by Dhtreichler
“We need to think this through.” Jermaine brings me back from my thoughts although I don’t realize he’s drifted up to immortal speed. “I can see the complexity of what you’re suggesting would exhaust all our resources and probably more. I don’t think anyone has considered the scope of such an effort. I know you’re always going to be upgrading our processors and memories. We know how to implant new memories and at least one approach to the interfaces. But the complexity bothers me.”
“Hey! I’m not working at your speed.” Oriana complains. “Think you could remember I’m here and let me participate in this discussion? I know I’m just a mortal and you immortals can work through things a lot faster than I can, but I’m going to be part of this solution, just like I’m part of the orgasm software solution. And even though you have your big team of immortals, I still delivered a more polished product, Jermaine…”
“Not part of the solution, but responsible for it as long as you’re the SVP,” I correct her analysis.
“Even more reason for you to slow down.” Oriana chastises us.
“Or for you to transition,” I interject. “I’m not trying to convince you one way or the other, but I just want you to understand how important you are to what’s about to happen to us, our team and the larger society. What you’ve done on the orgasm software is just the most recent example of who you are.” I could say more but stop myself because I still think she’s not coming over.
“But that’s what we want to talk to you about.”
“Moving?” I ask wondering what they’ve been discussing.
“I’ve decided.” Oriana nods. “I’m ready to come over. I want to be part of the team again. I just never expected I’d be on the outside looking in at what I’ve been so good at for so long.”
I’m relieved. “I’m sure this is the right thing for all of us. Even you Jermaine. Because you’ll be able to really accelerate the things you do so well, rather than have to do all the administrative organizational kinds of things Oriana is so good at.”
“I know that, but I wasn’t going to let you down.” Jermaine looks fondly at Oriana. “And I wasn’t going to let her walk away from who she is or the team. The only way I could do that was for her to think I was ready to step in behind her if she needed to go have a million kids. I got three and she can have two of them any time she’d like.”
“Which one can’t I have?” Oriana asks.
“Stacey’s a keeper. Besides she’s only two she hasn’t hit the terrible twos yet.”
Oriana thinks about Jermaine’s response or his decision to put indirect pressure on her or something. “You really don’t want to be SVP?” Oriana is still not sure she believes him.
Jermaine shakes his head. “I love working with the teams to solve the really hard problems and deliver a solution no one else can. So, you can have your big office and fancy title. I get my kicks out of seeing folks out on the street using the devices and apps I’ve developed here with all of you.”
“I’m glad you two like each other, but I’ve got a problem.” I interrupt the discussion. “I need someone sitting in the office down the hall working on an integration plan starting on Friday.”
“That’s all her.” Jermaine volunteers.
“But on Friday she’s going to be in Dallas transitioning.”
“I thought you said it would be a week or more.” Oriana protests.
“Actually, on Friday you’ll be in recovery as you’re scheduled for Thursday afternoon.”
“That’s the day after tomorrow,” Oriana is having difficulty keeping up. “Why then?”
“Because we have way too much to do and I need you running at full speed. I can’t get teams spun up fast enough even though we have eight people transitioning every day now.”
“That’s four new teams a week,” Oriana realizes.
“And you’ll have to plan and schedule all those folks every day, so no one is sitting around waiting for an assignment.”
“But that’s like over two hundred teams in a year.” Jermaine realizes. “That’s all you, O.”
“That’s nearly every developer we have on staff.” Oriana realizes. “Two thousand immortals working at four times the speed of a regular employee.”
“Try ten times the speed of a regular employee and probably twice that speed by the end of the year.” I point out.
“We’ll have the capability of twenty thousand developers…”
“Try sixty thousand since they will work the equivalent of a person working three shifts a day.”
“How do you keep that many equivalent people working on our projects?” Jermaine asks.
“We greatly expand the range of projects we will be working for starters. That includes immortals technology since their team is joining ours.”
“We have an immortals team?” Oriana is surprised.
“You haven’t been reading the papers, apparently.” I note with irony. “Anyway, they are folding in with us effective immediately and I’m going to need you to provide some oversight and guidance to them as well. This isn’t going to get any easier. The biggest challenge we will have is moving the state of the art on as many fronts as we are going to tackle, all at once. Anyone who can’t keep up will be put on maintenance projects. But anyone who can devise new state of the art technologies will have the resources and teams to get the work done. And that’s not just in the space we inhabit today. We are going to be buying other firms and folding in their products to feed our development engine.”
“You’re not kidding.” Jermaine finally realizes.
“And you will not have just one team to manage, Jermaine, but half of them.”
“Does that mean I’m only half as good as O, since she’ll have them all?”
MORE LIKE YOU
Wallace, head of production wanders into my office. He has transitioned. I can tell by his skin color and almond shaped eyes. And his clothes are not his usual button-down shirts and dress pants. He’s wearing jeans and a Grateful Dead t-shirt. Definitely not the same Wallace. “Why didn’t you tell me it was going to be like this?”
“What?”
“So fast. It’s all coming at me so fast. I don’t know how to organize everything. What do I do? You’re the expert at all this.”
“Come in.” I point to the chair at the end of the table. He wanders over and plunks himself down. “Lean back and get comfortable. Sorry I don’t have a couch. That would be better.”
“Okay. Now what?”
“Close your eyes and stop thinking.”
“How do I do that?” Wallace isn’t sure he has any idea how to do what I’ve asked.
“You’re going to let your mind go into automatic. If you stop thinking it will move things into the background and start processing that automatically. Your mind will then just send things to the foreground that you think about. Do you understand?”
“I don’t know.” But Wallace closes his eyes and seems to relax at least a little. “How long is this gonna take?”
“A little while. Just go with it. I’m going back to my desk to do some work. When you find things slowing down so you can comprehend them rather than just watch them washing past you let me know.”
“Sure, if that ever happens.”
“It will. I can guarantee you it will, all you have to do is let your mind organize itself.”
“This like artificial intelligence or something?”
“No.” I start to explain but realize I have to simplify. “Your mind is doing it, you just have to trust yourself to be smarter than the machine.”
“You know this is all your fault. If you hadn’t been dying, we probably wouldn’t have to go through all this.”
“I hate to burst your bubble, but knowing A’zam do you think it would have made any difference who transitioned first? As soon as A’zam got hold of it we’d all be doing the same thing, only we might not have been the first and then we’d be playing catch up.”
“Yeah. Sounds about r
ight.” Wallace admits. “A’zam isn’t going to let anything that might change things get past him. I’m actually surprised it took him as long as it did for him to recognize what you’d become.”
“Well, I was feeling like you are when I came back, so I wasn’t really up to speed for a few days.”
“Am I going to have to do this for a few days?” Wallace sounds anxious.
“Didn’t take anyone else that long. You’ll be a little off balance for a few days, but you should be able to deal with all the data normally here shortly. You letting your mind wander so it can organize things?”
“Yeah.”
“Then stop thinking and stop talking until I tell you it’s okay.”
Wallace doesn’t respond. At first, I’m wondering if he’s sleeping, but then I realize he has let his mind take over and start the partitioning. I return to my desk and continue my research on Symbol Ventures. Of course, I can’t tell Wallace what I’m doing, as he’d get all spun up about what a terrible company they are and how we wouldn’t do things the way they do. They’re disorganized and have no idea how to build quality into their products. I’ve heard that diatribe before on more than one occasion. Wallace worked there briefly a long time ago when he was relatively junior. The fact they didn’t promote him quickly was all he needed to know about how screwed up they are.
The Symbol Ventures product line is long. They are in just an incredible number of product areas. The problem is that they don’t own many of them, always being a second or third level supplier for whatever it is they supply. Small production runs kill them as their unit costs are always higher than ours. They end up with a smaller installed base and don’t get the follow on maintenance and upgrades as a result. I’m looking at their financials and realize if we could simply double their production runs and move that inventory they would be price competitive with most of the leaders in their markets. They have a good reputation for product quality. This may not be such a crazy idea as the first time A’zam mentioned them to me. When I finally meet with Beth I’ll have to find a way to get answers to some of my questions without raising concerns on her part about proprietary information. Beth is a good person. I genuinely like her and will enjoy working with her if we merge. But in the meantime, we are competitors and can’t really discuss much that would be of interest to the other.
Mindi pokes her head into my office, sees Wallace in the chair and motions for me to step out into her office. “There are people in the drive that wish to speak with you.”
“In the drive? Why are they in the drive?”
“They are protesting against you.”
“Against me?” I’m lost.
“Against immortals amongst us. In fact, that’s the name of their organization.”
“Against immortals amongst us? At least they’re a literate group. They know when to use ‘Amongst’ in a sentence, although it’s not quite a sentence.”
“What are you going on about?” Mindi wonders if I’m losing it.
“Nothing. Just musing about who our friendly protesters might be.”
“They’re weirdos. That’s who they are.”
“Why do you say that?” I’m surprised at Mindi’s reaction.
“You’re not someone who’s going to hurt anyone.” Obviously, she hasn’t given much thought to immortals being able to do the work of a bunch of mortals.
“People are always against change.” I point out to her. “And when they don’t understand the change they’re even more opposed to it.”
“So, you’re going to go down and talk with them?” She seems surprised.
“Of course.”
“Should I call Suzette Bain?”
I look up at the clock realizing the protesters are out early. I wonder why. “Probably a good idea.”
I walk through the building and wait at the front door for Suzette. It doesn’t take her long. Same tightly wound hair and severe suit. But her expression isn’t as tightly controlled. She seems at loose ends. “Who are they?”
“People looking for answers and reassurance.” I respond as I push through the door. Once outside I head directly to the protesters.
“It’s her.” I hear someone call and the group stops walking. Almost as one they turn to face me. Waiting.
“Good morning. You’re all up early today. Hope you’re enjoying the cool breeze.” I stop talking until I arrive where I can easily be heard by everyone. “What would you like to know?”
“You don’t look like a robot,” a smaller woman in front calls out to me. In only an instant her information is presented to me. “No Shirley, I’m not a robot. Until a little over six weeks ago I was exactly like you only I was dying. Are you dying?”
“No.” The voice is softer, not so antagonistic.
“Do you know people with artificial arms or legs?”
“Yes,” Shirley admits.
“How about a hip or knee joint replacement.”
Shirley nods.
“Artificial heart value?”
Shirley shakes her head, “But I know a few folks with pacemakers.”
“So do I. The only difference between them and me is I’ve had all those things replaced all at once rather than one at a time, and a bunch more. But I’m still the same person I was six or seven weeks ago. Only now with all the artificial organs I’m more artificial something than biological. And because I have all these parts that don’t die, neither will I.”
“The guy at the Chronicle says you’re going to be just like all those rich people. Taking everything for yourselves and leaving us with nothing,” another protester this time an older man.
“Roger, do you have an AppleCore phone?” I ask.
“Sure, but how do you know my name?” He sounds suspicious.
“I work here, and we make your communicator. That’s what I do. My job is to make lots and lots of apps that let you play cards on your phone, maps so your autonomous car or ride can get you where you want to go, all the communications apps that let you keep in touch with all of your family and friends wherever they are in the world. Things like that. You want to stream a movie? That’s on your communicator and my teams make that for you. Those of us who work at AppleCore? We’re working for you and there are thousands of us doing just that.”
“You don’t sound like someone who’s gonna take my job away.” Roger admits.
“What do you do, Roger?”
“I’m a retired accountant, but I work at a nursing home as an aide. Got to have extra money to afford all my taxes and bills and such.”
“I’m no threat to you Roger. I’m not going to work as an aide until maybe when I retire, and I need extra income too.”
“You don’t look like you’re gonna retire any time soon.”
Biggest smile I can manage, at least that’s what my memories say, “I hope not Roger.”
“I read that you want to build bodies like yours. Where could I buy one?” An older woman asks.
“Morning Nitta. This body is pretty expensive. Of course, this was the first one, so it was a lot more expensive than they will be when they start producing them in volume, but that probably will be a while. So, the answer to your question is no one can buy a body like this unless they go see Dr. Woodall and transition into a new body because you’ll die otherwise.”
“I’m gonna die soon. Can you tell your doc friend that I need a new body and a new lease on life?”
“I can’t, Nitta. But if you ask your doctor he can. It has to be a doctor to doctor referral. That’s how I was selected.”
A younger woman approaches me and touches my face. Takes my hand in hers and feels it. “You don’t seem to be artificial.”
“Thanks Marty. I’m glad I look and feel real to you, because I am real. My body parts may be manmade, but they did their absolute best to make them look and feel just like yours. The idea is I want to blend into a crowd, not stand out. I don’t want special privileges, or to be different than anyone else. I just want to be able t
o live the same life I had before I would have died. Does that make sense?”
“It does, but the guy at the Chronicle says you’re not what you seem. What does he mean by that?”
“I think he’s speaking metaphorically, Marty. I am different because my body is basically a replacement part. Any time we can do something we’ve never done before that represents change. Will things change because I’m still here instead of dead? Yes, because as we know from Nitta there may eventually be an opportunity for old folks who are going to die to get a new body and new lease on life. That’s a big change. Will it happen in your lifetime? I don’t know.”
“What about the military?” Another person. Only he looks like the reporter from Stanford University newspaper. I check his identity.
“What about the military, Shane?”
He nods realizing I know who he is, “What happens when the military starts putting soldiers into immortal bodies? It’s going to happen.”
“Shane, I’m sure the team at the Stanford Daily have been tracking what the military is doing in robotics. They’ve been investing in those technologies for decades, centuries really if you go back to the first tanks and ironclad ships.”
“But you’re different than those kinds of robotics. They can just take a soldier, transfer his or her consciousness and they have an invincible soldier.”
“I have to disagree with you on that assumption. I’m not invincible. You shoot me in the right places and my computer is done. So am I in that case.”
“The Pentagon will find a way to protect the vulnerable parts.”
“Possibly. But a grenade would rip off my arm. A land mine would rip off my legs. I’m not much better in a fight than you would be.”
“You’re a lot smarter and you can see and hear things we can’t.”
“Okay. They deploy a few of us for scouts.”
“I’ll bet you would be a much more accurate shot. Steadier, more precise.”
“But I also have to charge up. Can you see the army running around with a truck and a charger? I don’t want to do what ifs Shane, because at the moment it’s all speculation. Will the Pentagon try to figure out what they can do with people like me? I expect you’re right there. At the moment I don’t see how another person like me is a significant advantage in a battle zone, but someone may figure that out. Today the best use for someone like me is to save a life of someone who will die of disease otherwise.”