"Pardon me, but isn't it time for your and Ms. Liu's agreed upon dinner date?"
Lucas quickly checked the time: the AI had a point; he only had a few minutes.
"How did you know?", he asked as he frantically saved his progress and disconnected his laptop from the terminal, almost dropping it in the process.
"The same way I know everything: your glasses allow me to see and hear everything you do. I did make an entry to your calendar, but you must have missed the notification."
"Great. A fat load of good that did me, I'm going to be late from our first meet-up," he said, rushing towards the doors. "I just want to make a good impression. How could I ever do that now?"
"Stop trying to do what you think she'd like you to. She excels at reading people and your crude attempts at manipulation will just annoy her." He stopped dead in his tracks, turning to squint at the obelisk questioningly.
"I do realize you were mostly just thinking out loud," the incorporeal voice said with a possible hint of kindness, "but I do wish you the best of luck. I see great things resulting from your union."
"Thanks," he said, not knowing what he should have said.
"I've called the elevator for you. You'll make it if you hurry."
The elevator doors closed, and ascent began as soon as he got inside. The calm he had felt in the lower level was rapidly waning, the bleep marking the correct floor made him jump. Everything was so much louder and brighter after the muted mainframe chamber.
"She's going to be showing me around so hopefully she'll do most of the talking," he thought as he neared the spot where they were supposed to meet.
"Good, I'm here first." There was chatter coming from an open glass door nearby and he skulked closer, peeking around the frame. There she was, standing in a ring of her colleagues, a dark-haired man telling something and gesturing with his hand while the rest listened and occasionally commented on the story.
"Did she forget?" he thought. "Should I go in and introduce myself?" In his imagination he stepped in, the gossip coming to a sudden end as they all turned to stare at him. His throat constricted and he backed away from the door, leaning his back to the adjacent wall. A man that had been looking at him through the glass of his office opposite of the cafeteria withdrew to his desk, acting like he hadn't noticed anything. Lucas' cheeks burned as he thought how ridiculous he must have seemed. He reached inside his breast pocket and grasped the small bottle of pills he always carried. Often just holding the capsule helped calm him down, but this time he was forced to swallow a tablet. He closed his eyes as he waited for his anxiety attack to pass.
"I'm at home, it's quiet, it is dim, I am alone." He repeated the mantra that helped to bring to mind a calming image. Gradually, his breathing grew steadier, and his heartbeat was no longer a jackhammer in his chest.
"There you are," came a friendly exclamation from his side. "Fall asleep waiting?"
He opened his eyes. Amber looked at him with an amused expression, some of her workmates standing behind her.
"No, I'm just, I mean-," he stammered like he was using his mouth and tongue to form words for the first time.
"I'm sorry, but something came up," she said, not waiting him to finish. "I'm going to have to take a raincheck on the coffee. Owe you one."
"Oh. Sure." In a way it was a relief.
"How about tonight? I'm going to go check out this new Asian place, want to come along?"
"Sure," he nodded.
"I'm golden as long as she sticks to asking yes-or-no-questions," he thought, wincing inwardly at his social ineptitude.
"8 o'clock. I'll send you my address. See you then." She turned as soon as she was finished, walking towards the room with a wall filled with screens. The other employees followed in her wake, listening as she administered their duties. He walked to the elevator, unseen, unheard, not knowing if he should feel elated or ashamed.
He settled on shame on the ride home.
"I didn't even say anything. Why does she even suffer me along?" He had taken another pill, but there was a weight in his chest that grew harder to bear by the minute.
"I need those other pills. Maybe I should start keeping them with me as well. Just a few more minutes now."
The car parked on his spot, and he made for the front door like a rabbit stuck in an open field, keeping his head low and pace quick but unnoticeable. He entered the empty hallway of his apartment building and seeing the elevator was on the top floor opted for the stairs. The three-story climb left him panting, and he slammed the door shut as he rushed into his home like a person living in a warzone would to a bomb shelter as the air raid sirens blared. He made for the bathroom and pulled a transparent orange bottle from his mirror cabinet, dropping a tablet into his mouth with a shaking hand. He swallowed it down with a glass of water, and grasped the sink for balance as he waited for the medication to kick in. He could feel the knots in his stomach disappearing, his breathing becoming more even as his panic subsided. His image in the mirror was a sorry sight, with sweat glistening on his forehead, the yellowish bathroom light amplifying the pallor of his face.
"How the hell am I going to get through this evening?" he thought, splashing some cold water to his face. He exited the bathroom and turned right to leave his shoes by the door. His apartment was quite well cleaned, at least by young bachelor standards. He sat on the living room sofa and lifted his feet onto the low table made of dark wood. On the walls were few framed photos of him with his parents and a large picture of him standing alone in college graduation regalia and a diploma in hand. Across from him stood a tv set and on the table a VR helmet rested next to his feet. He picked it up and took of his glasses to put it on. After a short bootup a green field of long grass waving like a green sea opened all around him, his ears serenaded by the songs of birds over the quiet sound the wind on the grass made. Looking down, he appeared to be sitting on a white marble bench. The body the simulation rendered him with was that of an ancient Greek hero, with bronze breastplate and greaves, thick thigh muscles bulging under the leather straps hanging from his waist like a skirt. On the edge of his vision there was another set of legs, feminine and barefooted. His eyes followed the slender shins up to where a white tunic terminated at the upper thighs, continuing their way over the wide hips, narrow waist and ample bosom barely concealed by the slightly see-through garment, finally meeting the eyes of his companion which shone bright blue, her black hair tied in a ponytail, swinging slowly in the wind.
"Good day, Lyra," he said. "I really needed to see you today."
"I missed you too," his old creation said, sounding thrilled to see him as she scooted a bit closer on the bench. She focused her attention on him, looking eager. "Tell me all about your day."
"It's that woman, Amber, that I told you about earlier. I ran into her again and she asked me out tonight."
"How wonderful!" she said in an excited purr, grasping her hands together. "She's so pretty, well done."
He winced.
"What's wrong?" she asked, her face now the epitome of concern. "Did you get tongue-tied like earlier?"
He nodded.
"It's just because you're unsure about her, aren't you?" she said, understanding as always. "Still waiting for that one true love?"
"Why can't they all be just like you?" he said, frustrated. "There's always something I don't like about them."
She leaned in even closer and lowered her voice. "You'll find her one day. Until then, you have me." He stared at her cleavage, knowing she wouldn't mind.
"We've been through so much together," she said, her face inches away from his. Even at this distance she was impossible to differentiate from an actual human. "How long has it been? Five years? And I will always cherish every moment."
"As will I. I mean, your programming is designed to learn about me and adapt to please me the best, to always say what I want to hear." He was mostly thinking aloud, the words dropping half-noticed from his mouth.
"I love it when you talk smart to me," she said with a giggle.
"If there was some hard truth I needed to hear," he said, looking in the horizon with a blank expression, "would you tell me, or just say something that will make me feel better? I'm not that familiar with your guidelines."
She stood and stepped in front of him, bending over and reaching out, holding his avatar's shoulders with hands he couldn't feel.
"I always tell you what I think, and I think you're amazing. Would you like to go through some scenarios now, to cheer you up?"
He opened a folder of possible acts they could engage in and browsed them indifferently.
"All of my experiences with women come from this simulation. I wonder what a real date would feel like?" He closed the window and faced her.
"If I had to do something that I found really scary, do you think I could do it?"
She beamed. "Absolutely."
He stood, his rendered body dwarfing the virtual woman, looking over her head. "Very well then. I'll go meet her tonight."
"That's the spirit," she said, crossing her index and middle fingers. He didn't feel as heroic as his character looked; his legs were powerless, and he was lightheaded. He sat back down.
"I just can't calm down, "he said, voice wavering. "It'll be a mess if I'm this on the edge."
"Lie down," she said, sitting next to him and smoothing her lap with her palms. He lied on his back on the couch, his avatar's head resting in the woman's thighs. She caressed his hair with gentle movements and sang a calming song she whose lyrics he knew by heart after the many times he had heard it over the years. He could have spent an eternity there.
"But there's still things I have to do before the evening." He waited for the song to end before rising to a sitting position.
"Thank you, you're a lifesaver. See you later."
"I'll be waiting," she said, smiling as beautifully as when he had first seen her.
He pulled of the VR helmet and placed it back on the table.
"I talk to her all the time; how much more difficult can a real date be? I'm just a little rusty."
He walked into his bedroom, his bed neatly made and sat down in front of his computer. He put his glasses back on, and they connected wirelessly with his tabletop PC, as did his laptop which he had left in his back in near the door. The data he had gathered opened in multiple windows, filling his vision with text running across the screen, connection matrices and different charts. He reached in an open potato chip bag that had lain on his table for the past few days, and chewed as he got to work, pushing aside his conflicting emotions to bring order to the apparent chaos.
The longer the analysis ran, the more puzzled he grew. He had been expecting words, concepts and sentences to form out of the jumbled data representing the AI's mind, but instead the code translated to bizarre images and unrecognizable sounds that themselves connected with other, just as incomprehensible figments.
"This can't be right," he thought, aghast as he watched an image of a clown waving a fish be somehow connected with a sound like mechanical cow's moo and a red icosahedron. "There has to be some bug in the code. The thoughts of an advanced AI can't possibly be this nonsensical."
His fingers wandered aimlessly on the keyboard as the processed data became more and more surreal. He had nothing to grasp, nowhere to begin.
"I thought this was going to be like building a jigsaw puzzle, but even those have corner pieces to get you going. This is like opening the box and finding chess pieces mixed with dominos, a Scrabble board and a tomato. None of these fits together."
He stared with a blank expression as a kaleidoscopic view gave way to an image of a flying pigeon wearing a top hat.
"We trust our lives to this thing every day? We're going to let it dictate our destinies from cradle to the grave?" He opened the error log, checking if the diagnostic systems had detected any malfunctions in the running processes. There were none. He thought of giving up, putting his VR helmet back on to run to the comforting, immaterial arms of Lyra, his longtime confidant.
"No," he shook his head rapidly, "what would have happened if Moses ran away from the burning bush simply because he didn't understand it?"
"Well, for one thing the firstborns of the Egyptians would have been spared." He pushed the discouraging thought from his mind, mechanically opening different property windows, searching for epiphany by studying tidbits of the data banks, hoping to stumble on the key to unraveling the mystery.
Hours passed as he sifted through the files, and still he had barely started when a large notification appeared in the middle of the screen.
"Meeting with Ms. Liu in one hour," the pop-up read, and in smaller, bracketed text "I thought to make sure you were informed early this time so you wouldn't have to hurry."
"Thanks, Ami." He saved his progress, thought there wasn't much to save. He then showered, throwing his clothes the physical and emotional challenges of the day had stained with sweat. With a striped red and white towel around his waist, he studied himself in the full-body mirror on the inside of his bedroom closet's door. He straightened his craned-forward neck, sucking in the gut he had despite his skinny limbs. His hair hung like a wet mop on his eyes, and he had to think back to remember when he had last got a haircut. It had been before his work interview, so about four months ago. He shaped it as well as he could with his fingers, putting on fresh jeans and a dark blue dress shirt that hung neatly on a coat hanger.
"Don't remember ever putting my clothes this neatly," he thought. "It must have hung here since I bought it."
His mouth was dry, so he got a glass of water from the kitchen, which was little more than a closet with an old fridge occupied by half-eaten takeaway boxes and some soda. The stove was quite clean as it saw little use, the microwave permanently stained from the inside.
"It's going to be just me and her. No crowds, no hassle." For the last couple of years Barry had been his sole human contact, and even then they mostly talked online. Lucas had often felt social skills were like a muscle, and his had atrophied after a long period of unuse.
"And no need to do any heavy lifting, just talk to her for a while and then come back home."
The water seemed unable to quench his thirst, and he was hot despite its coolness. Knowing no rationalization would calm him down he headed back to his medicine cabinet, swallowing another one of his tranquilizers. He was supposed to only take one a day at the most but figured he could disregard the warnings as he didn't need the pills on the days he stayed home, which was most days.
"What was I so worried about," he thought as the medicine's effects started to manifest. "Some night out is the smallest of my problem right now." He felt he was as ready as he was going to be and headed for his car.
"We've arrived at the destination," came the cars voice almost as soon as they had begun their drive. Lucas looked around groggily to see they were standing in front of a nice detached house, a short path paved with rocks leading to the front door flanked by large windows, the light inside glowing through the white drapes obscuring the view inside.
"I must have fallen asleep," the thoughts came to him slowly. "Maybe those prescriptions exist for a reason." He messaged her that he was waiting outside. Soon the front door swung open, her figure silhouetted by the indoor lights. She wore dark brown harem pants and a black sleeveless top under a red coat. The car door opened as she approached and she stepped in, placing her handbag on the floor.
"Evening, Prince Charming," she said sarcastically. "The way you didn't even get out of the car really makes a girl feel wanted."
"Oh," he said, not really seeing the problem. "But the message got through just as well like this, and the car door's automatic. Why complicate things?"
She stared at him for a few seconds, not moving a muscle. He didn't look away, like he would normally been compelled to do.
She flashed a smile as the car started forward, heading for the restaurant. "It's fine. I am always thinking about impressions and hidden meanings. One wouldn't think a PR manager would carry her work to home."
"So, what's it like," he said, recognizing an easy subject for conversation. "Your job I mean. What do you do?"
"I oversee the PR department, mostly double-checking press-releases and brainstorming targeted advertisements. You know, stuff that can't yet be trusted to AIs."
"But the AIs collect and analyze all the customer data, correct? So, what's stopping them from recognizing untapped markets or underlying sentiments like you do?"
"They do so, to an extent. But swaying the public requires more than just pattern recognition, if it was that clear-cut, I would have been replaced years ago, same as you," she said, pride creeping into her voice. "Jobs that demand vision, intuition and true creativity still need human oversight."
"Vision, huh? Is that what makes you so irreplaceable?" He was trying to keenly pay attention to her story, but it was like his drugged mind was slowly being smothered by warm, gentle beddings.
"Yes," she said confidently. "I've always been a great people person. Always seem to know what they think and how to get them to do what I want. Part of the Ampere AI's nonverbal communication analysis programs is even based on my readings on people."
"Really?" His words came out dull, uninterested. He drew a sharp breath, trying to will himself back to wakefulness.
"I mean, really?" he said, livelier this time.
"You don't believe me?" she said. She had been glancing at him as she spoke, but now she focused her hazel eyes on him. Smiling, she squinted playfully.
"Allow me to demonstrate." She stared at him for a moment, his eyes wandering, not sure where to look.
"You don't do this often, do you?" The words didn't bear the slightest hint of judgment. "You were really nervous earlier today, not even surviving eye contact, but seem a bit too relaxed now. Anxiety meds?"
He swallowed. "I may have overindulged a bit. It's not like I need them every day."
"No problem, I don't even know anybody who isn't on some medication or another. Now what else..." she said, resting her chin on her palm, still staring at him. He waited, nervous but at the same time interested in what she saw.
"You're not quite sure why you're here," she said slowly. "I haven't caught you looking at me once, so you don't seem all that interested in me, yet here you are despite how nerve-wrecking this is for you. What made you come?"
Before he had time to answer, the car parked on next to the pavement. They had arrived at the restaurant. He got out, quickly rounding the car to help her out, avoiding answering her question.
"That's better," she said as she took his offered hand and stepped out of the car. He let go as soon as she was on her feet.
The inside of the restaurant was quite dim, lighted by few lights covered by red paper lampshades with Asian letter designs them. They seated at a table for two at a corner, furthest away from other customers. They opened their menus. As he was perusing the foreign dishes and their descriptions written in broken English, a waiter appeared, an elder Asian man with white shirt and black pants.
"Good evening. May I take your order?"
"I'll have the same as you," Lucas said, looking at her over the brochures.
"Two of dish number seven and an ice water. And a coffee for the gentleman, please."
The waiter thanked them and soon brought them the drinks. He ingested the coffee heartily despite its burn, part of the cloud fogging his mind disappearing instantly, so he wasn't as sluggish as before. The situation still felt a bit unreal to him, like he wasn't really there.
"So, where were we?" she said, sipping her water.
"I've heard your department does more than just advertise," he said quickly, wanting to avoid becoming the object of examination again. "You write much of our network's news, right?"
"Shh," she hushed him, finger poised before her lips. "I mean, it isn't exactly a secret, but it's still not something to just announce publicly."
"So, it's true? You make the news?" For the first time that evening he didn't have to feign an interest.
"I really shouldn't tell you," she said, pursing her lips. The ambivalence lasted for a few seconds before she leaned over the table and whispered, "did you hear the story about that ex-racer who crashed his manual car head-on with a self-driving one?"
"No, I'm not subscribed to that news category," he whispered back. The surrounding world disappeared as he looked into her eyes, inches away.
"Well, that one was on me. And it's not like I didn't present the facts correctly, I just made sure to portray them in our favor, remind people of the threat human-driven cars pose. This isn't really common knowledge, but we actually make different versions of the same piece of news depending on the audience we're targeting, for maximum effect."
He furrowed his brow. "And journalists are okay with this? Shouldn't there only be one truth in each matter?"
"How quaint," she said, the conversation pausing for a moment as their meals arrived. They dug into the piles of noodles, meat and vegetables they had been presented with.
"But it's in the eye of the beholder," she continued. "These kinds of targeted news designed to elicit emotions just sell better, plain and simple. I mean, even you pick and choose the media you follow. So, what's so wrong about giving people the stories that they like the best?"
"Well, I certainly wouldn't want to have my newsfeed be jammed full of boring or stressful articles." He was glad to see his reply pleased her.
"I know, right? We have enough to deal with without the whole world's burdens pressing on our shoulders. Speaking of which, what's on your mind?"
The question made him pause mid-bite, the piece of meat left dangling from the fork in front of his open mouth. "Nothing much. What do you mean?"
"It's just this feeling I get from you. Is it work?" She looked at him expectantly.
"I can't tell you. It's confidential." He suppressed a smug smile, despite thinking how cool he must have seemed.
"Now I'm really interested," she said, laying her utensils on the half-eaten plate. She stood, and before Lucas had time to ask where she was going grabbed the back of her chair and carried it around the table, sitting right next to him.
"Now nobody else will hear," she whispered, even quieter than before. His mouth was dry again. Her shoulder kept brushing against his, the light touch sending warm waves through his body. He could smell her perfume which reminded him of a field of flowers, filling his head. He looked at her curious eyes and truly saw her for the first time, until now she hadn't compared to the artificial beauties of virtual worlds built solely for his use, but it was like the senses the virtual realms couldn't stimulate, the senses of touch and smell that had languished for something to grasp, now rejoiced at the input, intoxicating him with a firework of sensation. He could somehow feel her presence even when he closed his eyes, she didn't disappear like Lyra did when he took of the helmet. Her stare still caused him some anxiety, but now the thought of her looking away was even worse, so he ignored his earlier promises of silence.
"Well, you did confide in me..." he said, pausing to pour himself some water from the pitcher.
"It'll stay just between the two of us," she said, voice like the gentle purr of a cat. "What are you working on anyways?" He paused for a bit, mulling over where to begin.
"You must know everything about the data gathering Ampere does on its customers, right?" She nodded, urging him on with her anticipative expression.
"So, you know how we categorize people into different classes based on that data, for example 'sporty' or 'pleasure-seeking' or 'stingy' and 'lavish' and then target them in customized ways in our marketing?"
"That's the gist of it, yes."
"What if I told you the system could be used for so much more than that?" he said, excitement about his vision rearing its head in his voice. He paused, waiting for her to ask for more.
"Like what?" she asked, wetting her lips with her tongue, just a few inches away from his face.
"With the data we've gathered from all their lives we could classify people into 'good' and 'bad' and treat them accordingly. Furthermore, the AI sees every life, knows everybody's strengths and weaknesses, and could lead them their whole lives, guaranteeing happiness for all."
Her brow arched. "I'm not sure I understand. It's some kind of self-improvement program?"
"No, that's not it, it's more like-" he opened and closed his mouth a few times, fumbling with words to express the magnificence of his dream for the world. Barry was the only person he had really talked to about their work, and he had been the same briefing as Lucas when they started so they had been the same page already. How could he put an ambition as groundbreaking as his into words someone without prior knowledge could grasp?
"Sounds cool, I guess," she said, looking away.
"I really can't describe it, but I could show you," he said quickly.
"Show me?" she turned back, fluttering her long eyelashes at him. "How?"
They didn't talk much on the way back to Lucas' home. When they got there, Lucas went straight to a closet in his living room and pulled out an unopened cardboard box containing a second VR helmet, meant for exploring virtual worlds with a partner. He plugged the long charger cable into a socket and yellow lights lit on the helmet.
"Still works", he let out a relieved breath. Amber was studying the framed photos as he turned to give her the helmet.
"This won't take long," he said as he turned on his own helmet.
"Take me for a ride," she flirted, donning the headgear. He chuckled nervously as he dived into the virtual world.
They were in a small, simple room with light blue walls furnished only with an armchair and a crib next to window. Above the crib hung a mobile. A man and a woman stood hunched over the crib, cooing softly and a baby's giggle could be heard in answer.
"Oh, he's so lovely," said the overjoyed woman to her husband. "I wish he could always be as happy and carefree as a baby."
"What's this?" Amber whispered to him. He turned to look at her avatar which had been built some time ago based on photos and scans of her face and body. Her face was the same, but she now wore her hair loose and was dressed in red cardigan and jeans. He had tweaked his own avatar, so it was slightly taller, more muscular and had better skin than he really had, but he hoped it wasn't noticeable.
"An explanation. Keep watching." Just then a ray of sunlight beamed from the window, basking the crib in light.
"No need to worry," said a voice coming from all directions. "I will take care of him."
"What the-." He hushed her with a finger placed in front of his avatar's lips, indicating with his other arm for her to keep watching. The setting changed, the same couple a bit older now sitting in their living room sofa. A boy, about twelve years old, ran in, holding a tablet computer in his hand.
"Mom, dad, look!" the boy yelled joyously, presenting the screen. "I'm going to be a CEO."
"That's great, son," said the man, ruffling the boy's hair. "Always knew you had it in you."
Amber's look of bewilderment made Lucas slow the presentation to a scrawl fill her in with the details he hadn't included in the virtual crash course yet.
"The AI will record and analyze people's lives and know them better they ever could. It will determine everything for them, from their dream job-" He made the demonstration move again, showing their protagonist—now a young adult—working in an internship in a robotics company.
"—to a perfect partner— " the young man now whirling a beautiful girl around a dance floor, with a banner reading "Prom night" hanging on the wall, surrounded by balloons.
"—to a place they're going to live in." They watched as the young man carried the woman up the stairs into their home, her belly now large with pregnancy. The world lurched as they zoomed out, coming to a stop on a hilltop overlooking the city. The sun, much larger than usual, basked the entire city in its warm light, the skyscrapers reflecting the incandescence. He turned to Amber's virtual representation.
"This is what Ampere has been working towards for years now. The same system, their AI, will run everything from a single life to a city to the entire country, possibly the world. Everyone will know their place in the world, there will be no uncertainly, no unfairness, no accidents. Everyone will live a best possible life under the infallible guidance of Amun-Ra's providence." He had been raising his voice without noticing, and what had begun as quiet explanation had turned into a triumphant mass. He lowered his arms which he must have raised at some point, not daring to look at her.
"What if she still doesn't get it? What if she thinks I'm a fool?"
"Oh Lucas," she said, and the surrounding seemed to fly to the sky around him as she pulled his helmet of to stare into his eyes for real. "It's beautiful."
Later, laying in his bed, Lucas couldn't remember much of the details of the conversation that had followed. He only knew he had told her everything, even showing her the video and audio logs of his interview with the AI. She had then told him she'd had a great time and hugged him for a long time before heading home in his car, which then autopiloted back to its parking spot.
"That went much better than I thought it would," he thought as he grinned on his bed.