Nullified.
Well, I've been putting this off for long enough, and now I've officially committed to do something about it. As of last night, it's been four weeks since the paraversary, to coin a phrase, of what aberranteyes pointed out as perhaps the most spectacular mistake of my life.
(Paraversary. An awkward neologism, perhaps, but it gets the point across, I hope. In case it doesn't, it means "the date on which an event happens in an alternate timeline".)
I don't know if it was my grandest mistake (some might award that dubious honor to N-Day itself), but I'll give him "the most glorious". The world learned of my existence, and Æon learned that I wasn't going away, and neither were my people.
It was a dark time for the One Race. Despite a steady rate of 30-40 eruptions a month, overall nova population, at the end of 2004, was up only 200 from the previous year-end count. Where were those novas going? Into hastily-dug graves in Bahrain Kashmir or Africa, or (since September of '04) to Bahrain. (And doubtless there were those cases where Proteus was recruiting novas and making their CVs disappear.) It was increasingly clear that Æon's agenda hadn't changed since max_a_mercer left them from what it became when max_a_mercer and I left them: to co-opt as many neomorphs as they could and destroy the rest. And since I'd arranged for the majority of neomorphs to receive superhuman Inspiration, that meant their efforts were concentrated on eximorphs.
I knew the worth of the One Race; I sensed its frustration; and I believed I had seen its destiny. All in all, I have no regrets about the Null Manifesto qua Manifesto. But if I could talk to my younger self, there are things I'd try and persuade him to do differently, believe me. I'll illustrate with a few quotes from the Manifesto that seemed like good ideas at the time, and how a year or more of living as a human has shown me the extent of my prior recto-fossal ambiguity.
"Only those novas who are too lazy or too comfortable to think for themselves, to judge and regulate their own behavior accordingly, obey baseline laws. True members of the One Race sense their own laws within them..." I still believe that Homo sapiens novus is not inherently bound to the same social mores as H. sap. sapiens, but I've learned respect for those who choose to live within baseline law.
"Perhaps there are some novas who prefer to stay with the baseline herd for the warmth it provides. I say obtain your warmth from equals. Humans do not require the companionship of monkeys, and likewise, novas don't require the companionship of baselines." Novas, and other superhumans, are not baseline humans, and it's folly to try and live full-time as a human. At the same time, living among baseline humanity keeps a superhuman grounded, reminds him that he used to be just another human. (I'd done my best to forget that by 1998, let alone 2005; the Teragen at large followed my bad example, with consequences well-known to those who know my world.) The great thing about
the Nexus is that it gives me a place I can go to be my self, without jeopardizing my quiet life on this otherwise nova-less Earth. (A sort of multiversal bunburying, to be sure, but I find it works for me.)
I still believe nova-kind has its own evolutionary destiny, or rather destinies, but I no longer consider that this requires us to re-enact what H. sap. sapiens did to neandertalensis. Our niche is not theirs; there's no competition. Perhaps there can be cooperation... if both sides choose to cooperate.
(Paraversary. An awkward neologism, perhaps, but it gets the point across, I hope. In case it doesn't, it means "the date on which an event happens in an alternate timeline".)
I don't know if it was my grandest mistake (some might award that dubious honor to N-Day itself), but I'll give him "the most glorious". The world learned of my existence, and Æon learned that I wasn't going away, and neither were my people.
It was a dark time for the One Race. Despite a steady rate of 30-40 eruptions a month, overall nova population, at the end of 2004, was up only 200 from the previous year-end count. Where were those novas going? Into hastily-dug graves in Bahrain Kashmir or Africa, or (since September of '04) to Bahrain. (And doubtless there were those cases where Proteus was recruiting novas and making their CVs disappear.) It was increasingly clear that Æon's agenda hadn't changed since max_a_mercer left them from what it became when max_a_mercer and I left them: to co-opt as many neomorphs as they could and destroy the rest. And since I'd arranged for the majority of neomorphs to receive superhuman Inspiration, that meant their efforts were concentrated on eximorphs.
I knew the worth of the One Race; I sensed its frustration; and I believed I had seen its destiny. All in all, I have no regrets about the Null Manifesto qua Manifesto. But if I could talk to my younger self, there are things I'd try and persuade him to do differently, believe me. I'll illustrate with a few quotes from the Manifesto that seemed like good ideas at the time, and how a year or more of living as a human has shown me the extent of my prior recto-fossal ambiguity.
"Only those novas who are too lazy or too comfortable to think for themselves, to judge and regulate their own behavior accordingly, obey baseline laws. True members of the One Race sense their own laws within them..." I still believe that Homo sapiens novus is not inherently bound to the same social mores as H. sap. sapiens, but I've learned respect for those who choose to live within baseline law.
"Perhaps there are some novas who prefer to stay with the baseline herd for the warmth it provides. I say obtain your warmth from equals. Humans do not require the companionship of monkeys, and likewise, novas don't require the companionship of baselines." Novas, and other superhumans, are not baseline humans, and it's folly to try and live full-time as a human. At the same time, living among baseline humanity keeps a superhuman grounded, reminds him that he used to be just another human. (I'd done my best to forget that by 1998, let alone 2005; the Teragen at large followed my bad example, with consequences well-known to those who know my world.) The great thing about
the Nexus is that it gives me a place I can go to be my self, without jeopardizing my quiet life on this otherwise nova-less Earth. (A sort of multiversal bunburying, to be sure, but I find it works for me.)
I still believe nova-kind has its own evolutionary destiny, or rather destinies, but I no longer consider that this requires us to re-enact what H. sap. sapiens did to neandertalensis. Our niche is not theirs; there's no competition. Perhaps there can be cooperation... if both sides choose to cooperate.