Ascension 2000 Campaign Pamphlets:  Iteration X

Okay, you guys are the cyborg warriors, right?  When 
things get messy someone punches the red button and you 
guys burst out of your skin and unload with chain guns.  
Doesn't replacing your suit cost a lot, though?  And 
what's this I've heard about you guys basically being the 
BORG collective except for not cruising around in big 
cubes?

	I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm hardly a 
boomer or a terminator or a member of the BORG 
collective.  For one thing, I was born in the eighteenth 
century, long before the very concept of cyborgs was 
invented, back when our Convention was known as the 
Artificers.  While I have a fair number of mechanical 
parts now, including a DEI, I have yet to be 'Assimilated'.  

	The purpose of Iteration X is to improve the life of 
humans through the use of machines.  The human body is a 
messy, inefficient thing in many ways, full of organs 
that serve no purpose, and it starts to fall apart almost 
as soon as it ceases to grow larger.   Yet, the human 
brain is far more powerful and creative than any 
machine.  Do not think we seek to replace men with 
machines, but rather that we seek to increase the 
efficiency and wellbeing of humanity through their use.  
We do this both by replacing the most inefficient 
portions of human flesh with machines, and by creating 
devices which can increase human efficiency and 
comfort.  

	Machines are steady, regular, reliable, and 
predictable, but they cannot adapt to changing 
circumstances or achieve true creativity.  Humans are 
creative, capable of growth, intuitive, and educable, but 
they have flimsy, inefficient bodies, usually lack 
discipline, and are unstable in many senses.  By 
combining the best of both, we will enable humanity to 
move to the next level of evolution.  

But don't you all serve an artifical intelligence that tells 
you what to do?  Isn't that where your name came from?

	Our name change was simply a way to both 
celebrate a great achievement, and a way to mark a shift 
of emphasis, not a badge of slavery to a Machine God of 
our own making.  Iteration X the Computer serves 
Iteration X the Convention, though its advice is usually 
followed, since it epitomizes the power of disciplined 
creativity that we seek to harness for the good of 
mankind.  Our Convention is still led by human beings, not 
just a machine, regardless of the rumors you may have 
heard.  It is true that many of us are beginning to rely too 
much on the Central Computer for guidance, and this 
includes some of our major leaders.  I blame the problem 
of our leadership isolating itself on Autocthonia and 
losing track of reality more than anything the Computer 
itself may have done, however.

	While I possess an official Iteration X 
identification number, I still think of myself as James 
Watt, just as most of our membership continues to use 
their birth name in most situations except for official 
correspondence.  If I was to serve on a Symposium Board, 
I would tell people to call me James or Mr. Watt, not 
0000001101.  After all, you have an official 
identification number or four yourself, don't you?

Eh?

	Do you have a Driver's License?  A Social Security 
number?  Pin numbers and bank account numbers?  Does 
this make you a member of the BORG?

It was my understanding you gave up your old name and 
took on the ID code as your only identity.

	Hardly.  If nothing else, it would make interaction 
with the Masses rather difficult.  "Hi, I'm 0000001101.  
What's your ID code?"  While we are not the most subtle 
of the Conventions, we also don't believe in making our 
own lives unnecessarily difficult.  Some of the most 
fanatical of us, and those who have just finished their 
training tend to go exclusively by their IT-X ID number, 
but the rest of us are not anal about it.

What about those computers in your head?  I thought they 
were supposed to control you.

	Well, there's several flaws with that.  First of all, 
the human brain is, simply put, more powerful than any 
computer we've ever managed to build, except for 
Iteration X itself or systems where we cheated and 
transferred a human mind into it, such as the Matriarch.  
This applies especially to Englightened minds.  Simply 
put, efforts to build such devices for use on Reality 
Deviants eventually resulting in the devices being 
subverted by the Reality Deviants in a statistically 
significant number of cases.  We have yet to determine 
the exact cause, but we believe it involves the use of the 
brain's electromagnetic fields to rewrite the 
programming of the implanted device.  If a pathetic 
Reality Deviant can subvert such a device, trying to 
control the minds of people trained in electronics, 
programming, and other related fields would be even 
harder.

	Secondly, if we wanted total control of our 
membership, we would simply build robots.  We meld 
machines with flesh to combine the best of both, not to 
subjugate the flesh to machines.  True discipline comes 
from within, though it often must be reinforced from 
without at first.  Our DEIs are a tool, not a set of slave 
shackles.

	However, it is true that DEIs are involved in the 
monitoring and discipline of our membership.  Your DEI 
cannot make you do anything, but it can tell you if you 
are violating policy, and it can report it to people who 
WILL punish you.  This especially applies to Kamrads and 
Ciphers, who have yet to prove their loyalty and 
discipline, and in some cases have yet to fully develop 
either.  Some DEIs have some capacity to carry out 
disciplinary measures themselves, such as an electric 
jolt or shutting off other cyberware, however, these 
models are reserved for people who are proving to be 
hard cases, yet remain valuable, especially as they do not 
always function perfectly.  

	We do not put full trust, however, in DEI reports.  
Some Ciphers learn how to hack into each other's DEIs 
and alter its programming.  They usually start by turning 
off the loyalty filters in their own.  Theoretically, this 
should itself set off alarms, but it does not always do 
so, due to bugs that we haven't been able to successfully 
remove from the code yet.  Sometimes they will 
malfunction and trigger 'Betrayal Alarms' when what 
actually happened was a stray thought or a dream.  And 
sometimes reports mysteriously disappear for months to 
years, only being noticed when the person's personel 
records are being examined.  We believe this is part of 
the 'Information Glut' problem, which is currently one of 
the major problems we face.

	[Hacking your own DEI simply requires Forces 2 and 
some knowledge of Computers and Hypertech.  Hacking 
someone else's DEI requires line of sight or 
Correspondence 4 in addition to Forces 2 and the 
appropriate skills.  Also importantly, any Iteration X 
member with Cloaking may be safe from his DEI narcing 
on him, as the Cloaking will effect whoever is supposed 
to be keeping an eye out for reports from his DEI]

	The purpose of the DEI is to enable humans to tap 
the information storage, rapid retrieval, and quick 
computational powers of computers by means of thought.  
Your DEI acts as a guide, advisor, mentor, alarm clock, 
personal data manager, phone, data search engine, and 
many more functions.  There are many things a computer 
can do better than your brain, which enables you to let a 
reliable machine take care of memory, while you focus on 
what your brain IS good for, which is processing sensory 
input, keeping your body running, and engaging in creative 
thought.  DEIs also act as backup monitors and override 
systems for any other cyberware you possess, able to 
detect problems and shut down the cybersystems if it 
proves necessary.

	As you advance in skill, most people personalize 
their DEIs, adding new features they find useful in their 
work, building up rapidly accessable data bases which 
they can store on a more powerful machine which can 
then be tapped as needed by the DEI, altering its voice, 
and generally engaging in the sort of obsessive tinkering 
which is common to every Iteration X member.  My own 
DEI has rapid access to a huge collection of classical 
music which I keep on my mainframe, which I use to 
enjoy all the music I missed in my youth because I was 
too busy being an engineer.  And it speaks with 
Beethoven's voice.  I'll tell you, getting a recording of 
that wasn't easy, but I found an old Artificer who had 
developed some crude recording devices when Beethoven 
was alive.  In fact, I also have a recording of Mozart 
playing from the same source.  

I thought you all thought Art was inefficient.

	Virtually every Artificer...I mean, virtually every 
member of Iteration X loves music.  I will admit that 
many of us do tend to be very utilitarian, to neglect 
beauty in favor of efficiency.  And we are engineers, 
programmers, and mathematicians, not artists.  Still, in 
music, we find a beauty that is both creative and 
disciplined, unlike most other media.  

	We are not the foes of creativity, but rather, we 
seek to discipline it.  Any moron can sling paint at a 
canvas these days and call it art, or empty their garbage 
can and glue the trash together and call it sculpture.  But 
music takes a few simple, orderly, regular building 
blocks and builds up an elaborate, beautiful structure 
within a framework of rules.  That, to us, is the essence 
of perfection.  

	Music is truly a science, not an art, for it is the 
imposition of order upon chaos, as is our work.  

So, what all does your Convention have as its duties?  
What do you 'do for a living'?

	Iteration X performs several major duties.  First of 
all, we perform the majority of the bulk manufacturing 
of the Technocracy.  While the Syndicate is heavily 
involved in manufacturing goods for the masses, anything 
produced only for use by the Technocractic Union that is 
made in large quantities was either made by us, or made 
following the principles of manufacture we've laid down, 
probably using tools we made.  We bulk produce 
chemicals for the Progenitors, print forms for the NWO, 
manufacture the computers the Syndicate uses to keep 
track of its money, and build the ships the Void Engineers 
fly around in (although VE R&E usually designs them).  We 
also perfect methods of manufacture to eventually be 
introduced to the Masses (and to be exploited by the 
Syndicate to give it its vital economic edge in the 
interim).  In this same capacity, we also engage in raw 
material extraction, usually in space these days, in 
conjunction with the Void Engineers.

	Secondly, we engage in engineering of various 
kinds, finding better designs for things.  We especially 
specialize in computers these days, but our applied 
scientific research is quite broad.  This blurs into our 
third area of responsibility, which is 'pure' scientific 
research in the fields of chemistry and physics.  

	It also blurs into our fourth area of responsibility, 
which is the creation of biomechanisms.  Working with 
the Progenitors, we find new ways to meld metal and 
flesh to the benefit of both.  Very soon, we should be 
ready to begin introducing some of our more effective 
creations to the Masses so that they won't have to 
stumble along with the current crude prosthetics.  While 
this is not my area, I think this has the potential to be 
one of our greatest gifts to humanity once we can 
release this technology to the Masses.  I saw far too 
many mine workers crippled in my youth, and I wish this 
had been available for them.

	Our fifth major area is the realm of computers and 
artificial intelligence.  We continue our efforts to 
duplicate our success with creating the Central 
Computer, but success eludes us.  Most people in this 
area blame the Virtual Adepts for those failures, but I 
am not so sure.  How could they possibly wreck EVERY 
effort?  Still, we have made a variety of breakthroughs, 
and we can now ensure the survival of any member of 
Iteration X for whom up to date backup tapes survive.  In 
this capacity, we also patrol both the Internet and the so 
called 'Virtual Web' for Reality Deviant activities, and 
we contribute to the development of ever better 
computers.   Interestingly, some of our researchers in 
this area have developed organic computers; it is 
possible that this may begin a phase in which we will 
learn how to transform our brains to achieve the 
strengths of both artifical and natural intelligence 
through biological means; a joint task force has been 
formed with the Progenitors to study this possibility.  
Unfortunately, the more conservative members of our 
leadership have greatly hampered the Bio-Computer 
Taskforce's work, claiming it is too experimental and 
dangerous.  

	Sixthly, we serve as one of the heavy combat arms 
of the Union.  Our robots, cyborg warriors, and heavy 
combat equipment are held in reserve for when more 
subtle methods fail.  Then we strike, exterminating our 
targets.  We're very proud of our recent success in 
exterminating...well, I can't talk about that to a non-
Union member.  Sorry.  Classified information.

	Finally, we perform a variety of information 
processing work for the Technocratic Union through our 
Statistical Department.  They attempt to fight the 
'Information Glut' crisis by turning everything into 
statistics.  They use this data to predict the most likely 
result of actions taken by the Union, and to suggest the 
best course of action.  They have also expressed hope of 
perfecting what has become known as 'psychohistory', in 
honor of Asimov's novels, a science of statistical 
prediction of future events through laws of human 
behavior in groups.  We may, however, have made our 
breakthroughs in this area too late.  The Apocalypse 
Forecast predicts a 75.367% chance that the Masses will 
self-destruct within ten years.  This has set off a 
firestorm of controversy within our Convention.  

Yeah, the Virtual Adept told me that they and you and the 
werewolves and the vampires all thought everything is 
going to be destroyed in the next ten years.  So where are 
you planning to hide?

	We aren't.  If we give up and die like those cowards, 
the Virtual Adepts, there won't be anyone to stop the 
Masses obliterating themselves.  That's the coward's way 
out, to say nothing can be done.  There is still a 24.633% 
chance that humanity will NOT obliterate itself.  One in 
four isn't bad odds, and we plan to take measures to make 
them better.

	There's only two ways humanity can wipe itself out 
in only ten years.  The first is nuclear war, and the 
second is some kind of super-plague.  Unfortunately, both 
are within the capacity of the masses to unleash, 
especially the former.  The Progenitors are working on 
preventing the second, but it's up to us and the NWO to 
prevent the first.  They work to prevent nuclear 
proliferation and to keep leaders in control who aren't 
crazy enough to use them, while we develop techniques 
to deal with the nukes themselves.  

	We've developed several techniques.  Unfortunately, 
we can't count on any of them as much as we'd like 
because there's no way to test them short of nuclear war.  
So, we've deployed all of them.  Orbital lasers are in 
place to try to deal with missiles in flight.  We've 
developed a million ways to sabotage a nuke that hasn't 
actually detonated yet.  Small areas can be protected 
with devices that when activated, will bend space to 
cause nukes targeting the area to suddenly find 
themselves in deep space.  These devices are extremely 
experimental, however, and prone to malfunction, and we 
all have nightmares sometimes over whether they will 
work.  We can't test many of them very well; sure, we 
have orbital lasers, but we can't afford to USE them 
because the first time we do, the entire planet will 
freak.  So they're saved for the nuclear contingency ONLY.  
It won't matter how subtle or unsubtle we are if it's the 
only way to stop humanity.

	But even if they all work perfectly, none of them 
will stop some moron from carrying a crude bomb in a 
suitcase into New York City and detonating it.  We can't 
watch the entire world, no matter how hard we try; we're 
already suffering too much Information Glut as it is.

What's this 'Information Glut' you keep mentioning?

	It's one of the biggest problems facing us, and I 
think it's a major factor in why our leadership is 
becoming too conservative, and possibly relying too much 
on the Central Computer.  Basically, the amount of 
knowledge in the world is doubling at an ever faster rate.  
It's growing exponentially.  This requires ever more 
specialization in order to keep up, but specialization 
renders it even harder to keep up with anything outside 
your field.  And every speciality sprouts sub-specialties.  
Eventually, you know everything about almost nothing, 
and almost nothing about everything else.

	Humans lack the memory capacity to keep up with 
so much information.  Computers, on the other hand, are 
great at remembering everything they are told.  They are 
not so good at knowing what to do with it, however.  
Humans process information well, but store it poorly.  
They are creative.  Computers are excellent at storage, 
and can process information, but only in the ways they 
are told to.  They lack creativity.  They also lack the 
human capacity for intuition, to make breakthroughs 
from inadequate data.

	Information Glut has several consequences for us.  
First of all, it hampers cross-Convention 
communications.  Trapped in our specialties, we often 
fail to appreciate the perspectives and duties of the 
other Conventions.  This leads to pointless conflicts over 
priorities where people talk past each other.  It also 
leads to failures of cooperation on projects that could be 
more fruitfully handled jointly, when projects cross the 
borders of established disciplines.

	Secondly, it tends to make us more conservative; 
we eventually begin to lose our ability to assimilate new 
information, and we find ourselves more comfortable 
with old ways of doing things, because we can't 
successfully keep up with the new ways.  Thus we cling 
to something we actually know about.  

	Thirdly, we are forced to rely on machines and 
subordinates to process information for us.  This isn't 
always a bad thing, but it means that one becomes 
vulnerable to the limitations of the machine and the 
biases of one's subordinates.  Machines can be biased too, 
for the ways in which they process information is 
determined by their creator or programmer.  This has 
enabled the Virtual Adepts to do much damage to us, by 
striking at the channels through which information 
flows.  

	One reason why the Central Computer has become 
so important to us is that it combines human intuition 
with the speed, storage capacity, and precision of a 
machine.  As a result, its advice tends to be listened to 
because it is less vulnerable to information glut than a 
human being or a normal computer.  Some of us think it's 
advice is being taken too frequently by the Comptrollers; 
after all, it too has biases due to its programming, and it 
doesn't have infinite information or the capacity to 
perfectly process it.  It can make mistakes.  Still, it's 
not our secret master as far as I can tell.

	Autocthonia, on the other hand, I'm not quite so 
enamored with.  It lies at the heart of our greatest 
problem as a Convention, a problem due in its own way to 
information glut.

	Our real central problem is that too many of us 
have abandoned reality to live in the perfection of 
abstraction.  Too many of us retreat into our Horizon 
Constructs where everything can be perfectly controlled, 
instead of wanting to learn how to control the real world 
and improve on it.  They deal with information glut by 
retreating into a controlled environment were all the 
messy variables that would wreck their perfect 
equations have been eliminated.  The result is that they 
produce things which can't stand up to the real world.

	The classic example of this is fusion reactors.  We 
have fusion reactors which work perfectly...in Horizon 
Constructs.  By introducing them, we could massively 
increase the amount of energy available to the Masses in 
a safe way.  Unfortunately, our researchers in this area 
are afraid of being melted to slag if something goes 
wrong during a test outside the Constructs, and as a 
result, they're sitting around waiting for the Masses to 
develop the technology themselves, forgetting that the 
Earth's fossil fuels are going to run out within the next 
fifty to a hundred years at best.  And the Masses have 
come to fear nuclear energy too much to make fission 
reactors a good intermediary step.  Further complicating 
this is the failure of the Syndicate to finance adequate 
research, due to their own desire to use their control 
over fossil fuel supplies to make themselves 
fantastically wealthy.  Bastards.

	This same problem of processing information 
means that often actions are taken without thought for 
the full range of consequences due to people's minds 
stopping at their disciplinary borders.  Engineers fail to 
think about the economic consequences of an invention.  
Economists fail to see the social consequences.  
Interdisciplinary teams help somewhat, but then you 
have problems of communications and trying to overcome 
difference of opinion as to what kind of problems are a 
priority.  

	As a result, too many of us retreat into Horizon 
Constructs like Autocthonia.  It reminds me of one of 
those 'model homes of the future' from the World 
Fair...you know, the ones that never came to pass in 
reality?  The odds that all the world will become 
Autocthonia are pretty low, especially since 80% of the 
Technocratic Union has yet to express much interest in 
it.  It should be a model and a testing ground, but for too 
many of us it's become a big metal womb where we can 
be pampered by our machines instead of facing reality 
and solving it.

You sound pretty bitter about your own Convention.  

	It's probably because I've become a cranky old man 
and started developing delusions about the Good Old Days, 
which likely never really existed.  Maybe we've always 
had this problem and I never had the information access 
to notice it.  Still, I'm far more afraid of Big Mother than 
Big Brother, that we'll all give up on messy reality and 
retreat to a heaven of abstractions where our machines 
will take care of us and we'll devolve into children, 
instead of using machines to improve our capacities and 
to help us change the world.  

	I have a lot of hope for the future, and I think that 
if we don't retreat from the world, we can still make it a 
better place.  Just look at all we've accomplished.  Yes, 
we've often blundered and made a mess, but Iteration X 
cleans up its messes.  There's a lot of good work being 
done....it's just rarely as flashy as the disasters or as 
obvious as the retreat from reality of too many of my 
fellow It. Xers.  

I understand Iteration X is very big on wiping out Reality 
Deviants.  Is that true?

	Yes.  They're a bunch of lunatics and threats to 
humanity who need to be purged.  

Even the peaceful ones?

	There are no peaceful ones.  Some of them aren't 
violent, but they're all a threat to humanity.  The non-
human ones are the worst, since they're all predators of 
one kind or another.  We shoot them on sight, although we 
usually don't go looking for them, since we have other 
priorities.  

	The human ones are the reason the Order of Reason 
was created.  They abused the power they held over the 
Masses, treating them as cannon fodder, experiment 
fodder, slaves, and pawns.  The only reason they don't do 
that now is that we've crushed their power over mortal 
society by destroying the superstitions they exploited to 
gain power over the masses, who didn't know any better.  
Their philosophies are incompatible with science, and 
their intellectual ascendence would send the Masses into 
another Dark Age.  We could never allow that to come to 
pass.  

	Even worse, the two Traitor Conventions have given 
the the capacity to take their foolish ideas into space.  
We have to break them now before they escape our ability 
to stop them and before they betray humanity to alien 
races in the hope of getting even with us.  

	While I don't see the Pogrom as our primary duty to 
the Masses, I do support it.

But what about intellectual freedom?  Don't people have 
a right to believe what they want?  

	Not when those beliefs hurt others.  You wouldn't 
support a group that believes it's okay to murder people 
who don't live up to their moral standards, would you?  

Of course not.  But isn't that what you're doing?

	No.  We do not carry out a Pogrom against the 
Masses, but only against Reality Deviants, who come in 
two categories:  predator races who prey upon Humanity, 
and evil conspiracies to plunge humanity into a new dark 
age of ignorance.  If the Traditions win, civilization will 
collapse.  Just imagine what would happen if the Verbena 
and Dreamspeakers shut down industry, science, and the 
use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy the way they want 
to, in order to protect their precious 'nature'.  Billions 
would die.  Imagine if the Euthanatos were free to 
murder ANYONE they thought didn't meet whatever 
delusional standards they live by?  Remember the 
Inquisition?  The Celestial Chorus wants to bring it back.  
The Akashic Brotherhood meditates while millions 
starve, and the Cult of Ecstasy would turn the entire 
world into crack whores.  The Order of Hermes would 
wreck modern education and philosophy in pursuit of 
delusional ideas that have been discredited for hundreds 
of years and DON'T WORK.  These lunatics have to be 
stopped and stopped now.  That's before I even talk about 
the Nephandi, who have betrayed humanity to alien races 
explicitly.

	We've tried leaving them alone, and it didn't work.  
Instead, they've had a resurgence, and now they're 
stronger than ever with the Traitor Conventions backing 
them up.  They have to be eliminated, just like you would 
do to a rabid dog.

I've heard the Central Computer won't let you all study 
Dimensional Science.  Why is this the case?

	Well, there's no better way to messily commit 
suicide than to screw up doing Dimensional Science.  It 
really comes down to the issue of specialization, though.  
Time spent learning Dimensional Science is time spent 
not keeping up with your own specialty.  Since DS is the 
Voids' specialty, we are supposed to leave it to them, 
rather than conducting our own experiments, resulting in 
a massacre.  If one really desperately wants to learn it, 
you can always transfer to the Void Engineers, who are 
usually happy to have new recruits.

	Basically, it comes down to the same reasons why 
a degree in aeronautical engineering won't get you a job 
running a nuclear reactor, and why pilots' licenses are 
required to fly planes.  The number of people who can 
master Dimensional Science AND keep up with their own 
field is very tiny.  Since dabbling in Dimensional Science 
is a good way to die horribly, we're forbidden to do it.

But only YOU are explicitly forbidden.

	Much as I hate to admit it, before that rule went 
into effect, we had the highest rate of DS disasters from 
people dabbling in it.  It's the same way one brand of 
lawnmowers now has a warning saying to not use it as a 
hedge trimmer.  Too many machines don't handle having 
the fabric of space and time monkeyed about with in 
their vicinity.  

	Still, every time you look at a law, you're seeing 
something put in place AFTER people did something 
stupid in the past.  The Syndicate and Progenitors haven't 
made our mistakes with DS, and the NWO and VE know 
what they're doing when they deal with it, due to having 
trained experts.  

	But if you think about our areas of expertise, you 
can see we don't really need it.  

So what's this I've heard about Iteration X running 
concentration camps and working workers to death and 
stuff?

	I'll take the latter one first.  Yes, we have at times 
been guilty of working people too hard.  Much of this 
comes from the fact that we all work very hard, and have 
a tendency to expect everyone else to live up to our 
standard.  Unfortunately, not everyone else can.  One 
reason we've pioneered automated manufacturing is in 
order to relieve humans of tedious work better done by 
machines.  Still, we've made mistakes in the past, but 
we've largely fixed them.  

	As to concentration camps, I suppose it depends on 
one's definition.  Usually, we distinguish between 
'concentration camps' and 'prisons' by the fact that the 
latter holds criminals, while the former holds political 
prisoners and groups which have been rounded up in 
masse not for committing crimes, but for being part of 
some group which has been ruled 'bad' simply because 
they exist.  Every Reality Deviant in MECHA or any of our 
other prisons is there because they've committed crimes 
against humanity and they can't be rehabilitated by the 
NWO.  We don't believe in coddling recalcitrant criminals.  
They should work for their living, like everyone else, and 
be glad they're being allowed to pay for their crimes, 
rather than executed for them.

	I won't say I'm proud of MECHA; prisons tend to 
brutalize the guards, and too long a stay in MECHA has 
made some of us useless for anything else, but it's 
necessary, and the Primal Energy it produces keeps many 
valuable projects in existence.

But what right do you have to hold people prisoner?  
You're not a government.

	No one else can touch them or hold them.  It's up to 
us to protect humanity until it's ready to protect itself.  
It gets ugly sometimes, but if we don't stop the reality 
deviants, the Dark Age that will follow will make any 
crimes we may be committing look like kids stealing 
candy from each other.  

But how can you know that?

	That's what our Statisticians are for.  We can 
either lie down and let the Apocalypse consume 
humanity, or we can fight it.  And I'll slowly torture 
every RD on Earth to death if I have to in order to 
preserve humanity.  Better that a few suffer and the 
Masses prosper instead of the other way around.  If that 
means trampling on 'rights', so be it.

So what do you think of your fellow Conventions?

	The Void Engineers are our closest allies.  They're 
the ones who opened the way to Autocthonia, and they 
who best understand us.  We both feel the urge to push 
fronteirs forward.  They're not perfect, and they could 
use some lessons in caution, as they have a knack for 
stepping in fire ant piles, but the alliance between our 
Conventions has served us both.

	The Progenitors are the next best of the 
Conventions, and we also work closely with them.  We 
and the Progenitors are the true scientists of the 
Technocratic Union, making the breakthroughs which the 
Voids, the Syndicate, and the NWO apply.  They 
sometimes overestimate their importance, but in 
general, we get along well.

	The Syndicate, on the other hand, just doesn't quite 
get it.  They are the least important and least useful of 
the Conventions, glorified salesmen who too often line 
their own pockets instead of helping humanity.  If we 
didn't depend on them to disseminate our inventions to 
the masses and to handle the mundane tasks of raising 
funds to support the real work of the Technocratic Union, 
we'd call for them to be eliminated, not because they are 
BAD per se, but because they are mostly useless and too 
often corrupt.

	The NWO performs important functions of 
intelligence gathering and carrying out the Pogrom at a 
low level, identifying and elimating the weaker Deviants.  
They also take care of most of the annoying bureaucratic 
paperwork.  They have two major flaws, however.  They 
underestimate the Masses and they are far too cautious.  
Preventing the Apocalypse requires action now, not fifty 
years from now.  Their recent insults to the Void 
Engineers were entirely uncalled for; it's not as if the 
Voids staged a fake alien invasion.  In all, we're 
increasingly displeased with the NWO as it futzes about 
like an old grandmother cleaning her house before it gets 
bombed.

	In conclusion, I will say that we are not the 
monsters we have been accused of being.  We dream of a 
future when humanity will be able to combine the best 
strengths of flesh and metal in order to ascend to a 
higher level of being, gaining the strength and 
permanence of metal and the flexibility and creativity of 
the human mind.  We dream of a future in which humanity 
will be freed from drudgery to engage in the creative and 
scientific activities which are the highest calling of our 
race.  And we are the soldiers fighting for a better future 
against the hordes of monsters, maniacs, and fools who 
would drag humanity into a new Dark Age.  We are the 
architects of the future, Iteration X.