Stamp came to
Calliope one evening, pretending to be very distressed. He explained to her that his alters had been
neglected, and that his wife had just informed him that she was with
child. He begged Calliope to promise
that his child would have a place in her world of e-mail, since his domain was
fading. Calliope felt terrible for
causing a fellow god distress, so she immediately promised that his child would
always have a place with her. Stamp went
away happy, for he had seen the future.
A few months later his wife gave birth to twins, Spam and Pop-up. Since a goddess can never go back on her
word, Calliope had no choice but to allow them to mar her precious creation.
Spam and Pop-up
were only minor annoyances, and the wonderful gift, which had been called
Internet, continued on uninterrupted.
But then some very disturbing news reached Britannica. Some humans were abusing the Internet. The precious gift of accessible knowledge
that Britannica had so carefully crafted had become nothing more than a way to
plagiarize the hard work of others. Men
were not trying to understand new ideas.
They were using her precious gift as a tool for deceit, the most hateful
of all human characteristics.
Just moments after
Britannica discovered the treachery of the humans, Java’s cousin, Cinema, came
to make her own complaints. Even though
Java had given his word, somehow people had gained access to movies before they
ever reached her temples. Entire music
CD’s were also being stolen from the Internet and the artists who created them
received no payment for them.
While Cinema was
still speaking, Midas stormed in. He had
just discovered a system that the humans created that allowed them to steal
money from one another. When a person
visited one of his on-line markets, other people would take his or her credit
information. Still other people would go
to the on-line markets claiming to have great products, when in reality they
were scamming fellow men.
After she heard this,
Britannica flew into a blind rage. She
remembered all of the work that she and the other gods had put into their
gift. And the humans thanked them by
abusing their power and harming themselves and others. She regretted that she had ever created the
Internet, and she vowed to destroy it.
Out of her anger came thousands of viruses. They attacked every part of the Internet,
demolishing it one piece at a time.
Only Calliope was
sorry to see their creation coming to this.
She listened to the screams of anguish from honest students as their
research papers disappeared into cyberspace.
She watched as people tried to retrieve important communications from
their inboxes with no luck. Finally she
devised a plan of her own. There were
far too many viruses for her to gather up, so she created a firewall. The viruses could not break through this
barrier, and people who could prove themselves worthy and attain it were saved
from the destruction.
But the Internet
was severely damaged. While Calliope had
been busy creating the firewall, Java and Midas managed to calm
Britannica. They were all sorry to see
what had happened to their beautiful creation.
They set out to repair the Internet, but the damage was extensive, and
the project took months.
When the repair
was finished the gods made a covenant to never destroy the Internet again. But it would no longer be a free gift to
mankind. From that day on humans had to
pay for the privilege of using the Internet.
Every month some of the minor gods, AOL, Cox, and Netscape, are sent out
to collect the fees.
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