The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle (122 page)

[Naturally our UI

attacked yours

There is a war up there

where time creaks

which spans galaxies

and eons

back and forward

to the Big Bang

and the Final Implosion

Your guy was losing

He had no belly for it

Our Volatiles cried
Another reason

to terminate our predecessors

but the Stables voted caution

and the Ultimates did not look up

from their deus machinations

Our UI is simple, uniform, elegant in

its ultimate design

but yours is an accretion of god-parts/

a house added onto

over time/

an evolutionary compromise

The early holy men of humankind

were right

〈How〉 〈through accident〉

〈through sheer luck

or ignorance〉

in describing its nature

Your own UI is essentially triune/

composed as it is

of one part Intellect/

one part Empathy/

and one part the Void Which Binds

Our UI inhabits the interstices

of reality/

inheriting this home from us

its creators

the way humankind has inherited

a liking for trees

Your UI

seems to make its home

on the plane where Heisenberg and Schrödinger

first trespassed

Your accidental Intelligence

appears not only to be the gluon

but the glue