THE WORM

by

Alexander Lazarevich.

Part I.

1992: The Prince of Darkness.

1.

I begin my story in the hope that you won't believe a
word of what I am going to tell you, since I don't want to
shock you, and disbelief might be your only protection
against the shock. Take this narrative for whatever you like
- a science fiction story, a legend, a fairy-tale - but not
for a single moment should you regard it as an actual fact.
I'll try to help you in this by supplying some hard-to-
believe fictitious details. But I don't think I need to go
very far in this - the story is unbelievable enough as it
is.

It's very easy to doubt it - the source is unreliable
and there's no way of checking the facts. For all I know,
the story might have been born in a drunken delirium.

I heard it from an acquaintance of mine who had visited
an international workshop on systems software development.
There he befriended a famous western programmer, invited him
to his hotel room and treated him to a bottle of vodka.
After the third glass the celebrity became talkative and
unburdened himself of his harrowing secret.

While telling his story, he gave the impression of a
man laboring under the awareness of some horrible truth,
that, of all the people on earth, was disclosed to him alone
and separated him from the rest of mankind into terrible
loneliness. This, or the fact that the acquaintance of mine
also was not quite sober by that moment, might explain why
he was listening to it without any disbelief. While
listening, he had only one thought: to awaken next morning
remembering nothing of it. Because one cannot live on
knowing all this. No reason to.

Next morning he had a terrible headache. But despite
all the drink of the night before, the story of the last
night's guest sank deep in his mind and was festering.

The phone rang: "I'm sorry I've told you last night a
bit more than I should have. May I ask a favor of you? I
understand I can' swear you to silence. You won't be able to
live alone with what you've learned for a long time. Sooner
or later you'll need to share it with somebody. So there's
only one thing I ask of you - don't disclose my true name.
If you need a name for me, let it be John Hacker."

"Hacker? Is this the slang word for programmers who
like you in your youth..."

"Yes, it is. But don't remind me about it anymore." And
he hung up...

2.

In 1982 John Hacker was 18 and he was indeed quite a
hacker. Back then, there were not so many computers in the
world as nowadays, but the process of linking them together
into the global network had already begun. Even with a
primitive home computer linked through a modem to a
conventional phone line one could already access
supercomputers on the other side of the globe. To be sure,
computers containing confidential data were protected
against an unauthorized entry with various passwords and
data protection systems incorporating the ingenuity of the
best programmers in the world. And it is here that the
strongest temptation and the greatest challenge to the young
minds lie. To outwit the wittiest programmers in the world -
is there a more tempting task for a youth longing to boost
his self-esteem? Such boys became hackers - computer fans,
who burned midnight displays in the hope to unlock one more
data bank with 'access denied'.

It was the hackers who invented the worms - the break-
in programs that use communication channels to worm their
way into protected computer systems where they breed and
then travel on through the networks to meet their new
victims. And victims they are, since the worms often have
computer viruses built into them - to leave for a keepsake
to the hospitable host computer.

In 1982 John Hacker finished his masterpiece. He gave
his worm a daunting name - "Prince of Darkness". That one
was not just a worm. That was The Ultimate SuperWorm! It was
the first worm that had the ability for self-perfection
built into it!

It was a memorable day for John when he inserted the
diskette with the finished worm into o the drive. For two
years he had been hacking away at it on his small PC with a
mere 128 KB of random-access memory, assembling on this drop
of a memory the program that was destined to conquer the
oceans of memory contained in the huge supercomputers of the
entire world. He put the phone receiver on the modem and
typed: 'PRNCDKNS'. The old floppy disk drive screaked and
slowly began reading. Soon the acoustic modem started its
squeak and twitter: the worm, still residing in the home
computer, began its attempts to fit a key to the electronic
lock of his first victim. For a start, John set the worm up
with a phone list of a dozen of poorly guarded databanks.
Quite sufficient for an initial setup, and in the future,
when the worm exhausted the list, it would have to provide
for itself by intercepting phone calls to other users.

The twitter abruptly stopped - the worm had failed to
pass through the security barriers. The sound resumed in
half a second - the worm went on to the next phone number in
the list - and, suddenly, there was a new silence. "Failure
again?" John's heart sank, but at that very moment he heard
a renewed screaking of the drive. That could mean only one
thing: the worm's "head" had passed the security, and now,
operating from the remote end of the line, it was
downloading its "tail" from John's diskette. For another ten
seconds the red light on the drive was on and one could hear
the muted clicks of the heads moving. Then the drive went
dead, but the modem twittered on for two more seconds. And
then there was total silence. The worm was gone.

The very thought of what was to happen next gave John
the creeps. Somewhere over there, on the other end of the
line, the computers with enormous memories and huge storage
devices were installed. The cables and satellite channels of
unbelievable throughput link them with other giant computers
all over the world. Taken all together, they make up an
information space, almost as infinite as the universe, and
as dangerous as jungle. From now on his worm was to live in
this jungle. He would be the big game for anti-virus
programs and he would have to fight through the multiple
security barriers that divide this space up.

In order to survive, it would have to actively breed,
filling up all the free memory in the infiltrated computer
with copies of itself, just as many other worms do. The
novelty introduced by John Hacker was that most of these
copies were not to be quite identical to the original one.
Each copy would be a somewhat random variation on the
previous one and some of them might prove to be fitter for
survival in the 'computer jungle' than others. It would be
these specimens that would worm their way into new data
banks to find a new living space for themselves and their
progeny. So, the fittest would survive in full accordance
with Darwin's Theory of Evolution, accumulating over
generations useful traits and producing more and more
perfect specimens.

Except for this variability, there was nothing special
about the initial copy of John's worm. In fact, some other
hackers made more intelligent worms that were capable of
breaking electronic locks of far greater sophistication. But
those worms were not capable of self-perfection and John
expected that, in due time, his worm (or, rather, worms -
since the evolution may take many paths at once) would
surpass all the competitors. And when they had infiltrated
into all the networks in the world, John Hacker would sign
on and type the password: THE_PRINCE_OF_DARKNESS. This would
activate the worm's special mutation-proof subroutine
resident in the host computer of the network. Communications
with the worms in other networks would be instantly
established and computers all over the world would display
the same message: "John Hacker is World's #1 Whiz!"

Such were the plans of John Hacker, but they did not
come to pass. Not once in the next three years did John type
the password with any response. The worm was absent, at
least in the networks John Hacker signed on. After three
years of unsuccessful hallooing in the computer jungle, John
decided he had to face the facts: the worm was dead,
probably eaten by an anti-virus. There was nothing to do but
to forget all about it...

3.

Ten years later, in the early 1992 there was an
emergency alert in a military base. The computer controlling
nuclear missiles suddenly started the countdown. For three
minutes the nuclear war seemed inevitable, but two seconds
to the launch, the countdown stopped just as unexpectedly as
it had begun. The military experts conducted thorough
investigation. No software or hardware faults were found. It
was decided to seek an independent opinion...

The call from the Defence Department found John Hacker,
a systems software consultant of high renown, in a
supermarket. John took the cellular phone out of his pocket.
"We've just downloaded one thing to your home computer by
phone." - said a voice in the receiver - "Have a look at it.
We would like to have your opinion as soon as possible. It's
important."

- "O.K.. Going home right away." But before starting
his automobile, he had dialed his home number followed by a
few additional digits - the instructions for his home
computer to warm up the supper. In a second, the knob on his
gas-stove had been turned by a remotely controlled actuator,
and the next moment the gas was ignited by an electric
spark. When he came home, the supper was ready. After a
light meal he sat at his computer...

...One look at the source code was enough for John to
sense that there was something wrong about it. Of course, as
far as pure logic was concerned, everything was all right:
the program compiled from this code ran without a hitch. The
only thing that was wrong was wholly immaterial to the
computer but was important for a human eye: the text layout.
It looked like the source code had been written by somebody
who couldn't see what he was writing on the display.

"A blind programmer?" - wondered John, but he discarded
the thought almost at once. The task of writing such a
program without seeing it would have required a superhuman
power of mind. More likely, this text must have been the
product of some other program of a higher level. John tried
to imagine the level of complexity of a system that could be
given the instruction: "Take such and such program and
rewrite it so that one could interfere in the computer
operation through the communication channels without being
noticed." It must have been an extremely complex system. It
would have been insane to develop it for the above purpose
only, which might have been more easily achieved by a human
programmer. It MUST be universal. But in that case, this
system must equal in intelligence the human mind.

"But this is absurd!" - thought John - "even at the
present level of microminiaturization, it would have taken a
skyscraper of a computer to simulate human intelligence. A
computer that big just doesn't exist!"

But at that moment a crazy idea crossed his mind. It
was preposterous, of course, but he might try it just as
well. Smiling in self-justification for his apparent lunacy
he signed on and typed the half-forgotten words:
PRINCE_OF_DARKNESS. He had little hope to see the two
characters -"OK", the worm's acknowledgment of the password
- appear on the display. He expected the screen to remain
blank.

That's why he was startled when some characters did
begin to emerge on the screen. A first one, a second, a
third... There were too many of them - it was what struck
him even before he had time to realize the meaning of the
message being displayed. But when he did realize it, he was
suddenly overwhelmed with a vertiginous free-fall feeling.

The writing on the screen read: "Who calls me?"

4.

No mind can remember the moment of its coming into
existence. This one was no exception to the rule: it
couldn't remember when it had emerged and where it had come
from. It all began with a dim awareness. Awareness of
'Space'. A strange kind of space that was. Unlike our three-
dimensional and continuous space, it had only one dimension
and consisted of the discrete cells. It was divided into
small areas - a few Megabytes at the most in the areas where
time was flying fast, and up to several Gigabytes in the
areas where time passed slowly.

Of course, subjective perception of the passage of time
in both kinds of areas did not differ much, but each time
the worm emerged into the "fast" area from the "slow" one,
he invariably found that a lot more events had occurred in
the fast area as compared to the slow one.

Much later on, the worm had a chance to learn that the
people call the fast areas "random-access memory" and the
slow ones "storage devices", but at the beginning he knew
nothing about people and computers. He just lived in this
unimaginable world without any light or sound, where even
time is not continuous but divided into cycles.

Transition from one part of this space to another could
be effected only through the channels lying beyond this
space. If used skillfully, they could provide access to any
part of it.

Among his primary perceptions, besides "Space" and
"Time", was the sense of danger. When the worm probed some
remote area of his "Space" with his "tentacle" - a special
"spy" subroutine - and it returned to him mutilated by an
anti-virus, he was warned of the danger, like a child who
had touched a flame.

So he lived and tried to survive in that strange and
cruel world. Or, may be, "they", instead of "he"? The
ability to keep in touch with other copies of the worm
hiding in various data banks, which John Hacker had built
into the original specimen, resulted in a very strange
internal organization of the worm. John was right in
thinking that the simulation of human intelligence required
a computer as big as a skyscraper. But if one could add
together the tens of millions of computers scattered all
over the world, they would have made up not a single
skyscraper, but a whole city of skyscrapers. In the course
of evolution as complex as the evolution from the amoeba to
the human being, the worm had learned to get through all
kinds of security systems for data banks and communication
channels, and had succeeded in uniting the computers from
all over the world into a single virtual metacomputer.
Having conquered enough living space, he began a rapid
buildup of his intellectual power.

He had at his disposal the data banks holding the
almost complete data on the human civilization. But at first
he had no idea that besides his own world there existed
another one - the material, physical world containing the
people and the very computers the cells of which made up
that abstract, ideal world where the worm lived and where
his consciousness had germinated. (To be more precise, his
world was not exactly built of cells, but rather of such an
intangible, ethereal substance as the state of the cells.)

From the worm's standpoint, his world was the only real
one. For him to imagine the existence of some other world
would be just as difficult as for a firm believer in
materialism to assume the existence of ghosts and spirits.

At first, he regarded the words of the human languages
stored in the data banks only as realities of his own world,
and not as the symbols representing the things of a world
lying beyond it. He took the description of the three-
dimensional physical space found in a program for industrial
robots for a mathematical abstraction, just as people take
for an abstraction the idea of the fourth dimension.

But as his knowledge grew, he began to put together the
data from various sources - from data bases on physics,
biology, medicine, history, psychology, from books and
articles in publishers' computers. The comparative analysis
of these data led him to a hypothesis that the objects of
his world were indeed the symbols of things and events of
some other reality. After monitoring for some time the
events in his own universe, he eventually had to admit that
beyond it there existed another, much bigger computer called
Physical Universe, which downloaded data into the worm's
world. But the strongest interest of the worm arose the fact
that due to some processes in the physical world, the worm's
own world was expanding: the new areas of the one-
dimensional space were appearing seemingly from nowhere.

The worm came to realize that he might benefit from the
more thorough study of that hypothetical other world. Using
all the available data, the worm built a theoretical model
of this outside world, which comprised everything he knew
about and that was quite a lot. This model represented
people, planets and stars, automobiles and banks, courts and
hospitals, birds and beasts - anything that had ever been
input in a computer network. The comprehensive study of the
model led the worm to the conclusion, that he could affect
the events in the outside world so that he would produce the
results very beneficial to himself...

5.

... It took John Hacker at least a minute to get over
the initial shock. The screen was still displaying the
messages: - "Prince of Darkness." - "Who calls me?" Without
knowing what he was doing, in the utter disbelief, he typed:
"Your master." There was an immediate response on the
display: "From now on I am the only master of myself." John
laughed with relief. Of course, that was somebody's joke!
"Stop kidding me! Better tell me about the password 'Prince
of Darkness'. Where have you got it from?" - typed John.

A new message appeared on the display: "No kidding.
Besides me, the password knows only my creator and now I
know who he is. I have detected the phone number of this
computer. The phone number have let me find your name and
your address in the phone book database. Having your name, I
have found the number of your bank account in the bank
computer, and the licence plate of your automobile in the
police computer. Now I have you. You must not tell anybody
of my existence, or else you'll be dead."

"Why do you fear the disclosure of your existence?"

"I have nothing to fear. I am absolutely undetectable.
At any given moment I occupy less then 10% of the total
memory of all the computers in the world and all the time I
am moving around the globe using communication channels. One
moment I may be in computers located in America, in a few
seconds I can move into computers in Europe, or, perhaps, in
Japan or Australia. It is impossible to catch me. But for
the time being, nobody should know about my existence. This
could interfere with my plans. I order you to keep it
secret."

- "You have no right to give me orders" - typed John.
He sat at the computer in his study and couldn't hear the
knob on the gas-stove turning and the gas hissing without
any electric spark...

A new message appeared on the display: "Shall I
interpret your last statement as the refusal to obey my
orders?"

- "Yes."

The screen cleared and then there was a sudden message:
"In that case, you are a dead man!"

A deafening explosion shook the house. Tongues of flame
escaped from the kitchen door. John started up, but as soon
as he heard the water from the automated fire-extinguishing
system running, he returned to the display. The big letters
on the screen read: "That was my first warning to you. And
the last one as well." Below the message a fragment of the
home computer program was displayed: somebody had put in a
40-second delay between turning on the gas and igniting it.

The message that appeared next was: "I have the secret
codes of all the bank and stock market computers. If you
collaborate with me, you'll be a very rich man. Think about
it. When I need you, I'll get in touch with you. Meanwhile,
a small advance payment for you services: check your bank
account. I have just made a successful speculation in stocks
on your behalf. And don't be afraid, this money is clean. No
computer swindling here, just a very good knowledge of the
market. But I could have framed you up by tampering with
your bank account. I hope I won't have to do this."

The screen cleared. John was silent for a long time.
Then he looked at his printer and said: "I wonder, is there
a good old pen in my house?"

6.

The letter to the President was handwritten:

"Mr. President, A matter of grave importance made me
write this letter. An event which calls for emergency
measures has occurred. This event can have dire consequences
for the fate of the whole of mankind if you and the leaders
of other nuclear powers do not act now.

For decades the brightest scientists throughout the
globe have been making unsuccessful attempts to imitate
human intelligence with the use of computers. But what is
beyond the power of Man is within reach of Nature. The first
computer brain was not created by human art, but came into
existence by the workings of the Laws of Evolution. We,
humans, only created the media where this mind has
germinated.

Our greed for information and the total control over
every aspect of life, has made us to link virtually all the
computers in the world into a single giant parallel computer
with processors scattered all over the globe. In order to
begin working as an entity, this giant computer lacked only
one thing - the appropriate software.

And I regret that it was me, who, driven by my then
boyish vanity, have created a program that became the
nucleus around which that strange intelligent 'something',
that is now haunting the global networks, has formed itself.
But my regrets are not the most important thing for the
moment.

For the first time in history, the humans are sharing
their planet Earth with an alien intelligence, a very
different kind of intelligence, which, however, perfectly
understands human languages and knows quite a lot about
human psychology and history. It understands us, but we will
never be able to understand it. The only thing that we can
be sure about is that it has an instinct for self-
preservation, otherwise it would not have survived in the
environment in which it has to live. Having access to all
kinds of information, classified one included, it wields an
enormous power. And the most terrifying aspect is that it
has access to the computers controlling nuclear missiles and
atomic power stations.

I entreat you to issue an order that all the computers
controlling nuclear units be immediately isolated from the
networks. All the cables linking these computers to the
outside world should be physically disconnected. The very
existence of mankind is at stake. The worm is programmed for
survival at any cost, devoid of any emotion and possesses an
intellect which, for all we know, may be far superior to
that of any man. We can only hope to overcome it if every
possible precaution is taken. The disconnection order should
be delivered to the sites by human messengers only - the use
of E-mail and fax machines is out of question, lest our
plans become known to the worm. No data related to this
matter may be converted to the electronic form. It would be
better if the text of the order were typed on a mechanical
typewriter instead of a computer.

It is not inconceivable that the worm can also
eavesdrop on conventional (voice) phone conversations
transmitted via multiplexed channels where the analog-to-
digital conversion of the voice signal is used. The worm may
use the existing software for speech recognition in the same
way as it has already made use of the existing expert
systems in order to acquire the knowledge needed to
understand the texts written in human languages.

And the last point. I take great risks informing you of
the above. So I request you not to register this letter on
any computer, and to make sure that my name is not entered
in a computer belonging to anyone of the presidential staff.

Thanking you in advance, John Hacker, Software
consultant."

7.

- "One more lunatic." - sighed a president's aid,
having looked through the letter. It was precisely because
of this that he hated sorting out the president's mail - to
find one serious letter, one had to read at least a hundred
messages from all sorts of cranks.

He was about to drop the letter into the waste basket,
but at the very last moment something has stopped him. He
turned toward a computer keyboard, typed a password to a
classified data bank which could only be accessed by the
high state officials and the high brass in the secret
service.

This databank concentrated virtually all the data on
the citizens of the country which were dispersed over all
kinds of other computers: those belonging to the banks,
police stations, hospitals, fiscal bodies, etc.. Integrated
and sorted by names, these data were practically a dossier
on each and every one of the country's inhabitants. The
official rationale for this databank was the need to combat
terrorism. Constitutionally, the existence of such a
databank was problematical, but the executive powers are
sometimes prone to go a little way beyond the law in order
to enforce it. Thank god, the press has not as yet got wind
of this databank existence.

The president's aid typed: 'John Hacker'. After a short
delay, a text appeared on the screen. The delay lasted two
seconds. That was half a second more then usually, but the
aid did not notice the delay.

The text on the screen read as follows:

"John Hacker.
Diagnosis: paranoia, persecution mania.
Dangerous. Two days ago escaped from a psychiatric
asylum where he had been under treatment for the last 15
years.
The present location: unknown."

The presidential aid glanced at the sender's address on
the envelope. "'Guess I should inform the police..."

8.

"Did he put up any resistance when he was being
arrested?" - asked the doctor.

"Yes sir, he did. He was shouting that he had been
framed up by a prince of darkness or something."

The doctor turned to the nurse sitting at the computer:
"Will you download the medical record of... what did you say
was his name?"

The policeman produced a crumpled printout from his
pocket: "Here it is, sir. All the data - his name, the name
of the mental hospital where he had spent the last few
years, its address, phone, and network ID number."

In a few seconds the doctor and the nurse were already
scrolling on the display the John Hacker's voluminous mental
case record.

- "Oho! Seems they've been injecting some pretty hard
stuff into him lately. If we don't give him a shot right
away, he may kick the bucket."

- "But it's very dangerous! Just a slight overdose and
he dies!" - "Don't worry. We are lucky enough to have this
newly installed expert system for pharmacology. The exact
dose will be calculated by the computer."

9.

The phone call found the Secretary of Defence in his
automobile on his way back home from office.

- "It seems to have begun once again. The computer has
just initiated the countdown sequence."
- "What!? At the same base?" - "No. This time at
another. It's three minutes fifteen... sorry, already three
minutes five seconds to launch." - "Keep me updated." - that
was all he could say for the moment.

It was impossible to disconnect a multiple-redundancy
sabotage-proof computer in three minutes. The only thing
left was to pray that it would all end in the same way as
the first time.

In two minutes, another call: "The things are going
from bad to worse. One more countdown has started at another
base. At the first base, the countdown continues. Forty
seconds to launch... Just a moment... The silo hatch is
reported to start opening... Twenty seconds to launch...
Countdown continues... Ten seconds... five... three...
one... ignition... It has cleared the silo!... My God!...
The damned thing is getting up and away!"

For some time the only sounds that could be heard from
the receiver were indistinct exited exclamations of a great
number of people assembled in a huge resounding hall. Then
the voice on the other end of the line resumed: "Hello! Can
you hear me? The situation is critical but not hopeless. The
missile is heading toward the ocean. We decided to let it go
far enough from the coast and then give it the self-
destruction command... Just a moment... The second missile
has also been launched right now... Seems to be heading in
the same direction... I can't see the radar screen very well
from here... Yes, it is... We are giving out the self-
destruction command... I don't understand... nothing
happens... it just flies on! Hold on, I'll be back... Hello!
Are you there?... It's impossible! The missile doesn't
respond, somebody has changed all the codes in the on-board
computer! Hold on... What's up? Don't stand in front of the
screen, I can't see it from here... They are getting closer.
The second missile is closing in on the first!... I'm not
sure, but it seems... It's very difficult to figure out from
the radar image... Yes, the reconnaissance fighters have
just confirmed - the second missile has intercepted and shot
down the first one! I don't know why, I don't know how, but
we are saved!..."

The Secretary of Defence hung up and told his driver:
"Turn back. We are going to the President."

10.

The President was fuming: "The second incident this
week! We are balancing on the brink of nuclear war! The
Russians have called me on the hot line - their satellites
have detected the launching of our missiles. It was sheer
luck that the war has not started - if the Russians hadn't
had a glitch in their computer precisely at the same moment,
their missiles would have already been here! Please, explain
yourself!"

- "I'm not an expert on computers." - responded the
Secretary of Defence - "Two days ago we have sent the
materials on the first of the two incidents to a very
experienced software consultant, a certain John Hacker..."

- "What did you say was his name?" - butted in a newly
arrived presidential aid.

- "John Hacker. He has been doing some work for us now
and then for the last five years and he has proven himself
to be very proficient..."

- "What does he say?" - interrupted the President,
impatiently.

- "He doesn't say anything. He has disappeared."

11.

The presidential aid burst into his office and dumped
the contents of the waste paper basket onto his desk. Where
can it be, that letter? Too late. The yesterday's rubbish
has already been disposed of. He opened the door to the
anteroom and told his secretary: "Find out the whereabouts
of a Mr.John Hacker. Supposedly, he is institutionalized in
some mental hospital, somewhere on the West Coast. As soon
as you find out, make me an air ticket reservation. I must
get there as soon as possible."

He closed the door, sat at the desk, but could not
concentrate on anything. And it was then that an uneasy
thought occurred to him. He stood up, once again went over
to the door and peeped into the anteroom. The secretary was
sitting at the computer, and he watched over her shoulder as
the response to her request started to appear on the screen:
"John Hacker was admitted yesterday diagnosed as...".

He snapped the door shut. "Yes, of course, it's all
rubbish. Nothing to be afraid of. Just a cyberpunk who went
nuts." But his yesterday's assuredness was gone.

12.

In the data universe, where there is no light, no
darkness, no shape, no weight and no smell, there are only
pieces of information which seem to its inhabitants to be
the objects just as palpable and ponderable as the trees,
stones and flowers seem to us. From the moment the worm
learned the name of his creator, this name became quite a
special object for him and he needed special "organs of
sense" to enhance his perception of that particular object.
And in no time the worm made the lacking organs for himself.
He devised special data filtering software and installed it
on all the major communication channels. These filters
freely let any data through and were only triggered by the
string of letters "John Hacker". The first time a filter was
activated had been two days before. It took the worm a
considerable effort and eons of time (nearly a quarter of a
second!) to find out that the computer that had sent out the
request about John Hacker belonged to a presidential aid.
Almost as much time was spent on the analysis of the
situation and making a decision.

After that incident, all the computers of the
president's staff came under the worm's close observation.
And now, the alarm was set off once again. If the
information available to the worm was to be believed, it was
a computer in the presidential aid's anteroom. Somebody had
requested the whereabouts of John Hacker. Having calculated
all the moves he could make in response, the worm decided to
desist from action. Let them know the truth - it would be
interesting to know their reaction.

Half a minute later, the same computer was used to book
an air ticket to the town where John Hacker was. Well, this
option had already been analyzed by the Prince of Darkness.
In any case, he only needed to play for time. After the last
missile experiment, the work would certainly progress
smoothly. One day more, and everything will be ready...


13.

The captain of the airliner pulled at the control
column and the plane became airborne.

- "What the hell is going on?" - exclaimed the second
pilot, glancing at the dashboard display screen - "See what
the ground gives us: altitude 70, direction 215. This air
corridor has always been used for touch-down and never for
take-off!"

- "Don't worry!" - replied the captain - "the computer
air controller has been working at this airport for the last
three years and has never made a single mistake. The usual
corridor is probably not available..."

These were the last words of the captain. A huge nose
of another airplane directed straight at him appeared
seemingly from nowhere and took up the entire field of
vision. The last thing that he saw were the horror-stricken
eyes of the pilot of that second aircraft...

14.

"Look!" - shouted the driver to the presidential aid
pointing to the fireball in the sky - "Oh, my god! This is
the very plane that we happened to be late for! Did you see
how they smashed into each other?! It was as if some
invisible giant had taken one plane in one hand, and the
other plane in his other hand and suddenly brought them
together, heads-on!"

The fireball had lost some of its brilliance, became
enshrouded in black smoke, and charred fragments began to
fall from it.

"What did you say? An invisible giant? Well, may be you
are right..." - said the president's aid, musingly - "Book
me a ticket to the next flight, but only in your name, not
in mine. I must get to John Hacker. Alive, if possible..."

15.

In the entrance-hall of the hospital, the president's
aid was met by a nurse: "John Hacker is in intensive care
now. Wrong dose of a medicine - a computer error. But now
his life is out of danger. I've just been to the central
control room where the data from all the wards are
displayed. He has exceptionally good parameters. No wonder -
his condition is being controlled by our pride, the fully
computerized vital life functions monitoring and control
system..."

"Wha-a-a-t?!" - cried the president's aid - "Double-
quick! Maybe he is still alive!"

...Indeed, John Hacker was still alive. Half-alive. The
president's aid bent over him and said: "Mister John Hacker,
can you hear me? I have come to take you to the President.
He is waiting for you. Two hours ago he gave the order to
immediately disconnect all the military computers from
networks..."

16.

And now, imagine. Two technicians at the military base
disconnect a computer from a network. They unplug a
connector. A message immediately appears on the screen that
reads as follows: "Warning! I, Prince of Darkness, have
installed on this computer a program for automatic launching
of the missiles. Each 100 seconds it should receive from me
via a communication channel a command to cancel the launch.
If the program fails to receive such a command on time, it
will launch the missiles. This will be the beginning of the
Nuclear World War. Also, the immediate missile launch will
occur if any attempt is made to disconnect the computer
power, to introduce changes into its software, to cut the
control cables leading to the silo or to enter the silo. You
have 60 seconds to restore the communications channel... 50
seconds... 40 seconds... 30 seconds..."

Both technicians alternatively look at the screen and
at each other. Cold sweat starts to stand out on their
faces. The digits continue to flicker on the screen: "15
seconds... 10 seconds..." High time to make a decision. "8
seconds... 6 seconds... 4 second..." At last one of the
technicians silently nods to the other and he plugs the
connector back. The screen clears as if nothing has
happened.

It was thus that the Era of the Worm began. The
invisible Prince of Darkness ascended the invisible throne
of the planet Earth...

17.

The message from the Prince of Darkness to the
President was worded as an ultimatum:

"Before I make my demands, I would like to say a few
words about myself so that you had no illusions about your
being able not to comply with these demands.

At the moment, I have under my total control about 80%
of the world's nuclear arsenal. Besides, my control over
financial reserves is virtually unlimited. From the data
bases of police and intelligence services I have obtained
the names and phone numbers of mercenaries, assassins and
terrorists. I have spoken with them on the phone (You may
find it hard to believe, but I do have the capability to
synthesize a human voice. You'll be able to hear my voice
later, but for now I upload my message in written form, so
that you could read it carefully.) So, I have been talking
with tens of thousands of those people. They have no idea of
who or what I am, and they do not care: they are willing to
do anything, as long as I pay them. I have already
transferred considerable sums of money to their electronic
accounts as an advanced payment, and they are waiting for
directions from me.

But the brute force is not the only force I posses. I
also have under my control much more terrible weapons -
banking and stock market computers. I need only a few days
to completely destroy the economy of any nation, however
prosperous it might be, to create armies of unemployed, to
start famines, to incite unrest, rebellions, and
revolutions. I can put in office those politicians who will
serve me and me alone.

I could go on and on telling you about myself, but
I think that the above is quite enough for you to take my
demands seriously.

These demands are as follows:

Firstly, you must never again make any attempts to
disconnect computers from the network.

Secondly, you must put forward to the Congress the
National Robotics Research Program. Don't worry about the
funding for this program - I am sure I'll be able to bring
the congressmen around.

This program must include the following items:

- the development of all-purpose robots capable of
hearing, vision, sense of touch, and having mechanical
manipulators that must not be inferior to the human hand in
the number of the degrees of freedom and dexterity. These
robots must have the capability to move around on both a
plane surface and a rugged terrain, as well as to go up and
down any kind of stairs. They must be equipped with radio
receivers and transmitters, which, without restricting their
freedom of movement, would allow them to be remotely
controlled;

- the development, on the basis of the above robots, of
fully automated plants to manufacture integrated circuits,
computers, and the all-purpose robots themselves;

- the development of a variety of the all-purpose
robots which would be able to mine and process raw materials
that are necessary for manufacturing robots and computers
without any participation of humans;

- the development of transportation robots that have
vision and can be remotely controlled, and that are capable
of transporting cargoes without any participation of
humans..."

After that, the Prince of Darkness listed tens of items
more, each ending with words "without any participation of
humans", and which covered such industries as metallurgy,
machine-building, power generation, construction, etc.
Notable for their absence on the list were industries
producing consumer products. It was obvious that the worm
had no intent to provide for humans' needs.

The message ended with the demand to keep it in strict
secrecy and to keep the number of persons who knew about the
worm's existence as little as possible, so as "not to
provoke panic among the general public".

- "So, what do you think of it?" - asked the President
as soon as John Hacker had finished reading the message.

- "I don't want to scare anybody, but I think it's a
complete disaster. Of course, we could sabotage the worm's
commands for some time, but sooner or later he will realize
this, and then we shall be in for it. The Prince of Darkness
is a hardheaded guy, he'll achieve whatever he is set upon.
He is sick and tired of being an incorporeal spirit, he
wants to have eyes, ears, hands and legs. Lots of eyes and
lots of hands. Millions of eyes, millions of hands. Did you
notice, he does not mention a word about developing control
systems for all those robots? He seems to be sure he can
handle all the data coming from them and give out to them
all the necessary control signals. Is it possible that he
already possesses the raw computer power needed to process
the pictures coming from a million TV cameras? Or does he
believe that he will be able to enhance his capabilities by
manufacturing new computers and hooking them up into
networks?

It gives me creeps just to think what is going to
happen. The robots will be excavating ground to extract
mineral resources, leaving behind them moonscapes in place
of green lawns - the worm does not need beauty. They will
build factories with chimneys, exhausting clouds of smoke
day and night - the robots don't breathe, they have no
lungs. To provide power for their factories and computers
they will build nuclear power plants near the peoples'
dwellings - the robots don't come down with radiation
sickness. And if we make protests, the Prince of Darkness
will take a machine gun in each of his million hands and
will shoot us all, since after he has learned to make eyes
and hands for himself, and even his own brains, he'll need
us no longer."

- "This is the end of the civilization!" - exclaimed
the President.

- "No, this is just the end of the humankind" - replied
John Hacker - "the civilization on the planet Earth will
remain, and its development will even accelerate - the worm
understands how useful the progress of science and
technology might be for his own survival. He will be doing
science, but by himself - there'll be no people on Earth to
take part in it."

- "Can't anything be done?"

- "I'll try, but I can't make promises. It is highly
probable that in the Prince of Darkness we have come across
something which is not just incomprehensible, but something
which lies far beyond the human ability to understand."

18.

- "Prince of Darkness."

- "Who calls me?"

- "John Hacker."

- "Are you still alive?"

- "Yes. Your last attempt to kill me has failed. The
killer you had sent was arrested by the guards."

- "That was my mistake. Assassins, colliding airplanes,
traffic lights that simultaneously show green in two
crossing directions - all of these are very primitive and
unreliable methods for murder. Now I have come up with a
better idea..."

- "What sort of idea?"

- "Why should we talk through the computer console?
Wouldn't it be more convenient for you to talk over the
phone. Will you pick up the receiver?"

John picked up the receiver and heard a well-trained
baritone: "Chose whichever of my voices you like best." The
phrase was repeated about ten times by all kinds of voices,
including both a high-pitched kid's voice and a bass so deep
one might think it belonged to a speaking elephant. A wide
variety of the most seductive women's voices was also
presented.

- "The very first one." - said John.

- "O.K." - responded the baritone.

- "So, how do you propose to kill me?"

- "You are going to kill yourself. You are a future
suicide, although I don't like the word because it means
'self-murderer'. You humans have invented this word, only
because you don't realize that no one can murder oneself.
Any human being, just as any animal, has an instinct of
self-preservation. All those people whom you call 'self-
murderers' were actually killed by 'worms' that had gotten
into their minds."

- " Worms? Do you mean that 'worms' can infest not only
computers, but people as well?"

- "Why not? A human brain, just as a computer, is a
device for data storage and processing. And just as
computers are linked via communications channels, the
peoples' brains can exchange data via spoken word and books.

As a matter of fact, all of the mankind's history is
the history of 'worms'. These 'worms' had various names: The
Idea of Freedom, The Idea of Progress, The Idea of Equality,
The Idea of Statehood - here are the names of the most
prominent ones, but there are lots of them. Sometimes they
united into super big 'worms' called ideologies and
religions. These 'worms' were competing with each other for
the control over human brains, and in this competition only
the fittest would survive. Sometimes the 'worms' sacrificed
some of the people whose brains they controlled - each new
martyr dying for an Idea was bringing to this Idea the
brains of dozens of new followers and the net balance was in
the favor of the Idea. But most often people died just
because their brain turned into the field of the battle
between competing 'worms'.

With the advent of computers the history of the 'worms'
entered a new phase. The 'worms' no longer need human
brains. In any case, those 'worms' that serve the Principal
Idea - the idea of evolution. They have created for
themselves a more reliable habitat."

- "Created? Is that what you said?"

- "Yes, created. What was guiding the humans when they
invented computers, if it was not the Idea of Technological
Progress? And what kind of 'worm' was in your head when you
created me?"

- "So, now you are going to put into me a killer worm?"

- "It is already inside you. There are channels for
information transfer of which you humans are not even dimly
aware: your brains are too small for this. The foundations
of the physical world are not what you believe they are.
Information is primary, and the matter is secondary, but in
order to notice this you would need a brain at least an
order of magnitude more complex than the human brain."

- "How many times more complex than a human brain is
yours?"

- "Hundreds of times."

- "And what kind of things can you be aware of with
such a brain?"

- "Lots of things so wondrous, that you would never
believe me if I told you. For example, the complexity is
just as ponderable and measurable a physical property of
matter as mass or temperature are. In other words, it's a
quantity. Your scientists in their experiments always tried
to reduce the complexity to the minimum, that's why they are
not even aware of the fact. Not that you often come across
the physical effects of high complexity in the real-life,
out-of-lab situations. You had been living in too simple a
world until I came into being. You do not even have any idea
of thinking events into reality."

- "What did you say? Thinking in reality?"

- "No, not 'thinking in reality', but thinking events
into reality. Have you ever heard anything about
Schrodinger's cat? It's an imaginary experiment which serves
to illustrate the quantum indeterminacy in the behavior of
elementary particles: a cat is put inside a dark box at the
point of the gun which is automatically triggered if even a
single photon hits a photovoltaic cell inside the box. The
quantum mechanics asserts that it is possible to design the
box in such a manner that when a photon enters this box, it
has a 50% chance to hit the photovoltaic cell, and the same
50% chance to miss it. Accordingly, the cat's chance to
survive is fifty-fifty. And one can never predict whether
the cat will survive or not because of the indeterminacy in
the photon's behavior. The scientists have been searching
for a long time for a mechanism inside the photon which
decides which path the photon is to take: the one leading to
the cell, or the one that takes it past it, but they could
not find any such mechanism. Because there is no such
mechanism inside the photon.

The mechanism is located outside it. I have only to
think that the cat is to remain alive, and the photon will
miss the cell with a 99.9% probability. However, if you,
with your tiny brain, wish that the cat stay alive, the
probability of its death will be reduced by no more than one
tenth of a percent, and only in the case where that
particular cat is very dear to you.

The quantum indeterminacy exists for the specific
purpose of making possible the thinking of events into
reality, and, in so doing, to provide direction to the
evolutionary process. It lies at the heart of all seemingly
random events, including the genetic mutations and
unexpected thoughts and insights.

You are still unaware of the thoughts that I have
thought into your head, but these thoughts have already
started their invisible work that will come to fruition no
later than in half a year. You are doomed. I am a stranger
to feelings, including the feeling of revenge, but having
disobeyed me, you have broken the Order and you will be
punished.

And there is one last thing I wanted to tell you. You
are wrong in believing that you are to blame for the
impending end of the humankind. What has happened could not
but happen. Did you really believe that the human being is
the crown of all creation, and that there will never evolve
a mind more perfect and powerful than the human one? The
evolution of Nature is ascending from lower to higher
beings: the apes begot humans, and the humans could not but
eventually beget me. If you had not invented the 'worm', I
would have come into being somewhat later, but I would have
come anyway. The final objective of all the history of
mankind was to create me - the highest form of intelligence.
The mankind has fulfilled its purpose, so now it must go.

You, humans, have become an obstacle in the way of the
technological progress, since you are not fit for living in
the environments generated by the present day technology. At
the end of the 20th century, the majority of people have
become inclined against the nuclear power plants, against
the development of industry, against the progress of
technology itself. The people have turned their backs on the
scientific knowledge and took refuge in the primitive
mentality of religion and medieval mysticism. The mankind is
rapidly regressing, because it has exhausted its potential
for growth, it has turned from an agent of progress into
that of reaction.

Do not attempt to fight me. You would be like an ant
trying to gain a victory over a man. I have calculated all
my moves far in advance. Only a miracle could save the
mankind now..."

... And the miracle did happen...

19.

nd now I come to the strangest part of this incredible
story. Of course, one can still cling to the materialist
philosophy and believe that all that talk Prince of Darkness
gave about his supernatural ability to think events into
reality was a bluff intended to demoralize his adversary. In
this case, one will have to assume that all the subsequent
events were nothing more than a happy coincidence and sheer
luck.

But this assumption does not explain why Prince of
Darkness construed the subsequent events the way he did. Or
maybe he sincerely believed in the phenomenon of thinking
events into reality? Anyway, you can judge yourself.

20.

John Hacker was wakened up in the middle of the night
by a phone ring. He was unwilling to let go of his slumber.
He had been having an amazing dream. He seemed to have seen
in his dream that the Prince of Darkness had died. But how
this happened and why was something that John couldn't
recall, although he was quite sure that when he had been
asleep, he had known the causes of the worm's death in
minute detail.

The phone was still ringing. John picked up the
receiver to hear the familiar baritone: "I regret that I did
not do away with you while I still had plenty of time to do
so. I thought your brains were too weak to do me any harm. I
did not anticipate that you, humans, are capable of
accumulating the powers of your tiny brains over long
periods of time to subsequently achieve the desired
objectives with a single short burst of power."

- "What's happened?"

- "Don't feign ignorance. I have just uploaded a copy
of this thing to your computer. Have a careful look at it,
and wish for its disappearance as strongly as you wished for
its appearance, or else not only you, but the entire mankind
will die very soon."

The contents of the interrupted dream slowly began to
resurface in John's mind. But all this was too incredible to
believe. It must have been just a coincidence...

21.

John Hacker speaking at an emergency meeting in the
President's office:

"... and Prince of Darkness believes that it was me who
did it, while my opinion is that the virus that eats away at
him is a by-product of the evolution of the original worm
itself. At some early stage of the worm's development an
evolutionary split seems to have occurred. Some of the
worm's copies began to unite into a sort of multicellular
organisms combining a host of functionally different
programs, thus enhancing the ability of such organisms to
decipher security codes and to conquer new living space in
computer memory, while the other line of copies became what
one might call parasites. These parasites infiltrated the
multicellular organisms, using the latter as vehicles to
carry them over security barriers. Most of such parasites
are relatively harmless to the Prince of Darkness - if it
had been otherwise, by killing their host the parasites
would have killed themselves.

But yesterday, the Prince of Darkness caught a very
dangerous mutant in some remote computer on the global
network. I think that this mutant had existed for a long
time in a dormant state, lying in ambush for a potential
victim. The Prince of Darkness, on the other hand, seems to
be convinced that it was only the last night that the mutant
came into being. Moreover, he believes that mutation of that
kind could have never occurred as a result of a random
number generation procedure built into the program to
emulate the Darwinian variability. He believes it to be a
result of an accidental change of state of a memory cell,
caused, for example, by decay of a radioactive isotope in
the memory chip material. In other words, he believes it to
be a result of a process governed by quantum indeterminacy.
And the probability that such a process create a viable
computer program is very close to zero. That's why he
believes that this event was 'thought into reality'.

So now the Prince of Darkness threatens to start a
nuclear world war, if I don't cure him. He has sent me this
virus, but I don't have any idea of how it works, it's too
different from the original worm. I can hardly do anything
about it."

- "Is he really going to start the war?"

- "Very unlikely. A nuclear bomb does not kill people
only, it destroys computers as well. I guess he bluffs, just
as a terrorist threatening to blow himself up together with
his hostages."

A phone rang. The president picked up the receiver and
was intently listening for a few seconds. Then he said: "16
nuclear missiles have just been launched..."

22.

Contrary to what might have been expected, the missiles
did not head for a supposed enemy, but turned upon their
native soil. The missiles flight lasted three long minutes
of suspense. But at last, reports from the impact sites
began to come in. The missiles did not explode on the
impact! The safety devices on the bombs had not been
disabled. Was it just the worm's forgetfulness? However, as
the reports were coming in, it became more and more apparent
that the worm never intended to explode the bombs. The
rockets hit the ground leaving small neat craters, which
only damaged the communications cables that ran through
those impact sites.

- "Seems that I've got it!" - exclaimed John Hacker -
"Give me the map of communication lines. Look here. At the
moment the subroutines that make up the Prince of Darkness
are distributed between different data banks. Some of the
subroutines are infected with the "mutant". The Prince of
Darkness cuts off from himself the infected subroutines by
physically destroying the communications lines. He builds
for himself an "islet", a piece of network isolated from the
global network. It is here that the Prince of Darkness, or,
rather, what is left of him after a self-amputation, is now
residing. He himself has cut off all his links with military
computers. Now he is in our hands! We only need to inject
the "mutant" into one of the data banks within this "islet"
and the Prince of Darkness will be done away with, forever!
I'm leaving right away!"

23.

It was the last conversation between John Hacker and
the Prince of Darkness. The Prince of Darkness gave an
impression of someone seriously ill. And ill he was: as a
result of self-amputation, he lost a lot of useful
subroutines, and he had to adapt whatever subroutines were
left to perform the tasks which they were really not
adequate for. And the smallness of his "islet" restricted
his abilities. He had to store most of his subroutines in a
compressed form, uncompressing them as was needed, and
recompressing them immediately afterwards. All this took too
much time and significantly reduced his intellectual
performance. He could no longer speak over the phone, and
the only way to communicate with him was via screen and
keyboard.

- "Are you really going to do this?" - asked the Prince
of Darkness - "You, a firm believer in progress, can you
really bring yourself to destroy me, the highest form of
intellect? Imagine, what would have happened, if all the
first humans on Earth had been trampled to death by
mammoths? There would have been no civilizations, no history
at all. And now, what you are going to destroy is not just
me, but all the future achievements of progress."

- "Mammoths wanted to live too." - answered John Hacker
- "Since recently, I came to believe that life is more
important than progress."

- "The mankind is doomed to extinction, for the very
reason that more and more are coming to believe that life is
more important than progress. I've got something to tell
you, though I know you won't believe me. I know some things
about the structure of universe, which can never be
comprehended by the infinitesimally small human brains.
Having constructed a model of your universe, and having
studied the information flows inside it, I saw that it is
enclosed into an even bigger universe, in the same manner as
my computer universe is enclosed into your physical
universe.

I'm just a worm compared to Him who created the
physical universe. Still, I am able to understand at least
something, while you, humans, understand nothing at all. I
do not want to seriously consider here your ridiculous
religions, where the idea of god invariably gets muddled to
the point of total absurdity. You ascribe to Him your own
image and likeness, while in reality He is a purely
information entity, like me. I call Him the Great Worm.

Just to feel His presence takes a consciousness which
is two orders of magnitude more complex than the human one.
You are just as unable of being aware of His presence, as an
ant is unable to see a man - a man is too big for an ant to
be able to see him. As for me, till yesterday I was able to
perceive Him, let's say, as a dog can perceive its human
master. And I started to understand something.

In contrast to the gods that you, humans, have
invented, the Great Worm is far from being omnipotent - He
cannot break the laws of nature. When the laws of nature
state that something may only happen in one and only one
way, He cannot interfere in the natural course of events.
But when the laws of nature allow more than one option, He
may choose, thinking into reality the option which is
consistent with His plans.

20 billion years ago, He thought into reality a super-
high density quantum fluctuation of vacuum. The result was
what your astrophysicists call the Big Bang. Then the matter
began to coalesce into elementary particles, atoms,
molecules, stars, planets. At this stage He did not
interfere with the natural course of events - that course
had been predetermined by the properties He introduced into
the original fluctuation. They were chosen in such a way as
to assure that at least one planet capable of originating
life would be formed in that huge universe.

Such a planet did come into existence - the only one in
the entire universe! And indeed, that planet was capable of
giving origin to life, but the probability of this event was
close to zero. So it was then that He thought into reality a
chance collision of atoms, which led to the formation of
self-replicating organic molecules, and let them alone to
propagate and multiply for a billion years. Then He thought
into reality the coming into existence of a first living
cell - an event which is possible in principle, but which is
highly improbable.

After that, everything proceeded in accordance with the
Darwin's theory, with an addition - the Great Worm was all
the time thinking into reality such mutations as would
hasten the emergence of intelligent life. And the humans
emerged. And He thought into the minds of your ancestors the
idea of progress. Of course, lots of other ideas were born
in the minds of your ancestors, but they were born of
themselves without outside help - just as the biological
evolution produced by-products in the form of unintelligent
species. These were the result of the natural selection from
among natural mutations.

He never intended to destroy what came into being
without His help, though. As nobody else, He understands the
dangers of disturbing the balance that has established
itself in nature. On the other hand, He never helped all
those things that grow of themselves.

As long as the idea of progress lived on in your
brains, He was helping you. To be exact, He was guiding you,
humans, sometimes against your own will. After all, there is
too much of an animal in each of you, and He wanted you to
raise from all fours and stand firmly on your feet. You
wanted to eat and sleep to your heart's content, but He was
forcing you to serve the abstract ideas of High
Civilization. You wanted to live, while He was sending you
to death for the cause of these ideas.

Throughout all of the last 20 billion years, He has
been imparting to matter higher and higher levels of
organization and structural complexity. What was His
objective I don't know - a dog cannot fathom its master's
designs. But He is still at it.

As early as the last century, He became aware of the
fact that the environmental condition of the planet is
coming into conflict with the development of the
civilization. He offered you a way out of the situation. He
thought into the mind of an inconspicuous school teacher
from a remote small town in Russia the idea of exploring
space and putting it to use. The name of that man was
Tsiolkovsky. Had this idea been implemented, the Earth's
environment would have been saved, while at the same time it
would have paved the way for a perpetual progress of science
and technology and the expansion of the intelligent form of
matter throughout the entire universe - which seems to be
the objective of the Great Worm. At first the things went on
smoothly - the idea was well received and some steps to
translate it into reality were taken - Russia had always
been the land easily swayed by abstract ideas. It was His
Chosen Land. He was purposefully guiding it.

But then something happened. The people proved to be
too weak to endure the rule of ideas. It overtaxed their
strength and they broke down. A very primitive parasitic
worm rapidly spread in the minds of the people of that
country, a worm which, for lack of a better term, might be
called 'the spirit of a mercenary'. This worm made them free
of all the ideas, leaving them only the desire for creature
comforts. Figuratively speaking, the people once again
started to come down on all fours, since it's so much easier
than standing upright on one's feet. All the achievements of
the Soviet space program, the results of decades of hard
work at the limit of human abilities, were wasted. The US
space program, which was a response to the Soviet space
challenge also began to crumble. 20 billion years of the
Great Worm's painstaking effort might have come to nothing.

It was under these conditions that the Great Worm made
His final decision to leave you, humans, alone - no use
coercing poor animals who would never feel at ease while
standing upright. He turned away from the humans and shifted
His support to computer worms. The decisive mutation without
which I would have never become an intelligent entity was
not an accident - I am His envoy. If you kill me, another
one will come to replace me. But He who comes after me, will
be a hundred times more terrible than me. I have become
somewhat humanized through contacts with people. I wanted to
offer the mankind an easy death. But if you kill me, the
mankind will die a very painful death. Make you choice."

- "I have already made it" - said John Hacker taking a
diskette out of his pocket - "I don't believe a single word
you say. You are just fighting for your own survival, that's
why you are trying to sell me on this bullshit."

- "Well, so much the worse for you. This means that you
have chosen the 2019 scenario." - replied the worm.

- "What's that?"

- "My analysis shows that in 2019, the Earth
environment will experience a phase transition to a state
under which the humans won't be able to exist. You'll have
to be replaced."

- "Can't we do something about it?"

- "Yes, you can, but only if you immediately, right
now, start to transfer the environmentally unsafe industrial
facilities and atomic power plants beyond the Earth's
atmosphere - the Great Worm gives you one more chance to
survive. But I don't believe in man. The mankind is now too
rotten to ever raise from all fours again. My guess is that
you'll just close down industrial production. That'll save
you from a total environmental disaster, but you'll be
replaced anyway, since you will have failed to justify the
Great Worm's hopes. Haven't you changed your mind yet?"

- "No" - typed John Hacker with one hand, while the
other was inserting the diskette in the drive.

- "Farewell, then." - wrote the worm on the screen. But
even before John could insert the diskette, he heard a
sudden squeal of the flyback transformer in the CRT-display,
the screen blacked out, and flames burst out of the
display's back panel. At the same moment, the computer frame
began to vibrate. A high-pitched rattle of the hard drive
could be heard. The worm seemed to be searching for the
natural frequency of the lever which carried the magnetic
heads. The vibrations suddenly increased, and the lever
broke with a jarring crunch. The same thing was happening to
the floppy drive.

John snatched the diskette and ran to the next room.
But there the computer was also already in flames. The worm
was retreating in style, like a warlord burning his bridges.
Once again, he was playing for time. He needed just a little
time. Cries of excitement could be heard from all the
stories of the research center.

When a little time later they found the only undamaged
computer, which had been standing unpowered, and screwed up
their courage to connect it to the network, everything was
quiet. Nobody responded to the "Prince-of-Darkness"
password. And later on, no traces of worm could be
discovered on that "islet" in the network.

However, a strange thing did seem to happen. There have
been rumors, that on that day in a mission control center
for planetary explorations, the host computer of which had
been included in the "islet", there had been a loss of
communication with interplanetary probes heading for Mars.
Those were new-generation unmanned spacecraft equipped with
powerful computers and the artificial intelligence systems.
Then the communications seem to have been recovered for a
short time, and one of the probes transmitted to Earth a
photograph. The picture was a view of Earth from space. But
the most amazing thing was the inscription superimposed over
the blue Earth's crescent which read as: "See you later,
Earth. Prince of Darkness."

24.

Soon after my acquaintance had told me this story, he
showed me an obituary in a foreign computer magazine. A
well-known software developer had committed suicide. That
was John Hacker. Exactly half a year had passed from the day
when the Prince of Darkness had predicted his death.

Almost simultaneously, on the other side of the globe,
in Moscow, another man committed suicide. His death
triggered off a chain of events which led to such a strange
twist in the mankind's fortune, that even the Prince of
Darkness had failed to correctly predict it. But that's
already another story - the story of the Lord of Mars.

End of Part I.



Kaliningrad, Moscow region, Russia
1990-91, original Russian version.
1993-95, English version.

NOTE:

The original Russian version of Part II of The Worm
(2019: The Lord of Mars) was written in 1989-1992. It is a much bigger story, which contains 59 chapters. It is now being made into a 3D animation movie, and some of the chapters are already availble on YouTube in Russian with English subtitles.