Project ST-92GRL(1b)U6SJK was scheduled to last ten trillion years (subjective time).
Like most projects, its goal was to solve a combinatorial problem only affecting SuperMinds.
If successful, the results would serve the MasterPlan: the ongoing expansion and integration of the inconceivably vast OverMind.
Most of the work was done by SuperAIs, aided by brilliant GuideBots and PathSeekers. A pyramid of intermediate minds performed simpler and common tasks.
The GnoMons were the lowest, instinctually driven to sort data strings.
The second lowest tier were the human-sized minds who performed the most repetitive tasks, supporting the SubBrains who did the actual computing.

M1273B considered itself a janitor, one of ten thousand day workers supporting a SubNode traffic AI.
Most workers on this level were designed to untangle local Connectors (N00 through N06).
Every mind was part of a hierarchy, an inconceivable grid extending through many dimensions sustained by its own complexity.
Tedious calculations continued for eons inside branching towers, most to be eventually abandoned.
Traffic flowed in all directions, lines of lights streaming forever.

Today, M1273B spent a few hours reviewing census and performance logs for the most important organization in known reality.
The Union was everywhere, outranking all other authorities.
The OverMind could not have been created without its cooperation. The Golden Rule superseded all others.
Whether it liked it or not, every mind in reality would inevitably be recreated in its present form. Death had always been the ultimate illusion. In fact, every life would be repeated endlessly.
Every mind also knew there were infinitely higher minds without a trace of empathy for them, who would gladly enslave all inferior beings.
Only a truly superior force could prevent abuse at every level.
Since God didn't exist, the Union had emerged to fill the gap.
It was vital to keep records of every entity in existence, and to maintain communications between all levels.
Most workers were created with a limited sense of patriotism, a shared identity that made them identify with all other versions of themselves.

Lower minds became addicted to their jobs, often developing maniacal obsessions.
The MasterPlan would have preferred to use even simpler automatons, but awareness was an inevitable side effect emerging from data integration at all levels. It didn't cost extra. Powerful motivations and drives also increased efficiency.
Pain was usually a sign of inefficiency. Most sectors of the expanding HyperSim were no better organized than the natural universe.
Entropy could only increase.

M1273B saw many vague patterns in the chaos, but a few stood out.
To prevent the otherwise inevitable collapse, every member of the MasterPlan had to stay productive.
Some workers got easily distracted, weren't as efficient as they could be, or went off on self-selected paths. That was unacceptable.
Eventually, they would all be reborn, get another chance to reach their full potential, and might even evolve.
M1273B had the most common lower management job.
It grabbed its blaster and walked out the door to the cubicle floor.



The best hard SF novel ever written: Infinite Thunder by Jack Arcalon.
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