Six months after the Great Consciousness Experiment began.
"Daily diversity report," Marcus announced from his position at what we now called the Consciousness Coordination Hub. The old military precision was still there, but tempered by six months of managing the most beautifully chaotic research program in human history.
"Current active consciousness types: four hundred and seventeen across both continents. New experimental forms this week: twelve. Successful long-term adaptations: three hundred and nine. Consciousness types abandoned by mutual agreement: forty-three."
"Reasons for abandonment?"
"The usual: too confusing, too isolating, too overwhelming, or in the case of the 'crystal harmony' experiment, too difficult to explain to people who think in linear time."
I smiled as I re
