The Atlantis Variation: Difference between revisions

Set in a fluctuating spacetime that [[waiver]]s crazily between the [[present]], [[future]] and [[past]] — Barkley went so far as to invent a whole new tense, the “plumperfect present”, to deal with events which, he said, could only be located probabilistically in [[spacetime]] — but orbiting around one queasy weekend in September 2008, {{br|The Atlantis  Variation}} concerns the machinations of a malign [[Clavam Hominum Senum Pallidorum|secret society of stuffy old men]] working in the bowels of the great institutions of their day, to produce the [[2008 ISDA Master Agreement]], known under its working title as the “Project Atlantis”.

The Atlantis Variation was to be a definitive, final, [[flawed asset|flawless]]<ref>There was to be no Section {{isdaprov|2(a)(iii)}}</ref> apocalyptic edition of the {{isdama}} that was ''almost'' completed in 2008, only prevented by the intervening near total financial destruction of the planet. It never saw the light of day, instead collapsing into a form of dark tedium that continues to upset those who would seek to harness the power of the universe.

 

According to Barkley’s dystopian vision, the {{2008ma}} was to be short, plainly worded, future-proofed and agile. It would allow counterparties to agree robust trading terms with little fuss and only the cursory clerical management delivered through unskilled personnel in low-cost jurisdictions and, eventually, [[chatbot]]s.  

As it was, the challenge was just too big. As they dove feverishly into the weeds the project scope expanded — at first gradually; in the closing stages at breakneck pace — and in the final days — as per the warning of Pimco Van Der Sark, ex-NASA and now a lexophysical engineer at the University of [[Bretton Woods]] —   exceeded the [[Schwarzschild radius of document comprehension]] altogether. There was a sudden, catastrophic implosion, and everything associated with the project — all drafts, riders, boilerplate, annexes, schedules — and everyone — the firm {{ISDA}} engaged to hold the pen (a mysterious cyber law firm that spontaneously winked into existence when a document management system became self-aware)<ref>The firm, [[Tubb Fuller Breaden Potter Bacon]], (known in its marketing literature as [[TFBPB]]) has never been heard of since, and curiously, no record now exists of this firm before 2008, even though it was apparently a global behemoth.</ref> and several thousand members of ISDA’s document working group, seconded by their employers to contributing their “clarifications” and [[For the avoidance of doubt|doubt-avoidances]] for the greater good of the standard form, simply vanished into thin air.