THERE (OFF to the right somewhere in the pixellated gloom, the white noise of cyberspace) -- over there on the right stretches the Zhu Jiang or Pearl River leading down to Hong Kong (Xianggang -- Scent Harbour). We are looking directly east now (but what do directions actually mean in this Brett Weir electronic world? in cyberspace the only direction is in!) We are looking due east, and the water before us is only one branch of the Canton or Pearl River. The land on the right of the steamer is an island five or six miles long, and beyond it is another broad affluent of the Canton River. That island on the right bank is densely populated and forms an important suburb to the city of Canton, which lies on the north bank and extends several miles in every direction from our point of view (but what do directions actually mean in cyberspace -- really!)

Boats -- as far as we can see there are boats! These boats are homes in which millions of human beings have been born, have lived and have died; and in many cases without ever having set foot on land. It has been estimated that in these floating homes from two hundred and fifty to four hundred thousand lives are daily rising and falling with the tide. One day there will be colonies on Mars and cities deep beneath the frozen wastes of Antarctica -- these boats are the prototype. Self-contained, disconnected -- a symbol of man's resolve to survive at any cost, to colonise new worlds. There was a light mist in the air (or was that only feedback?) Cheung Li was entering the latest Brett Weir multiverse.

The inhabitants of these floating dwellings were called Tankia, which means boatdwellers; their ancestors were also amphibians. It's in my blood Cheung Li thought as read the narrative thoughtwaves eminating from her PlayStation console this is where I come from. For generations the boatdwellers had been looked upon as a class below the land people, but when the Utopian revolution came they would be the vanguard. Their house-boats ranged in size from five to 20 metres in length -- there were pigs and chickens on many of them, pigeon coops, fish farms. But above the floating city a canopy of antennas rose, following the paths of the satellites, and the din of Internet traffic was almost audible. For centuries the Chinese have used boats for dwellings, and having a free anchorage their building sites cost nothing. How much cheaper and freer would it be to live permanently in cyberspace Cehung Li thought, enthralled -- colonists in a world where thought equals matter!