The Religion War by Scott Adams Read Free Book Online Page B

mesmerized, but unlike Cruz, he was not worried. Waters didn't have the capacity for worrying.
    The Avatar continued, "Humanity is like a huge organic computer. The hardware is functioning fine—reproducing more humans, creating food, learning—but the software is broken. Beliefs are our software. When the software works properly, our beliefs help us survive. Sometimes there are glitches in the software, in the form of delusions that are harmful. My job is to remove the glitches."
    "What can one old man do to change the minds of every person on the planet?" Cruz challenged.
    "I only need to change one mind," said the Avatar.
    "If you mean me, you're too late. I'm not changing my battle plans because of your nutty predictions," said Cruz.
    "No, all I need from you is some extra time. I have introduced some doubt into your plan, and now you will try to find out if I'm right. You will delay your battle until you can check out my version of al-Zee's plans. And that is all I ask of you."
    Cruz sat down in a small visitor's chair. Somehow this old man had indeed done what he said he would do. He had introduced doubt. And it would make Cruz pause. He would send out his spooks and Special Forces and try to find out if there was any way the Avatar's guess about al-Zee was right. Cruz was angry, but that feeling was starting to seem normal.
    "How do you plan to change the minds of a billion people?" asked Cruz.
    "It's several billion, actually," corrected the Avatar.
    "Same question."
    "Everything that humans create is in their own image, in some way. The purest example is the computer. Even in the early days, computers had memory, as people do, and they could do math. Now computers have been programmed to think, play chess, create art, hear, see, touch, and hold conversations. More to my point, every computer, no matter its purpose, has a reboot switch for when the software gets locked up. One button."
    "You plan to reboot several billion people?" asked Cruz.
    "I have to find the one person who is the equivalent of the reboot button," answered the Avatar.
    "I'm the closest thing you're going to find," said Cruz.
    "No, I'm looking for the one who has the most influence on people's thoughts, and that person is unlikely to be a world leader. Everyone has at least one influencer in his life, someone who can change your mind simply by expressing an opinion that is different from your own. And that influencer in turn is influenced by at least one other person, and so on. This vast web of influence connects every person, including the dead, but we're unaware of its reach and extent. We know of our immediate influences, and nothing more."
    "You're saying there's one person on Earth who can change the mind of everyone else on Earth?" asked Cruz.
    "Yes. And that person is probably not aware of it," said the Avatar.
    "How do you know such a person exists?" asked Cruz.
    "The universe has favored patterns," said the Avatar. "You need only look at what people build to know how humans are designed. Every computer has a reboot button. Of all the things humans have built, computers are the most like us. And so it follows that somewhere there is a human reboot button, one person whose opinion can reset the opinions of all of humanity."
    "You know that I can't let you leave, don't you? If half of what you said is right, you're too valuable to risk capture by al-Zee's men. And even if what you say isn't right, you've been to I-Wing. I can't let you leave."
    "What I know is that you will escort me to the front gate. And sometime in the next few weeks, when I need your help, you will give it," said the Avatar, standing to leave.
    "What makes you so sure?" asked Cruz.
    "I've studied your biography. You played chess at the Grand Master level when you were ten. You developed your tough side as a defense against the other children, especially the older ones, who considered your chess skills a topic for ridicule," said the Avatar.
    "You didn't find that in any