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vCity 1.0
Chapter 26
"...anarchy is not the principal evil which
democratic ages have to fear, but the least."
-- Alexis de Tocqueville --
With two full days to go on the referendum, the yes
vote has nudged ahead, helped by a large influx of voting from China. I’m
not sure whether this is a good development or not, but it no longer matters
what I think. If indeed it ever did.
There is an old saying: "When Beijing farts, all Hong Kong
defecates." That certainly applied in 1997; it is even more true today. One
might say that in general throughout history, when China farts, the rest of the
world notices. And they certainly have managed to leave a strange odor behind
on this issue.
Several times our servers and programs have been close to
overloading from the demands made upon the vCity voting system, but the network
management team designed it well, and it held up. According to the stats I
received from them, almost forty-two million votes have been cast in
eighteen days. That is more than two-thirds of the old vCity population. And
overall our residence figures have skyrocketed. Over eleven million new
vCitizens in June and the first week of July.
The government of China issued a brief statement denouncing
virtual pornography as "decadent" and "anti-democratic". I had to agree with
the former, but I wasn’t entirely clear about the latter. Anyway, it seems
that almost everyone in China with a PC and Internet access dutifully
registered to become vCitizens and voted yes to ban the site.
I wonder if the Chinese government truly understands the
magnitude of its strategic mistake in this regard. Or is it genius? Hard to
say. I don’t understand why they are undermining their own authority by
allowing Chinese citizens to participate in world democracy. Is it all some
attempt to demonstrate the political importance of China in world affairs?
Actually, it could be simpler than that. The Chinese are
the oldest capitalists in the world. Maybe they want to dominate the vCity as a
marketplace. It offers them an unlimited opportunity to advertise and showcase
their industries, and it gives them an instant eye on new product developments.
Well, whatever. The tally so far is twenty million, five
hundred thousand no (49%) and twenty-one million, five hundred thousand
yes (51%). Unless something weird happens, it looks as if the Exon
Inspiration site will vanish into the thin mist of the vCity archives.
I have received a barrage of telephone calls from media
journalists and business analysts. Even received a phone call from the
Executive Office of the White House. All of these messages were sitting on my
voice mail inbox. I routed all 178 of them to David Smythe-Johnson and let him
deal with them. If he doesn’t like it, he can blame himself.
"You are not to talk to anyone about anything," he said.
"If anyone calls you about corporate business, you refer them to me," he said.
I listened very carefully, as instructed. I even have refused to reply to
e-mail messages since they could be defined as telephone calls.
Of course, he never instructed me not to e-mail anyone or
to post editorials. I am assuming that if he had, he would have use the words
"communicate" and "contact" instead of "talk" and "call". I am assuming that he
was worried about the potential security problems inherent in the use of voice
lines. After all, attorneys are very precise people who are trained from birth
to choose their words carefully. And I, who am lower than whaleshit, shall not
attempt to interpret the words of the high and the mighty.
TO: Goodwill Division / VCID:
000.000.000.003.519
FROM: First Citizen/ VCID: 000.000.000.000.001
DATE: 07 JUL 02, 18:26 EDT
RE: Zoning Violation Referendum on Lee Ward’s Exon
Insp.
Hi Boys and Girls.
I’m sorry I haven’t been returning comms
lately.
This Exon referendum has been a bit of a roller-coaster,
hasn’t it?
To all of you old hands, I’m sorry the neighborhood
isn’t as
quiet as you want it to be. That happens, sometimes.
To all of you new citizens, welcome! Democratic anarchy
is more than just a lifestyle, it’s a responsibility to
bear.
Think of it as an experiment to try and achieve
something
that has never existed before in history. Something that
could not be possible until now. Good luck.
I just want to state for the record that I am fully in
favor
of freedom of expression in all its forms. Anywhere,
anytime.
As far as vCity VR content goes, however, if you
don’t
want to play within the sandbox, then go play on the
beach
instead. Internet away! Meanwhile inside the box,
we have only one consistent rule. It is the
rule of simulation. You should not place in the box,
what cannot be in the real world as we understand it.
Lee Ward’s Exon site makes no attempt to explain
how
penises and vaginas can exist as independent body parts,
nor does Lee Ward explain what technology is being
employed
to keep them floating.
It’s that simple. If Lee Ward had kept within the
boundaries
of the laws of reality, I would not have bothered to flag
it. Case closed.
It’s not my fault everybody got all riled up over a
minor
technical flaw in the site.
Oh, and by the way. I think $30 is *way* too much to
pay per site visit. That’s a lousy entertainment
value.
Be seeing you.
FC
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