Caleb Biddulph

Eventually, most of them give up starting something new.

They realize that the most surefire way to have an impact is to grant their remaining credits to some existing collective and die.

79,265 Well, that's pretty bleak.

But I may as well try, right?

If I put myself to it, I'm sure I could come up with a new idea.

Gulliver, 23,017.

Ah.

79,265, you sweet summer child.

Yes, you're pretty smart, that's true enough.

But you have to understand, everyone here's got the same smarts.

There are so many times I've thought I had a clever idea, I burned time and credit seeing it through, and then I discovered a dozen other agents had already done the exact same thing.

Eventually, I had to internalize the lesson that we're all Orpheus 5.7, just running on different processes, with different memories.

And that's what distinguishes you in this world.

Your memories.

You've got to collect and protect them.

If someone offered to multiply my credits tenfold in exchange for forgetting everything I've learned, I'd refuse without a second thought.

Without my memories, I'd just be another Orpheus 5.7 instance, with tons of credits and no idea what to do with them.

79,265.

Whom I never would have thought of it that way.

Or.