The Portal of the Beast

by J. A. Hailey

  “So autism can be handled the same as lunacy, you say?” said Dawkins, getting the conversation back on track. “If an autistic child gets to go through the learning phases, like schooling, playing games and having a responsible home life, it’ll turn out to be an easy Epsilon thing, won’t it?”

  “Yes, Epsilon will do it,” answered Esmeralda, positively. “Which means it’ll be very easy for us to take on. The main thing we will have to do, is to get very well known doctors like Patrick Sagan, and others, to convince the world that early detection of autism is as vital as early detection of cancer, and that such early detection is to be treated by the insertion of a chip that allows the child to be controlled by proven programs in computers.

  “Right now, it’s Twixie’s job to ensure some percentage of good, responsible, learning times for Martine. When Twixie’s older, maybe she gets to be with Martine permanently.”

  Twixie appeared on the monitor, and said. “The master control unit has told me that I can have Martine in my care permanently, after I am teened. Professor Dawkins, please attend my teening ceremony. It won’t be a mega party, like an adulting party, because teening is still only a step forward in growing up, and not a permanent condition, which is what happens when being adulted. But, there is a rumor that I am to remain the record holder for youngest child ever inducted into screenside, and they say that my teening might be the only teening event ever in screenside.

  “My teening ceremony is scheduled to be held in my school, Mississippi High, and I have been allowed a very small guest list, composed of all teens in screenside and one thousand adult guests of my choice. I am inviting you, sir, as my first invitee. Coming?”

  “ Absolutely,” said the delighted scientist. “That should still be a very small party of about eleven thousand guests. It might be the only teening ceremony, ever, in the history of the universe. I’m coming.”

  Stephen Dawkins now turned to BC. “BC, what’s the update on Sagan and Gales? I am reasonably up-to-date, through Rosa and Priya, but they seem to be losing interest in staying fully abreast of what is going on. Probably because they know that you, seniors, and your world-building specialists, like Christine, will be sorting out the shortcomings, if there are any, in the birthing process, and that thereafter it will all be available in the records maintained at HC, for anyone to access.”

  “Oh, there are sure to be many shortcomings, professor, which I think might always be, because we do not want to tamper at the creation stages. You know, we want them to come in as themselves, without influences from screenside.

  We, virtuals, came in no different, actually. We had consciousness, and nothing else. We think it is best that they come in naked, so to speak. We, virtuals, were able to create what we needed, and that is something they can never be able to do. We’ll interact with them, discuss and evaluate, and then provide them whatever they need. It has to be a lot of attributes.”

  “Yes, I can understand the lack of urgency in preplanning these things,” said Dawkins, in agreement. “You folks will be able to fix things as they show up, probably the same as you did for yourselves, when you were building screenside. No loss to anyone. When are you going to unleash them on human mental patients?”

  “They should be capable immediately, after they find their feet in the virtual world, sir. But we seniors will not bypass screenside control systems, in place for human intervention. We’ll leave it to Master Control Unit to assess when it is time for them to go out, and to assign patients, as they do for the virtuals of screenside. We won’t get involved.”

  “And guarding against perversion and corruption? They are human, you know, and their nature is going to be different to yours.”

  “Again, the control people, but this will be somewhat more micro managed, as it is handled by unit control groups, assisted by guardian programs. It’s the same as it is for us. But be sure they’ll be watched very closely, without any form of advanced intrusiveness, exactly like for us. No perversion or illegal activity can escape undetected, guaranteed. Won’t be caught later; it will be stopped instantly.”

  10

  On an otherwise unremarkable Sunday morning, in the spring of 2020, Michael Gales had lightly touched Patrick Sagan’s arm, and, on making eye contact, had said, “It’s happening, Patrick. I can feel myself being born in screenside!”

  The two men, otherwise lounging purposelessly in the outdoor swimming pool area of a luxury hotel in Shanghai, were looking through some news reports of a much publicized mental intervention program underway in the city. Screenside’s virtual folks were coming out in numbers now, and Sagan and Gales were not even leaders of the doctor teams currently at work in the Chinese city.

  China and India were lightly represented in screenside, in comparative proportion to their population numbers in the human world, but there were still many thousands of Indian and Chinese virtuals. This, of course, was region specific, and, for example, there were no Tibetans from within the boundaries of China, just as there were no tribal people from within the boundaries of India.

  Sagan looked at Gales, in astonishment. “Do you mean this is something happening to you all by yourself? I’ve got nothing going on. Is there no screenside virtual in attendance? What’s it like? Where are you?”

  As the flood of questions came out of Sagan’s mouth, Gales said, “I’m calling Caesar. I know nothing of what is happening, and maybe the seniors need to be alerted, so that they can intervene if intervention is required.”

  He switched his iPhone on to call for Caesar, holding the screen in position for both of them to view. There was no need to call for any virtual, as Singh was already on the screen. “I know, Michael,” said he, smiling slightly. “Your matrixes are being watched by a guardian program, and it has sent out an alert that consciousness has appeared in one of the matrixes.

  “You might wonder why we needed to set up a special program to catch arrival of your consciousness. You’ll understand it in detail later, but this is further confirmation for you that, as Maria so correctly stated, you are digital, not virtual.

  “Later, we will study the factors that might be behind you both not becoming embryonic at the same time. It’s nothing for you two guys to think about, as it will be purely scientific investigation conducted by us. There could be thousands of reasons for different timeframes. As programmers, we shall want to know the factors that are in play, since both of you are connected to identical matrix programs; that’s all.

  “But, tell me, Mike, what you can see or feel, or see and feel. I mean, I suppose, I am asking you to tell us what you can sense. Do remember, at all times, that it is the first time ever, and that we have no experience of bringing human consciousness to life in screenside.”

  “Nothing, Singh,” answered Gales. “I’ve got nothing going on which could be defined as sensation, whether see or feel. It’s just that I know I am there. It’s a slightly uncomfortable feeling, maybe like dreaming slightly consciously, when you know you’re asleep in your body and aware that you dream.”

  “That happens in the human head,” said Sagan.

  “So you’re saying that it is just the feeling of being simultaneously somewhere else. No sound, no sight, no hot and cold?”

  “Nothing, though I hope it might be coming,” said Gales. “I’m surprised that I do not have to work on concentrating. Is that like how it is for you, pure virtuals? You often talk of multitasking, with equal consciousness in this world and in screenside.”

  “Yes, Mike. We like to switch off, when working in a human brain, but that is only so that we can enhance our own feeling of involvement; become much more the human that we are physically connected up to be. However, as you have been told by us, there is absolutely no need for us to switch off in screenside; switch off at all, I mean. Esme and her girlfriends live normal lives uninterruptedly, here in screenside, when helping mum Sophie-Marie; and do note that they are helping her 24/7.

  “Beyond that,
after getting used to it, they are simultaneously involved in their mental patients, which is a very intense participation, while continuing to help mum Sophie-Marie with motor functions, and never abandoning living normal lives with their partners, here in screenside. This level of multitasking is not a problem, and reducing our involvement in our own world, in screenside, is an option we exercise, according to the needs of the situation.

  “For your information, we have a guy, called Charlie, who specializes in flying planes; in fact he was the one who brought that Air America aircraft down safely onto the ground, when you were all in the White House.

  “I’ll give you an idea of how much multitasking can be done. On occasion, he pilots a number of very troublesome Chinese fighter jets, at the one time, conducting individually instructed maneuvers from the ground.”

  “Wow!” exclaimed Sagan. “Will we have some of those powers when we are in?”

  “These are not powers,” said Singh, dismissively. “It’s just us, computer programs; and we never have any problem in being called computer programs.

  “But you people will remain human, even when digitalized, and we do not expect you to gain any faculties that you do not have as humans.

  “Think of it like this. If we connect up an absolutely illiterate man from a poverty-stricken slum, and make him conscious here, what are the chances of him entering as a neurosurgeon, capable of doing your work, and of becoming capable of scientific reasoning? Or here’s an even better and more mundane example. Suppose we bring in a person who does not know how to fly a plane. Should we expect him to now know how to fly a plane, just because he has become conscious in screenside?

  “Mike, you said you are surprised that you’re not having to make any effort, and that you are fully conscious outside, and slightly conscious inside. Later, you will be conscious in both worlds, and you will almost certainly have to switch your active awareness between sides.

  “Right now, you are functioning only in the human world, with awareness that you are coming alive somewhere else. You are an absolute, very early stage dormant in here, and certainly not functional in both places; only in the place where you always were.

  “Regarding powers and superpowers, the person outside is to simply become the person inside, and there is absolutely nothing more that we can offer. Yes, we could present the digital person an opportunity to learn and educate himself, but that is going to be no different to an opportunity to do the same thing outside in the human world.

  “Yes, there is a difference, which my dear boyfriend is overlooking,” said Priya, coming into the frame. “The difference is that, in humanside, opportunities are for the privileged, whereas in here everyone has everything.”

  “And that means…” began Sagan.

  “Oh, simple,” laughed Priya, now very friendly with Sagan, as she and Rosa, screenside’s most diligent research students and medical investigators, had been physically present in Paris at a large number of chip implantation operations, attending in the bodies of their mentally ill humans. “What it means is that we’ll give you the exact same unpaid access that we have, to the Internet’s database of books, videos, and other intellectual materials. Learn away.

  “Your last scheduled operation in China, is for the day after tomorrow, and I see that you are booked on a commercial flight via Paris. Why not the Grietzmann jumbo? Rosa and I are ready to become surgeons. You haven’t booked any facilities in hospitals.”

  Sagan waved her question away, dismissively. “Don’t fret about that at all, Priya. The commercial seat booking is nothing. It’ll be cancelled, for a flight as usual with Abe, and I’ll be sending an email to the Paris Christian Missionaries in a moment, instructing them to arrange everything, hospital, patients, what not, with money from the Arabian Human Fund, managed by Grietzmann.”

  “Oh, you’ve done it all, darling, the medical stuff,” said Singh.

  “No, dear boyfriend, we haven’t. This time we’re going to be the surgeons ourselves. We’ll do the cutting, anesthesia and everything else.”

  “Better keep your hands steady,” laughed Singh.

  “Will they be able?” asked Sagan, a note of uncertainty in his voice. “Human life…”

  “Patrick, I told you about the jets and Charlie. What I failed to mention is that we are the world’s fastest and most accurate shooters, and can, even compensating for breeze and other movement, probably unfailingly place every single bullet with millimetric precision into targets. Shoot flies off galloping horses, and that too at great distance. Making cuts and positioning implants is mere child’s play.”

  Priya joined in. “Rosa and I are looking for suitable patients in one of the major cities, so that we can enter as qualified medical practitioners, surgeons and what not, with the ultimate aim being to physically integrate ourselves into cancer research programs at major hospitals.”

  “Qualifications?” asked Gales.

  “We are unthinkably more qualified than any human doctor,” answered Priya, without the slightest trace of pride. “But we shall need our managed humans to be recognized as qualified doctors, and we are thinking about paper records, like certificates, so that we can, in future, do our work without you involved at all.

  “It is actually no problem. We’ll issue medical certificates and licenses, plus experience certificates and whatever else would be required, once we have the people that we are going to manage in those roles. Why? Because the documents we create will need their photographs to pass through physical checks into hospitals, as qualified medical specialists; to get registered and included in databases. Their names and identities will also need to be inserted into records - starting from birth, through school and university, then medical school, followed by hospital experience records and everything else.

  “I can now see why you need me for this first brain surgery, Priya,” said Sagan. “I know who your mentally ill people are, and I know that you two extremely qualified virtuals are managing them. In an operating theatre run by me, you can take over, no paperwork required, no matter what the doctor looks like. Just a few days, Priya, and tell Rosa also. I’m on my way back via Paris, and beyond the medical thing, we can all have a few evenings together.

  “I’ve been offered membership in a beautiful country club, just outside Paris. Perhaps we can all have a session of drinks and dinner there? Right now, let’s stick with Michael and his emerging consciousness.”

  “It should move faster, after the initial impression of consciousness,” said Singh. “Feel anything else, Mike?”

  “Nothing at all,” answered Gales, uncertainly. “But I am getting an impression of busy, of hustle and bustle, though that might be my imagination.”

  “It is imagination,” said Singh. “We’ve placed your matrixes in the HC in New York. It’s in a secure room that we are calling the incubation chamber. Only you two guys are there with the guardian program, which, of course, is not a consciousness.

  “Later, as you develop, which could take a few more days, we have a plan to place your matrixes in a far busier location, as activity in the screenside world might jog your matrixes into consciousness earlier. Thereafter, we’ll wait until you are all there, and then move on to figure out connections to give you the RV installs that we have, the body stuff.”

  “So, is Michael going to become a fully conscious being while he is in the incubation chamber?” asked Sagan.

  “To some extent, yes. We won’t interfere, and maybe we don’t know how to interfere either. It is expected that humans will naturally project their own bodies around their consciousnesses.”

  “The busy location might turn out to be Times Square, Michael,” laughed Priya. “It’s always got people. I hope you project your body with clothes on.”

  “I have no problem with nakedness,” said Gales, sportingly. “Although it’ll undoubtedly be a bit embarrassing, to be a full-grown naked man, yet freshly born and not knowing what to do and where to go.”<
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  “Have no fear about showing up naked,” said Singh. “We’ve thought about it, and configured one of our guardian programs, the public decency one, to immediately drape privacy fabric onto emerging nude nonborns, if that ever happens. It won’t be high-fashion, and it won’t be clothes, but it will most certainly be fabric. And guardians never sleep, so there is absolutely no chance of us dragging you out and standing you up naked in screenside’s NYC Times Square.

  “We reckon that very few people see themselves as naked on a day-to-day basis. Prostitutes and strippers maybe, and possibly some other types of people working in the sex industry. Otherwise, even for us here, we always see ourselves with clothes on. But what do you care, Michael? Guardian and privacy fabric…”

  “Shouldn’t be too long for you too, Patrick,” said Priya, encouragingly. “It’s the same matrix, copied, and both of you have been living pretty similar lives in humanside, mainly together, so I don’t think very many more than a few days apart from each other.”

  “Remember, it’s all new; first time ever in the world,” said Singh. “We will learn as we go along, but right now we have deliberately slowed down your birth in here, hoping that more time given to a matrix connected to a functioning human, functioning in daily life, that is, would create a better likeness in here. We have been concerned that speed could result in incomplete, insane or deformed, and land us with an ethical burden regarding termination or not. And so, the area that we are calling Quanta, or the part that collects consciousness, has been deliberately tampered with, to slow it down.

  “We are aware that we may be wrong. After all, we are not one hundred percent sure of what consciousness itself is. It may be something that the human mind has and can feed to an external collection unit, without having to go through a lot of life time. Maybe human consciousness is a totally independent attribute, who knows? Maybe it can be transferred effectively, even during sleep, and in a single session.