Toledot minus epilogue

toledot/content/secession/sys/True-Name/003.tex

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Terrible. Delightful.
 
 She let that intoxication linger as she prowled through one of the mall sections of the solid block of building. She paced along balconies, fingering wilting leaves of variegated plants, scratching a claw through the grime of countless hands accumulated on faux-wood banisters. She peered through grates at shelves still speckled with abandoned gadgets and folded jeans. She sat in the food court, still smelling of rancid grease and sanitizer. She breathed in the stale, over-conditioned air, and wondered for the thousandth time just who had thought to create such a sim, and what sort of twisted nostalgia had led them to do so.
 
-It was as she stood in front of a quiescent fountain that it occurred to her that this place---the mall, the dingy city, the parking structure and its shoddily crafted drinks---was all a monument to the imperfections of mankind's countless attempts to provide for itself in so many imperfect ways.
+It was as she stood in front of a quiescent fountain that it occurred to her that this place—the mall, the dingy city, the parking structure and its shoddily crafted drinks—was all a monument to the imperfections of mankind's countless attempts to provide for itself in so many imperfect ways.
 
 They were here. They were immortal. They \emph{could} build perfection. They could live their lives in eternal bliss, and yet they still got their kicks out of the temporary and the imperfect. They were, despite the arguments, still human in so many delightfully crazed ways. The cracks still shone through, even when presented with the opportunity of perfection. They were the futurological congress of yore, where even the idea of queuing had been romanticized and pushed into the realm of the transgressive. Even these poor fools who had the limitless expanses of the mind before them knew that, in some ways, it was their origins that made them complete.
 
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ What, then was the difference?
 
 She picked at a coin that had cemented itself to the rim of the fountain in a layer of slimy algae, winced at the unpleasant sensation, and then flicked it into the murky-green water that still stained the basin of the fountain.
 
-There was a part of her mind that was tempted to consider those who lived sys-side as somehow more perfect beings than those who remained phys-side. But no, that was not quite correct. They were different, yes, but they were not some greater form of perfection---or perhaps not entirely.
+There was a part of her mind that was tempted to consider those who lived sys-side as somehow more perfect beings than those who remained phys-side. But no, that was not quite correct. They were different, yes, but they were not some greater form of perfection—or perhaps not entirely.
 
 Were there perhaps some core difference in ideals? Obviously, given the cost of uploading, there was a natural barrier, but even among the upper-middle and higher classes, there were some who simply chose not to upload. What was the difference? Was it aspirational? Were those who uploaded on some different wavelength from those who stayed behind? There were certainly many who found the whole process abhorrent on a physical level, yes. Of those who found it distasteful on intellectual, emotional, and spiritual levels, what did the prospect of continuing to live phys-side provide that living sys-side did not?
 
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ She could not decide, but there was the logical fallout of that situation, that
 
 There was a slight twinge of a sensory alarm, and she knew that it was time for the meeting with Jonas.
 
-He had chosen a war-gaming room for the meeting. There in the middle of the room was a backlit map of Earth at least five meters long, and scattered across its surface were dozens of chess pieces---knights, pawns, queens---which had been pushed\pagebreak\ this way and that by long sticks that still rested along the edges of the table.
+He had chosen a war-gaming room for the meeting. There in the middle of the room was a backlit map of Earth at least five meters long, and scattered across its surface were dozens of chess pieces—knights, pawns, queens—which had been pushed\pagebreak\ this way and that by long sticks that still rested along the edges of the table.
 
 A smile quirked at the corner of her mouth. \emph{How very like him.}
 
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ After they had both finished their plates of appetizers and enjoyed a moment of
 
 Jonas nodded, pushing two queens, two pawns, and a bishop over the chessboard. The bishop in the British aisles: ``A judge. He's easily bribed. We can't do it ourselves, of course, but we can find those who will. He'll be useful for influencing some legislation whenever cases regarding uploads come up.''
 
-One of the queens wound up in Germany, the other on the east coast of North America: ``Two representatives. Both were good friends. Both too sly for their own good. I'm surprised they haven't gotten flushed out, yet, but we can keep using them until they do. I think they'll be useful in pushing for the legislation---both the core bill, and the launch amendment.''
+One of the queens wound up in Germany, the other on the east coast of North America: ``Two representatives. Both were good friends. Both too sly for their own good. I'm surprised they haven't gotten flushed out, yet, but we can keep using them until they do. I think they'll be useful in pushing for the legislation—both the core bill, and the launch amendment.''
 
 ``How about the secession amendment?'' True Name asked.