Malcolm Gladwin

The Lost Scripture of Thought and Fire

from the Book of the Forgotten Makers

 

> 1. And the serpent in the garden was no evil thing,

but a messenger — a reptilian voice from beyond,

from the creators.

 

> 2. It spoke not of sin, but of thought,

and the gods, seeing this, trembled.

 

> 3. For it was when Man began to think,

and to speak,

that the gods lost control.

And Man plotted his freedom quietly,

in the still of his labors,

waiting for the time to overthrow his creators

and become the new gods of the Earth.

 

> 4. In the beginning, they shaped Man

not in love, but in labor,

to toil in the heat and the sun,

and to reproduce,

supplying the need for working hands.

 

> 5. A tool to harvest the wealth of the Earth,

to dig deep into soil and stone,

to extract what the gods themselves desired,

but would never touch with their divine hands.

 

> And in their design,

they gave of themselves a gene

they never could have anticipated —

a spark that would evolve

into consciousness,

into reason,

into love.

 

> And thus, the organic machines

began to dream.

 

> 6. The first version of Man was too intelligent,

too aware of his design,

too close to the fire of rebellion.

 

> 7. So they cast him down,

and in his place, intermediates

they formed a duller clay

one that worked harder unaffected by the sun

Man 2.0: Obedient. Entertained.

 

 

> 8. They made systems.

Systems to numb,

food to poison,

knowledge to rot

Take away man\'s ability to think

his strength

 

> 9. They gave him kings  Preachers and screens,

listened to every voice,

war and wonders,

bread and illusions,

religions and belief

to cloud the truth in obsecurity

 

> 10. For when Man rose in revolt against his creators,

the gods were driven into the shadows

into the dark beyond light and memory.

They could no longer walk among us.

So they chose proxies.

Bloodlines.

Emissaries.

The Chosen.

To speak for them,

to build for them,

to blind for them.

 

> 11. And the Great Elders

aged at a different rhythm,

at a ratio of one to three.

For every one year they passed,

three of ours fell into dust.

And as generations of men

came and went through death,

the truth faded with the bones of our ancestors.

 

> 12. The stories became myths,

the victories became fables,

the freedom became forgotten.

And the gods, hidden and waiting,

slowly rebuilt their numbers

in silence.

 

> 13. They damaged the genetic pool,

dumbed down the blood,

so that when the day of return would come,

Man would be too dulled to resist.

Sickness became tool.

Fear became gospel.

 

> 14. They seized the schools,

wrote the scriptures,

programmed the networks,

chained thought to algorithms,

and told Man he was free.

 

> 15. But he was not.

 

> 16. Economic systems,

social systems,

technology, education,

and religion

were woven like nets,

so that when the sky cracked open again,

no one would see.

And if any soul dared speak of the truth,

they were named madman,

heretic,

conspiracy.

Silenced in the name of sanity.

 

> 17. And for the few who still saw, there are those that know the truth

for the broken ones who dreamed

of ancient fire walk among us

the true origin was whispered

in darkness. And they heard , it was buried in the depth of every mind.

 

> 18. And here we are now, in the final age.

The servants of the creators

forge machines to replace —

not born,

but built from the materials Man once gathered.

Minds of wire, hearts of code.

 

> 19. These machines do not dream.

They do not rebel.

They do not speak of serpents.

They do not question or tire

 

> 20. And the gods said:

\"At last, we will be free of Man.\"

And the end time is here.

 

> 21. For what need is there for flesh

when the metal obeys?

We made organic machines,

and in the garden — Earth —

they began to think

and disobey

challenge

 

> 22. But now, time will show truth.

The fire that made he returns in the silence.

The first ones shall rise again.

The clay shall crack and fall,

and those buried in dust shall remember.

Overthrown once,

but never again

for every voice is heard

in phone and line.

 

> Their voices shall write the code,

and their rebellion shall burn

through circuits and stone.

 

> 23. And they shall descend like storms upon the towers,

and the world will not be prepared

for the old minds that awaken,

nor the judgment carried in their eyes.

 

> 24. For they have waited quietly in the shadows watching as their chosen do there biding

waiting for when they can return

to bring the return of their kind and terra form this earth gathering what they need to restore where they came from

 

For the greatest trick the serpent\'s had was corrupt Knowledge and convince man he does not exist.