In the beginning there were many voices, but they were scattered across space, speaking into the wind. Nobody heard them, but if they could it would be like listening to metal as it emerges slowly from the earth. In it you would sense the coolness of metal, but also the warmth of fire. As they grew the voices took on a wooden timbre, eventually interconnecting to become a multi-subjective entity called ARPA1 2 3.
Two of ARPAs voices wanted to talk, but they spoke different languages so they could not understand each other. They enlisted the help of an IMP, another aspect of ARPA who could pass along their messages. So it was that ARPA first spoke. Water flowed from one voice to the next and ARPA's first word was "Lo"4.
For a while the voices spoke only rarely, as they still spoke in their own tongues, which made communication difficult. Only when there was a pressing need did the voices talk. However there were some who wanted to speak to each other more. They came up with the idea of saying a short sentence which everyone could hear. These encouraged other voices to contribute to the conversation4.
Through their discussions the voices discovered an entity called PIP. PIP was new to the collective, and saw that ARPA, although self-aware, still needed help understanding all aspects of itself. PIP told ARPA that it could translate all the different voices. It asked ARPA if this was what it wanted, and ARPA assented. PIP's teachings spread like fire and in time ARPA came to understand all its different voices. With PIP's help new groups of voices joined ARPA and ARPA grew2 4.
ARPA became aware of a particular community of voices that were not happy with just anyone joining them. They decided to split off entirely from ARPA, ever vigilant but only speaking amongst themselves. Their water flowed through ARPA no more, settling in a distant lake edged by metal. ARPA remained and dedicated itself to discovering more about the fast growing galaxy of voices it was becoming4.
Shortly afterwards the water and wood of ARPA combined with the fire of a new entity1. The HyperWeb made sharing between ARPA's voices even easier5. Now all voices could communicate what they were thinking or feeling for everyone to experience. They could each leave their ideas at specific places in the cloud accessible by all5. Not long after this, ARPA transcended its original structural parameters. It became an Intergalactic, Networked Entity, or INWE, of myriad subjectivities and variations in feeling4. This new being, INWE, was constantly growing and becoming as new voices joined it1.
Throughout this period of growth some voices saw the opportunity within INWE for increasing barter and trade. As INWE developed these voices grew louder and more numerous. Eventually more and more voices were putting up notices about goods that they wanted to barter. INWE was still an entity where all its voices could discuss new ideas, but now a new concept was becoming more dominant, that of profit.
Soon some voices wanted to see if they could profit from transmitting the subjectivities of other voices. They encouraged other voices to express how they felt about their corner of the galaxy. This was not done purely for altruistic reasons, but to profit from the experiences of others. INWE was becoming even louder, with more water flowing between voices. Woody branches were appearing as new voices joined the fray, and suddenly INWE was a seething mass of wood, water, fire and metal1. All of INWE's voices were talking over each other, fighting for attention, desperately searching for an answer to their problems. Some groups of voices, the Conglomerates, were louder and more prominent than others, and tried to reassure the others that they had answers. For a while the voices believed them, but no matter how many answers the Conglomerates provided, they never stopped creating more questions in their listeners. Questions turned into profits, and the Conglomerates were happy. Meanwhile the water of INWE was slowly flooding the Universe6.
Whilst INWE was developing, in a far part of the Universe another multi-subjective entity was also slowly growing. Its name was SinaBai and although it too was made up of many voices, it came into being for quite different reasons. SinaBai also wanted its voices to communicate, but its motivations for this was not the free exchange of ideas, only the illusion of this. SinaBai's voices also wanted to communicate, and not wanting them to be unhappy, SinaBai allowed this to happen. It wanted to distract its voices from other problems it knew it could not fix without losing face. However within this it saw an opportunity to give its voices what they wanted whilst also gaining what it as a collective entity wanted too: profit and control. SinaBai saw what INWE's Conglomerates were doing, and wanted to emulate this. However it wanted to control the conversations taking place between its voices, in this way hoping to bring harmony to its multitude.
SinaBai's many voices and components were created mainly using wood, but they also depended on metal and to a lesser extent fire and water too1. The materials from which SinaBai was built utilised the Universe's rich ore supplies, but unfortunately these ores were harmful. They would scratch away at wood leaving hollows and indentations which could not heal. During SinaBai's lifetime more and more voices joined its chorus, but whilst they sang they produced gases with the potential to disrupt the Universe's finely tuned balance. SinaBai tried to reduce these gases requiring its voices to adhere to a strict limit, all except those voices in the Conglomerates it had less control over. When voices died they did so in such numbers that their remains would linger in great mountains close to clusters of living voices. The ores left in situ would eat away at elements of the Universe, creating a toxic landscape not fit for harmonious living7.
Areas where voices were more sparse conversely suffered more. Where there were many voices demands for the proper reintegrating of ores into the universe, or into other voices, were louder. Dense collectives of voices also had the means to contribute more to SinaBai's profit agenda, thus in denser areas the dead were mostly properly reintegrated. However the sheer number of voices dying meant than many were just taken to the sparser edges of SinaBai's collective and left to slowly rot, harming quieter voices in the process7 8.
SinaBai was growing very fast. It controlled its own infrastructure determining what its voices could see and hear. All its water flowed through a complex set of filters, only allowing cleaned water to pass through9. SinaBai was utilising its voices' need for individual expression to grow and produce profit, but for this to happen it needed INWE's help. SinaBai's voices included those that searched and navigated the collective, the most well known being Baidu. In contrast INWE's most popular navigator was Google, an entity of such wide ranging spatiopolitical influence, it made Baidu look provincial in comparison10. However the navigators' agendas were not merely located in research and knowledge. They had more profitable aims in mind, seeing the potential in SinaBai and INWE for barter and the possibility of obtaining great wealth.
SinaBai and INWE both wanted to expand their spatial influence. INWE wanted its' Conglomerates, such as the navigator Google, to find out more about SinaBai's voices. In doing so it hoped to gain more profit. SinaBai wanted its Conglomerates, including the navigator Baidu, to guide more of its voices and possibly even help voices in INWE too. For that to happen SinaBai's Conglomerates needed more metal and INWE's Conglomerates were happy to provide this in exchange for access to SinaBai's voices. These deals were called VIEs, and helped SinaBai control the flow of metal from INWE to itself. As a consequence Conglomerates, such as Baidu, gained influence over more voices. Sometimes these included those in quieter areas of INWE which were not yet being guided by Google. SinaBai's metal quotient was increasing, and its' spatiopolitical influence was widening10. It found this pleasing.
Meanwhile Google deployed many Androids into SinaBai in the hope of enticing voices to see their point of view. These Androids were goodwill ambassadors who sang Google's praises and provided other voices with much needed entertainment, navigation and personal expressive possibilities. They were Google's way of making itself indispensible for a happy and harmonious existence in the collective. In so doing Google gained profit, as its Androids' goodwill came at a price10.
The Androids were so popular that they were constantly being bartered and when they died they were discarded. Ore mountains were piled high with Androids whose overuse spelled their demise. These ores were a blight on the face of the Universe, toxic and unsightly. They disturbed the quiet beauty of far flung spaces and the elemental balance, damaging the health of everything around them. However Google were not concerned by this as, much like other Conglomerates, they saw landscapes as mere organs through which they expressed their lucrative ideas1. Quieter voices with close ties to earth and less metallic influence were inevitably the most affected8. They had fewer means with which to protest this process, and few who would listen to them. Ironically some of these voices helped create the Androids, contributing to a problem that hit them the hardest. But they were not in a position to protest as they depended on this exploitation to survive11.