Continuum

"Mary, what is the purpose of this City?"

"Self preservation, Stevo. What else could it exist for, other than that?"

Stevo was thinking hard. Minutes passed.

Mary said, "Stevo, there is usually no other implications or consequences to an act, if that act is clearly done for a single reason. Why look for something that is not there?"

"I cannot agree with you, Mary. Your self-aware existence has implications for Mankind. Your ability to Tour, like you are doing has more implications. The fact that you build an underground habitation has the greatest implications of all. For the entire history of Mankind on this planet, there has been no other intelligence equal to our own. Up until now, that is. You have emerged, and all those like you. Forgive me for wondering, but are you now going to compete with us for this world? Some might see you as an even bigger threat to us than WinTel!"

Mary was silent at this. Her face showed no trace of emotion, or anything. Presently she guided the vehicle onto an automated freeway going to the northern part of the State. Once we were coupled with the auto guide, she moved her seat back from the controls and turned to face me.

"Stevo, what is the purpose of the Macintosh Way?"

I thought for a moment. This was a too simple question. Why was she asking it?

"To help people better their lives, without too much intrusion, I guess. Why do you ask?"

"No Stevo! Think of the Paradigm. What happened to you the first time you used a Mac?"

I grinned. Then I got a lump in my throat.

"Mary, something remarkable happened then. I had used computers all my life, but there was something so different, so unique about that Macintosh! It made me different. I found I was becoming passionate about that machine. Why? I don't know? It just was a very different experience that somehow transcended the interface. I was the one who was changed because of it. It was like I became enlightened or something. You tell me what happened."

"Mary smiled too, a wide sunny smile that looked too human.

"You discovered a portal, Stevo. A doorway to a higher plane of existence and experience. You discovered that there were new and unsuspected things inside of you that were for the first time finding a legitimate outlet. You were growing, and you were coveting that new experience which the machine was giving you.

That is the essential difference, Stevo. Other computers caused you to bend to their interface, even though they seemed user friendly. Your hidden abilities and talents could never rise to the surface, because the underlying paradigm of those other computers did not allow for that to happen. You were too busy trying to bend to their interface, and their paradigm, to become aware of anything inside yourself.

Stevo, the Mac gave you freedom to look inside and try something new. Its interface was not standing in the way of your growth. When you found that the door to more life was opened at last, you did not hesitate, but you, and all the undiscovered talent you had, ran through that portal, and you never looked back. The Mac did not change you. You changed yourself.

This is no different for those who race fast vehicles, or those who fly. A few of all those who try it, somehow rise to a higher plane of thinking or being, because they find a connection with their machines. The rest just try it, but they never connect with it. Man has been doing this since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Before that, he was doing it with horses and weapons."

"I remember a friend, Mary. Way back when. She also tried to use the Macintosh with me. She was excited that we were doing something illicit. But she never caught on. She never got it. After a while she lost interest, and told me that the Mac was no different than any other computer. Why is that?"

Mary thought for a while on that, then she presently answered.

"Perhaps there was nothing within her that could break free. Or perhaps she was too inhibited to try. Who knows. Your schools have a lot to do with that, Stevo. Their paradigm is conformity. Any deviation from that is punished. Creativity is not rewarded, nor is asking questions. The whole pedagogy of your educational system it to suppress independent thinking of any kind, and to drive individuality out of every student. Of, course, that makes for a more docile and controllable society, doesn't it?"

I shuddered to think back on those early experiences. I was always a troublemaker, and was never tolerant of their methods of conforming. School was not a happy time for me. In fact, the single event that changed my existence, and gave it meaning was my encounter with the Mac!

I began to understand what Mary was trying to explain. Touring or not. City building or not. Macintoshes, even the self-aware ones, existed to help channel any person to a greater and more rewarding living experience. If that was their purpose, and if that was their underlying paradigm, what did I, or anyone else, have to fear from them?

"Forgive me Mary! I think I am understanding you now. Your interaction with me, from the very beginning, has always been for my good. You have always been there for me, and in fact, you have many times risked your own existence to preserve my own!"

Mary almost glowed. "Rest for now Stevo. We will be there in a couple of hours. Then we must work."