Read If Then for Free Online Page B

aviary.
    “The beginning of my collection,” he said. A tall tree rose to the top of the aviary, its branches smooth as carbon rods, their configurations unnatural in the way they bent back toward the trunk.
    “A tree router. You may remember at the beginning of the Process that we planted one of these next to the school.”
    James sidled next to Alex, “Is this your work?”
    “A collaboration between my employers and the Institute.”
    With two strong wing beats, a large rook settled on a near branch, its black eyes registering their appearance.
    “He sees you,” said Omega John. “The stripe stores that impression, and then it is carried through the router tree to the computational matter.”
    “Where is that kept?”
    Omega John shrugged.
    “Here and there. We dispersed it to ensure redundancy. Alex is the expert on that.”
    “Distributed computing. There’s no centralization in nature, either. We’re exploring correlations between the digital and biological. Some of them are merely analogous but significant findings indicate that, operationally, we can move data from one to the other. My employers tasked me with safeguarding their proprietorial algorithms in the event of failure and noise in the digital network. The Seizure was that event. I’d been tracking the work of the Institute for a long time; they always seemed close to finding a way of running algorithms on a biological substrate, but they had a number of setbacks.”
    Omega John snorted humourlessly at this veiled reference.
    “But it’s more than a backup. Shifting our intellectual property into the biosphere has accelerated its evolution. Biofeedback is so much more granular than user behaviour.”
    The rook, having measured them with its regal gaze, gnawed briefly at the smooth rod of the branch, then flew up to a higher vantage point.
    “We’ve restored the algorithm to its native habitat.” Omega John’s lips were dry, and he held an empty hand up into which an orderly placed a drink carton. “Biological processes are inherently algorithmic, designed by nature to solve computational problems across all levels of life: molecular, cellular and at the level of the organism; you, the rook, and then a group of organisms, your town.” He could not puncture the carton with the sharp end of the white straw. The orderly performed this tiny act for him. Omega John took a single sip, shook his head, and handed it back. The fluid leaked out of the corner of his mouth, and had to be dabbed away.
    “Nature uses algorithms to model the cost of behaviour in terms of energy. The biological sphere of our world is designed to compute. In nature, the mass behaviour of organism is an equation designed to arrive at optimal use of resources.”
    Their discussion became too technical for James; he knew it was for his benefit, that they hoped to impart some understanding of his situation so that he could perform his role within it. In all his visits to the Institute, all the way back to his convalescence when he was first fitted with the implant, he had never been to this part of the grounds. He pointed this out. Omega John sighed.
    “The appearance of Hector is – as Alex used to so tiresomely say – a game changer.” His contempt for the idiom of digital business was the closest he came to humour.
    Alex said, “Making soldiers is not an optimal use of resources. It’s more like a peacock’s tail, a display of redundancy to advertise fitness to potential mates.”
    “Like art or war,” explained Omega John. “We need to study the Process further, to catch up, as it has exceeded the limits of our understanding. That is where you come in.”
    “We want you to understand the importance of our work,” said Alex. “In terms of the future.”
    He had long since lost interest in the future.
    The path ended in a low white picket gate and fence, beyond which there was a single apple tree, a wicker chaise longue and a rusty hookah.
    “My private garden.