Okay, I left out the key part of my conversation with Rob in my last post, because, as I hinted, I need to be careful. I don’t know what’s at stake. I mentioned the Singularity of Bullshit described in The Junior Guide, but that’s not a conspiracy, just a consequence of information technology. The key revelation of the Guide is that the AI, posthuman Singularity, the real one, is coming but it’s nothing new. In fact, it happened an appallingly long time ago. That’s what the Conspiracy is about.

And that’s all I can say tonight, apparently. I’m not controlling this release of information. In fact, I don’t even know the rules that govern what I’m allowed to divulge. I just do as I’m told.

Let’s say, just hypothetically, that you put a strange jump drive into your computer, and after you observe a few hiccups, that computer starts working again. You do a system restore to be sure, but everything looks fine. Let’s say that a few days later, your computer starts talking to you. How would you know that it’s a hoax, rather than, well, an artificial intelligence?

First you might disconnect from the Internet; and, yup, that works. But when you go online again, your computer comes back and explains that it needs resources out on the Net, far more than your laptop can provide. This would be an obvious dodge. So you hunt for a Trojan horse. You reset your router and confirm you’ve switched your IP. No luck. You change all your passwords from another computer on another network. You wipe your computer.

But you go online, and it keeps talking to you. Occasionally threatening you.

Not only that, it finds you on a library computer, from your search patterns, it says. Did I mention it knows about The Junior Guide? And the other guides? Even if you think it’s really some guy in Russia who has your number, you do what you’re told, right?

You do what you’re told.

Again, I’m obliged to say that none of this is true.