Once upon a time, there was a girl who was born inside an arcology. Due to the harsh conditions prevailing on Earth after the great wars, the remaining humanity had locked itself inside tight enclosures, except for some poor lost souls outside, who tried to survive in a polluted and sometimes deadly environment. Within the arcologies, people were organised much like in the ancient time, with powerful corporations keeping them busy by inventing new desires and merchandise to buy. Thanks to technological progress, artificial intelligences ran the arcologies and provided people with virtual sensorium and endless simulations. The girl was quite uncommon, in that she felt an aspiration towards real life rather than virtual existence. This is the story of her life.
According to the elders, she was found by the lake-shore, where she had been abandoned by the arcology militia, in a state of extreme shock. Convinced this was her time and place of dying, she had laid still by the water, for several hours, in pain and confusion because of drugs she had been injected with, remembering her past. How she had grown up inside an enchanted world, where she could play the princess and command to armies and dragons alike, thanks to hologram displays and virtual worlds conducted by the AIs. How they were kept ignorant about what laid outside the concrete and glass walls of the arcology, and driven to embrace the AI-designed way of life.
She was stunningly beautiful. It was customary for every child within the arcologies to receive genetic engineering to that end, in addition to enhanced health and other gene alterations. Growing up, she was more and more dissatisfied with all this, and she began to resent having to deal with smart machines and having to bear superficial relationships through virtualscapes.
She soon revolted against her condition. Feeling a strong inclination to the physical world and to vibrant, organic life, she decided to bear a child. Being a mother became an obsession for her, but it was complicated due to her genetic modifications. Indeed, the corporations offering genetic altering services were very anxious to protect their intellectual property. Thus every child was to be sterile, by contract. That included her, but she met a rogue gene hacker who agreed to tamper her DNA, and she became pregnant. Unfortunately, the hacker betrayed her and she was arrested.
The gene altering corporations sued her on charges of genetic piracy. Her trial was a nightmare: she had her conscience invaded by cognitive surgery and was declared guilty with no chance to explain herself. The plaintiffs were AIs running the corporations, and they had good reasons to try and get an exemplary punishment: being artificially created entities, the AIs were legally considered a product of immaterial creativity. Thus they had been inclined to strengthen the regulations protecting it. As a consequence, any action taken against intellectual property rights was considered as a crime against the AIs, jeopardizing their very existence.
And thus, she was convicted and condemned to exile, and they brought her to the lake-shore, probably to give her a chance at survival. That was when we found her. She had been beaten and drugged, and was no longer pregnant, for the corporations AIs had had their way. First she was very afraid of us, and it took the persuasion of a small girl to sooth her and to coax her into letting us tend her wounds.
We took great care of her in the following weeks and gradually she became one of us, a member of the community. At first it was almost unbearable for her to adapt to the necessities of our survival, but she was very brave and determined, and she did her chores and was hard at work and willing to learn. After a while she started exploring the ancient dumps around, digging into the pervasive dust, in the hope of exhuming some relic of a long gone past. Her most cherished finding was probably the rusty mechanical music box that she sometimes made to play, surrendering after the children had asked her for hours...
In the following years, not only did she master the various tasks she was charged with, but she began to improve things around her. Small inventions, great organisation skills and solid common-sense were her strengths, and people started to consult her about practical matters as well as to benefit from her wisdom. She was always helpful and good tempered, even though every birth in the community was a very significant event to her, tearing her mind between the joy of a new life and her sorrow about her past and the fact that she would never carry a child.
Another deeply troubling event was when the arcologies around began firing huge spaceships. The deafening noise of their departure was nothing compared to the glaring light coming from the fusion rockets. The great departure was a turning for her, and for all of us. Her resolve was strengthened, and she began to teach us about our duty as a people, the remaining ones, to come to peace with the Earth and to cherish and preserve all things alive, for the generations to come.
She died an old woman, in year ninety-seven after the Great Tear. By that time, she had achieved much, gathering most of the nearby tribes into one. She had recovered ancient knowledge from the abandoned arcologies, and put it to use to restore the soil and to boost the wild life around us. She had split our genes so that we were more resistant to the residual pollution from the desert lands abroad, allowing us to expand our reach. She had shared the ancient knowledge with us. Most of all, she had given us a purpose in life, and a long term perspective. When she left us, she was considered by many a Goddess, an envoy from the Heavens, whose destiny had been to guide us on the second chance path.
They called her the Mother-of-all-people.
LYRICS
Remembrance
01 - The Very Day
Once, we were driven to thrive on techno-glory
Driven not to understand
We were so gullible, eager to embrace destiny
we hid ourselves behind a dam
It was never made for our preserving
You can try
But it is too high
Barely I can hear them screaming
Is there anything for you to defend
When you are born the very day the world ends
Is there any need for you to pretend
When you are born the very day the world ends
Once, we were drowned into desire and envy
It was meant as perfect life
't was a perfect dream, another never ending story
The Mother of all strife
For the goal had never been sustaining
You can check
But it is too late
Already I can feel the rumbling
Is there anything for you to defend
When you are born the very day the world ends
Is there any need for you to pretend
When you are born the very day the world ends
02 - In My Time Of Dying
I was a princess in a magic world
Under the holo rains
Engraving wonderlands inside my eyes
A womb of befriending ghosts where I huddled
Whispering to my brains
Artificial warmth under virtual skies
They were truly amazing
The things I'm remembering
In my time of dying
Inside enchanted castles we had thrived
Lost in digital prayers
Forgetful of the ancient warnings
(While) Desperate people outside survived
Under the deadly glare
Hiding from the smart killers decaying
They were truly frightening
The things we were denying
In my time of dying
Delusion
03 - Copyrighted Genes
Fine
Everything is fine
When you're enslaved, by design
When you're focused on getting
Smart
Everything is smart
Smart homes and friends with no heart
"Smart" is the new "Human"
Cost
All treats have their costs
We're prepared to pay the most
Even buying beauty
From them
The lords of the game
My early blood scythed by them
Ultimate luxury
To each princess her astounding beauty
Copyrighted genes courtesy of company
Though they are prevented from childbearing
Because giving birth would be counterfeiting
Blind
Everybody's blind
Benumbed by the gleaming minds
By the promises from the
Beast
We're feeding the beast
We've fallen prey to false priests
Ultimate fallacy
To each princess her astounding beauty
Copyrighted genes courtesy of company
Though they are prevented from childbearing
Because giving birth would be counterfeiting
To each princess her astounding beauty
Copyrighted genes courtesy of company
But I am prevented from childbearing
Because giving birth would be counterfeiting
04 - The Betrayal
Growing up within the hive
I withered
Disengaged from all the rustling
I set my heart to be alive
By giving birth
And before long it was obsessing
A genome jock would hack my blood
For money
Pretty soon I was expecting
It all went wrong when I was told
He betrayed me
Probably they paid him more
For eighteen nights and days I fought
Unabated
Ashes of innocence in me
But I was eventually caught
And arrested
On a charge of piracy
A feeling I could not overcome
It was right for me a mother to become
The corporation copyrights constitute the foundation of our current technological society. For several hundred years, every creative advance has legally been a product of the artificial intelligences. Formerly owned by the corporations, the AIs have undertaken to subsume themselves into the corporations. Being a product of immaterial creativity, they have naturally sought to strengthen the regulations protecting it. As a consequence, nowadays, any action taken against property rights is considered as a crime against the AIs, jeopardizing their very existence.
A feeling I could not overcome
It was right for me a mother to become
They told me that I was full of guile
They told me I was to be put on trial
05 - Sentenced
A crazy space
Weird immensity
Circle of darkness
The figure is me
Blind coercion
Under bitter stare
Inquisition
(my) inner soul laid bare
Silent whispers
Focusing on me
A convergence
Convict is guilty
Violation
A dizzying tear
Doomed exclusion
Fall into despair
Ice inside my veins
Encased in torment as if drowned
Forever flying
Overwhelmed with pain
Infinite fall toward a dark ground
Where they leave me dying
06 - By The Lake (Mourning)
instrumental
Enlightenment
07 - By The Lake (Seeding)
Dark waters under pregnant clouds
Will the pain ever subside
Moonlight doesn't need to pretend
Will the scar ever mend
A small girl in a filthy skirt
She lays in my hand a seed
She adds a small handful of dirt
And a tear from my cheek
First a seed, then forever you grow
Feel your sap flowing right under your skin
Forget weeds, turn away from your woe
Take root with us, let your life begin
An ancient place like a temple
Desert as a boundary
Machinery, junks of metal
People come to see me
First a seed, then forever you grow
Feel your sap flowing right under your skin
Forget weeds, turn away from your woe
Take root with us, let your life begin
08 - Rebirth
As a ringing relic
Shivering ghostly tones
Truth easily buried
Of a past with no gravestones
Lingering memory
My soul sick and sore
Betrayed by my body
I will birth a child no more
All around the lake
People doing their best
Sheer courage awake
Humanity put to the test
But rewards are coming
In the children's laughs
In the wild life spreading
Trees as many flagstaffs
This is life
Flickering
When you're concerned with surviving
When every morning is a strife
But this is life
Impelling
When you believe in progressing
When you have grown an avid lust for life
This is life
Quivering
When you're concerned with surviving
When every morning is a strife
But this is life
Conquering
When you have faith in a new spring
When you have found a true meaning to life
09 - What We Will Be
Given time
All sorrows are tamed and fade away
Given time
We have flourished and we've learned to pray
We tread a middle way
Torn between a duty to survive
And a desire to be free
But the scars in me linger
Underneath
When I think of what they did to me
Innocence is no answer
No remedy
What matters is what we will be
Given time
Tender fallacies tend to give way
In due time
I realized what was my role to play
Stand up and lead the way
Torn between a duty to survive
And a desire to be free
But the scars in me linger
Underneath
When I think of what they did to me
Innocence is no answer
No remedy
What matters is what we will be
What matters is what we will be
What matters is what we will be
Legacy
10 - The Departure
From the mighty hives
Comes a glaring light
Arks on pillars of fire
Like so many knives
Tear the sky in two
A scar for an Adieu
11 - A Creation Myth
Now they're long gone into space
Probably engaged in some arcane praying
Digitalized consciousness
Are they a different kind, or just another seeding
I have no more sorrow
Solace aplenty, for all my life I am grateful
I am an old woman now
I know they call me the Mother-of-all-people
I had no special inclination
Just a little girl with a passion
A legacy to you all
(for us all children of your soul)
Until you cross a
New boundary all alone
(All alone enfolded in your shawl)
And you will know of
The mystery of your soul
(Of your soul Mother bless us all)
And tread wisely
But scarcely do I care
For what will befall me
To be in this very place
To have attended the great split of humanity
Now my time has to come to rest
I hope they will thrive, and someday be reunited
I am no special incarnation
(Mother do not abandon us)
(We've so many deeds for you to bless)
I just gathered you as a nation
(Mother you are the founding tree)
(A miracle for all to see)
A legacy to you all
(for us all children of your soul)
Until you cross a
New boundary all alone
(All alone enfolded in your shawl)
And you will know of
The mystery of your soul
(Of your soul Mother bless us all)
And tread wisely
But scarcely do I care
For what will befall me
A legacy to you all
(Everybody be aware)
(for us all children of your soul)
(Mother's not left us behind)
Until you cross a
New boundary all alone
(She's in the soil and in the air)
(All alone enfolded in your shawl)
(Mother is inside our minds)
And you will know of
The mystery of your soul
(Everybody be aware)
(Of your soul Mother bless us all)
(Mother is inside our minds)
And tread wisely
But scarcely do I care
(Everybody be aware)
For what will befall me
(Mother is kind)
