The Cloud Part III

This is a continuation of this story which I started writing in February 2015.

J. So what is The Cloud?

E. The Cloud is the communications infrastructure for The Foundation.

J. And The Foundation is ...

E. Well, The Foundation is the the reason The Cloud exists. It's kinda circular ...

J. So I only need to understand one of these things then. Cool.

E. Yes. And once you understand one, you won't have any problem justifying either of them.

J.  But that won't tell me why either of them exist, will it?

E. No it won't. They exist because they had to exist, otherwise it would have been impossible for anyone to work for The Greater Good. The problem we had was that everyone had to earn their living, and before The Foundation, there was no way to do that other than by earning money. But money is only valuable because it confers a particular advantage on those who posess it.

J. So you mean that no-one worked for the Greater Good, because it doesn't pay cash?

E. Well, the problem was a bit worse than that. Working for the Greater Good didn't pay in either cash or kind. Working for the Greater Good just didn't pay, full stop.

J. So before The Foundation, nobody worked for The Greater Good then?

E. Oh no, thousands of people worked for The Greater Good, it's just that they didn't earn a living.

J. So how did they live?

E. They didn't, they all died.

J. Bummer!

E. Yes. It was a total bummer for everyone involved.

J. So how did it get off the ground then?

E. It was all done by dead people.

J. Such as?

E. Well, I was one of them.

J. Uh, ... and you're not dead anymore?

E. Not completely dead, no.

J. Well, I guess that's good to know, ... I wouldn't know how to start an interview with someone who was completely dead.

E. No, it's very hard, for the living to get in contact with the completely dead.

J. So the problem for The Foundation was resources.

E. Precisely.  We needed resources, human and material, and we needed a lot of them. We needed an indefinite supply, in fact.

J. So, the resources of a nation state of some kind?

E. Yes. We needed the resources of a wealthy nation state.