Laser technology has fulfilled our people's ancient dream of a blade so fine that a person it cuts in half remains standing and alive until he moves and cleaves. Until we move, none of us can be sure that we have not already been cut in half, or in many pieces, by a blade of light. It is safest to a**ume that our throats have already been slit, that the slightest alteration in our postures will cause the painless severance of our heads.