by Jason Ayres
“I must say you are very lifelike, Dani,” said Alice. “Isn’t she, Josh?”
“I’ll say,” replied Josh, trying not to make it too obvious that, as well as being impressed by the android, he couldn’t help noticing how attractive she was. This wasn’t unusual for female androids, particularly in the Far East where a roaring trade in sex robots had sprung up, leading to an outcry, not just from the moral objectors, but also from human sex workers who were finding clients increasingly hard to come by.
“Thank you,” said Dani. “My creator has designed me to mimic human activity in every possible way.”
“Isn’t she a beauty?” said a voice with a strong Australian accent from the top of the staircase. “I designed her myself.”
“Henry!” exclaimed Josh, recognising the flamboyant character now bounding down the stairs towards him. Despite having chatted face to face online with Henry many times, seeing him in the flesh for the first time was still quite a shock.
With his ample girth, Henry looked to have reached a pinnacle of non-fitness, yet here he was racing down the stairs with the energy of an Olympic athlete.
His mop of wild, curly, red hair sat atop a similarly ruddy complexion. He didn’t have the slightest fleck of grey, which was impressive for a man in his late-fifties. By far the most stunning thing about him was his shirt – which would be considered loud even in Hawaii. It featured a bright, sky-blue background covered in pineapples.
“Are you going to a party?” asked Alice, as this large, hairy pineapple-clad figure bore down on them.
“Only if you’re inviting me, my dear,” replied Henry, exuding charm as he reached for Alice’s hand and subsequently kissed it. “It’s a real pleasure to meet you.”
Next he turned to Josh and vigorously pumped his hand.
“And it’s an absolute delight to meet you at last, my dear fellow,” added Henry.
Despite Henry’s old-fashioned mannerisms, Alice couldn’t help but like him – he radiated warmth and friendliness.
“The feeling is more than mutual,” replied Josh, before turning to Alice and adding. “Don’t be overwhelmed by his attire – this is quite normal for him!”
“Larger than life, that’s me!” remarked Henry.
“I must say, you are doing a grand job of cultivating your eccentric professor look,” said Josh. “When did you last have a haircut?”
“Oh, sometime around the end of the last decade, I think,” replied Henry, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “It’s growing rather well, don’t you think? I’d like to claim it’s because of my strong genes and clean-living lifestyle, but I have to confess it’s all down to cellular regeneration, a little sideline of mine. You won’t see a bald head or a grey hair around this place.”
During this exchange, Dani had stood almost motionless and almost unnoticed, having been shunted out of the limelight by Henry’s impressive entrance. Now she spoke up.
“Can I offer you some coffee?”
“Let’s all have some coffee!” announced Henry, enthusiastically. “You do drink coffee, don’t you, Alice? Proper coffee, that is, none of this decaffeinated nonsense?”
“Of course,” said Alice. “Where would we scientists be without it? Something’s got to keep us going during all those late nights burning the midnight oil.”
“Splendid!” replied Henry. “Well, Dani here makes a fine pot of coffee, among her many other talents. Let’s go upstairs and you can meet Vanessa. I’ve told her all about you.”
He led them up the staircase, which was made out of the same pristine marble material as the rest of the floor. Alice watched her footing carefully, as it looked slippery.
“Not the safest staircase in the world,” she commented.
“Oh you think so? Well, watch carefully,” said Henry. “You’re going to love this.”
He turned to Dani and said, “Dani, change décor to rustic.”
The android’s eyes briefly glowed bright blue, and Josh and Alice watched in awe as the scene around them was instantly transformed. The marble in the lobby was replaced by traditional oak, as was the staircase below them which now looked distinctly safer underfoot.
In addition, the screens had vanished from the lobby below, now replaced by a series of famous paintings, from Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers to the Mona Lisa. It was as if the whole room had been magically whisked back a century or more in time.
“That is absolutely amazing,” remarked Josh. “How do you do it?”
“We call it nanocine,” remarked Henry. “It’s something we developed right here at the institute. Everything in this room is made of a malleable material made entirely of microscopic nanobots which link into the network that controls this entire facility.”
“Fascinating,” said Josh, who was truly impressed. “How does it work exactly?”
“It’s as simple as this,” said Henry. “Just now when I asked Dani to change the décor they simply remoulded themselves into the style I requested like a big ball of plasticine, hence the name nanocine. Think of it a bit like changing the desktop on your computer. The floors you saw when you came in aren’t made from marble at all. The nanocine itself is actually a spongy material, rather like the stuff they use in kids’ playgrounds to protect them if they fall. The applications are endless.”
“I’ve seen some amazing technological developments in my lifetime,” remarked Alice, “but this is the most incredible yet.”
“It doesn’t stop there,” said Henry. “By the time you’ve finished here today you’ll feel like you’ve seen the seven wonders of the future world.”
They had reached the top of the stairs now and turned right along a long, curving white corridor, with windows to the right offering spectacular views of the Molonglo River.
“This is us,” remarked Henry, as he turned to the left towards a plain, white door which slid smoothly open, revealing an incredibly futuristic-looking lab.
“This is where the magic really happens,” added Henry.
“I’ll say,” said Alice. “It looks like something out of Star Trek.”
She wasn’t exaggerating. Her first impression was of the sickbay she had seen in a recent Hollywood blockbuster about interstellar travel, but this was on a much larger scale. The large, white, circular room was huge – at least thirty yards across – with banks of computer panels and touch screens filling every wall.
Alice’s eye was particularly caught by a couple of beds at one end of the room, hence why she had thought of the sickbay in the film. She noticed that there seemed to be a motionless body lying on one of them. Were they treating patients in here, and if so, for what? Then she remembered Dani and realised that it might not be a human body she was seeing. Perhaps this was where they developed the androids.
The interior of the laboratory was filled with several work areas woven into the same circular design. It was curves, no rough edges. Sitting at one of these was a striking woman with short, blonde, curly hair who Alice guessed was approximately in her late-forties. She was wearing a traditional scientist’s white coat and intently peering into a holographic display of the human brain in front of her. When she heard them approach, she snapped off the display and got up to greet them.
“Allow me to introduce my wife, Vanessa,” said Henry. “As you can see, she dresses a little more formally for work than I do.”
“Like chalk and cheese, we are,” said Vanessa, smiling and offering her hand to Josh, before kissing Alice on both cheeks in the style Alice had become used to when travelling across continental Europe. It seemed that Mr and Mrs Jones were very touchy-feely.
“This whole place is out of this world,” remarked Josh. “Pretty much everything I’ve seen since we walked through the front door has blown my mind.”
“Now you can see why so few people are allowed to come here, especially from outside Australia,” said Vanessa, eyeing Josh appreciatively, which didn’t go unnoticed by Alice. “However, you two are a special case.”
“We consider ourselves privileged,” replied Josh. “But why exactly?”
“I’ll come on to that,” remarked Vanessa. “But let’s begin by explaining exactly what we’ve been doing here.”
“I can’t wait,” replied Josh excitedly.
It looked like it was going to be an interesting day.
Chapter Two
September 2055
“Where’s Dani with that coffee?” asked Henry.
“Why don’t you go and look for her, my sweet,” replied Vanessa. “You seem to enjoy spending time playing with her.”
Vanessa’s words were seemingly said in jest, but Alice was sensing some definite undertones. Her first impression had been that they seemed an extremely oddly matched couple: he, loud and flamboyant; she, prim and businesslike.
“There’s no need for that, she’s here,” replied Henry, as Dani walked in. She almost seem to glide, so perfect were her movements with no sound at all from her footsteps. She was effortlessly balancing a heavy tray of cups, a coffee pot and various accompaniments.
“Ooh, that’s lovely, Dani. Did you bring any biscuits?” asked Henry.
“I’ve brought your favourites, Henry, Jam Sandwich Creams.”
“What would I do without you, Dani?” asked Henry.
“Put your tongue away, Henry. Though I imagine she’s already had plenty of that,” remarked Vanessa in an extremely acid tone.
Alice had been right, though Vanessa’s latest remarks went far beyond undertones, said as they had been with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. This certainly wasn’t a marriage made in Heaven.
“Vanessa!” exclaimed Henry, rebuking her before turning to Josh and Alice. “I must apologise, my wife has a tendency to be a trifle brusque!”
“Just my little joke, dear,” replied Vanessa. “But don’t think I don’t know what you built her for.”
“I can’t believe you’ve got Jam Sandwich Creams,” replied Josh, doing his best to defuse the situation. “I thought they were just a British thing.”
“I discovered them back in my formative years when I spent a couple of years at Cambridge,” replied Henry. “I’ve had a craving for them ever since so when I found some in an online store over here that specialises in British food, I snapped up a couple of dozen packets. I got some Marmite, too, while I was at it.”
“Don’t I know it?” said Vanessa. “I think it’s vile stuff. He left some on a knife I used to butter my toast the other morning and it nearly made me heave.”
“Well, they do say people love it or hate it,” said Josh.
“How very apt,” said Vanessa, with a pointed glance at Henry as she was saying it.
“Enough of these pleasantries,” said Henry, attempting to make light of his wife’s barbed comments. “Let’s get on and show you what you came here to see. I expect you’re wondering why there is a body on the couch over there?”
“It had crossed my mind,” replied Josh.
“Well, without further ado,” said Henry, and with a grand flourish, accentuated by his pineapple-clad attire, gestured that they should follow him to the other side of the room.
As they approached the body on the couch, Alice could see that, as she had first suspected, it wasn’t a human body at all. It was that of an android which was clearly supposed to be a facsimile of Henry. It wasn’t the body shape that gave it away so much as its attire, clad as it was in what could only be one of his shirts. This one contained a selection of palm trees over a lurid red and orange background depicting the Hawaiian sunset.
The android’s skin tone was as realistic as Dani’s but it wasn’t properly finished off, being only a very basic default face such as you might find as the factory setting on an off-the-shelf robot.
“Good, isn’t he? I designed him in my own image,” replied Henry. “I still have to graft on the face, but we’ve been concentrating more on the neural side of things rather than the cosmetics.”
“Other than the face you can hardly tell the difference,” said Alice.
“Except if you look closely you can see he’s not as fat as the original,” interjected Vanessa.
“Well, I had to find a use for my old shirts,” said Henry, ignoring her jibe. “This one’s an XL and I can’t get into it anymore. It’s the middle-aged spread, you know. I blame the steaks at Madison’s, they are simply out of this world. But don’t take my word for it – come and join us for dinner this evening.”
“Will you be going for the 16oz this time, dear, or do you fancy tackling the 24oz again?” asked Vanessa.
“I’m up for tackling the 24oz if you are,” replied Josh. “I love steak. We don’t have it often back home because of the methane tax.”
“Quite right, too,” said Alice. “I’m practically vegan these days.”
“I don’t see any harm in having red meat as an occasional treat,” said Henry.
“Occasional treat?” questioned Vanessa. “You’re an absolute carnivore, my dear. You should see him at Christmas. He has a whole turkey to himself.”
Each time Vanessa used the word “dear” the amount of sarcastic loathing with which it was uttered seemed to increase.
Alice tactfully attempted to steer the conversation back towards the matter at hand.
“What are you planning to do with this replica?” she asked.
“It’s pretty straightforward really. Vanessa and I, despite our little bits of banter which I’m sure you’ve noticed, make a good team when we’re working together.”
“I did sort of pick up on something,” said Alice.
“It’s just our way of getting through the day,” said Henry. “Anyway, we’ve recently made an incredible breakthrough that we’ve kept top secret. No one knows anything about it – until now. That’s why we invited you here – to show you.”
“You should feel very privileged,” added Vanessa.
“We do,” said Josh. “I’m intrigued, though. Why have you singled out us for special treatment?”
“Because I believe you may be able to greatly assist us with the next phase of what we are aiming to achieve here,” said Henry.
“How, exactly?” asked Josh, suspecting that it must have something to do with time travel.
“Let’s leave that part until we’re on the steaks and red wine tonight,” said Henry. “For the time being, why don’t I enlighten you further by way of a little demonstration of what we’ve done so far? Vanessa, will you do the honours?”
Henry moved to the second, empty couch and laid down.
“This android body is at present an empty shell,” remarked Vanessa. “It has a state-of-the-art artificial brain capable of learning and independent thought, and a hard drive ready to be written to with a capacity of one exabyte.”
“Wait – did you say an exabyte, as in one million terabytes?” asked Alice. “Contained in this one android? That’s unbelievable!”
“Is it?” asked Vanessa. “It isn’t really when you think how fast data capacity and transfer speeds increase over time. Take the 8G mobile network, for example. It’s millions of times faster than the old 4G networks we had when we were growing up. This android body alone possesses more memory capacity than the whole of Australia had at the start of the century.”
“What we’re going to do now is show you how to put that capacity to good use,” added Henry, who was looking extremely laid back, as he lounged in his Hawaiian shirt on the other couch. All he needed was a Tequila Sunrise to make him look like he was lying by the pool on holiday, rather than taking his place in a groundbreaking scientific experiment.
“As Henry told you before you came here, we’ve dedicated a large chunk of the last few years to mapping the human brain with a view to eventually uploading it in a digital capacity,” said Vanessa.
“Which I believe you have already demonstrated, to some extent,” said Josh, recalling Henry’s recent contribution to a documentary holographic podcast on the subject.
“Oh, a few conju
ring tricks with mice for the masses – yes,” replied Henry, dismissively. “But the truth is we’ve gone a lot further than anything we’ve shown the public. As I demonstrated in the documentary, we have been able to make a rudimentary copy of a mouse’s memory for some time – something that could be archived to a hard drive, rather like the storing of old documents.”
“But that was merely a snapshot of memories put into a basic robotic mouse designed to run around a maze. It wasn’t something that could communicate with a consciousness. Since then we’ve got so much further than that,” said Vanessa.
“The first step was to create something that could properly communicate using a neural network. Even so, to begin with, this had its limitations,” said Henry.
“Our early prototypes could talk about past experiences and recall family events but not with true consciousness,” added Vanessa.
“For example, one of my copies could remember details of a holiday I had been on when I lived in England those couple of years,” said Henry. “It could recall paddling in the sea, or the time a seagull stole my chips on the seafront at St Ives, but it couldn’t associate the feelings that came with those experiences. It couldn’t relate how bloody cold the water was or how pissed off I was at that bloody seagull, merely that the events had actually happened.”
“And now?” asked Alice.
“We’ve made incredible progress,” said Vanessa. “What you are going to see today will blow your mind.”
“Are you saying you’ve achieved true consciousness?” asked Josh, excitedly. “That could change the world!”
“That’s exactly what we’re saying,” said Vanessa.
“I find that somewhat hard to believe,” replied Alice. “All the research I’ve ever read on the subject has concluded that creating a truly accurate, conscious and sentient copy of a human mind is impossible.”
“I’ve lost count of the number of things that science has said are impossible over the years,” said Vanessa, “until they became possible.”
