Looking för en kort historia om alternativ verklighet inuti "datorn", med en molnstad på en is

Jo, jag hittade det genom att titta igenom en bunke gamla böcker stashed i ett namnlöst och tack hörn på vinden.

Det är en historia som visas i en fransk science-fiction-antologi som redigerades 1983: " Univers 1983 ", där det är markerad som "inédit", dvs ej publicerad än.

Kortversionenpublicerades1989igenienannanantologi, "La Frontière Eclatée " (" The Shattered Frontier ").

Den kallas "La Vallée des Ascenseurs" (bokstavligen "The Valley of the Lifts", som inte låter lovande). Författarna är Sylviane Corgiat och Bruno Lecigne . Den duoen har skrivit några romaner, ingen jag har läst eller hört talas om. Så historien är ursprungligen på franska. Jag vet inte om det någonsin har översatts. Jag tror inte det.

Eftersom "Tron" (filmen) hade öppnad 1982 , kan författarna ha fått lite inspiration från det .

Från texten är här den handväxande förklaringen om den alternativa verkligheten. Det finns ingen direkt länk till virtuell verklighet eller spel.

Computeren Conrad, nu Sir Conrad, har etablerat sig som kung i staden Bass-Einf , eftersom han kan utföra mirakel i denna verklighet. Stående framför sitt självporträtt i hans kungliga kammare reflekterar han på sitt förflutna:

He contemplated his portrait. He had portrayed himself as a teenager with short hair, with lines accentuating the angles of his face. He had conceived this painting by trying to remember an old photo ID formerly taken for the Wotan project file. His candidacy had been favorably received. He had become a computer man.

Wotan was a gigantic computer gathering all of the world's data banks. It was later discovered that Wotan could give access to other strata of reality, which was globally called the computosphere because of its property to absorb or swallow computer programs. The computer-men, who lived in symbiosis with Wotan, had the possibility of projecting themselves into the computosphere. It was unclear to what extent these other universes pre-existed Wotan; or otherwise to what extent the simulated programs in the computer had shaped the profile of these worlds. Some computermen had undertaken the exploration of the deepest and most stable strata. Many had never returned ... just could not have come back, because of what they had discovered. This was the case of Conrad, Sir Conrad.

Sometimes, in a paradoxical reversal, he had the impression that he never really had had an earthly life; a kind of expired childhood, now being erased, in which the adult was unable to recognize himself. Even if Bass-Einf was only a computed reflection, a simulation of the universe, the real Conrad was the one who lived in this country, painted, breathed the icy air, had enjoyed Silvanie's arms. Sometimes, however, he was conscious of living as if out-of-place, of being a usurper and of occupying the palace of someone else, so that one day someone would demand that he give back what did not belong to him. He was unable to decide between these two contradictory feelings.

Under Silvanie's dumbfounded eye, he emptied a tube of black onto the canvas and carefully spread the thick paint over the whole surface of the portrait.

Berättelsen slutar med Alexander Hitman dödar Conrad genom att kasta honom överbord en av hissarna som går ner från Bass-Einf:

"Farewell, Conrad," he said. He hurled him overboard. He did not hear the sound of the body being crushed, miles down.

It did not matter. Farewell, Conrad he thought with sadness. If it cheers you up, know that I will not go back.

He had made his decision, for good. Bass-Einf was now lacking a Worker of Miracles. Tomorrow morning, Alexander would take a lift, again. To the city of Bass-Einf.

In his mind he formed the image of a pack of cigarettes, which rolled over the worn floor of the platform. He took the first puffs, listening to the irregular creaking of the giant mechanisms.