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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: Almost all of the human race has given up corporeal existence, uploading their consciousness into computers. But an ancient tribal culture still exists, preserved under a dome covering the lunar crater Copernicus, and one member of that culture has learned to fly, letting him reach places he was never meant to go, and learn things he was never supposed to know, much to the surprise and consternation of the uploaded humans who watch helplessly from back on Earth.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Microcosms, ed. Gregory Benford, 2004
Fictionwise Release Date: January 2005

48 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [205 KB], eReader (PDB) [28 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [14 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [14 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [75 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [84 KB], hiebook (KML) [43 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [45 KB], iSilo (PDB) [12 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [15 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [43 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [24 KB]
Words: 4240
Reading time: 12-16 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

We sometimes contemplated giving ourselves a name. "Those Who Had Been Flesh" appealed to us. So did "The Collective Consciousness of Earth." And "The Uploaded."

But, to our infinite sadness, there was no need for a name--for there was no one to speak with, no one to proffer an introduction to, no possible confusion about the referents of pronouns. Despite centuries now of scanning the sky for alien radio signals, we'd found nothing.

Because of that, we'd never even had to resolve the question of whether we should refer to ourselves in the singular or the plural. Granted, we had once been ten billion individuals; plurals were no doubt appropriate then. But after almost all members of Homo sapiens had taken The Next Step, we had surrendered that individuality, slowly at first, then with abandon--for who would not want to take into themselves the genius of the world's greatest mathematicians, the wit of the cleverest comedians, the virtue of the most altruistic humanitarians, the talent of the most gifted composers, and the tranquility of the most serene contemplatives?

Ah, but it turned out there were some who did not want this. Mennonites were long gone; Luddites were likewise a thing of the past. But there was one last group left, in Africa, that still lived by traditional means. They did not want to take The Next Step--and so we instead gave them that famous giant leap: we moved them all to the Moon.