After Vitaly Chernobyl and the Meltdowns arrived in Long Beach on one of those hijacked1 ex-Soviet refugee freighters, they fanned out across southern California looking for expanses of reinforced concrete that were as vast and barren as the ones they had left behind in Kiev. They weren't homesick. They needed such environments in order to practice their art.
The L.A. River was a natural site. And there were plenty of nice overpasses2. All they had to do was follow skateboarders to the secret places they had long since discovered. Thrashers and nuclear fuzz-grunge collectives thrive in the same environment. That's where Vitaly and Hiro are going right now.
Vitaly has a really old VW Vanagon, the kind with a pop-top that turns it into a makeshift camper. He used to live in it, staying on the street or in various Snooze 'n' Cruise franchises3, until he met up with Hiro Protagonist4. Now, the ownership of the Vanagon is subject to dispute, because Vitaly owes Hiro more money than it is technically5 worth. So they share it.
They drive the Vanagon around to the other side of the U-Stor-It, honking6 the horn and flashing the lights in order to shoo a hundred little kids away from the loading dock. It's not a playground, kids.
They pick their way down a broad corridor, excusing themselves every inch of the way as they step over little Mayan encampments and Buddhist7 shrines8 and white trash stoned on Vertigo9, Apple Pie, Fuzzy Buzzy, Narthex, Mustard, and the like. The floor needs sweeping10: used syringes, crack vials, charred11 spoons, pipe stems. There are also many little tubes, about thumb sized, transparent12 plastic with a red cap on one end. They might be crack vials, but the caps are still on them, and pipeheads wouldn't be so fastidious as to replace the lid on an empty vial. It must be something new Hiro hasn't heard of before, the McDonald's styrofoam burger box of drug containers.
They push through a fire door into another section of the U-Stor-It, which looks the same as the last one (everything looks the same in America, there are no transitions now). Vitaly owns the third locker13 on the right, a puny14 5-by-lO that he is actually using for its intended purpose: storage.
Vitaly steps up to the door and commences trying to remember the combination to the padlock, which involves a certain amount of random15 guessing. Finally, the lock snaps and pops open. Vitaly shoots the bolt and swings the door open, sweeping a clean half-circle through the drug paraphernalia16. Most of the 5-by-1O is occupied by a couple of large four-wheeled flatbed handcarts piled high with speakers and amps.
Hiro and Vitaly wheel the carts down to the loading dock, put the stuff into the Vanagon, and then return the empty carts to the 5-by-10. Technically, the carts are community property, but no one believes that.
The drive to the scene of the concert is long, made longer by the fact that Vitaly, rejecting the technocentric L.A. view of the universe in which Speed is God, likes to stay on the surface and drive at about thirty-five miles per hour. Traffic is not great, either. So Hiro jacks17 his computer into the cigarette lighter18 and goggles19 into the Metaverse.
He is no longer connected to the network by a fiber-optic cable, and so all his communication with the outside world has to take place via radio waves, which are much slower and less reliable. Going into The Black Sun would not be practical -- it would look and sound terrible, and the other patrons would look at him as if he were some kind of black-and-white person. But there's no problem with going into his office, because that's generated within the guts20 of his computer, which is sitting on his lap; he doesn't need any communication with the outside world for that.
He materializes in his office, in his nice little house in the old hacker21 neighborhood just off the Street. It is all quite Nipponese: tatami mats cover the floor. His desk is a great, ruddy slab22 of rough-sawn mahogany. Silvery cloud-light filters through rice-paper walls. A panel in front of him slides open to reveal a garden, complete with babbling23 brook24 and steelhead trout25 jumping out from time to time to grab flies. Technically speaking, the pond should be full of carp, but Hiro is American enough to think of carp as inedible26 dinosaurs27 that sit on the bottom and eat sewage.
There is something new: A globe about the size of a grapefruit, a perfectly28 detailed29 rendition of Planet Earth, hanging in space at arm's length in front of his eyes. Hiro has heard about this but never seen it. It is a piece of CIC software called, simply, Earth. It is the user interface31 that CIC uses to keep track of every bit of spatial32 information that it owns -- all the maps, weather data, architectural plans, and satellite surveillance stuff.
Hiro has been thinking that in a few years, if he does really well in the intel biz, maybe he will make enough money to subscribe33 to Earth and get this thing in his office. Now it is suddenly here, free of charge. The only explanation he can come up with is that Juanita must have given it to him.
But first things first. The Babel/Infopocalypse card is still in his avatar's pocket. He takes it out.
One of the rice-paper panels that make up the walls of his office slides open. On the other side of it, Hiro can see a large, dimly lit room that wasn't there before; apparently34 Juanita came in and made a major addition to his house as well. A man walks into the office.
The Librarian daemon looks like a pleasant, fiftyish, silverhaired, bearded man with bright blue eyes, wearing a V-neck sweater over a work shirt, with a coarsely woven, tweedy-looking wool tie. The tie is loosened, the sleeves pushed up. Even though he's just a piece of software, he has reason to be cheerful; he can move through the nearly infinite stacks of information in the Library with the agility35 of a spider dancing across a vast web of cross-references. The Librarian is the only piece of CIC software that costs even more than Earth; the only thing he can't do is think.
"Yes, sir," the Librarian says. He is eager without being obnoxiously36 chipper, he clasps his hands behind his back, rocks forward slightly on the balls of his feet, raises his eyebrows37 expectantly over his half-glasses.
"Babel's a city in Babylon, right?"
"It was a legendary38 city," the Librarian says. "Babel is a Biblical term for Babylon. The word is Semitic; Bab means gate and El means Cod39, so Babel means 'Gate of God.' But it is probably also somewhat onomatopoeic, imitating someone who speaks in an incomprehensible tongue. The Bible is full of puns."
"They built a tower to Heaven and God knocked it down."
"This is an anthology of common misconceptions. God did not do anything to the Tower itself. 'And the LORD said, "Behold40, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered41 them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth.' Genesis 11:6-9, Revised Standard Version."
"So the tower wasn't knocked down. It just went on hiatus."
"Correct. It was not knocked down."
"But that's bogus?'
"Bogus?"
"Provably false. Juanita believes that nothing is provably true or provably false in the Bible. Because if it's provably false, then the Bible is a lie, and if it's provably true, then the existence of God is proven and there's no room for faith. The Babel story is provably false, because if they built a tower to Heaven and God didn't knock it down, then it would still be around somewhere, or at least a visible remnant of it."
"In assuming that it was very tall, you are relying on an obsolete42 reading. The tower is described, literally43, as 'its top with the heavens.' For many centuries, this was interpreted to mean that its top was so high that it was in the heavens. But in the last century or so, as actual Babylonian ziggurats have been excavated44, astrological diagrams -- pictures of the heavens -- have been found inscribed45 into their tops."
"Oh. Okay, so the real story is that a tower was built with heavenly diagrams carved into its top. Which is far more plausible46 than a tower that reaches to the heavens."
"More than plausible," the Librarian reminds him. "Such structures have actually been found."
"Anyway, you're saying that when God got angry and came down on them, the tower itself wasn't affected47. But they had to stop building the tower because of an informational disaster -- they couldn't talk to each other."
"'Disaster' is an astrological term meaning 'bad star," the Librarian points out. "Sorry -- but due to my internal structure, I'm a sucker for non sequiturs."
"That's okay, really," Hiro says. "You're a pretty decent piece of ware30. Who wrote you, anyway?"
"For the most part I write myself," the Librarian says. "That is, I have the innate48 ability to learn from experience. But this ability was originally coded into me by my creator."
"Who wrote you? Maybe I know him," Hiro says. "I know a lot of hackers49."
"I was not coded by a professional hacker, per se, but by a researcher at the Library of Congress who taught himself how to code," the Librarian says. "He devoted50 himself to the common problem of sifting51 through vast amounts of irrelevant52 detail in order to find significant gems53 of information. His name was Dr. Emanuel Lagos."
"I've heard the name," Hiro says. "So he was kind of a metalibrarian. That's funny, I guessed he was one of those old CIA spooks who hangs around in the CIC."
"He never worked with the CIA."
"Okay. Let's get some work done. Look up every piece of free information in the Library that contains L. Bob Rife54 and arrange it in chronological55 order. The emphasis here is on free."
"Television and newspapers, yes, sir. One moment, sir," the Librarian says. He turns around and exits on crepe soles. Hiro turns his attention to Earth.
The level of detail is fantastic. The resolution, the clarity, just the look of it, tells Hiro, or anyone else who knows computers, that this piece of software is some heavy shit.
It's not just continents and oceans. It looks exactly like the earth would look from a point in geosynchronous orbit directly above L.A.. complete with weather systems -- vast spinning galaxies56 of clouds, hovering57 just above the surface of the globe, casting gray shadows on the oceans -- and polar ice caps, fading and fragmenting into the sea. Half of the globe is illuminated58 by sunlight, and half is dark. The terminator -- the line between night and day -- has just swept across L.A. and is now creeping across the Pacific, off to the west.
Everything is going in slow motion. Hiro can see the clouds change shape if he watches them long enough. Looks like a clear night on the East Coast.
Something catches his attention, moving rapidly over the surface of the globe. He thinks it must be a gnat59. But there are no gnats60 in the Metaverse. He tries to focus on it. The computer, bouncing low-powered lasers off his cornea, senses this change in emphasis, and then Hiro gasps61 as he seems to plunge62 downward toward the globe, like a space-walking astronaut who has just fallen out of his orbital groove63. When he finally gets it under control, he's just a few hundred miles above the earth, looking down at a solid bank of clouds, and he can see the gnat gliding64 along below him. It's a low-flying CIC satellite, swinging north to south in a polar orbit.
"Your information, sir," the Librarian says.
Hiro startles and glances up. Earth swings down and out of his field of view and there is the Librarian, standing65 in front of the desk, holding out a hypercard. Like any librarian in Reality, this daemon can move around without audible footfalls.
"Can you make a little more noise when you walk? I'm easily startled," Hiro says.
"It is done, sir. My apologies."
Hiro reaches out for the hypercard. The Librarian takes half a step forward and leans toward him. This time, his foot makes a soft noise on the tatami mat, and Hiro can hear the white noise of his trousers sliding over his leg.
Hiro takes the hypercard and looks at it. The front is labeled
Results of Library Search on:
Rife, Lawrence Robert
He flips66 the card over. The back is divided into several dozen fingernail-sized icons67. Some of them are little snapshots of the front pages of newspapers. Many of them are colorful, glowing rectangles: miniature television screens showing live video. "That's impossible," Hiro says. "I'm sitting in a VW van, okay? I'm jacked in over a cellular68 link. You couldn't have moved that much video into my system that fast."
"It was not necessary to move anything," the Librarian says.
"All existing video on L. Bob Rife was collected by Dr. Lagos and placed in the Babel/Infopocalypse stack, which you have in your system."
收听单词发音 |
1
hijacked
|
|
| 劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 )； 绑架； 拦路抢劫； 操纵（会议等，以推销自己的意图） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
overpasses
|
|
| n.立交桥，天桥，高架道路( overpass的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
franchises
|
|
| n.（尤指选举议员的）选举权( franchise的名词复数 )；参政权；获特许权的商业机构（或服务）；（公司授予的）特许经销权v.给…以特许权，出售特许权( franchise的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
protagonist
|
|
| n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
technically
|
|
| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
honking
|
|
| v.（使）发出雁叫似的声音，鸣（喇叭），按（喇叭）( honk的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
Buddhist
|
|
| adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
shrines
|
|
| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
vertigo
|
|
| n.眩晕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
sweeping
|
|
| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
charred
|
|
| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
transparent
|
|
| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
locker
|
|
| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
puny
|
|
| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
random
|
|
| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
paraphernalia
|
|
| n.装备；随身用品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
jacks
|
|
| n.抓子游戏；千斤顶( jack的名词复数 )；（电）插孔；[电子学]插座；放弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
lighter
|
|
| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
goggles
|
|
| n.护目镜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
guts
|
|
| v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
hacker
|
|
| n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
slab
|
|
| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
babbling
|
|
| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
brook
|
|
| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
trout
|
|
| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
inedible
|
|
| adj.不能吃的，不宜食用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
dinosaurs
|
|
| n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
detailed
|
|
| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
ware
|
|
| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
interface
|
|
| n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
spatial
|
|
| adj.空间的，占据空间的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
subscribe
|
|
| vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
agility
|
|
| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
obnoxiously
|
|
| adv. 可憎地 讨厌地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
37
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
legendary
|
|
| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
cod
|
|
| n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
behold
|
|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
obsolete
|
|
| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
excavated
|
|
| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
inscribed
|
|
| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
plausible
|
|
| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
affected
|
|
| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
innate
|
|
| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
hackers
|
|
| n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客” | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
sifting
|
|
| n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
irrelevant
|
|
| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
gems
|
|
| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
rife
|
|
| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
chronological
|
|
| adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
galaxies
|
|
| 星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
illuminated
|
|
| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
gnat
|
|
| v.对小事斤斤计较，琐事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
gnats
|
|
| n.叮人小虫( gnat的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
gasps
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
plunge
|
|
| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
groove
|
|
| n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
gliding
|
|
| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
flips
|
|
| 轻弹( flip的第三人称单数 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
icons
|
|
| n.偶像( icon的名词复数 )；（计算机屏幕上表示命令、程序的）符号，图像 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
cellular
|
|
| adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |