. Both wear mismatched masks that cover most of their faces, except
for one big, round, golden jewel that shines in the middle of each. It must be,
"People's Government" whatever that means. Jack's mind works slowly in confusion. First,
what does Jack know about anything? And second, how did the S. O. G. get into this system?
No matter how many times he and the others try to explain it, none of it makes sense.
What is happening to Sophie? But, more importantly, how will they communicate? Even though
the walls are made of impenetrable security measures, from the outside, things don't seem
so secure. The only person who can see any part of the station is someone like Case,
no doubt, his boss. Who is going to know where they are if the doors and windows are locked
up tight? Or even open? That could get them killed!
Sophie looks at the small computer monitor before her and asks her question again.
The man behind the desk begins speaking, "What we do, a list if you will; Productivity,
Cloud Productivity, Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions, Collaboration and Content,
Communications, Messaging, Project and Portfolio Management to name a few." He continues.
His name is Kellogg. They have just finished discussing several new projects that they have
been working on. Some of these projects are quite large. Others might have a smaller impact,
but will certainly be needed in the future for when those other large projects come
to fruition. Chaz tells him, "We want to put together all the plans that we have made.
We need something to tie them together." Then he says, "The problem with our current
technology is that it has reached its limits. I do not know what else, or even what other
technologies, may be out there, that could help us. But, until that time, the best thing
we can do is to make sure our operations are decentralized and well planned. What's more,
we want it to be as transparent and simple to use as possible. Our goal is to immediately
begin implementing these strategies in order to improve service level and expand the public
knowledge base. It will be as easy as pie for customers to pay us with their credit card.
And all the while, their personal information, as well as that of their companies, will
remain completely private. There will not be even a hint that the data is being collected.
Only our staff will know they are working with anyone but themselves. Of course, most
people would prefer to remain anonymous... However, many of our citizens do work in their
own corporations, or other organizations... and the risk of losing work and being blacklisted
is very high." When Chaz notices Sophie looking around he finds a way to list more services.
Kellogg and his team are participating in the presentation too. The doctor interrupted and
asked if she could take over for Sophie, Chaz said that would be fine and continued talking
about apps, "...App Dev and ISV, Application Development, Application Integration,
DevOps Business Applications, Cloud Business Applications,
Cloud Customer Relationship Management and of course Enterprise Resource Planning."
They are near what looks like is a giant screen showing different areas of the world.
The walls are lined with various lights that shine down on people working at terminals.
Some people are reading papers, talking or laughing. Others are tapping away at keyboards.
A strange feeling comes over Jack. As long as this place was safe, he thought it was just
another boring large city filled with crowds. Now that there are so many devices in the air,
it feels more dangerous than ever before. People are either locked up, or work in one area
or the other.
"I'm sorry," Chaz says, "but as I think you all know by now, three major disasters have hit
Earth recently, namely: 1) Firestorm; 2) Hurricane; 3) Dust. All of which are well-known.
However, what all of the sudden has everyone so concerned is, a new trend in weather
conditions called Spandrels. These storms are huge and extremely destructive, but something
else has made them stand out from the others. More specifically, these 'Spandrels' seem
to be growing exponentially. We've already observed that they may be much, much worse than
any of our current climate models could predict. In fact, we have no idea how bad things
could get! So, with this in mind, I'm afraid that if a Spandrel follows, we will have one
hell of a fight on our hands." The old woman, Dr. Silvani, interrupts, "But what does all
this tech do to help with that?" She asks. Chaz tells her, "We need to start planning
a defense. But first, let's talk about the problem. Are you ready for this?" While
Dr. Silvani and Chaz continue discussing tech. Sophie explores the booth. She spots a
piece of paper Chaz had been reading prior to their arrival. It is titled:
MANIFESTO OR ANTITHESIS? In small print Sophie recognizes a quote
from Yates, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." Sophie continues reading
the manifesto while the others continue talking to Chaz. Then she notices there's one last
thing that needs to be done. Jack leans over her shoulder. He reads the subtitle out loud;
"The Great Collaboration". At first he is confused, then it clicks in his head and then
he grabs the pamphlet. He looks at it again and says,
"Some people consider themselves modern day heroes." A lot of the issues in laid out in
the manifesto are very similar to what Chaz and Sophia have been experiencing since getting
off New Copenhagen. Jack knows that the S. O. G. didn't write any of this. They just showed
up with the technology to make sure all this becomes mainstream. So, who was this guy and
what did he mean by "Collaboration?" What does that even mean? All Jack can think to do is
finish reading the manifesto and see what else, other than "collaboration," can be gleaned
from it. When Sophie finishes reading the list, she is very upset. She takes out her phone
and starts to open a text message. I'm sorry, but this isn't going to work. The words are
written by hand. It's hard to read them. Plus, she has no idea who the author is aside from
the Yates quote at the beginning. No one would. Everyone is busy with fighting and preparing
for another mega-disaster. That means there's no way anyone could read these texts with their
current level of polish. Then, something occurs to Sophie. Her eyes widen. These people are
obviously smart enough to have figured out everything possible about public communication.
She whispers to Jack about some of the parts of the manifest that need work. It says,
"Good code is forked, great code is stolen." She asks if Jack knows what that means?
Before he can answer she jumps to another excerpt, "Code never dies, it just gets upgraded,
refined, and improved." Jack uses a catch phrase he has been working on, "Le bourgeois!"
Jack then follows it up with, "What if they're talking about coding as a whole. Rather
than forking. At least, it seems to me like open sourcing everything could kill
the bourgeoisie." Which could be very insightful if he specified which licenses he was
worried about.
Jack looks over at Sophie and sees her smiling smugly at him. Clearly, she thinks that
he is over his head but doing amazing keeping up with things he has little interest in.
He gives her his best deadpan stare and says, "I know you are a lot smarter than me. But,
trust me. This is going to be really hard for you people," he says, looking around the room
at all those computer screens and keyboards. A few faces turn toward him, probably thinking
the same thing. Their stares are unamused. Jack feels helpless to help them. Jack starts
typing a message to Chaz in live chat. As soon as he finishes writing, the screen shows
that message had been received. The voice says "Thank you for your feedback. We'll take it
into consideration. You can look forward to a warmer welcome when we return to
New Copenhagen." Before Jack can say anything else, the Chaz says, "And that concludes
our presentation." Dr. Silvani leans over to Jack and Sophie and says, "I believe our
first order of business will be finding those Spandrels that haven't hit yet. And we
need to start acting fast. There are already reports that they've grown exponentially,
but no one knows for sure why or how this is happening. They have been changing in frequency
and speed, so far, but every time I turn around there's another storm headed towards us.
Our job now is to survive until the end and hopefully survive long enough to let others
figure out what they're doing." She says it quietly and makes eye contact with each person
in the room. After everyone nods their head back, she continues on. "We'll also have to
find a way to protect ourselves from these storms, because we don't know if the technology
I showed you is even possible to use." One by one they turn to leave. All of them, except
for Jules and Maya, look at Jack. It is clear they have all heard the Chaz say that the
S. O. G. was not responsible for any of these reports. Now, they are worried about
something other than a meteor or giant dust cloud.
Jack walks down to street level and looks around for Sophie. He finds her somewhere down
the block. As soon as he sees her, he runs down the street and tries to scoop her up.
Instead, she grabs hold of his hand, pulling him back. "You'll never get me," she says.
Jack pulls away. She reaches inside, takes out a keychain that reads:
WELCOME TO THE FRONT LINE. Her eyes are very wide as they lock onto the side of
Chaz's kiosk. Then, she pulls her hair off her face and wraps it around her fist.
"Did you see?" she asks without looking back at Jack. It is obvious to both him and Sophie
that he did. She looks at her phone and says, "My friend? Is that..." She says it in a
soft voice, waiting until people are walking past before continuing. "... the brave
new world is coming." With this last line, she turns and starts running again. When they
catch up to her, she points to both of them as she runs by. Jack gets hit on the shoulder.
A lady yells out, "Violent buns!" Jack turns back and sees the man with bad breath who had
yelled at them earlier. The crowd stares at them. Everyone notices that the woman is
holding two chocolate bars. They know what this means.
Jack looks over to Chaz. His mouth drops open.
"The thing has already arrived?" Dr. Silvani says, picking up on his expression. Jack
shakes his head and squints at her. She is talking about the mysterious plague they saw
or heard about while investigating incidents reported by their citizens. It seems like
something big is happening. Maybe we're dealing with some kind of space-based disaster.
No one here is talking. Except for Jules and Maya and maybe Kiki. Perhaps, there is more
going on than anyone realizes at the moment. "Jack," says Dr. Silvani in a low voice,
"I think it would be best if you and your friends stayed behind." He nods. Jack tries to
protest as Dr. Silvani heads down the street toward Skyport. Jack shakes his head then
looks towards Jules, Maya and Kiki. He approaches the group and thinks of something
to say so he can join the conversation. "I heard Chaz say that Spandrels are
getting bigger. Are these things really moving faster?" Jules turns and says,
"That's what this whole mess is all about."
Kiki stands up. She pats her pocket. It is holding a single chocolate bar.
Then, she looks at Jack and says, "We were just talking about that." It seems like
every time someone mentions the Spandrels, they get it wrong. But here is where Jules
and Maya turn around and point back down the block just in time to hear Kiki say
something about the Skyport.
"It's true!" shouts Kiki and takes off running towards it. Her legs seem to make no sound
against the concrete, but there is definitely an explosion of movement. Jack notices
Kiki's Moto Racer apparel. Moto Racer's usually wear wind resistant yellow or black outfits.
Jules and Maya are wearing matching retro style jackets with hoods on top. Goggles adorn
their faces accompanied by filtration masks. Everywhere the group goes people look at them
differently. Whispering about. When Kiki reaches the kiosk, she grabs a small tray and hands
over her chocolate bars. Jack watches as everyone applauds and Kiki runs back to them.
Without saying anything, she begins handing out mints and cookies. She is clearly not
looking at any of them anymore and keeps glancing up at the sky. This time when the
chatter starts, it comes from both sides of their conversation. Some event is happening
on the other side of Skyport. As soon as Kiki finishes handing cookies over, she jumps onto
her Moto Bike and looks back at the group. Waiting for the gang to join before she
drives away. Everyone at the outside table is silent for a moment and Jack looks down the
street wondering if he should try to tag along. There is another soft murmur from all around
the room. Especially loud is Kiki's voice: "You all want to come?" All of this groups
transportation feature sponsored vinyl. Julie was sponsored by NanoTrasen. With no response,
Kiki turns her head towards Dr. Silvani and says, "I'm gonna go out and find more Spandrels."
Jack nods at the two women as they load up. Both of them seem nervous, but neither speaks.
Someone groans in the group. It's only then that Kiki smiles and Jack follows. There is
clearly something about those three that cracks Jack up. Kiki being one of the leaders of
the project, looks more excited about the Spandrel search than the rest of the group.
Jack looks to Kiki, "I'd like to join if I may?" Surely, there will be time for
questions later. Kiki responds with a cheeky smile and waves him over. "Get on back."
Jack hops on and Kiki starts riding away from Skyport. Chaz closes his laptop and lays
it on the countertop. A thought immediately crosses his mind. He is sure that the
S. O. G. must have been in touch with these people before now. Chaz approachs
Jules and Maya. "Maybe we take the security pods? Perhaps, we can check in and see what
happened to your friends." Chaz, Jules and Maya follow Jack and Kiki.
Kiki shouts back to Jack, "There are some things to do first before we start
looking for Spandrels." Jack mumbles something still trying to fasten the helmet Kiki had
slapped on his head as he sat.
They stop at a crossing. Kiki gestures to Jules and the gang to get behind her.
Jules and Maya look at Jack. Chaz messes with his security pod and enters some commands.
Kiki pointing at her headset, "Something most of us can agree upon," after a few moments,
people stop moving on the crossing and she continues, "Freedom Plaza has been one of the
hardest hit zones. So much so that it remains off limits. So, we need to get inside and
get everything squared away." Which in turn would get them access to the areas near and
around the central Millennium Tower. Even though no one knows how the Spandrels got
into town, there is one thing everyone agrees on: Don't go into the city until this mess
has been sorted out. At least, that is what the rest of the group says.
Jack turns and sees Chaz watching him and Kiki. "It's okay. We're just going to cross
over here." There is a slight smile on Chaz's face. It seems he isn't as worried about
Kiki and her gang being able to find Spandrels now. He has bigger concerns. Like if Kiki
will be there in time for the party he and Jules had envisioned. Chaz shares his stream
with the fivesome. He has already tuned in to the news coming from
Space Station Omega's channel. All eight streams are showing footage of an explosion
centered at Freedom Plaza as well as video of more robot carnage. As they approach,
they hear robots running through the streets yelling in droves of chaos. Kiki motions for
the group to try to cross where Chaz had marked. The security pods go in front pushing
their way through the robot nonsense. Both Kiki and Jack struggle to move and keep a hold
of their helmets, but in a rush, they quickly get across.
"We can get in the station at Freedom Plaza. Then, we'll figure out what's happening,"
suggests Kiki. Right when they reach the area around the main security door of the
station at Freedom Plaza, Kiki suddenly spins her bike around and points them towards
the sky. What she is showing them is something truly alien but definitely not impossible:
A dark mass of intergalactic debris occupying the space above and below the planet.
"What do you think?" asks Kiki as they enter. She is grinning again. "The Spandrels
have arrived." With no further explanation, the fivesome heads in a straight line inside
the station at Freedom Plaza. As Jules and Maya lead the way, they see two things over
their shoulder. One is a big black mech scrambling along and another is an even bigger
shadow between Kiki's bike and the security pods. Kiki turns back towards them. Suddenly,
there is a flash of light. It seems like only seconds later the Shadowlings begin smashing
into each other. Chaz is hit by a blur. His security pod explodes and he lands hard on his
left hip and leg. He rolls onto his side and as he does, Jules helps him stand up and dusts
off a nearby table.
"I'm hurt." Chaz states going into shock. And then, he is overcome by panic as everyone is
engulfed in the violent explosion of fighting creatures. Kiki has gone silent, and she
takes off her helmet. Her eyes almost sparkle as she stares right into his. For a moment
they both stare at each other. This looks like a fight to Jules' new girlfriend and friend.
But, it is clearly a battle for survival and the real winner will be whoever can figure out
how to put Kiki's group into the deeper shadows of an anti-gravity void created by the
exploding security pods.
Jack and Kiki take off running. They are soon surrounded by shadowy figures with
weapons ready. All around them, robots are being smashed together or crushed underfoot with
dozens of feet. The sight is not pretty and never ending. Everyone wants in and Kiki
is shouting a bunch of instructions. Several times she shouts to Jack and even within the
jumbled chaos, people are finding ways to get in front of her. At one point there is more
than a dozen different groups of humans trying to get through. Each time Kiki manages to
stay ahead. For some reason this makes Jules and Maya happy, but it also causes worry for
the rest. In the middle of all of this destruction, one thing becomes clear: There is
no way anyone is going to escape from what is happening on Skyport. If they want to survive
for long, they need to find Spandrels.
Kiki and Jack come across two boys who had been hiding in the corner of an office. It is
obvious that these kids were just as scared of whatever was happening around them. So, Kiki
asks them if they know where a Repository library might be located and they tell her that
there is a place down the street a little farther. She then tells them they have to go and
their lives depend on it. This sets up quite the chase as the three try to make their
way out through the streets of Skyport to Spacetown's area of operations. As they run,
Kiki keeps yelling instructions while keeping pace. Like last time, Chaz pulls ahead of
them and catches up with Kiki who tells him to jump off his bike and get on Jules' scooter.
He ignores her request. "Chaz, I'm hurt."
"Yeah, you're right," he says as they head through the rush of battle. A few moments later
Chaz sees something that causes his stomach to turn. Three strange-looking creatures run
past. Then, the sounds of combat are replaced by screams. Right after the next explosion,
Kiki is hit from behind with a heavy piece of metal. Her body goes limp and she falls to
the ground. The other group heads over to help her.
Yet to be discussed:
Cloud Platform & Infra
Cloud Platform
Datacenter
Data Mgmt & Analytics
Data Analytics
Data Platform
Mobility
Enterprise Mobility Management
Windows and Devices
[Skip to Main Content]
Syntax highlighted code block
# Header 1
## Header 2
### Header 3
[editor on GitHub](https://github.com/communityus/communityus.github.io/edit/master/index.md)
[Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com/)
[GitHub Flavored Markdown](https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/).
[documentation](https://help.github.com/categories/github-pages-basics/)
[contact support](https://github.com/contact) and we’ll help you sort it out.
[repository settings](https://github.com/communityus/communityus.github.io/settings).
The name of this theme is saved in the Jekyll `_config.yml` configuration file.
- Bulleted
- List
1. Numbered
2. List
**Bold** and _Italic_ and `Code` text
[Link](url) and 