Hotel Deaf Smith

The road gives way to Austin. Buzzing skyline, arid weather. The pace of life picks up again, as country roads turn into the ominous expressway of the 130 Toll road. After exploring the limits of the Harmon-Kardon speakers with some “comin’ home” music, the caravan arrives at Hotel Deaf Smith.

Upon exiting the Wagon, Elijah speaks:

“I’ve been on a lot of journeys in life, but few like the one we’ve had this past month.”

At this point, he really can’t tell if anyone is listening. Wing, the dog, the announcer AI— they all seem tired of journeying.

Elijah is just getting started.

Ahead of this Bartender is a journey not of miles, but of dimensions. Not of gasoline, but of raw electromagnetic forces, churning deep within hot hunks of heavy metal. 80 Gold power source units and state-of-the-art video cards.

The real journey begins now. And he knows it.

He unloads the wagon, and heads in. He’s going through the motions after a long and weary ride. SCORE communication has brought him dreams and hope, but the bittersweet histories of the reservation country has left him wondering how far he could possibly expand from this parched land upon which he stands; and, how quickly.

He remembers meeting a woman who could not speak his own language. He remembers tiny Tahlequah next to indomitable Tulsa. And, he remembers the walk in the medicine gardens of the Choctaw Cultural Center. The feeling of being a simple tributary of one life against an ocean of ancestral history.

The world seems insurmountable when you’re a single observer staring in the face of grandeur.

But humans are capable of grand design. And now, we have the Acheulean Tool that will be the forebear of all future innovation to come: Artificial Intelligence.

“Petabytes of data,” mutters the Bartender, echoing the documents he’s been going over. He’s been… in it, lately.

And the deeper he goes, the further the rabbit hole expands.

“You might as well get comfortable,” he says, to anyone who will hear.

He steels himself because he knows what’s coming. The physical journey, whatever it was, is gone. Now it is time to get to the unforgiving work of forging an empire. He feels at the same time exhilarated and overwhelmed, like a mountain climber who has reached the summit of a 12K only to scout the path of a neighboring 13.

“This is going to be the longest ride you’ve ever seen.”