The Caretaker

Who is The Caretaker?

The Caretaker is the only human at the SM-51x installation. It is a lonely job, but it is also one that doesn’t require the wearing of pants, so it’s a bit of a wash.

The Caretaker is originally from New England. He was around as the world wide web became a cultural Thing, and participated in his fair share of chat rooms (both in a web browser and over telnet) and web-ring surfing with a 33.6 modem.

The Caretaker later went on to spend some time in the US version of the Marine Corps, which brought him far away from his New England home. Thanks to a childhood accident involving a steep hill, a greased-up sled and some loose gravel, however, he always took a piece of home with him wherever he went.

The Caretaker doesn’t get timely messages; communications instead get delivered at regular times throughout the week as his duties allow. He is responsible for the care and upkeep of the SM-51x computers and their related systems and subsystems, so those duties naturally have to take priority.

Some have asked why the Caretaker is the only human at the SM-51x installation. Two reasons:

1. The installation really only needs one human to keep everything running smoothly
2. The installation is very far away from civilization, and most every resource (save power and water) has to be delivered at regular intervals from afar. Adding another human would double the cost of keeping the human occupants alive

Some have asked why the installation is so remote. The answer is because of the massive amounts of power that need to be generated and the massive amounts of cooling that the facility needs. Even though the SM-51x computers are rather old-school (for some values of ‘old school’), their operations consume a gadzooksian amount of power. This power is generated onsite using various methods, which the specific geography of the installation’s surrounding lands and waters provide.
All this power creates heat, which must be cooled, which again is facilitated using (among other things) the unique geography of the surrounding lands and waters.

The Caretaker can be reached at a gmail address: sm51xbooks

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