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The Doll

The Doll
Nickolay Popov

Vija Malova Cover designer

© Nickolay Popov, 2020

© Vija Malova, cover design, 2020

ISBN 978-5-4498-5111-6

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

NICKOLAY POPOV

The Doll

stories of fantastic and
everyday matters

Michurinsk 2020

Попов Н. Е.

Кукла

2020 – с.:ил.

© 2020 Nickolay Popov

All rights reserved

Commentary

A few words about the stories. All of them in due time had been published in the newspaper . I am grateful for it then to the executive secretary Michael Philippov, who is deceased now. God rest his soul. He tried to draw me into the bustle of a newspaper gently as he could, prompting topics for articles; at any time he’d been finding a minute or two to talk on business or simply heart-to-heart conversation. My first story , reworked a bit at the request of Michael, was published as a whole, despite the shortage of newspaper strips. The local newspaper in those years went to the book format; a computer layout has been applied, and this attracted me very much. Philippov knew about it, and realized that the author wants to see his thing printed in a book format. I wrote a little, as always, social, cultural and even religious questions required some evaluation or discussion. Sometimes I offered film critique. Executive secretary flattered me: “Nickolay, you write not often, but you will be read by everybody.” He used to say it in order to push me to new materials and stories. Nashe Slovo The Guest

Out of all placed here short stories I want to highlight the one:, a pamphlet of fantastic content on social and political theme. The real book by Eric K. Drexler served as a material for the story. Drexler E.K. is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. is the title of his book. The book itself was published in the U.S. in 1986. Eric Drexler worked in the Laboratory of space systems of the same institute. In August 2005 Drexler joined , a molecular engineering software company based in . shows a broad and complete picture of the greatest revolution in the history of science and technology, which, in author’s opinion, can occur in the first half of XXI century as a result of the development by mankind an alternative technology for production of products by assembling them literally over the atoms! The Doll Engines of creation Nanorex Engines of creation Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

This refers to the so-called nanotechnology. … who does not know, means small; word-for-word translation from Greek – dwarf. So nanocomputers and nanomachines, which will enable the indicated above assembly of products over natural “bricks”, i.e. atoms. What would come of it, read the story. And who will be interested in the book , can look it on the Internet. Its full name is: Nano Doll Engines of creation Drexler E.K. Engines of Creation Garden City (N.Y.). – Anchor Press. – 298 p.

Human curiosity knows no bounds. We are getting closer to the mysteries of nature. The truth is out there. But here’s the trouble: good intentions pave the road to hell. Do not forget the wise idea. And in this sense, our pamphlet can be called a warning to humanity since wonderful can be easily turned into , depending into whose hands fall. Did the scientist from Massachusetts think over it? We do not know. May be I’m behind the times now. But. To tell the truth, over the past fifteen years I have heard of nanotechnology and nothing about assemblers, replicators and other accessories of modern shaping. It is possible that the technology had already been tested and approved. In any case, it is quite dangerous, because nuclear weapons fade before a new formidable force. Doll Engines of Creation Engines of Destruction they

So as not to finish on a sour note; I want to add that in the end, it’s just a fantasy, a virtual world.

We know that everything is transitory, and Love is eternal. Take a look out of the window: there is certainly good weather or not good, it’s raining or snowing, the sun shines, and perhaps romantic moon, patroness of lovers. Outdoors, say, March or April. In the mornings, caught by light frost, still snow is crunching. And in the daytime on warm islands of land green grass stretches into the light, the birds pour marriage songs and your heart is sweetly shrinking in the chest pending of joyful anticipations.

Michurinsk

March 17, 2020

the doll

fantastical pamphlet

“What is it?” – “Ananas.” – “May one eat it?” – “Yes, of course. Dad came back from Spain. Navat, he brought me a video camera!” – “You’re happy, Hermes. And my stepfather cannot repair the boat; two months have already passed. He is a good kind chap, but he has no money for a new motor. We cannot put to sea for fish.” – » Do not worry, Navat. Dad says that soon he will be the head of the Ministry. I will help you, certainly! You will have a new motor.” – “Thank you, Hermes, and what will you be when you grow up?” – “I’m going to work.” – “Why? You have everything.” – “Navat, I want you and your stepfather both and everybody like you to live a little better, and every person wishing could work, too. Moreover I want that uncle Semey who lives in our backyard, no longer cursed my father and every morning no longer raked in a container with garbage. What are you going to do, Navat, when you grow up?” – “I will become as rich as your father…”

Eugene turned the monitor off and then on again. The line appeared on the screen: “… true”. Again this inscription, he thought. Where did it come from? The line disappeared. What could this clip be true? The only thing that could be really true – the name of the boy of ancient Greece. The name of the second boy, we can say almost biblical – Navat. On the whole this video clip or maybe the film resembles black-and-white scenes 60’s, except that the camera when shooting, apparently as if on purpose was stuck in one place. And the inscription. It appears for a few seconds anywhere in the plot, one has only to turn off and on afresh the monitor.

First of all Eugene “ferried” computer’s databank of his father to his own computer before being moved to a new apartment from the old house in the north-western area, where he lived with his aunt for a long time. Shortly before her death, Eugene’s aunt opened the safe, and along with the keys handed an envelope to his nephew, saying that it was time to get acquainted with it. In the envelope on a piece of embossed paper was an encryption. As it turned out after, it was the entry code in the computer storage. And when Eugene not without difficulty calculated it on the keyboard of his own , he landed in the infinite world of information hitherto hidden in the chips and microprocessors of Japanese design. Hitachi

In the database the file where Eugene discovered a video clip in the service table was listed at number 38079. Refer to the table; Ghenya drew attention to the fact that the individual code numbers periodically used to change its color. At first he did not attach any importance to this and choose to view the files at random. But then somehow unconsciously began to gain those numbers that either changed color, or just flickered on the table. All nights long he wore out by sitting at the screen while listening to Tom MacMurfee’s lectures about new technology shaping, about achievements in the field of genetic engineering, of biotechnology, assemblers and nanocomputers. And when the number 38079 was displayed in a black frame, Eugene finally caught himself that therein some program is working with him.

He saw a video for the first time. The plot lasted exactly seventeen minutes. May be, seventeen minutes for a clip were a lot, but for the real movie were not enough. Anyway, every evening began with a film-plot; moreover the changing of figures in the upper right corner of the screen apparently meant the number of views. That night Ghenya watched the movie for the seventeenth time. He knew it by heart, delved into every word, trying to understand the possible hidden meaning in them. Now there was no doubt – in memory of his PC this entry for Eugene’s father was particularly valuable.

About his father Eugene knew almost nothing. In addition to name, he heard that his father worked at the Research Institute and studied biochemistry. Ghenya’s aunt when she was alive told little of his brother; she was ill and she had been lying for many years in bed. She said that in politics he was indifferent, but from purely economic considerations became a member of the neo-liberal party, because the Liberals subsidized his work at the institute. Then told as after the July revolt two foreign cars drove to their house. Brother moved off and did not return. Wife, having left her child, drove off abroad; soon the people in black suits came to the aunt and searched the house, broke everything upside down, but what they were looking for did not find.

Eugene asked for a reference collector browsing long lists of names, even once found his own name in them. But his father was not in the lists. Then Ghenya estimated his personal budget and seized the opportunity of Charged Hypertext. He succeeded in finding the extra information about his father: “… a well-known scientist, associate professor of Molecular Physics of the Stuchka Latvian State University, researched on nanotechnology. He worked in the laboratory of the Commissariat of Atomic Energy in Saclay. On his return continued to work in the field of molecular electronics. After the military coup in 19… for safety works had been suspended.” And the last thing what Eugene decided to use, although he knew that he had no right to do so. He was a kind of programmer . Coding of computer programs long ago turned from a hobby into a profession. His personal computer almost what it means to receive a signal from the outside: . However, any leakage of information about him could not go unnoticed. According to an official request to the Security Management Eugene’s father allegedly was in hiding in USA. Temptation turned out stronger than the instinct of self-preservation. The result was the following document: in the law did not know no access closed “Managing Security Service. Top secret. For high treason and failure to cooperate for the benefit of the country’s prosperity and security Romanovsky Hermes Baromeevich sentence to death. The sentence to enforce.

Director MSS Navat Nuritdimov.”

The video ended. Eugene was sitting near the monitor. Black screen reflected a desperate unblinking stare. Eugene again dialed the clip. The plot was not repeated; only in the upper right corner was still the number 17. After the second input the letter accrued to the figures, all of the code moved to the center of the screen became dazzling white, adding the letter . No doubt remained what to do next. Eugene reached for the keyboard. D R

He saw the familiar conference hall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (he’d already seen this hall in the video of his computer); at the very room for months without leaving the screen, he’d been listening to the interesting lectures delivering by Tom MacMurfee. Now in the hall were not so many people, no TV cameras or people with dictaphones and notepads in their hands. On the podium was a man in glasses, a thick notebook in his hand, he waved it, apparently, continuing the speech that was by now begun before the break. He spoke of the space resource, about the coefficient of utilization of space, quoted figures by the example of Russia, where every citizen accounts for 30 square meters of industrial building, and in a city like Togliatti, this figure exceeds 80 m! 2