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The Femtotech Messiah of Gatewai |
One of the more controversial religious events of recent times was the Femtotech Messiah of the shared Metasoft-NoCoZo world Gatewai. In 9963 a.t. a humanoid being appeared near the small undersea city of Pandey, proclaiming it was a representative of Higher Power.
It demonstrated a number of posthuman abilities such as superintelligence, overcoming all local network security limits and doing inexplicable physical feats. It orated in a nearly incomprehensible ancient Anglic dialect heavy with allusions to such diverse topics as 4th century a.t. human mythology and the history of the To'ul'hs, poetically explaining that if the people of today did not cease with the sins/grand work being done the gates of hell would be opened and the anti-singularity arrive. It did not answer any questions, instead repeating its speech with minor variations and demonstrating unusual powers.
Its only communicative response was a denial of being worth worshipping or even divine as a number of converts began supplicating it; when they continued it killed them with gamma radiation. Despite this millions tried to get to Pandey to witness its teachings and various cults and explanations grew on the net (where it also preached through a virtual avatar patched into one of the main virchspaces). Local authorities tried to confine it (which failed) and keep the local media from angering it, but it was clear the situation was getting out of hand. After two weeks it suddenly dispersed explosively. Analysis of the remains strongly imply that it was a femtotech construct, although the details were uncertain. Its origin remains unknown.
The meaning of the Messiah has been debated endlessly. A common explanation is that it was either an insane minor AI or a joke from some AI. Others think that the message, garbled as it might be, contains important and/or sacred truths and try to analyse it; a large Messiah hermeneutics has emerged on Gatewai. Several AI-worship religions have claimed it was a messenger of their AI, and despite its fierce denial of divinity several cults believe it to be a representative of the True God (the destruction of the worshippers was either a test of faith or a direct transference to a higher state). The perhaps most unusual claim is from the Awaiters of Recurrence, claiming it was a thermodynamic miracle: it spontaneously formed from random atoms as a sign that a new era of thermodynamic miracles is imminent as the universe prepares to achieve recurrence.
