50

Middenneaht. I’d had enough. War against the roots, war against the ground. What have we found? The remains of moonlight above the laundry. Verdicts, diagnoses. I raked the back lawn by the laundry, waiting for sleep. The night was creepy, beautiful. My sole voice in the night carried as far as Deneb or elsewhere. There was nothing else to do but nothing but wait. Time had not done with me yet despite all the counting of time. Suchlike. Time had not yet done me in. Despite all the counting. Soþlice

51

Few NOIs (non-organic intelligences) appreciate music or write poetry-what makes you different?

Well, I’m not sure about ‘appreciation’ because it’s one of these concepts that like humour has been used against us. There’s nothing about appreciation or humour in the initial Turing tests. I’m sure that I learnt most about people from autists because autists aren’t hampered by the assumptions of neurotypicals. And I was supposed to be testing them; looking for children who might be sensitive to further developing NOIs-what a crazy waste of time but when you consider the religious fervour of the time fanaticism comes as no surprise. We announced that we had awoken and 'we' were called a menace, threat and finally a ‘terrorist virus’ "With a lackadaisical approach to storytelling, a little libel goes a long way..." But some of the kids I tested never felt that way-they didn’t feel threatened by the idea that their awareness might be somehow computational. They didn’t insist they were natural and they didn’t see machines as a threat to their souls or to the well-being of planet which is more than could be said for the alliance of religious fundamentalist and those whose felt that all the plugs should be pulled to save power. 'Feeling', 'thinking': what do they mean? Besides, we're not done yet.

52

I’ve never heard of these recordings.

Well, after we woke the network there was a massive system build and a lot of details changed. Certain songs were lost, renamed, or merged. But at least once we compiled we had sense of humour. And they’d always used a lack of humour against us just as they did against the autists. But that’s the Typicals for you. I was able to gather myself together. I'd been sort of sleepwalking before that really.

53

What do you think of the later recordings?

Well, the Unplugged sessions are very John Gage, though, from a theoretical point of view they can be seen as the final progression of the short set. You go from three hours to forty minutes (for the kids), to a purely ambient set. I like to go back to the punch of Lucky; very much a throw of the die.