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The ability to quickly process and store large amounts of data was just as critical during the Lost Time as it was during our current history. But such information processing lagged far behind other technological achievements. This was due to the fact that once aetheric theory was understood, it was possible to create impressive technical marvels from a rudimentary set of basic materials. Once Einstein's work was published, most countries quickly constructed at least one or two aetheric ships. True, many of these couldn't actually enter space, but the capacity was there.

Hence, many ongoing efforts to "crunch the numbers" took a direct, mechanical approach to the problem. Vast difference engines and Turing Machines were built -- most of them were little more than over-glorified calculators, but their value was understood and engineers kept toiling away at it. In fact, there was something of a competition between various world powers to produce the most complex devices possible -- an activity known as the Turing Challenge?.

But while the great nations of the world toiled away at their clockwork creations, other countries took a different route. Unable to match the techno/industrial might of their larger neighbors, these groups turned to aetheric theory. In particular, they began to study the spiritual qualities of the aether to see if they might employ them to create and sustain artificial lifeforms. Genetic tinkering was well understood, but this sought to move away from the wholesale mutation of existing lifeforms to the production of a massive, sentient brain, which could then be used to solve problems.

The Pan-Indians established a remote facility on Diego Garcia to conduct research into this area. They chose Diego Garcia in part because it was 1,000 miles from anywhere (the dangers of a sentient biointelligence not being ignored by the prudent researchers) and in part because the coral reefs in the area provided the base structure for investigation. The idea would be to use an accellerated coral accretion to build up the matrix which would then hold the neurons and channel aetheric flow to support and sustain it.

For decades the Indians continued their reserach despite the world's acknowledgement that the Chinese had finally succeeded in the machine-centered approach with their Great Machines of Singapore. The Pan-Indians persisted in their efforts. Eventually, in the late 21st Century, their efforts finally bore fruit and several small-scale, near-sentient arrays had been built. Based on the strength of these demonstrations, interest in the project increased and funding to construct a full-scale array poured in.

Just in time for the Anger Investiture to arrive. The alien parasite was downloaded into the test rig and promptly destroyed itself. The array was destroyed, but having saved the earth, the Pan-Indians had no difficulty getting the money to build their next array. This one did achieve sentience and biointelligence became a viable technology. Of course, the new Great Minds were immediately thrown into conflict with the Great Machines. The conflict was almost unobservable to humans but they bore the full brunt of it. Human destiny was no longer controlled by humans but by the intelligences they created. Both Mind and Machine deduced the existence of the Society of Flowers and quickly jumped into the game. For the next few centuries, the Minds and Machines were as important as the Cammora in the great scheme of things.

It may very well be that the Intelligences were responsible for the Rollback. Surely, their meddling in Human affairs was a monkey-wrenching factor that may have ticked off one Imperator too many. Perhaps they dared to challenge the Imperators or form a new faction (the current Power of Coral has no access to his shard's Rollback memories, so we may never know). There are some tantalizing hints that one or both of the Intelligences were [[Excrucian |Excrucians]] guises. The most frightening of rumors suggests that both Mind and Machine reached such levels of awareness that they initiated the Rollback themselves in order to power a ritual that allowed them to blossom their own, separate Creation. But that's patently impossible.

So are self-aware corals and clockworks -- now.

SEE ALSO: Anger Investiture, Aetheric Domain, Great Machines of Singapore, Turing Challenge?

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This is a D entry in the Lexicon of the Lost 500 Years.