Harbinger (The Janus Harbinger Book 1)

by Olan Thorensen

  “Our company got access to the computers specifically for the VR project. The X9 chip is a major advance in chip design. All we know is that for our purpose, it works. Given the number of processor chips per blade, it is evidently an advancement in heat reduction because that many processors on any of the two parallel processor systems you already had on site would probably melt those computers as soon as you engaged all processors. The measurable speed of the processors doesn’t seem to be much in advance of what’s already available, but the processors include built-in subroutines for handling complex queries—especially those involving decision making. Again, this is only our surmise because the insides are off-limits. The bottom line is that they are the most sophisticated computers in the world for handling complex interactions—making them ideal for virtual reality.”

  Zach raised a hand and said, “Harold, any idea what one of these babies might actually cost? You know, in case I want to pick up one at Best Buy?”

  The group laughed—except Ralph, who said, “We have no information on the cost of one of these. Of course, they are new developments, so who knows what a price might be?” He turned to Sinclair. “Maybe the general has some idea.”

  Sinclair grunted. “As Harold said, these are new and officially still in secret development. However,” and he paused, “I would venture they would run into a couple hundred million per unit.”

  Several whistles rose from the staff, along with eye rolls and gulps.

  “Why . . . that’s over half a billion dollars,” gasped Jill. “And we flew in sitting right next to them. Bobby even tried to climb on one of their pallets!”

  VR Test

  “From Major Jefferson’s description of how the computers were packed, I don’t think anything short of cataclysmic could have hurt them,” said Sinclair. He motioned to Huxler to continue.

  “You had a briefing on the general principles. One aspect of the system is that to fully utilize it, the person has to adjust to using the VR suit. The only people on site who have worked with the suit are Ralph and Major Jefferson. They were both present during the VR system development and have hundreds of hours using the system. Through trial and error at the company, it was found that not everyone could successfully interact with the VR. It takes a certain type of mental flexibility for the brain to learn to interpret what the suit is feeding the user, particularly motion and kinesthetic capability. In plain terms, the system allows users to believe they are moving through the VR, touching objects, and feeling temperatures. It’s the moving and touching that are the tricky parts.”

  Huxler stopped and motioned to one side. “Ralph will fill in some details.”

  Ralph rose and spoke. “The inside of the suit is covered with pressure points. By continuously applying and releasing pressure, the system simulates sensations the wearer would have during movements. For example, if the user wants to ‘walk’ through the simulation, he would start in a standing position. The suit applies pressure to the soles of his feet as if he were standing in contact with a surface, instead of actually being suspended in the VR tank.

  “To walk, the user engages the same muscles as in reality, then leans forward and swings a leg forward. Our normal walk is actually a controlled forward fall, with the body catching the fall with the forward leg, then continuing with the opposite leg. By controlling pressure applications, the system gives a series of clues to the wearer that he is walking. In effect, the user learns a new style of walking. Now, obviously, the sensations are nothing like a real walk, but it is possible to train with the suit and almost forget you aren’t really walking.”

  Elizabeth Wilkens raised a hand. “Ralph, this sounds a little like those experiments where researchers tested the human brain’s ability to adjust to different inputs. In one study, they fitted subjects with goggles that turned their vision view 180 degrees, so that everything was upside-down. At first, the subjects were so disoriented they had trouble moving. However, they were required to keep the goggles on unless in total darkness. What they found was that within just a couple of days, the subjects were able to resume most normal activities. The brain learned how to incorporate the changed input.

  “But the really interesting part was when the experiment was over, and they took the goggles away. The subjects were again disoriented, even though their views were back to normal. Some readjusted within an hour or so, but a few subjects took almost as long to return to normal vision and activity as they had in the reversed vision.”

  “Somewhat similar, Elizabeth,” said Huxler. “In the study you mention, the subjects’ brains adjusted to altered input. In our case, with the VR system, the brain needs to learn to interpret a different set of cues as movement. So, it’s a different input from normal that the brain needs to be trained to interpret.”

  Wilkens pursed her lips to one side as she considered, then nodded and sat back in her chair.

  Zooty Wilson piped up. “Can you run in the VR?”

  “Not a full-speed run,” said Ralph. “There are limitations to the speed of physical movement within the suit, the complexity of the interaction between the suit and the system, and the wearer’s ability to interpret. Think of a quick walk with big steps, and that’s about the limit of the system at this time.”

  “So,” mused Jeff Rotham, “I assume that if you ‘sit’ in a chair, pressure is applied to your back and rear end to simulate contact with the chair, but what about your body position? To go from standing to sitting, you’re going from upright standing to legs bent at the knees and body at the hips.”

  Ralph smiled. “That brings in another aspect of the system. The suit isn’t merely passive. It can change to any position mimicking what a human might do. In theory, the suit can operate without anyone in it. In the example of going from standing to sitting, once the wearer begins the sitting procedure, the system recognizes what the wearer is attempting, and the suit responds to change its conformation.”

  Carolyn Graham was rubbing her glasses with a handkerchief and had a worried look on her face. “Could this be dangerous for the user? Could the system try to assume a pretzel shape and do God knows what to the person inside?”

  “No,” said Ralph. “The feedback is continuous, and any major resistance to what the system is doing with the suit either cancels the movement or aborts the simulation entirely. The user can also call out, ‘Stop System!’

  “The trick is that the wearer and the system have to be mutually trained. A user has to learn to work within the simulation. At the same time, the system has to adjust somewhat to each user because no two persons will move or react in exactly the same way.”

  A couple more hands shot up, but Huxler gestured to hold on. “Some obvious questions are how long does it take to learn to use the suit and can everyone do it? To answer the second question first—no, it turns out that about 70 percent of people can learn to operate the suit with varying degrees of success. For some, they can almost forget they’re in a simulation. For others, it’s always awkward but doable. For that other 30 percent, for reasons not completely understood, they never learn. In some cases, they simply can’t interact with the system—possibly because their normal body movements are so ingrained that their brains refuse to learn a different method. In a few cases, the person gets nausea and/or headaches severe enough to make suit use impossible.

  “That should mean that of the nineteen of us with Level 3 access, there should be about fourteen of us who can work with the suit,” offered Klaus Christiansen. The eager grin on the physicist’s face revealed he looked forward to trying.

  “In theory, yes,” said Huxler. “However, people will take vastly different lengths of time to learn to use the system effectively, and some will never be able to fully utilize the system’s capability. That brings us to today. We’ve looked into how to screen for potential suit users. The screening system worked out uses a written questionnaire. It’s not perfect, but modeling shows it gives a good estimation of who are the better candidates. Th
ere is a limitation on time and facilities, so what we are looking for are those in this room who are the best candidate users of the suit. And this means interacting with Simeon.

  “We already have two experienced users, but we want to add two more initial users to get a broader perspective.

  “You might be curious how Ralph and Andrew came to be suit users. An earlier version of the assessment was given to a group of people working on developing the system at Virtual-Reality, Inc. They ranked at the top. Although both Jason and Harold showed indications as possible future users, they were too problematic. Since using this assessment is still so new, we’ll let them also take the latest version of the test to see if their rating changes.

  “Okay . . . so what we’ll be doing this morning is selecting more candidate users. One other thing. General Sinclair, Whitey Kolzlowski, and I are excluded from VR use. I need to maintain an objective observation of those using the system. General Sinclair and Whitey have never interacted with Simeon, in order to eliminate the possibility that a technology far beyond us could influence them without our knowing it. That policy will extend to the VR.”

  Rotham raised a hand. “Implying that there is a possibility that whatever this is could somehow take us over? Like some B science fiction movie?”

  “Highly unlikely, but given what we are dealing with and our lack of previous experiences or frames of reference for all this, it’s a reasonable layer of security.”

  Mueller rose and started handing out thick booklets.

  Huxler continued. “It will take you around two hours to answer every question. It’s that long because it is also designed to detect attempts to give the ‘right’ answers. So, don’t try to answer what you think will give you a good score—it won’t. The questions will be all over the map, and a good number of them are not actually part of the scoring but are there to hide the real questions. Some questions are quite personal, but I will be doing the scoring myself, and there’s nothing you can answer that I haven’t seen before. In my profession, I don’t make judgments. On such questions, not being honest will most likely reduce your score. Be totally honest on those questions and answer as best you can, even if parts seem nonsensical.”

  Mueller finished handing out the booklets. “There’s no time limit, and feel free to use the facilities as needs arise. Any questions?”

  “Is this graded on a curve, and how much does it count in the final grade?” teased Chunhua, followed by general laughs and smiles.

  Huxler smiled back. “It’s a curve, and it’s the entire grade. Okay, go ahead, and when you’re finished, just give your test to me and you’re free, but remain in Level 3 while I finish examining the assessments.”

  With a combination of quizzical expressions, sighs, and eagerness in some cases, the staff members began the assessment. It didn’t take long for their reactions to erupt. The first was from Adams. “What a bunch of crap! What possible importance is whether I first put on the opposite shoe and sock to my handedness?”

  Huxler frowned. “Remember what I said. Don’t try to understand or tailor your answers. Just because the questions seem nonsensical doesn’t mean anything. It could be one of the filler questions or could be important. Also remember it’s the overall pattern of answers that determines a rating. Now, let’s just continue, and everyone focus.”

  Adams grumbled under his breath and returned to the booklet.

  “Oh, and I forgot to mention,” said Huxler, “you must answer all questions.”

  Jill diligently worked through the pages, trying to follow Huxler’s instructions, although, like Adams, she wondered about the significance of some of the questions. If the toilet paper roll was near finished, did she use fewer sheets per wipe to stretch the roll or did she continue using the same number and replace the roll when empty? This was something that had never occurred to her, but on reflection, she smiled and checked off “fewer sheets.” Several following questions were amusing or confusing, as the case might have been, but the last question on the first page made her pause. If you knew for certain that a thousand people would die if a specific individual was not killed, would you approve of the killing? Assume absolute certainty of the results of not acting and assume the person to be killed was not responsible for the thousand deaths. Jill frowned. This one disturbed her. There was no good answer. With reluctance she checked “Yes” and moved on to the second page.

  Zach moved quickly, even through the question that bothered Jill. Curiously, at least to himself, the first question to make him pause was, Does everyone always deserve an equal opportunity? Zach found himself wondering, What are they getting at here? But then he caught himself and just answered with his gut response—in this case, No. He believed equal opportunity was a worthy goal, but to make it an absolute right flew in the face of reality because specific circumstances might make it either impossible or simply not right. As for picking one of five colors, he chose blue. Of course, it was a specific blue that was his favorite—the bluish-green of light through a breaking wave just below the white crest or the same shade that certain angles of sunlight brought out of shallow bays or inlets. But “blue” was the closest option.

  Hoped that helped them, he thought. Maybe we’re trying to match the aliens’ color wheel.

  As fast as Zach moved through the questions, he was only the third person to finish after Chunhua and Jason.

  What did she do? Zach wondered, watching Chunhua leave while he was only two-thirds done. Just randomly check off boxes without reading the questions?

  One by one, they rose and handed Huxler their booklets. Elizabeth Wilkens, the biologist, was last. Huxler had been going over the assessments as they were handed in and called the group back together an hour after Wilkens finished.

  “Thank you all for your patience with this. I have the results, but for reasons I will not go into, all I will do is let you know the four people who are the most likely candidates to train with the VR system. The rest of you may get a chance later if additional users are needed. I’ll also let you know that those selections from the new people will not interact with Simeon via the audio/monitor setup once they start with the VR, at least for now. We want to have your fresh perspectives with the new system untainted by experience with the audio/monitor method. It’s to account for differences in humans responding to Simeon. We already have a set of subjects whose first exposure was via monitors and speakers. Now we’ll have a set where the VR comes first.

  “It’s interesting that while I had already decided on doing it this way, Simeon independently made the same suggestion. We’ve queried him about his reasoning, but the answers were either too vague for us to conclude anything, or he changed subjects awfully fast. I find it hard to accept anything other than Simeon believes there is a real difference, so we’ll keep an eye out for any clues.”

  Huxler took four pamphlets off the pile of questionnaires. “Of the four selected candidates, only the top two will initially undergo training. The third and fourth may become involved later but not at this time. It’s a matter of limited equipment and needing to progress expeditiously. In order of ranking, the two to begin training will be Zach and Chunhua, with Zooty and Jill third and fourth.”

  “Yes!” exclaimed Chunhua with a fist pump. “BEMs, here I come!”

  “BEMs?” whispered Jill to Carolyn. “What’re BEMs?”

  “Bug-eyed-monsters, little green men, aliens, you know,” replied the computer scientist without looking at Jill.

  “Oh,” she responded, wondering whether she should be excited, disappointed, or just plain scared by the results. She wasn’t too sure about either the VR system or talking directly to whoever . . . or whatever was coming from the Object.

  However, disappointment was evident from several of the staff members, including Adams, who grumped off. Rachel Munoz was simply sorry she wasn’t on the list and followed Adams. Some were relieved, including Carolyn and Elizabeth.

  Obviously pleased was Zooty Wilson. “Let me
know when you’re ready for me to join Disneyland, Wilbur,” he hooted. “I’m with Chunhua—willing and able to beam up anytime.”

  “Thanks, Zooty, we’ll let you know.”

  Huxler drew the attention to those still present. “Thank you all again, and I’ll let most of you return to your other activities. Except for Zach and Chunhua. You two remain. We want to get you up to speed right away, so you’ll get a more detailed briefing from Ralph and Harold before your first try at the system.

  “What about the rest of us?” asked Jason. “If we’re not interacting with Simeon through the VR, can we do it with the system you already have in place?”

  “That will be on an ad hoc basis,” said Huxler. “One thing to keep in mind is that none of you will use both systems from this point forward. Again, at least for now. We want to study the two different interaction systems. In your case, Jason, you’ll be working with Freddie on mathematics, and he won’t be using the VR . . . he has enough trouble with the existing world. So, you’ll be restricted to the audiovisual system.”

  CHAPTER 21

  WHO IS INTERVIEWING WHOM?

  Training

  Zach and Chunhua Ciminoni started with five-minute VR sessions every half hour with the simple scenario of a room with a chair, a table, a green ball on the floor, and a window with a drawn curtain. As days passed, the session lengths were increased, and the two trainees adjusted to walking around the room, sitting and rising from the chair, picking up and dropping the ball, and opening the curtain to reveal a static beach scene.