As if one mystery of creation weren't enough,
there was the myth of . . .
the Demi-Urge
By THOMAS M. DISCH
From DIRA IV
To Central Colonial Board
There is intelligent life onEarth. After millennia of lifelessness,intelligence flourishes herewith an extravagance of energythat has been a constant amazementto all the members of thesurvey team. It multiplies andsurges to its fulfillment at an exponentialrate. Even within theshort period of our visit the Terranshave made significant advances.They have filled theirsmall solar system with their ownkind and now they are reaching tothe stars.
We can no longer keep the existenceof our Empire unknownto them.
And (though it is as incredibleas √−1) the Terrans are slaves!Every page of the survey’s reportbears witness to it.
Their captors are not alive.They do not, at least, possess theproperties of life as it is knownthroughout the galaxy. They are—asnearly as a poor analogy cansuggest—Machines! Machinescannot live, yet here on Earthmachinery has reached a level ofsophistication—and autonomy—quiteunprecedented. Every sparkof Terran life has become victimand bondslave of the incrediblemechanisms. The noblest enterprisesof the race are tarnishedby this almost symbiotic relation.
Earth reaches to the stars, butit extends mechanical limbs.Earth ponders the universe, butthe thoughts are those of a machine.
Unless the Empire acts now toset the Earth free from thisstrange tyranny, it may be toolate. These machines are withoututilitarian value. They performno function which an intelligentbeing cannot more efficiently perform.Yet they inspire fear, terror,even, I must confess, a[p 57] strange compulsion to surrenderoneself to them.
The Machines must be destroyed.
If, when you have authorizedthe liberation of the Terran natives,you would also recallMIRO CIX, our work could onlyprofit. MIRO CIX was in chargeof the study of the Machines andhe performed this task scrupulously.Now he has surrenderedhimself to this mechanicalplague. His value to the expeditionis at an end.
I am enclosing under separatecover his counsel to the CentralBoard at the insistence of thistedious lunatic. His thesis is, ofcourse, untenable—an affront toevery feeling.
From MIRO CIX
To Central Colonial Board
I have probably been introducedto the deliberations of theBoard as a madman, my theoryas an act of treason. RRON IIof the Advisory Committee, anold acquaintance, may vouch formy sanity. My theory will, Itrust, speak for itself.
The “Machines” of whichDIRA IV is so fearful present nodanger to the galaxy. Their corporealweakness, the poverty oftheir minds, the incredible isolationof each form, physically andmentally, from others of its