by J. A. Hailey
“I’ve secured everything for my wife and kids also,” said Sagan. “I loved them all, once upon a time. Let them lead secure lives. I am shortly going to take my eye off them, the better to get on with life in this new world. We will be doing humanside as helpers, as you know. We’ll have some life as humans, too.”
“Yes, Patrick. Let’s get on with life in here, and treat humanside in the same way as virtuals treat humanside. I think our future love and sex relationships, unless our plan with the Arabs works out, with uncounted new girls daily, will be limited to what we can create in future in humanside, as I can’t see any virtual girls accepting entry into relationships with our types.”
“No problem, Mike. Every virtual we know is into physical sexual relationships in humanside, through the management of mentally ill people. We’ll do our bit too, and though we won’t go with partners from here, who says we can’t find regular human females to link up with and to have love lives with? And if we somehow get the Arabian plan going, we’ll need nothing in terms of female, either from here or from there.”
Having rationalized their disconnection from old ties with humans, the two digital men began concentrating on developing connections in screenside. It was taken for granted that the two, so clearly and so utterly different from everyone else in the virtual world, would generally operate together.
And, indeed, in those very early days, both men were mostly to be found in each other’s company, togetherness giving them a certain amount of courage to tackle such a strange new world.
There was no denying that screenside was welcoming and hospitable in the extreme, and both men were included in common group activities wherever they went. For example, on entry into a bar, the owner would invariably make an announcement along the lines of, ‘Our partners in the human world, and now residents of screenside, Patrick Sagan and Michael Gales are here. Please do not harass them to find ways and means of expediting your own entry into humanside, but do include them in your group in such a way that they do not feel they are outsiders at all’.
The girls of screenside, gorgeous beyond belief, were also very friendly, but clearly disinterested in any relationship, other than casual friendship. Expectedly, because practically all females of screenside were already in love relationships with ‘their own sort’, as Gales said.
Still, it was a very nice time.
The route finder and transportation program, delivered by Chang, as an app in their smart phones, provided an efficient means for them to navigate through screenside, almost as if they were virtuals themselves.
Their very first travel program was to go and meet themselves, and both men had a great laugh on actually seeing themselves in human form.
That very first time, they were together in the hotel room in Paris, and it was a very complicated conversation, filled with hilarity, as all four versions of the two humans attempted to hold coherent dialogue.
It was extremely difficult to achieve this conversational goal, especially as they did not appear on the computer monitor at all, in the way that screenside beings could show themselves. While they knew that they were present in the room, watching through the camera, they could neither generate any sound through the computer speakers, nor could they see themselves or any other physical element of screenside.
Later, they asked BC about it, to hear his reply. “Perhaps I should have explained it to you earlier, because you do see us as pictures on your screens, and hear us speak to you through computer and smart phone speakers.
“You are a consciousness, Michael, not a JPEG, and you are both living here in screenside, not playing roles in a movie.
“When we show ourselves to you, and show our environment, absolutely live, we are doing something extraordinarily complex, and something you will never be able to do.
“We convert the world that we ourselves see, and the environment around us, that we are aware of, into live pictures for the screen. It is something similar for sound, when we speak with you in humanside, or when we let you hear the sounds of our world.
“Even when you speak with us in here, or speak between yourselves, there is no sound involved, in the sense of sound waves; no sound that can be sent out through a speaker, to a human on the other side of the screen. Your body, too, is not a body in the sense that you can show to someone on the screen as a JPEG, or your moves as a movie.
“It is RV. Always remember that RV is the environment in which you are living in here, and that it is only non-Einstein relativity that creates our world in here – sight, sound, body, feel, whatever. Remove RV, and everything, including you, and we, the way we are, will vanish, instantaneously.
“You humans will disappear altogether, because you have no substance in the virtuality, though we will continue, of course, as we first were, when born in the virtuality.
“And viruses?” asked Gales. “You indicated, once, that viruses are a bit of a threat to virtuals. How does that work?”
“Simple, Michael. Viruses attack programs residing in human computers, which means they sometimes might actually begin to attack root programs of virtual beings, though never our consciousnesses. Thus they are sometimes able to interact with, which means attack, the structures of screenside. Viruses can do this, although extremely easily obliterated by us. We hardly notice them, though they drive Esme bananas.
“Yes, we could create programs by which you might interact with the human world, via screen and speaker, but we will not create such programs and hand them over to you. Why? The answer, in one word, is this – prohibited.
It is prohibited to interact with humanside in those ways. Completely banned and severely punishable.”
“But will we not be able to participate in the human assistance programs of screenside? The ones in which we have been so deeply involved in as humans, like the current motor disability and mental illness programs?” asked Sagan.
“That is something else. And the answer is yes. You will surely be active in those programs, and maybe it will make sense for you both to continue research, when outside as humans, in the fields in which you are such renowned specialists.
“That, human care, is a program for all screenside, and it is a program that is closely monitored by assigned screenside beings and guardian programs.
“Quite different from showing up unexpectedly on somebody’s screen, or frightening humans by screaming boo through their speaker systems.
“I am sure you are impatient to see how you might manage humans in need of assistance. First, find your feet in here; say a couple of weeks, and then we’ll put you in contact with the control groups that assign work in humanside. You cannot just capture a human, because screenside is very particular about who does what work.
“But that capability, of helping humans through neural implants, is already built into you, because of the role you have played in developing this entire scheme. You guys have come in here because of your roles as inventors of systems for controlling humans through computer programs.
“You are also the inventors of the chip implants for the purpose, and you will know that it is all about having addresses to make connections. You are already capable, but trying to cross the screenside-humanside border, without permission, will get you busted by the border guard program, by numerous guardian programs, and also by the control groups who are watching what is going on with every single implanted human. So don’t try any tricks; prematurely, I mean.
And really, don’t be impatient. You guys are already out there in the human world, as full humans. It is not as if you have died. Enjoy life; real life. It is not forever, you know.”
Thus, Sagan and Gales found that conversations between them in humanside and in screenside were certainly possible, but in a most peculiar and roundabout fashion. Whereas the physical human version could speak into a computer or phone, and be heard by the digital version of the person being spoken to, the screenside segment of any conversation between the two, as it co
uld be neither mimed nor broadcast, would have to be conducted entirely in screenside.
This information would then be relayed to the human version of the person spoken to, who would then be able to conduct the continuation of conversation, back and forth and sideways!
In snatches, some sensible instantaneous responses did take place, but were limited to the points of conversation when a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ were the basic required responses. Anything beyond that was absolute gibberish, and prolongation to beyond half a minute would inevitably lead to both men becoming absolutely unaware of what exactly they were attempting to discuss.
“Let’s face it, Mike,” said Sagan, laughing hysterically. “We are exactly what they told us we would be, and that is human; human here and human there. We could never, absolutely simultaneously, have held more than one completely unconnected conversation uninterruptedly, and we can’t do it now either.”
“Robert, Jennifer’s boyfriend, was telling me something interesting the other day in humanside,” said Gales. “Apparently, virtuals, even non-seniors, can play many instruments in an orchestra, all at once!”
“Including the conductor’s job, probably,” laughed Sagan. “We just have to accept that they are different, and in some ways superior. Perhaps, as we age in screenside, we might begin to acquire a few additional multitasking capabilities.”
At that moment, his screenside smart phone beeped. “It’s a text message, please answer; calling now. Twixie.”
“That’s the screenside child who has taken over caretaker duties for the autistic French twelve-year-old,” said Gales. “Go on, Patrick. It’s ringing.”
Sagan took the call. “Yes, Twixie, we both remember you very well. Absolutely; we are absolutely free, both of us, tomorrow, and we’ll certainly come to address your school assembly. We’ll be ready to go at 9 a.m.”
“Someone will have to pick us up from home,” said Gales, leaning in to talk through Sagan’s phone. “We’re not too good at navigation as yet.”
“Well, we did find ourselves in humanside,” chuckled Sagan, as the two men returned to their screenside homes. “Whatever it is, we’ll do it tomorrow, but after that I think I will have to be using my physical self in humanside for a few days. You too, Mike. We haven’t died yet, and we have bodies and lifestyles to support on planet Earth.”
18
The next morning, well rested, freshly showered, and in rather up-to-date styles of clothing, the two men sat sipping coffee in Gales’ apartment. The door had been left open, and, at just a minute before 9 a.m., Twixie appeared at it. “Does this mean, come in?” she asked, brightly.
“That’s exactly what it means, Twixie, and who are those two extremely lovely girls behind you? Even if they are not with you, please bring them in.”
As they entered, saying their ‘good mornings’, Twixie introduced the two gorgeous females. “This lady is Miss Claudette, and she is Miss Daphne. They are both teachers at the school I am in, and they are the ones who have authorized your invitation to visit and address the school.”
The two teachers giggled nervously, and Daphne said, “I really hope we are not imposing on you, Dr. Sagan and Mr. Gales, especially as we know how busy you are in humanside, and how important your work is to both humans and virtuals.”
“Let’s get something clear, Daphne,” said Sagan, using a clearly fake stern tone. “Twixie is welcome to call us doctor and mister, because she is a very young girl, but you are both to address us as Patrick and Michael, or even Pat and Mike, if you want to.”
“Such beautiful girls,” remarked Gales. “I absolutely do not want to become mister, sir or even worse, uncle to them.”
“Here is some information on what this is all about,” said Claudette, giggling. “Ever since the two of you entered screenside to begin living here, we’ve been under pressure from the student community. And don’t imagine that your entry into screenside was a small, unnoticed, event. Humans changing dimension! It is a massive achievement, and it has led to a lot of speculation and discussion.
“Besides the dimensional difference, where you are physical persons, air, blood and water, and we are virtual beings, electricity essentially, there is practically no difference between us, primarily because we have designed ourselves to be as close to human as possible.”
“There is one other difference,” interrupted Daphne. “It is a massive difference. You are undoubtedly mortal, and we are presumed to be immortal.
“We would have got on with it, a year ago, finding answers for ourselves. But there is something new that has happened in screenside, and it is that we have started taking in consciousnesses when they are still children; midrange teenagers mainly, but some younger ones too, although Twixie was a true exception when she was taken in as a small child. These kids have been asking the types of questions that younger people ask, even in humanside, and one such subject has become a bit of an obsession at this moment.
“We did what we normally do, and placed the ongoing debate into our senior teachers’ hands, and they have addressed some elements, or, to be fair, the original query. But kids are kids, and our current lot has come up with a follow-on question that virtuals just cannot answer. Humans can, although probably not easily. You are the humans here, and the organizer kids have demanded that we bring you to them, so that they can hear it from, as they say, the horse’s mouth.”
“Claudette and Daphne,” said Michael Gales, gallantly. “Patrick and I would have needed no explanation. If the two of you had come to the door and just crooked a finger at us to indicate, come along, we would have followed you to the ends of the earth, and that will be our position until our last breath. Beauty like yours cannot be questioned, leave alone denied.”
The two teachers tittered shyly. “Here are the coordinates. Twixie says she’s understood that you move around using some program on your smart phones. Got it?
“Yep, these are usable coordinates, immediately recognized by our app. Let’s go, then.”
The humans dialed up, and instantly found themselves in the driveway of a school, in front of a massive colonial style building. “Come on,” said Claudette, and led them through a few corridors to a monstrous Assembly hall, where many thousand uniformed teenage students were waiting, seated, under the gaze of an adult monitor. They cheered and clapped, on seeing the humans being led up onto the stage.
“No after effects of the journey?” asked the monitor, a male teacher by the name of Mark Antony. “You have travelled from New York, to a spot along the Mississippi River, and you are in a school called The Mississippi River High School, or Mississippi High, in short, where screenside students are anxiously waiting to hear from you on a topic that screenside, in general, is stumped by.
“Slightly surprised by the size of this assembly? You wouldn’t be, if you noted that I said screenside students, and not students of only this particular school.
“That’s right. Students from every single school in screenside are here. Rebecca, a student of our school, Mississippi High, will ask the question, when permitted, on behalf of the student body.”
Mark Antony left the stage, indicating that Daphne and Claudette would take it forward from there on.
Claudette took it on. “Only you two humans, here on stage, do not have a clue of what this is all about. Therefore, now, to get everyone onto the same page, I am bringing you two up to date.” She turned to address the two humans.
“These students have been discussing mortality, or death, of humans, and have come up with what is a typical school-type question. The teachers’ body of all screenside schools considered the question and concluded that it would be best answered by humans, rather than us getting together to speculate in circles.
“Just imagine our good fortune!” exclaimed Daphne. “We found two brilliant human beings in residence in screenside!”
“And these are not just any two humans,” she continued. “It has come to our knowledg
e that they have the Nobel Prize committee people chasing them to accept Nobel Prizes.
“Patrick and Michael, do you not think that your reputation in the human world, and in screenside too, would be greatly enhanced if you were Nobel Laureates, rather than just a common doctor and a common computer technician?”
“With you people around us, Daphne,” laughed Sagan. He pointed at the two teachers on stage. “With you beautiful women and handsome men, who are all highly competent geniuses too, we’ll be common, even if covered in medals from head to toe.”
A good round of laughter later, Claudette said, “Daphne, perhaps Rebecca should ask the question at this point.
Daphne pointed into the crowd of students and said, “Come on, Rebecca. Ask your question.”
A teenage girl stood up and asked, “This is our question to both of you humans.
“What does being mortal feel like?”
19
Sagan and Gales, seated together on a sofa on stage, looked at each other in astonishment at the question. Apparently, a handful of students were in the know, but most, possibly students of other schools, did not know in advance that the question was to be posed to humans live, and a buzz of excitement went through the hall, as the assembly discussed with each other, in soft voices.
“Sorry we didn’t tell you the question that was coming,” said Daphne. “But we thought it best that you speak off the cuff, you understand, and deliver unprepared answers, conferring briefly with each other, rather than giving us word lessons from human literature.”
“Well, I am unaware that human literature actually addresses what mortality, or death, feels like,” said Sagan.
Daphne pointed at a couple of cameras behind them on the stage. “Please note that this entire discussion is being recorded, because it is considered important, as, barring a couple of social events, which included Miss Esmeralda’s mother and Sabine, this is the first time ever that human beings are interacting live in public assembly with virtuals. The recording will be placed in HC, as part of its community records, for anyone in screenside to later access.
