Actuator
Page 14
“Then how can I tell you the details if there’s not enough transparency for me to know them?”
“Remember, I can read between the lines.”
“Right.”
“Don’t make fun. You promised.”
“I’m not making fun, Liz. You’ve become part of my hope.”
‘What part?”
“The part where you can read between the lines.”
“Really, Emmy?”
“Really.”
“You’re giving me that.”
“Yes, Liz, you are very good at reading between the lines.”
“Really?”
“When it comes to reading between the lines, you are exceptional, the best student in City.”
“Thank you, Emmy. Now I know what it feels like.”
“What feels like?”
“To have an outlier’s respect, the final validation.”
“Liz, I need you.”
“I know. Tell me everything that makes you think they are threatened by you.”
“Only this. They offered concessions I hadn’t requested: use of a physical item and in-person visits with a new student.”
“They offered you two unsolicited concessions?”
“Yes.”
“The Mod?”
“No, not exactly.”
“Be clear. How can you expect me to read between the lines when you're not clear?”
“Ms. Snow, the head of rehabilitation, the senior professor.”
“An agent of the Mod?”
“Does she qualify as their agent?”
“Of course she qualifies. She’s a professor who teaches the rationale.”
“But she teaches at a Private school.”
“She’s teaches as part of a highly regulated Private company charged with rehabilitating students that pose the greatest challenge to City’s future stability.”
“So she’s an agent of the Mod?”
“Unofficially, yes. Work with me, Emmy. You can’t expect me to read between the lines for you
indefinitely.”
“Shouldn’t you use your gift when you join the Mod in order to usher an age of transparency?”
“That wouldn’t be my role. As a member of the Mod, I would be charged with identifying what is best for the public good, developing the rationale to ensure the Mod advances that good, and regulating and enforcing the rationale.”
“You mean controlling the people?”
“Not controlling, persuading. Persuading the people to do what is best for the greater good.”
“What happens if they refuse?”
“Depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“For small offenses, I could direct policy to take away rewards. Or provide concessions by allowing each adult to do inefficient things a limited number of times per year.”
“Like what?”
“Like taking escorted trips.”
“In City?”
“Where else would they travel? What are you advocating, Emmy?”
“Nothing. What if someone commits a large offense?”
“Depends again. If they are young enough, I would order rehabilitation to help them internalize the rationale.”
“What if it’s too late for that?”
“If a citizen doesn’t want to be part of City, they can choose to break the social contract.”
“You mean sentence them to life as a transit?”
“They sentence themselves by refusing to be part of the City, by refusing to engage in the rationale that serves all.”
“But they are part of City. They live in City.”
“Outside doesn’t count, Emmy. We learned that a long time ago. Now ask me the tough question.”
“What tough question?”
“Your fear.”
“I told you everything.”
“You told me they offered you two unsolicited concessions.”
“That’s everything. I’m worried what they’ll do now.”
“You did take the concessions, Emmy?”
“No, I didn’t want them.”
“That’s bad.”
“Why’s it bad, Liz?”
“They are going to test you.”
“Then I’m going to test them.”
Chapter 28
“Have you reconsidered?”
“Have I reconsidered what, Skip?”
“You know. Don’t make me be inefficient.”
“No, I don’t know. I don’t even know your real name.”
“My name is Skip just as yours is Emmy.”
“I invented my name. You stole yours.”
“You can’t steal from a dead guy. He left it behind.”
“What do you want, Skip?”
“I want to know if you reconsidered my offer.”
“You mean, their offer?”
“Do you want to visit me? Do you want to play ship in a bottle with me?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Maybe I’m being too forward.”
“Maybe.”
“Why don’t we get to know each other? I could start by asking you a question. I’m an attentive listener.”
“Go ahead.”
“What do you like best about the rationale?”
“Nice icebreaker, Skip.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Real, smooth. Like concrete.”
“So, what do you like best about it?”
“I don’t like anything.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing about the rationale.”
“That’s hard to imagine. The rationale is very broad, comprehensive to modern life. You must like something.”
“Don’t think so. Not from this vantage point.”
“The view here does leave something to be desired.”
“Skip, there is no view.”
“Yeah, that gets to me, too. I was accustomed to a view.”
“How’s that?”
“My parents’ flat looks out on an old park.”
“So their windows aren’t tinted from the inside?”
“No, the view is clear.”
“What about the hazard from the sun’s rays?”
“Oh, that. That’s been addressed.”
“Address by what?”
“The latest technology in glass, allowing light to travel through a window while still blocking any harmful rays. The technology has been around for some time.”
“So why aren’t the rest of the buildings up to code?”
“The code hasn’t evolved yet. The Mod is still debating the proposed legislation, which would be very expensive for the housing industry. Let me guess, you lived south of the park?”
“I don’t know what park you’re referring to.”
“Must be. That would be most efficient. Why they assigned you here. My parents requested this institution because it posed the greatest challenge. Ms. Snow is notorious.”
“Why does it matter what side of the park I live on?”
“Towers on the south side of the park are older. Legislation to address the conditions of pre-existing towers is further down the cue. No one likes the inefficiency of replacing old windows. Better to live without a real time view, especially since flat screens supply a superior one.”
“If you so say, Skip.”
“So you must like something about the rationale? What about all the cutting edge technologies it has supported?”
“I guess us folk on the south side of the park haven’t benefitted from them.”
“Come on, you have actuators, flat screens, minis, chat, video chat, music and an elliptical to make it all guilt free.”
“Not guilt free while I’m here.”
“I mean, otherwise. Otherwise you have an elliptical and access to an actuator. Even here you enjoy a vast suite of digital tech. They haven’t deprived you of apps, and you make use of them from what I can gather.”
“Everyone knows something.”
&nb
sp; “Of course they do. Information is ubiquitous. We can all find a niche in the data.”
“So you know what kinds of tech I use?”
“I know you’re chatting me.”
“I mean otherwise?”
“Like I said, information is ubiquitous.”
“What about privacy?”
“What you say, whom you say it to, that is all private. The modes of tech you use, the frequency, the number of key strokes you type, those sorts of things are by nature public.”
“Why?”
“Accurate statistics are necessary for efficient market analysis. Otherwise Privates would waste energy developing technologies disfavored by the consumer.”
“Why can’t they take a poll?”
“They do that, too.”
“Isn’t that redundant?”
“Not for a Private. The scope of a Private’s enterprise is so broad that redundancy is a relative term.”
“Seems like relations have a lot to do with it.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing, Skip. I was just trying to be clever.”
“So what do you like Emmy? What is your favorite form of technology?”
“I don’t know. It’s all good.”
“You mean that?”
“No, but you’re trying so hard. I guess chat is fine, and video chat on the rare occasion when people can focus.”
“That is a rare pleasure. My parents videoed me last night. Their attention warmed me all over.”
“I bet it did.”
“It was better than radiant, Emmy.”
“Good feeling, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yes. I liked it. Isn’t technology wonderful? Doesn’t the rationale promote beautiful inventions?”
“They’re not bad.”
“Not bad? You just said you liked chat and video chat.”
“You’re misquoting me.”
“But you do enjoy them?”
“I don’t know. They’re better than nothing.”
“That’s not a very high bar.”
“Don’t need a high bar when locked in an institution.”
“What about otherwise?”
“You mean, outside?”
“No, I mean in your parents’ flat?”
“Skip, I don’t remember what that’s like.”
“The past does slip away.”
“It doesn’t have to.”
“I don’t feel like debating, Emmy.”
“Me neither.”
“But the future is more certain.”
“How do you figure?”
“The future hasn’t already been lost.”
“Doesn’t have to be that way, Skip.”
“Regardless, don’t you imagine enjoying these technologies in the future? They are only going to get better. If we made a compatibility match, you could enjoy them with me in a new flat with all the latest modifications.”
“Like windows that provide a view?”
“Exactly.”
“Of the park?”
“Would you like that, Emmy? I heard you are beautiful.”
“What is the name of that park, anyway?”
“The Mod doesn’t call it anything, but others refer to it as the Reserve.”
“Why the Reserve?”
“I’d be guessing.”
“Guessing based on what?”
“Rumors.”
“What rumors, Skip?”
“Never mind.”
“Come on, the view sounds so dreamy.”
“I haven’t even described it yet, Emmy. I shouldn’t.
“Why?”
“I shouldn’t have even told you about it.”
“Then why did you?”
“I thought you’d like hearing about it.”
“I do. Tell me more.”
“Not tonight.”
“Another night?”
“I don’t know. Let’s forget it.”
“Come on, Skip. We're just getting to know each other.”
“I think you’re trying to take advantage of me.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I just did, Emmy. Don’t make me be inefficient again.”
Chapter 29
“I don’t like the way you spoke to Skip.”
“What are you talking about, Ms. Fields?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, and you wouldn’t make me repeat the question if I were Ms. Snow.”
“You’re not Ms. Snow.”
“I deserve your respect just the same.”
“Then earn it.”
“Don’t talk that way to me, Amelia. You’re walking on thin ice. I’ve been very generous with you up until now.”
“How am I on thin ice?”
“For invading Skip’s privacy. You crossed the line.”
“Invading his privacy? What about my conversation with him? That was a private discussion.”
“Between you and him, but he has a right to share.”
“I’m having a hard time keeping track of when these rights apply and when they don’t.”
“That’s why you need to apply yourself to internalize the rationale. Then it will all come naturally. You won’t have to work so hard. It’ll be good for you as an individual. I know what individualism means to you. Efficiency rewards individuals the same as it rewards City.”
“I may be looking for different rewards.”
“Do you want discuss those rewards with Ms. Snow?”
“I’m doing my nightlies. When you chatted me, I was doing my nightlies. I was doing my nightlies before that. What is the problem? I shouldn’t have to chat with you if I’m fulfilling my obligation.”
“The code states that, if a rehabilitating student violates a core element of the rationale such as another’s privacy right, then we are compelled to subject that student to oral testing.”
“But we aren’t speaking. How is this oral?”
“The code defines oral to include chat.”
“And how did I violate Skip’s privacy?”
“By asking him about his parents’ view.”
“What not. But don’t make me speak with Ms. Snow.”
“Why?”
“She gives me a headache and makes me question things.”
“What kind of things, Amelia? Here’s a chance to share.”
“No, don’t make me do it. I don’t want to speak with her.”
“If you don’t confide in me, I’ll have no choice.”
“Don’t do it, Ms. Fields. Please.”
“Then speak to me.”
“We are on chat. Stop saying, ‘speak to me.’”
“The words are now synonymous in City.”
“I don’t care.”
“You deny the meaning of words?”
“That sounds more serious than I intended.”
“Well, you better start taking things seriously or else.”
“Or else what?”
“You know what.”
“Say it, Ms. Fields.”
“Don’t make me be inefficient.”
“Go ahead, Ms. Fields. Live a little. Be inefficient. Trash a couple words.”
“Do you know what you are promoting?”
“No. Why don’t you tell me?”