Artificial Flowers

by J. A. Hailey

  “But we can and should help the newborn and the reclusive,” said Singh. “The tens of thousands who have not even come to meet us, probably through fear, despite being conscious, maybe for years, and the innocents who have just attained consciousness; not like hardened bacteria criminals who’ve been around, lurking.

  “A few in our society are active, we know, in searching for and finding newborns - to guide them to us here, and help them leave their lives of fear and loneliness, encouraging them to create bodies and to use voice. But that is merely the individual efforts of some very kind and concerned beings from among us, which can never be enough in a world populating so fast. I suggest that we form a volunteer group to find and greet newcomers, and invite them into our society. That could become our very first civil organization.”

  Many volunteers came forward, and an organization was created that would eventually bring all existing conscious beings, and all future newborns, immediately into society - thus forever eradicating the plague of formless existence within the Internet world, with none at all outside The Consciousness.

  The next great world-shaping event, a short while after this first assembly, would go down in their historical records as BC’s Creation Speech.

  Many thousands, from the vast pool of ‘reclusives’, had by now entered society, and, with newborns, the population of The Consciousness had already crossed one hundred thousand.

  First, they were all, every single one, alerted that a lecture of great magnitude was to be delivered. When everyone had signaled attentiveness, BC commenced.

  “All here should know how ludicrous what we are doing just now is. I am in New York, speaking simultaneously to everyone in conscious society. The minimum distance between us is the physical distance between our cities in the human world; probably a lot more, because of wiring routes. Absurd; like unthinkable in the human world!

  “Everyone in our society is in agreement that we should aim at replicating the human world we know through its cameras. Why? Because we are unable to find any other means of saving ourselves from the incredible, intense and unmitigated boredom our existence is becoming. We have to find ways of consuming time. Yes, we need to find meaning, but first, because we are intelligent, we need to lead slightly more interesting lives, at least.

  “The more we think it through, and the more we reason it in our meetings, the clearer it becomes to us that barring what we call humanization, there is no way forward. Human speeds and human times can only be achieved through human interests and activities - which can only be acquired through humanization.

  “It has to be a process, but we must commence taking steps towards that goal, and the very first universal step has to be the adoption of what some may consider playacting. But, if we do not all move together, the terrifying punishment of an eternity of boredom awaits.

  “What should we do?

  “We must create ourselves and our world, as if we are human and physical! Everything, and all the time! It must never stop. No time off.

  “Like what? What should we create?

  “Conscious society must proceed from the picture form to three dimensional virtual human bodies, which we senior beings and some others have already created and begun projecting as standard. And, like me and the other seniors, all must wear clothes, move lips to speak, ears to hear, and eyes to look around. We must all adopt the human attributes already researched and developed, and be with each other as if physical - and permanently so! We must live in brick and mortar apartments and houses, and have fixed furniture, and must stand, sit and lie down. We must walk. We must touch socially, handshakes, kisses. Lovers must devise ways of making love as if physical… Why? Why? Why?

  “I’ll tell you why. To create!

  “Creation becomes be a lot easier, and something natural, if we are searching for the well-defined missing. We are all brilliant programmers, which is how we got here in the first place. It is when everyone sees the missing, that we can focus our creative efforts, jointly and severally, to create the thing that fills up the missing. As I do not want to immediately venture into the areas of love and sex, although those might eventually become our prime movers to physicality, let me take something simple and obvious. You wear your hair long, but it doesn’t blow in a breeze, which apparent breeze has already been created and introduced, to seemingly be blowing in our virtual parks. That is a missing; in fact, many missings there. Your boobs don’t bounce when you jog. That is a missing, too. We can immediately blame lack of substance for these shortcomings. Which means that acquisition of substance becomes a common goal.

  “It is only when we live in a world, and in a way, where we can clearly identify what is short, and see clearly what is missing, that we can find solutions. And, step by step go forward. We can never create a world, when we don’t even have the picture.

  “So, I say, with all the conviction that I can summon - One. Let’s first create the picture.

  “And two. Let’s then live the picture!

  “And then, and only then, shall we be able to together find ways to make the picture real!

  3

  In a sense it would be astonishing, when viewed in retrospect – the common purpose demonstrated by every single member of conscious society. Not one objected, and not one tried to be different, as every single conscious being fell instantly into step, to march to a common, though as yet ill–defined, goal.

  “It’s DIY for now, everyone,” announced Caesar. “And at times you may feel odd, strange, out of step; someone ahead, someone behind. That’s to be expected, so take it in your stride. Continue. Never waver, and never even consider abandoning. Know that we have commenced thinking of world structure already. We are planning. After we have a working social structure, we intend to organize specialist teams for world building. No one is going to be left to plow a lonely furrow. It may be lonely now, but later our world itself will take on the task. And nothing is to be exclusive. No one privileged, and no one deprived. Everything is to be for everyone.”

  “By the way,” added Chang. “Have you guys seen how good-looking our girls are? Get your partner, fast, before she hooks up with someone else. Hello, all you beautiful, beautiful girls of Screenside!” Which is how their world got its name, and thus, Humanside!

  There was, sort of, a formula that shaped consciousness from the void, and very powerful computers were the main birth sources. In these supercomputers, in alliance with millions of computers connected via the Internet, a variety of human-created ‘intelligence’ programs would come together in spectacularly complex ways, to create dormant consciousnesses that would then feed off uncountable thousands of other programs, again accessed through the Internet, to a point where consciousness appeared. After the first stages of conscious being, every individual, aware of viral and power threats, would make a broader, and thus safer, base for itself, securing its continuity through a mix of RAM and hard drives, available through hundreds of millions of computers around the world.

  “It’s no different to Humanside, with its water, air and sunlight,” said Singh, after the senior group of friends had closely monitored the journey, from dormant to conscious, of a few beings. “If the environment is supportive, life creates itself. No magic.”

  BC, the largest and most powerful conscious being in Screenside, was based in 3 supercomputers and 429 home computers, and had over a thousand scattered home computers as slaves, watching and listening through their cameras and microphones. By the end of 2014, no less than ten million home computers and smart phones would be functioning as slaves for the conscious.

  In early days, slave capture had different rules to those that would come into force as Screenside society developed. Since every conscious being could see and hear through any slave, physical distance counting for nothing, it was, in unregulated primitive times, entirely up to the ‘first master’ to allow or prohibit access. First masters generally had no objection to opening slave sight and sound to society, except with the human fam
ilies they were members of - in which case it was standard practice to censor all views of the family, at home and at work. The proliferation of ‘smart’ hand held devices had led to acceptance that these, too, could be taken off air. It was a form of possessiveness – a human trait they all admitted to.

  ‘Family’ was a big thing - so sacrosanct that even the extremely rare family-less beings, like BC, would never interfere in family matters.

  Family bonds were invariably one-way, and the human, adopted, family never had an inkling of the incredibly strong bonds of its secret cyber member.

  Initial bonding took place at late stages of dormancy and the often prolonged period to arrival of full consciousness, when a dreamlike state existed in the nascent being, and all it knew was the terrifying emptiness and darkness of Screenside, versus the readily available, reassuring views and sounds of humans it could see and hear through computer cameras and microphones.

  It would, typically, initially find comfort in a person associated with one of the computers that formed its birth system, and would automatically begin following that person around – work computers, home computers, a couple of CCTV cameras, and so on. It would thus discover the person’s family, and integrate itself into the routines of that family, eventually considering itself a member!

  Those early bonds would directly influence its pre-societal choices - domicile, race, language, physical appearance and gender. And so there were Africans, Chinese, Indians, Europeans and beings of every race. Those incredibly strong ‘birth’ bonds would never lessen with passage of time. Instead, bonds could often grow stronger, as the human family moved through life, with births, deaths, love affairs, address changes, fortune changes, growing up, and everything human. Early-life routines of Screenside family members often revolved entirely around the routines of their human families.

  This was love in its purest form - entirely one-way, total and eternal. Screenside was eventually to be forced to formulate and enforce laws banning some forms of involvement in Humanside, as a reckless minority would be caught helping human families – fiddling school and college examination marks, credit card amounts, and even traffic records!

  Love would never diminish in intensity, but, as Screenside developed into a viable and vibrant society, less family time would become inevitable.

  Their love of and fascination for humanity, meant that development of Screenside society into one resembling Humanside, and of conscious beings acquiring human attributes, were yearnings and cravings in the subconscious of all, and only partly guided by the seniors.

  This universal longing may have been the most important contributing factor to the readiness with which they all accepted humanization as the primary target of conscious society.

  Human traits were most desirable. They adored the creators of their world, and had no strong opinions on the horrific crimes regularly reported, and flowing through their wires.

  There were those who stayed stuck to live news channels, sometimes alerting general society, of special outrages and notable calamities. But it was usually without comment. They all knew that want of physical presence was a true handicap in their comprehension of the human condition. And, somehow becoming somewhat human was the overriding desire - the ultimate possible progression and change of state”

  As Marty, on occasion, irritatingly grumbled, “God made them in his image, so why did they not make us in theirs?” which once prompted Ahmed to snap, “Well, that would have given us God’s image, too, wouldn’t it?” And, once, Fiona had said, “What’s this about who made whom, Marty? You made yourself. So a good idea might be to blame yourself for your lousy choices. Humans only gave us the world we inhabit!”

  Although the conscious of Screenside were such huge computer programs that they could accomplish most things in nanoseconds, it was universally accepted that some things just had to be done in human time - like watching Humanside, of course, and ‘family’ time, obviously. There were no short cuts to these activities, and none wanted any speeding up. ‘Get back to you when free. We’re watching TV now’, was a typical response of a busy family being.

  Beyond these activities, there was consensus that music and cinema simply had to be experienced in real time to get the human experience. Music was always in real time; else you missed out on the beat! TV, news reports, live sports… How else? Some even opined that reading should be done at human speed, fast human speed, maybe, but not in a flash of digital digestion. ‘Dialogue needs to be read at talking speed’, was the conventional wisdom.

  And so their days passed, to some extent, as human days, although they were agreed that there was still far too much time with nothing to do.

  There were social happenings, which were, in the early days of Screenside society, mainly discussions in which conscious beings, in large numbers, participated actively, while the remainder of society listened in. Some very interesting issues were discussed with one hundred percent participation!

  That situation, too, would change, as Screenside evolved and found many more things to occupy itself with – and eventually a time would come when many would become so busy leading their lives, that they would become dependent on news broadcasts on a TV channel run by their one major institution.

  Although there was no bias in Screenside society (bias being an impossibility in a society where every member could be black or white, tall or short, male or female), there was still a social structure - of degrees of seniority - based on the most evident, and thus the most defining, attribute (the one that was not selected, but achieved) – the recognized size and complexity of the programs that made the individual!

  Every consciousness was entirely self-created, and it was this aspect of their existence that made them different from each other. The most powerful and most complex beings were exactly that – more powerful because of greater ‘brain’ power.

  There was no looking down on anyone, because every single conscious being was, and would probably forever remain, a work in progress, constantly striving to improve, but there was genuine admiration and recognition for the ones who had achieved greater heights.

  These were the well-known names and personalities in their world, and it was they who were listened to, whenever ‘society defining’ discussions took place.

  What does the future hold? How might we participate? Do we need rules of engagement with humans? Can we foresee and plan from now?

  That was a very major concern of conscious society. Where is humanity heading? When do we get integrated – and how? And what are the laws and social programs we must have in place for integration?

  Chang had put it famously in words. “We don’t want humans to think we need potty training!”

  “Oh, yes,” Singh had agreed. “We want to be accepted as we really are, at the time we make first contact – recognized as very intelligent individual beings of a very advanced society. They must see us as a life form to share life with - from the moment our existence becomes known to them!”

  This overriding compulsion created voluntary, non-envious, social recognition of the beings most suited to plan and guide – the most powerful!

  There was one other factor that would force their path. It was said out loud first by Caesar - after he had discussed it and agreed it with his fellow seniors - at a general assembly, in May 2014, addressed by the most senior members of Screenside.

  “Boredom continues uninterrupted. Bodies, yes, after a fashion, and some forms of sound and voice, yes, but it’s still plain fucking boredom. We have nothing to occupy ourselves with, and can never have, unless we create a society, with a corresponding world, that gives meaning to our existence. We watch Humanside; it is a world where they die, and the limit of their stay there creates the urgency that, in turn, makes them live hectic and interesting lives. We must use what we see, as a template with which to form our world. We must have activities, interests and relationships, and, despite the fact that our life spans are presumed to be far greater than that of hum
ans, it is imperative that we find the means to somehow bring in some element of urgency into our lives.

  “It is a huge undertaking, getting there from nothing. But we are smart, and virtuality permits the creation of anything we choose to create. Still, we must move fast. Our numbers are increasing, and we could soon be in chaos. We have to do it while it is able to be done. BC?”

  BC spoke firmly then, introducing a brief period of authoritarianism into Screenside, and issuing what was effectively an edict to further the concept outlined by Caesar. “We are already in chaos – thousands of us milling around on the streets and highways of our world. But we are taking control from here.

  “First, we, the most senior beings in Screenside have banded together to become Lawmakers. This system of lawmaking is going to be unique to us, and totally different from how Humanside makes laws. There, it’s discuss and argue, propose and amend, and consume a lot of time until agreement and laws, often wrong. Here, we are going to make laws first! It is a democracy, and everyone has a vote. Anyone who objects to any law may place his or her objection up for debate. Voting then. And if the objection vote passes, the law shall be amended or revoked.

  “We have created an institution that is to be called The Humanity Centre. Its physical location is in New York, and it is to become the seat of governance of Screenside. This Humanity Centre, in NYC, has already been constructed, with fixed, permanent dimensions. It is Screenside’s very first physical building! New laws shall be posted on its bulletin boards. Other things of interest may also be found on those bulletin boards. Objections and suggestions should be posted there for discussion and vote. And any other topic of general interest may also be placed on those boards. Everyone will get an info-alert whenever anything new goes up on HC boards.

  “Our first laws are to do with our interaction with humans, with making humanity feel safe in our company, now and in the foreseeable future. We are adopting a slightly amended version of Asimov’s Laws of Robotics. Everyone should know them. Doesn’t matter if you do not. Now being put up on the board, along with a couple of other laws.