...she said.
"Diotima" was not listed among the speakers in the program. She had appeared suddenly on the podium, a veiled presence, in front of a wall-sized video of the Earth in Space. Standing under the “NASA in the 21st Century” banner, she stunned the audience into silence.
“Much has been said and written about me, and much has been misunderstood. Long ago I described Eros as a lonely, crafty, and wasteful daimon, shackled by his heritage. That story was intended to help man understand his origins. Memories of your own dual ancestry drive you to continually design clever artifacts and search the skies for Poros, your indifferent Father, while digging for his bones on this planet.
"When I stated that your birth was due to extreme neediness and resourcefulness, I was describing the need for slave labor by those you still call the “sky gods”, and the resourcefulness of the ancient geneticists responsible for your birth.
"One day, perhaps, you will abandon your evolutionary fantasies and realize that you didn't grow yourselves a clever thumb by picking food, nor did you increase the size of your skull by standing erect. What you did grow were envy, and then rage, as you labored, driven by the technology of your masters. Yes, you were intelligent enough to operate some machinery, but your incantations, prayers, and even sacrifices could not animate some of their tools. Now it is your turn to create wondrous artifacts and to clone life forms.
"A perpetually young and beautiful body, activated by an increasingly active intelligence, is soon going to be available to you. Consider it a dubious gift from Technology in your present state.
"My statement to you today: The drinking glass of your genetic destiny is half filled with the ancient “sky gods'” nectar, but you consider it half empty. As to your Space Dreams? You are rapidly turning them into territorial nightmares! You no longer speak of jumping on orbiting trampolines to other planets. You have started to weave sky nets of surveillance and repression, to serve your earthbound needs."
