by Novo Dé
The newer units can even change color to contrast the colors of the weather, the skies, or the time of day, specifically, so any variety of aircrafts can see, in hopes to avoid a collision. The older units maintain their blinking lights. Most of the drones are linked to a planes trajectory data though, through infrared radar, so this almost never happens. But if something changes, especially last minute, it can.
No system is perfect.
And people thought we’d be up there by now.
But we’re not.
Every young generation is convinced that their golden years will be in this vast futuristic landscape. We’re conditioned by our favorite media outlets – books, movies, you name it – to think that our future will be something wildly different, something special. It changes indeed and ends up different, definitely, but not in the way we think it should.
My best friend growing up was convinced we would have colonized other planets by now. At the very least the moon. Fuck, I even thought we would have flying cars by now or some shit like that. But I was wrong; we were all wrong.
Besides planes, the drones mostly take over the skies now. While on the ground, transportation is more or less the same. The aesthetics have changed, and the technology within of course, but it’s still the same. Cars just went from looking like boxes to looking like spheres.
Now there are some flying units out there, compact flying cars, owned by the millionaires and billionaires of the world, but for the rest of us, we just use the same old thing.
And for now, I’m satisfied. I mean all we do these days is request rides anyways. When the self-driving units took over, that was it, no need for a car anymore. I don’t even remember the last time I drove a car in fact.
Now a real change…that came from the robotic industry.
When I was young, people owned pets. Real ones. Cats. Dogs.
Now all they have is metal and wire. Fuck, some even look like cats and dogs. And they’ll do anything you want, within reason of course, and within the scope of REMA, the Robotic Ethical and Moral Act. You can find it in your handbook.
Most are programmed to practically act like a personal servant, while others are just there for company. And with the wireless connection to CHARLIE, just tell “Fido” what you want, and watch it play “fetch.” And people used to own pets. Real ones.
But the greatest change…is just in people. I call it the great disconnect. But that’s a misnomer. People are “connected” now more than ever. And I do mean that with quotes.
Growing up, it used to be that people were slaves to their phone. And just their phone. Addicted. Everyone thought that they were getting closer to their families, friends, but they just isolated themselves more and more.
And nowadays we see the same thing with the NCLs, but this observable cultural behavior is just…unnerving.
Remember my wife.
Imagine walking through a crowded street and seeing one person after another, just randomly stopping with an update. And that face, that lifeless face. I don’t think I’ll ever get use to that. And once the update is complete, thirty seconds to a minute later, they just move on like nothing happened. Walking past these people, I cringe. But this has become normal too. Most people are used to it these days. But not me.
It used to be that people just starred at their phones. Now they stare into nothing. Oblivion.
When they’re not updating, their overall demeanor seems equally strange. Crowded isolationists talking to themselves. Well, it just looks that way. Someone or something is on the other end of that NCL.
And the eye gestures. They’re subtle, but you’ll see the ticks, the blinks, rapid eye movement, if you look close enough, pay attention. They’re navigating the applications. It’s REM sleep while awake – Digital tourettes.
‘People watching’ took on a whole new meaning. I feel it every time I walk through a crowded place, especially today. The business district is particularly crowded this Friday. Figures. That definitely hasn’t changed. People still feel obligated to buy more shit they don’t need on the weekends.
Needless to say, I quickly get my fill, so I head home.
CHARLIE recognizes my fingerprint data within milliseconds of me touching the door handle. He disarms the security system as I’m turning the knob, and everything’s back to normal as I enter the house. There so much at play within that moment that it just looks like the ‘ole everyday action of opening a door.
“Greetings Mr. Nielson, how was your—”
“You know how it was,” I say through a sarcastic laugh.
He doesn’t acknowledge the response; he just goes on with his usual check-list.
“Mr. Nielson, you have mail in your inbox. Would you like me to read it to you now or would you like to read it later, privately?”
“Well who’s it from?”
“Looks like an administrator of sorts, ah yes, here we are, it’s actually the principal from your last teaching position.”
“No no, I don’t want, I know what that’s about. You can just delete it.”
“Of course sir.”
“And stop with the ‘sir’ shit. We’ve gone through this. Just talk to me like a normal human being.”
But CHARLIE isn’t human. He’s our house’s A.I.4 unit.
Marketed as a ‘Computer-generated Home-bound Artificial Resident for a Lifetime of Intellectual Equity’, or ‘CHARLIE,’ he’s essentially our butler.
Well ‘he’ isn’t really a ‘he’ at all. The unit can be male or female. It’s entirely up to the user, each unit being completely customizable. And it learns with time, adapting to your needs as your needs change, learning and adapting to you. It was the first product offered to the public in commercial ‘Quantum Computing.’ And CHARLIE does everything we could have ever asked for in someone like a butler.
He cooks with the CHEF unit, cleans, via wireless connections with cleaning supplies and equipment, manages our day-to-day schedules, our finances, security, everything. He can even change the interior or exterior of the house, the decoration, through additional wireless tool-focused robotics that are connected to CHARLIE’s programming template. Sold separately of course. And then you just have to input a picture for the ‘look’ you want or explain a clear description when talking with CHARLIE, and then provide the raw materials and presto! You have a brand new balcony or gazebo or whatever the fuck you wanted.
Originally, CHARLIE was supposed to have a physical form, an appearance, much like a human.
It was supposed to be the first of its kind – a real android.
But as much as people loved the idea, in practice, it just didn’t work. That is, because, for starters, the technology behind the aesthetics were still in their infancy. With each subsequent model, each of the units never looked human enough.
It was the valley of the uncanny.
For years too, countries all over the world had a market for human looking dolls, mostly for lonely men to fuck, but when companies started having these dolls walk and talk through the A.I., it just never seemed right. Never human. Models were quickly rejected in the beginning; the units were just fuckin’ creepy, even repulsive to some.
But, at the same time, these companies knew they were on to something, something great, and knew there were profits to be made, they just had to get it right, make it comfortable, make it sell. So they went with the faceless, bodiless approach that everyone has seen in the movies time and time again and it stuck. Research showed that people just needed something to hold onto, to connect to, so they gave it personality through the vocal aesthetics. And that was it.
It later evolved to how we know it today. I mean at this point CHARLIE is our house. Nanomachines are strategically placed throughout the house with built-in audio and visual hardware, with accompanying software of course, that are connected to the central A.I. mainframe and act together in real time. That’s how he can hear us and see us at any given time, and create digital screens or anything of the like at any gi
ven place in the house, but make it seem seamless. The Nanomachines are also sensitive to touch, understanding tactile input, like when I disabled the security system by simply walking in through the front door. It knows my fingerprints. And my wife’s. And knows to reject others that don’t have clearance to enter.
What I never thought, was that I’d have a relationship with CHARLIE. Especially to what it has evolved to today.
“Did Juliet say when she’ll be home tonight?” I say.
“She didn’t. But reading her DRI feed, she has already had spikes in her blood pressure and heart rate within the first hour of checking in to work, as well as irregularities with her physiological systems, including hormonal and neurotransmitter fluctuations, which will ultimately lead to anxiety, stress. Reasons may include, but are not limited to, problematic interactions with her boss, problematic interactions with her patients, a heavy caseloa—”
“yeah yeah yeah. I don’t need to know all that shit. Just tell me—”
“She’ll most definitely be home late. The probability is 92.3%. Should I send a drone with—”
“No no no,” I laugh. “She’ll notify you if she needs anything. Just, just leave her be.”
I grow silent. ‘Just leave her be.’ I feel like I’ve had that attitude toward Juliet for a long time now.
“What’s wrong Tybalt?” CHARLIE says, breaking me from the deep. “My facial recognition application indicates that you may be…sad about something. Do you need—”
“I don’t need any fuckin’ meds CHARLIE. I just need, I just need ah, to. It’s. It’s nothin.”
“What’s goin’ on? What’s on your mind Tybalt?”
“It’s just…It’s Juliet.”
Though he already knows, he still feels a need to ask, fading away from his usual linguistics, to make me feel more comfortable. Helps me open up. He transitions to this quicker every time we talk. He’s learning. And it works. Eventually, he’ll know exactly how to talk to me, and how…I’ll need him to.
“On second thought, maybe I could use some advice. Or maybe just. I dunno. Maybe it’s nothing.”
“Well try me.”
“It’s just that, Jules has been really distant lately; now she’s been distant before, especially when she found out, about, you know, but this time, is just, I dunno, different. It’s never been like this.
And I know it’s a miracle she even decided to stay with me, so I shouldn’t even really be complainin.’ It’s just. I mean, we do talk, and…but, she’s never really there there, y’know. She’s never really present. It’s like I’m talkin’ to a fuckin,’ I dunno. Ghost. It’s hard to explain.”
“I understand.”
“Yeah, it’s just, I get it, I get why she’s mad, or doesn’t wanna be there, I dunno, but I kinda need her to. She’s my wife. She’s supposed to be…” I grow silent for a moment. “Sometimes CHARLIE, sometimes I just feel like callin’ it quits. Do her a favor. Fuck, do us both a favor. Sometimes I think, I just need to get it over with, and file for—”
“Marriage is hard. It’s work Tybalt,” CHARLIE interjects. “Every one of ‘em. And if it wasn’t this, it would be somethin’ else.”
“Yeah, but you’re just a fuckin’ machine that talks, what do you really know?”
“I know the numbers. I’ve read the research. And the couples that stay together, not only acknowledge that marriage is work, but evolve within the changes therein. So why don’t we just start simple: do you think you still love her?”
I laugh through my nose before I answer. Another cliché.
“Sometimes I don’t know anymore. I mean, I think so. But it’s been proven that love is just another evolutionary adaptation. You know better than anyone that it isn’t real, at least not how we perceive it.”
“Superficially sure, of course you can consciously understand the construct of the emotion in such a regard, especially with the data, but one, there is still so much we don’t know, or understand about the emotion, from a scientific perspective, and two, that doesn’t negate how you subconsciously feel.
You can say all you want, but there’s no denying the attractive forces you humans have with one another. That data is still inconclusive. What should matter is what you feel.”
“It’s hard to have a conversation with you about how someone should feel. How could you ever really relate? And I don’t think it’s that simple. How I feel is tied to so many things. I dunno. I mean, sometimes I think I only got married because my parents got married and their parents got married, and so on. I can’t imagine the first humans getting married and mating for life. All they knew was eat, drink, fuck. Just survive. Just keep the species going. That’s why cheating and polygamy kinda makes sense to me sometimes. Fuck, I mean, doesn’t that explain the divorce rates nowadays or the now small percentage of people that still get married. We’re just animals after all. Maybe we were never supposed to find someone for life.”
“Yes, you are right. Humans are animals. But if you want to analyze species-specific behavior, within the constructs of what you would consider primitive, genetic-driven tendencies, the available literature on the topic indicates that there are indeed other species that are monogamous and mate for life, but are simply rare in what you would consider nature. Thus, therein lies some superficial evidence that this is not unique to human beings, just rare.
Now it’s the more complex evidence that really begins to, paint a picture – unfortunately your mind may not be able to understand these more complex rationales. The human perceptual processes are rather limited. You may only be able to understand so much.”
“Well try me,” I say back without a thought.
“Well, on one hand, you have adjacent, more focused macro-based research that finally suggests what you would consider, maybe, obvious to support monogamy.
First, ponder on the concept of child rearing, which is the fundamental argument for objectifying love as an evolutionary adaptation, as you already may know. Child rearing among humans is longer than any other species that we are aware of, which inevitably created a neurological construct that became a driving mechanism, arguably the aforementioned love concept, that has undoubtedly evolved and shaped human mating rituals, helping to shift the focus to monogamy.
And then there is female reproduction in it of itself, which is long and arduous, inevitably resulting in women looking to find long-term suitable mates. Thus, from that position and the many like it, and equally so, the perceptual qualities, it makes sense why you may have been conditioned to be monogamous – it’s biological.
But these examples and the available others make it seem so…simple.
Unfortunately, this is not so, especially in regards to the latter for instance, as other budding, conflicting data now suggests that human women are much more promiscuous than what was once previously perceived.
So to truly understand it, even on a superficial level, you have to understand that there are non-biological constructs at play as well, which brings me to ‘bridge’ to one of your previous biological points – Evolution.”
“Go on,” I say.
“Human evolution is now understood as a multifaceted phenomenon, which greatly contrasts your ape-like ancestors. Most humans these days no longer have to struggle for basic needs: food, water, shelter.
Sure, they will continue to evolve through natural selection, and other scientific means, be it through biology, genetics, chemistry, etc, but in a different magnitude. Current evolutionary processes are now governed by a variety of other entities as well: social, economic, socioeconomic, financial, political, and yes, even culture, like your parents and your parent’s parents—”
“CHARLIE! Jesus! How deep we goin’ man? Because you’re losin’ me; I’m not following any of this—”
“Please bear with me. I know it all may sound complicated, but I promise, I’ll bring it round circle. It’ll all be clear in the end.”
And I sigh.
“You promise?”
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“I promise,” CHARLIE says with confidence.
Pausing, I find myself at a crossroads.
“Alright. Fine,” I finally say, sighing. “Go on.”
“Well you have to understand that it’s the biological and the non-biological worlds, together, and the interactions within, that has become the true evolutionary mechanism behind the ‘Modern Man,’ ultimately shaping your every thought, behavior, and action, and why some people find it very hard to mate for life, and why for someone like you, it’s the only way. In other words, for you, you were also raised to be monogamous as well.
This conclusionary point is where the complexity of the constructs really starts to set in—”
“Oh great,’ I sarcastically quip, but he moves on without hesitation.
“The true dilemma is in the constructs Tybalt...in the understanding, analyzing, interpreting, and then preemptively mapping the driving forces governing the subconscious and conscious frameworks within the two worlds, the biological and non, and where one system ends and the other begins.
Genetics and culture is a perfect example of this, which I think parallels your point. The greedy gene wants you to reproduce, while culture, usually within the construct of man-made practices such as religion, teaches you that monogamy is the only acceptable practice for intimate relationships.
The former usually leads people to have many sexual partners, now causing people to be polygamous, or more appropriately, polyamorous, while the latter leads people to identify with mating for life, and only mating for life.
Of course this is juxtaposed by the biological constructs at play that are pushing for monogamy just as well. Or equally, cultural constructs that may push away from monogamy.
The most important point however is to understand that these frameworks are constantly at odds with one another in the mind, communicating in a variety of different ways through synaptic connections, resulting in an astronomical number of different possible outcomes, different ideas, different behaviors, different actions, collectively creating the concept of individuality, choice, and self.