The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide to Disillusionment

Emergence

My apologies. I abandoned you for a while. I'm back now.

When my home tribe of Reverside was attacked, and the Interconnected plunged, however briefly, into darkness, it shook me. Long after the data returned, a question continued to nag at me.

What are we when we aren't connected to each other?

How many of us have spent time disconnected from our friends and followers? When we're offline, how long do we stay that way? I have never spent much time offline, unless it was when I was cycling into an area devoid of repeaters. I'm an oddball like that. Sometimes, in the morning, I take a walk without newsfeeds or chatfeeds but that's only for a half hour and I know I'll soon be in flow again. What would happen if we were all without our network for a month or longer? What would happen if it stayed down?

I ask you this, dear reader, because that question won't let me go. Our society depends on our constant communication. I wanted to know what it would be like to be offline for longer than a day or so. That's why I vanished on the way to Barnet. I turned off all my implants. I've spent the last months disconnected. I didn't tell anyone or warn anyone before I did it. I wanted it to be sudden. I didn't want to be found.

Let me tell you, my friends, it is a lonely way to live. I'd planned to wander east to the Maine Coast and record my journey on paper to share with you later. I barely made it past Groton when I found a commune of people, living perfectly happily, and completely off our networks. Like all Luddite communities, they were invisible to us. Because of their location, they had few interactions with the tribes. I asked if I could live with them and they accepted me as part of their community. My plan was then to learn something about their way of life and share what I knew with my friends and followers when I became connected to you again.

And so, in that way and after a long delay, Volume 7 of the Wakeful Wanderer's Guide begins. I'm so happy to be back among you, if only in thext. I'm looking forward to sharing this new adventure with you.

– The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide, Vol. 7, lines 1 - 8

Emily lifted herself from the rows of newly planted corn to wipe her brow. Two rows over was Dexter, in old borrowed overalls and a white shirt. He was checking the tops for caterpillars. She was weeding and looking for slugs and snails. The day was hot and long, and the sun was merciless. Emily was regretting her choice of a simple life after her days undercover for Reverside. She appreciated her welcome among the farmers here, but having grown up with helicopter rides, dressage lessons, and personal shoppers, the rustic charm of the fields and barns was pushing at the edges of her finer sensibilities.

Then there was that message from Marto. After months of wondering where he was, he turns up a few miles from where he vanished. Emily's heart sank. Perhaps he never got her message. Maybe he misunderstood it. She felt sure he would know where to find her if he did, and he could have just as easily experimented with being disconnected here as there. It was perplexing and depressing. Emily needed to talk with Dexter about finding a safe way to Vermont, but first she needed to share this passage from her son.

["Did you see this, Dexter? It's Marto!"] she sent him privately.

["No kidding? Let me see it,"] Dexter sent back.

After a few minutes, he messaged her again. ["It certainly sounds like him,"] he sent.

["But?"] she sent back, puzzled.

["I don't know. It might not really be him. I got drawn in by a couple of messages by someone I thought was Marto, but they all turned out to be fan-fakes and copycats. That said, I haven't gone through all his tours, only the early ones. It might really be him this time, I don't know. What do you want to do?"]