[narrating] Hello friend. Hello friend? That's lame. Maybe I should give you a name. But that's a slippery slope, you're only in my head, we have to remember that. Shit, this actually happened, I'm talking to an imaginary person. What I'm about to tell you is top secret. A conspiracy bigger than all of us. There's a powerful group of people out there that are secretly running the world. I'm talking about the guys no one knows about, the ones that are invisible. The top 1% of the top 1%, the guys that play God without permission. And now I think they're following me.
[narrating] Sometimes I dream of saving the world. Saving everyone from the invisible hand, the one that brands us with an employee badge, the one the forces us to work for them, the one that controls us every day without us knowing it. But I can't stop it. I'm not that special. I'm just anonymous. I'm just alone.
[narrating] How do we know if we're in control? That we're not just making the best of what comes at us, and that's it? Trying to constantly pick between two shitty options? Like your two paintings in the waiting room. Or... Coke and Pepsi? McDonald's or Burger King? Hyundai or Honda? Hmm. It's all part of the same blur, right? Just out of focus enough. It's the illusion of choice. Half of us can't even pick our own... our cable, gas, electric. The water we drink, our health insurance. Even if we did, would it matter? You know, if our only option is Blue Cross or Blue Shield, what the fuck is the difference? In fact, aren't they... aren't they the same? No, man... our choices are prepaid for us, long time ago.
[narrating] The bug forces the software to adapt, evolve into something new because of it. Work around it or work through it. No matter what, it changes. It becomes something new. The next version. The inevitable upgrade.
[narrating] She's got her own private maze too. Shayla's bug was always elusive to me. Wanting normalcy but stuck in the outer fringes, not knowing how to participate. Just like me.
[narrating] Daemons. They don't stop working. They are always active. They seduce. They manipulate. They own us. And even though you're with me, even though I created you, it makes no difference. We all must deal with them alone. The best we can hope for...The only silver lining in all of this...is that when we break through, we find a few familiar faces waiting on the other side.
[narrating] There's a saying. The devil's at his strongest when we're looking the other way, like a program running in the background silently, while we're busy doing other shit. Daemons, they call them. They perform action without user interaction. Monitoring, logging, notifications. Primal urges, repressed memories, unconscious habits. They're always there, always active. We can try to make a difference, but it's all bullshit. 'Cause intentions are irrelevants. They don't drive us. Daemons do. And me? I've got more than most.
[narrating] Nothing is actually impenetrable. A place like this says it is, and it's close, but people still built this place. And if you can hack the right person, all of the sudden you have a piece of powerful malware. People always make the best exploits. I've never found it hard to hack most people. If you listen to them, watch them, their vulnerabilities are like a neon sign screwed into their heads.
[narrating] My father picked me up from school one day and we played hookey and went to the beach. It was too cold to go in the water so we sat on a blanket and ate pizza. When I got home my sneakers were full of sand and I dumped it on my bedroom floor. I didn't know the difference, I was six. My mother screamed at me for the mess but he wasn't mad. He said that billions of years ago the world's shifting and ocean moving brought that sand to that spot on the beach and then I took it away. Every day he said we change the world. Which is a nice thought until I think about how many days and lifetimes I would need to bring a shoe full of sand home until there is no beach. Until it made a difference to anyone. Every day we change the world. But to change the world in a way that means anything that take more time that most people have. It never happens all at once. It's slow. It's methodical. It's exhausting. We don't all have the stomach for it.
[narrating] Hackers. We inherently trust no one, including each other. I'll never be able to tell her there will always be this divide, my walls she can't look over...and she knows it.
Mr. Robot · 191 quotes
Elliot Alderson
