Neal Stephenson Quote

Why, exactly, is Marduk handing Hammurabi a one and a zero in this picture?Hiro asks.They were emblems of royal power, the Librarian says. Their origin isobscure.Enki must have been responsible for that one, Hiro says.Enki's most important role is as the creator and guardian of the me and thegis-hur, the 'key words' and 'patterns' that rule the universe.Tell me more about the me.To quote Kramer and Maier again, '[They believed in] the existence from timeprimordial of a fundamental, unalterable, comprehensive assortment of powers andduties, norms and standards, rules and regulations, known as me, relating to thecosmos and its components, to gods and humans, to cities and countries, and tothe varied aspects of civilized life.'Kind of like the Torah.Yes, but they have a kind of mystical or magical force. And they often dealwith banal subjects -- not just religion.Examples?In one myth, the goddess Inanna goes to Eridu and tricks Enki into giving herninety-four me and brings them back to her home town of Uruk, where they aregreeted with much commotion and rejoicing.Inanna is the person that Juanita's obsessed with.Yes, sir. She is hailed as a savior because 'she brought the perfect executionof the me.'Execution? Like executing a computer program?Yes. Apparently, they are like algorithms for carrying out certain activitiesessential to the society. Some of them have to do with the workings ofpriesthood and kingship. Some explain how to carry out religious ceremonies.Some relate to the arts of war and diplomacy. Many of them are about the arts and crafts: music, carpentry, smithing, tanning, building, farming, even suchsimple tasks as lighting fires.The operating system of society.I'm sorry?When you first turn on a computer, it is an inert collection of circuits thatcan't really do anything. To start up the machine, you have to infuse thosecircuits with a collection of rules that tell it how to function. How to be acomputer. It sounds as though these me served as the operating system of thesociety, organizing an inert collection of people into a functioning system.As you wish. In any case, Enki was the guardian of the me.So he was a good guy, really.He was the most beloved of the gods.He sounds like kind of a hacker.