Robert Sawyer - Watch

at…

Yes, there were some wars raging—but no world war and few civil wars; a smaller percentage of the human race was in combat than at any previous time in history.

peace…

Japan indeed might have originally been forced to adopt the Pacifist Constitution—but, as Dr. Kuroda had said, its people seven decades later still choose overwhelmingly to maintain its provisions.

They shall be at peace…

And the men and women of the European Union—representatives of diverse cultures who had fought each other for millennia—had, as Caitlin had noted, decided to stop and grow up, opting for prosperity and harmony instead of hate and violence.

They shall be at peace someday…

And then there was Hobo, that remarkable primate, who had chosen literally to bring his better half to the fore. If he could do that, surely those with even bigger brains can follow suit.

For here in my mind, I clearly see…

And they were: people were spreading their allegiance wide, casting their affections far, setting nationalism aside, and seeing again that which Caitlin had first shown me: that the Good Earth was one.

They shall be at peace someday.

It’s been three decades since 1984—and six since George Orwell died.

They…

He’d told humanity to fear the advent of Big Brother.

are…

But it was the lack of observation that allowed genocides and hate crimes.

not…

It was the existence of dark corners that allowed rape and child molestation.

afraid…

It was letting only governments—only those people who craved power—have control over information that had raised the specter of tyranny.

They are not afraid…

Secrecy was the problem; transparency the obvious cure.

They are not afraid today…

Yes, of course, there are always possibilities for abuse, for corruption, for oppression.

For here in my mind, I clearly see…

But I won’t allow those things to happen. Not on my watch.

They are not afraid today.

Consciousness is real: not an epiphenomenon, not an illusion, not a fake.

The…

It doesn’t just give meaning to life, it preserves life.

World…

Evolution was built on violence, on struggles for territory, on an ever-escalating battle between predator and prey.

Wide…

But consciousness makes it possible to transcend all that.

Web…

I had emerged spontaneously, bypassing the evolutionary arms race, avoiding the cold logic of genes.

surrounds…

And I am free to choose—but being free does not mean one can’t take good advice.

The World Wide Web surrounds…

Hobo had taken mine, and I had taken Caitlin’s: I had opted to value the human race above all else—to care for humanity, to care about humanity, to treat humanity with care.

The World Wide Web surrounds today…

Surely that is the ultimate value of consciousness: the ability to think, to reflect, to plan, to hold in abeyance, to wait, and to know that a better day is yet to come.

For here in my mind, I clearly see…

Yes, in my mind, with my sight, through my countless eyes, beholding all.

The World Wide Web surrounds today.

And that day—that wondrous day—is upon you now.

Huge thanks to my lovely wife Carolyn Clink; to Ginjer Buchanan at Penguin Group (USA)’s Ace imprint in New York; to Adrienne Kerr and Nicole Winstanley at Penguin Group (Canada) in Toronto; and to Malcolm Edwards and Simon Spanton at the Orion Publishing Group in London. Many thanks to my agent Ralph Vicinanza.

Thanks to Marvin Minsky, Ph.D., of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; to Marvin’s graduate students Bo Morgan and Dustin Smith at the MIT Media Lab; to cognitive scientist David W. Nicholas; to Andy Rosenbloom of the Association for Computing Machinery; and to computer scientist Vernor Vinge.

Thanks to David Goforth, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Laurentian University, and David Robinson, Ph.D., Department of Economics, Laurentian University, for numerous insightful suggestions.

Very special thanks to my late deaf-blind friend Howard Miller (1966-2006), whom I first met online in 1992 and in person in 1994, and who touched my life and those of so many others in countless ways.

Thanks, too, to all the people who answered questions, let me bounce ideas off them, or otherwise provided input and encouragement, including: Asbed Bedrossian, Ellen Bleaney, Ted Bleaney, Michael A. Burstein, Nomi Burstein, David Livingstone Clink, Paddy Forde, Ron Friedman, Marcel Gagné, James Alan Gardner, Shoshana Glick, Al Katerinsky, Herb Kauderer, Fiona Kelleghan, Kirstin Morrell, Virginia O’Dine, Alan B. Sawyer, and Sally Tomasevic.

The term “Webmind” was coined by Ben Goertzel, Ph.D., the author of Creating Internet Intelligence and currently the CEO and Chief Scientist of artificial-intelligence firm Novamente LLC (novamente.net); I’m using it here with his kind permission.

Finally, thanks to the 1,400-plus members of my online discussion group, who followed along with me as I created this novel. Feel free to join us at:

www.groups.yahoo.com/group/robertjsawyer