" She smiled." She smiled. "Ken's peculiar idiosyncrasy of giving his AI's such intense self-identities cut both ways. Dave shut down all of his higher functions when he was sure Ken wasn't coming back. Ken might have known how to reactivate him; I think the database is intact, but I haven't checked. And what about you?" "What about me?" "Well, don't you think it rather odd that the last person left alive in the universe is an ancient Greek water goddess stuck on an otherwise airless ball of rock?" It was Oenone turn to smile. "Not goddess, nymph. Why does everybody insist on elevating me to the status of my father?" Fawn shrugged and stepped even closer to her. "Perhaps because you're the only one left alive from that particular brood of self-proclaimed deities." "You know, ages ago that kind of statement would have infuriated me." "I know," Fawn replied. "There was only one real god, wasn't there? Ken was the only real god the universe had that they could reach out and touch." Fawn shook her head, a small frown crossing her lips. "Ken wasn't a god. He wasn't even an agent of a god." Oenone laughed. "He did a lot more than the Olympian Gods ever did!" "Did he? The Olympian Gods got the Greeks through that period when they were most needed, during the breakdown of the bicameral self- identity most of humanity had. Ken got all of sentience through the next step, the 'what do we do now?' step. Maybe he deserves the title, then, but that's not the real point. Ken was a visionary, and his vision was one that maintained his very human spirit while realizing the wildest potentials of whatever tools the universe saw fit to drop in his lap. |