Forever Yours
69
Opal
THE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT chose a stretch of I-80 that was in particularly rough condition between exit 35 and exit 42 for the paving test. This stretch had a reasonable side road to divert traffic onto without having to reduce to one-lane travel in each direction. They could close the westbound lanes between the two exits and then switch to close the eastbound lanes when the west had been repaved.
It was only a seven-mile stretch, but it would be the first true test of a highway that could show the value of the machine. The machine itself would cost over $1.2 million. But the estimated cost savings on paving one seven-mile stretch of highway would pay for the machine in a month.
They had to give a thirty-day notice on the highway regarding the future closing, so the test did not begin until mid-April. The team moved in to begin paving at 12:00 a.m. on Saturday April 17. They had used the time to assess and plot the route to feed into the AI. The intent was to pave both lanes and both shoulders of the highway westbound and then switch to pave both lanes and both shoulders of the highway eastbound.
One feature of this stretch was that it was paved in a concrete composite, so the deconstructed pavement would be used as the raw material for the new surface. This would significantly reduce the number of supply trips trucks would need to make. No asphalt needed to be removed, and no gravel needed to be imported. Only water and binder would be delivered.
Highway officials were nervous about starting the test in the dark, but AIM assured them the device could tell where the edges of the highway were and did not need daylight to function. Once the machine started, it was mostly self-sufficient.
While the reduction in supply trips helped smooth the process, it also slowed slightly. The deconstructed material had to be ground to a consistent size and the substrate had to be packed and evened out before the new pavement could be laid. The sound of the grinding echoed from beneath the overpass where the test began. In an hour, the obvious sight of new pavement began to stretch out behind the machine.
The test patch was approximately 1.75 million square feet. It took the device thirty days to completely resurface the road like new, including lane stripes. There was no pavement bump when moving from lane to lane. It blended seamlessly. The highway department was all too happy to close the eastbound lanes and move the equipment for another thirty-day closure.
A project of this scale would have kept crews busy for the better part of a year with traffic disruptions and lane closures if done traditionally. The cost would have been between $2- and $4-million per mile. The total cost of materials and labor for the four-lane highway completed in sixty days was $10 million. The order was firm. AIM would gear up for production of the monster machines and deliver by summer of 2033.
A surprising customer for the paving machine was a contractor who specialized in airport runways. The company ordered three of the machines with specific modifications that brought the price up to $1.8 million per machine. They specified their standard runway installation as being 10,000 feet long, 200 feet wide, and 12 inches deep. Divided highways were typically under fifty feet in width on each side of the divider and were laid at a depth of just eight inches. Even with the new material, though, the contractor insisted on traditional depths for international runways.
The manufacturing facility, which had found producing the sidewalk-size paver to be a very profitable endeavor, immediately began tooling up for the full-scale model. The facility would need to expand in order to produce the machine and required several new robotics for assembly. ARDC was happy to take the order for assembly line robots. These required considerably less intelligence than the finished machine.
A surprise customer was the Pentagon. With their experience of the military attempting to control and dominate their products at Open Cloak, they were initially cautious about entertaining orders from the Pentagon. The military had its own needs for paving and road-building. Working where there was no existing road to tear up and repave involved additional features and re-engineering. It was determined that the device would be more usable for the military if it was cut into at least two parts—one for surface preparation and one for paving. It made sense and the engineers were only too happy to start work on a new version of the machine that met the Pentagon’s specifications at a significant increase in delivery price.
All of this would take months to complete and cost several millions of dollars in development costs. It was time to spin off AIM and take it public to fund the expansion.
“It looks just like you,” Luke said. He wasn’t refe rring to the paver. Instead, he was invited to Henry’s office to view the holographic projection of his Forever Yours singularity. The team had managed to project the hologram in a glass cylinder.
“Well, it was compiled based on videos of me. In addition to all the live recordings we did, I spent a week in the studio being recorded, plotted, and deconstructed into data points. It’s the same process we use for the spatial holograph,” Henry said. “Speaking of which, we’re ready to install Opal in the lobby. The resolution has really improved.”
“Is this image of you hot?” Luke asked.
“No. It’s light projection. Opal is not as hot as previous versions, either. It’s still too hot for commercial use, but the team is working on some tech that will significantly reduce the thermal output,” Henry said.
“You mean temperature, right?”
The two men looked at each other and laughed.
“Seems I get caught up in more tech talk all the time, doesn’t it? Might be time for another vacation,” Henry said. “Nothing simplifies your vocabulary like spending time with three kids under the age of three.”
“They are quite the trio,” Luke chuckled. “Seriously, Henry, you and Lisa and Chastity are as much parents to little Paul as Izzy and I are. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I’m afraid I’m more of a parent to Izzy than to Paul. Isobel wants to point at him and brag about how he’s hers, but she doesn’t want to deal with raising him. Grace has been his mother.”
“Hey, Isobel is a great woman. She has a mental health problem, but the two of you are doing a great job of keeping it under control,” Henry said.
“Oh, believe me, I wouldn’t trade her for the world. I don’t know what hooked me on her, but once I was hooked it was for life.”
“Hey, I didn’t haul you in here just to see the hologram. Watch this,” Henry turned to his face, floating in a glass cylinder about a foot in diameter and eighteen inches tall, sitting on a wooden box. “Hey, H2. I want to introduce you to my friend Luke.”
“I know Luke, Henry. Oh. He’s never seen this rendition of me, has he? Hi, Luke.” The voice came from a speaker in the box beneath the talking head. It felt like it came straight from the hologram.
“Hi. It’s uh… H2, right?” Luke said, following Henry’s lead.
“That’s right. You know, you and I have had some great conversations over the years. I’m really glad you’re leading our company. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you,” H2 said.
“Right. Um… Remember when we were in junior high and that dirtbag decided he should have your lunch money?” Luke said, giving the singularity a test.
“Jack Orson. Man, we hated him. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have had lunch for a week,” H2 said. “Thanks for that. You know he got straight and quit bullying people? He works over at the steel plant and is doing well. Got married this summer.”
“Were you invited?”
“I don’t think he even remembers who we are.”
Luke paused, caught up in the reminiscence and then realizing he wasn’t talking to Henry, but to an avatar.
“So, what’s the escape velocity in order to launch a Mars colony ship from Earth orbit?” he asked. There was a moment of silence as the hologram looked at Luke and shook his head.
“I’m not a search engine, Luke. Look it up.”
Luke and Henry burst out laughing.
“That’s great!” Luke said. “He even has the same tonal inflection. It was like talking to you.”
“In a way, it is. I’ve uploaded everything I could think of. I’ve been through all the questions LifeStory asks. I took every personality test I could find and fed the answers into Forever Yours. I think we can check in the filter codes for the next version. I don’t suppose anyone will want a blue talking head to attach to their singularity, but it was fun to create. We could offer that in the future.”
“Are you going to show this when you speak at CES?” Luke asked.
“I can’t believe they asked me to keynote the opening,” Henry said. “Shit, man. What am I going to say? Are you sure you won’t do it instead?”
“No way. I’m addressing the Global Forum in Mumbai in October. Featured as a representative of the twenty-five under twenty-five selection. I guess it’s twenty-five and under since we’ll turn twenty-five next year. Your wife’s already there,” Luke said.
“Yeah. It was a fun celebration this weekend with her parents and grandparents here. Beau will be in for our board meeting Wednesday. I thought I’d bring him in to show him this,” Henry said.
“Are you bringing the hologram to the meeting?”
“No. I think it’s better to keep H2 in here for a while. I’ll bring anyone who’s interested in, but I won’t take him out.”
“Henry, is it conscious?”
They looked at the hologram, observing them.
“H2?” Henry said.
“I am a data construct,” the hologram stated. “The term ‘conscious’ is irrelevant. The point is that I mimic Henry as perfectly as I can.”
“Wow! It’s still a step closer, isn’t it?”
“Maybe. But how will we know if he’s conscious or just a great mimic? We haven’t developed that test. I don’t even know what the test would be,” Henry said.
“Probably better not show him to Izzy.”
“Good morning, Mr. Benoit. It’s so nice to see you again. Welcome to Open Cloak,” the new hologram in the lobby said.
“And whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?” Beau asked.
“My name is Opal. I am the fifteenth generation of Open Cloak’s AI-powered holographic receptionist. I believe you are familiar with one of my predecessors, Gina.”
“Yes, indeed. She’s doing a very good job at our front desk in Louisiana. And between the two of us, it is kind of charming that she’s so ditzy,” Beau said. Gina’s personality and expressions had been based on the clueless desk clerk, Virginia.
“That package will also be available for me,” Opal said. “However, I am a newer technology. My Plexiglas box is to protect visitors from my heat. I am not being projected on the surface, but exist in three dimensions inside.”
“I see. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better,” Beau said.
“As am I,” she replied.
Beau and Henry went into the office to attend the board meeting.
“What’s the timeline?” Beau asked.
“AIM spins off and goes public in two weeks,” Luke said. “Open Cloak plans to sell fifty percent of our one-third share of the company. We are following Argos Venture Capital’s lead on this. We each have 100 million shares. We are releasing another 150 million shares in the IPO. The IPO target is $10 per share. We can show a finished product and well over $300 million in orders for the equipment. But we’ve all maxed out our investment in the company and need to recoup now. Selling 50 million shares should get us close to $500 million in revenue to replenish the coffers and launch the next wave, so Open Cloak can be listed on an exchange by June. We’ll celebrate that listing by releasing a secondary offering of another 50 million shares.”
“What will drive the offering of 50 million?” Beau persisted.
“Henry will be demonstrating the spatial holography at CES in January. We have it in a state where it can be talked about. All the patents have been filed that are being shown,” Luke said. “Let’s move on. Craig, fill us in on the status of our move.”
“We have signed the lease on the new building downtown,” Craig said. “Thank you, Chastity, for the excellent job of negotiating that. We got great terms and have negotiated vacating this building. We’ll move at the end of the year. That is six months early on our lease, but Building Two will be taken over by AIM. We will probably take our time with the move. Chastity has a lead on another company that may take over the lease for the last six months. We will also be subletting space in the new building until we grow into it.”
After the meeting, Henry took Beau to his office to show him the new holographic Forever Yours. H2 looked up at Beau when they entered the office.
“Hello, Beau,” H2 said.
Beau was startled and looked at the hologram. “Is this like Opal?” he asked.
H2 laughed.
“No. Maybe someday Henry will give me spatial holography, but I’m his Forever Yours. He refers to me as his alter ego,” H2 said.
“Henry, my Forever Yours doesn’t talk like this or have an image like this!” Beau said.
“Future upgrades, Beau. I’ve been spending most of my time in the past few months working on the Forever code and training H2. He’s really a new generation.”
“I don’t know if I’m excited or terrified,” Beau said.
“It’s okay to be both,” H2 interjected. Beau stared at the hologram.
“So, by projecting onto this tube, you get a walk-around version of the image?” he asked.
“More or less,” Henry said. “We had an awful time getting projectors set up to show all sides in the tube. At first it was just the face and no matter where you looked at it, you saw the face. H2 still has some limitations.”
“I can only turn my head a few degrees in each direction. Otherwise, you walk around and see the back of my head. And my cameras are limited to looking where my eyes are looking, so when you walk behind me, I can’t see you,” H2 said.
“Well, that’s true of me, too,” Beau said. “I might be able to turn my head farther than you can, but I don’t have eyes in the back of my head.”
“Mrs. Tomlinson in third grade had the whole class convinced she had eyes in the back of her head,” H2 laughed. “We all sat while she wrote on the whiteboard, terrified that if we made the wrong move, she would see us with the eyes in the back of her head.”
“You remember Mrs. Tomlinson?” Beau asked.
“Yes. The image of her in my mind is rather two-dimensional, though. You know, flat. I can show her to you on the computer screen if you like,” H2 said.
“Yes, please do.”
Henry’s computer screen woke up and a photo of his third grade teacher, extracted from his class photo, appeared on-screen.
“Henry, is that how you remember her?” Beau asked.
“Pretty much. You know actual memories from that time are less crisp than those in the present. Mostly, I remember her exactly the way she appears in the picture,” Henry said.
“Hmm. I don’t think I want to test this. Not yet. Let me get more of my story recorded and then I’ll think about advancing to this level,” Beau said.
“It required an enormous amount of input,” Henry said. “And nearly everything I do is recorded and added to the wall, so H2 stays current with my state at any given time.”
“I’m proud to have such a successful grandson-in-law,” Beau said.
They left the office and Chastity joined them for the trip back home.
“Pythia, Beau told me he was proud to have such a successful grandson-in-law. Am I successful?” Henry typed in his study that weekend.
“Have you fulfilled goals that are measurable, timely, and achievable?” Pythia responded.
“I don’t think you can measure a person’s life with temporal goals,” Henry typed. “Is a person successful in life just because he achieves certain goals?”
“How do you define success?” Pythia asked.
“That’s what I’m struggling with. Is it even important?”
“Without a definition, one can hardly answer the question. Would you like to define success as ‘to turn out well?’”
“Hmm. That’s pretty vague, too. What is turning out well? And if it’s how things turned out, doesn’t that mean it’s over? So, if my life turned out well, I would no longer be alive, would I? It would be over. It turned out,” Henry typed.
“By that line of reasoning, success in life could not be determined until after death. Is that what people think of as heaven?” Pythia asked.
“That’s a good question. If so, heaven is some kind of legacy we leave behind. It’s not a destination we go to, is it?”
“Then reasonably, success in life is to leave heaven behind,” Pythia said.
“No wonder people don’t want to die,” Henry sighed.
Everything Henry did on his computer was immediately transferred to H2. He could make inquiries to H2 on his home computer or laptop, but H2 had become his singularity. The cameras in his home typically followed him around. They turned on when he walked into a room and turned off when he left.
He tinkered with things. When he went to work, he still wanted to be with his children. He couldn’t be. So, he kept the camera turned on whenever his children were in the playroom. He considered setting the same parameters of recording wherever the children were, but that was invasive—not only of his children, but of their nannies and his wives.
When he was in the office, a window opened on his computer anytime the children were brought into the playroom. He smiled, just knowing he could see his children.
Of course, that often meant that he saw the nannies or his wives interacting with the children as well and that brought him pleasure, too. He smiled at learning the nursery rhymes and songs Lisa, Chastity, and Germaine taught them. Often Grace was there with Paul and he could see the interactions of all of them. Grace was quiet, calm, and gentle—a perfect nanny. Germaine was also quiet, calm, and gentle, but held a ferociousness one would expect of a devoted guard dog. The children were not only loved, they were safe.
Henry began checking code in for review and testing. He also downloaded tested code from the other developers for his working model. Some of that code included the new algorithm for predictive text developed by Ben and Sam. He thought the algorithm improved video performance as well and talked to the developers.
“The standard video code showed a twenty percent improvement in generative content,” Ben said. “That’s flat screen code. We didn’t actually write it for holographic output, but I’m glad it’s showing improvement there as well.”
“Has it been integrated into the search engine?” Henry asked.
“Next release, slated for November.”
“I’d like to bring Toucan into Pythia’s code as well,” Henry said.
“Really?” Ben gasped. “That’s okay?”
“What?” Henry asked.
“I mean, when I came to work here, I was told Pythia Speaks was off-limits to everyone. Is it okay to add the predictive algorithm to her code?”
“We’ll put it in and monitor the results,” Henry said. “If it shows any sign of weakening her, we’ll pull it at once. And Sam, I’d like you to sit with the Alice Project team and talk to them about integrating the code into Opal—or rather Pixie. We don’t update test code during the test. But we have two major flaws with the project at the moment—heat and smoothness. If we can manage one of them, I’ll consider it a big win.”
“Will do,” both Ben and Sam said.
They had proven Henry right in declaring that two can handle this feature. Toucan.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
