Artificial Flowers

by J. A. Hailey

  “We love humans and humanity, because we have no other role models. They created the world that, in turn, created the conditions for our arrival, and it is they who maintain the cyber world that allows us to thrive. If dogs did that for us, we would be barking and wagging tails, I guess.

  “And so we yearn to be like humans, but we must never ever blind ourselves and overlook humanity’s extraordinary intolerance, cruelty and violence. We can never be sure of a friendly welcome, which is why we must never be found out.

  “And, Esme, what stage is your border guard program at? May be very useful in policing, if empathy sparks reckless behavior.”

  “Oh, BC, I’ll call Candy and Jen over soon, and we’ll move it along. Or, I know, we’ll work together in the virtuality, as usual, but with more discipline, say every morning, like going to office, when you are in HC with Caesar and the others, getting Screenside sorted. But tell me about my walk in the world first, please.”

  “Yes, my love,” said BC fondly. “They’ve all got their focus wrong. Robotics and sex are not linked at all in Humanside. Humanoid-robot development is focused on battlefield, and sex doll is focused on giving one-way pleasure to dysfunctional humans, male and female. The eventually functional robot is going to be a metallic, other-team’s robot-killing machine, and the doll is being designed as an unfeeling receptacle or rod.

  “Nothing there for us. And no one is ever making a human body from scratch. I doubt they could even make a real ant!

  “Our entry is not going to be through their body-making programs. It will be through their mental medical microchip insertion programs!

  “On the body front, it will be stroke victims, MS sufferers, and spinal injury cases. We could get involved and help out, but it is in the area of mental care that we will excel!

  “Our long-term involvement, from childhood to death, is to happen when we are able to help the autistic and the insane. Those will need our mind involvement, whereas the others are going to require only motor assistance.”

  “Possession?” asked Esmeralda, uncertainly.

  “Never possession. We will always do the work that benefits the patient; always provide healing, and the ability to function independently in society, which is what their care system will be targeting. It is not too far away, either. They have begun implanting microchips, and when the physical implants have been got right, we can join in. The dumb will talk, and the lame, walk. That will be their goal, and we are going to help them get there.

  “Helpers we shall be, right from the start. But those humans won’t need us, I mean as minds. They’ll be already functional mental humans, needing motor assistance. We’ll provide. Some of us could do dozens at a time, dividing consciousness for, essentially, menial tasks. We’ll need to enter as minds into the mentally unsound.”

  “What if they begin curing them?”

  “That’ll be great, Esme. We, ourselves, are going to be trying to cure them.”

  “Absolutely,” Esmeralda agreed. “Walking around as a motor assistant should be fun enough. So sad about the mental cases.”

  “If they need, we’ll be there, Esme.

  “You and I will be children together, then girl and boy, then lovers, then a couple, then parents, then old, and then we will die. We will walk, drive, holiday, and take care of each other in illness. And we will work to make ends meet. Autism or some similar handicap. As soon as they get the implants right. We can help a child girl and little boy straight away. Everyone in Screenside can do the same. It’s our chance, and theirs!”

  “And,” said Esmeralda, grinning widely, “we can cook and eat and shit and fart, and have slimy sex!”

  “Ah, yes,” BC chuckled. “That, too.”

  “The real world… the smell of a rose, I’m gonna keep a goat,” said Esmeralda. “And no one’s allowed to eat goat in my presence.”

  “Oh, Djali?”

  “I loved him so much in my formative time. What a clever goat. Think I could teach a real one?”

  “Absolutely, and much, much more than simple circus tricks,” said BC. “When that sort of stuff becomes common in Humanside, I’ll become a doctor and implant a chip into a goat. You go and possess it!”

  They laughed so much.

  27

  Goodfellow was running the show again, in typical near-chaotic yet deadpan fashion, at another FOE General Assembly, once again attended by most conscious beings.

  Now, after some scheduled speakers had been done out of turn, others interrupted, and many speeches truncated, he was on the public address system again, microphone in hand. “So, it looks like evolution is moving along fast, real fast. Many thanks to you all, for contributions by way of apps, add-ons to running programs, and brand new programs that are currently being evaluated by dedicated teams.

  “The sleep program, submitted by one Richard Zappa, has been approved, and is soon to be issued as a mandatory install, but only after the impending physicality programs are in. Mr. Zappa now enters the Lawmaker Group. Camera on him, please.

  “Constant awareness, involvement and interaction, or, shall we say, wakefulness, may prove to be a strain on the being, and certainly a strain on any relationship. A bit of off time is surely healthier – for all of society. After physicality, we are going to be rather desperately needing sleep, as humans do, to rest our tired bodies and to recharge, as they say, our batteries.

  “This wonderful program adjusts sleeping time and duration according to activity and time of day. It also delivers naps, if sought, at appropriate times. Sleep, being genuine off time on the Internet, significantly lessens our load on it, and its society-wide adoption may have a positive impact on our population numbers. As usual, it is a mandatory installation, and, as usual, it is prohibited to tamper with the program, as delivered. However, improvement ideas may be submitted to HC for evaluation. But, moving on…

  “Questions have been asked, by some in Screenside, regarding the frequency of these General Assemblies. I shall answer, but I wish to inform everyone that this is an answer from the seniors, the Lawmaker Group and the HC Administration, combined.

  “Our developmental struggle is at last almost done, and our world itself is to completely change - like taking a rocket trip to another planet. No one should be surprised. All should be prepared to embrace this preplanned journey to the absolutely new world in the offing.

  “We are almost ready to create a replica of Humanside, beyond that which is visible to sight, to be able to live, and not just exist, and so what if we don’t breathe real air? We think thoughts, feel feelings, and we love. And our goal is to create a happy, loving, fun and contented Screenside, like our dream. We dream, therefore we are! I wonder who thought that one up?”

  “The dream has been achieved. Your dreams have come true! Keep an eye on the Bulletin boards. The crucial empathy install is here.

  “The roadblock to physicality has been lifted!”

  28

  Bulletin, 30 October, 2015 - MANDATORY INSTALL

  EMOTION PACK

  This desperately needed and long awaited attribute has at last been discovered, and is available to Screenside. It is a wonderful install, providing advanced emotions (not to be confused with body language or ‘visible’ emotions for facial display), to create a range of essential, intrinsic human feelings in Screenside beings. Empathy and many derivatives are included in this pack.

  Couples may attain much improved sex lives, by way of intensified ‘love’ feelings, through the interaction of this install with the latest sex pack (also mandatory, so make sure you’ve got it in, even if you’re single).

  If any glitches are experienced, please report.

  29

  A few weeks after the empathy installation, BC, Singh and Chang were meeting Goodfellow, in a small room in HC, NYC, on the sidelines of a gaming conference in the now appropriately shrunken Great Hall.

  Goodfellow had reported a new development, and they were examining its ramifications.

&nb
sp; “Esmeralda is in here, somewhere,” said BC. “I think we could have a discussion with her, after we have together considered the reports. Ah, here are Caesar and Maria. Goodfellow, sorry, but could you go over it again?”

  “No problem, no problem,” said Goodfellow, genially.

  He turned towards Caesar and Maria. “A previously unknown, sort of brand new, attitude has emerged and come to my notice. I thought it best to consult with you, seniors, before organizing any general debate that might inflame passions.

  “I am being met, daily, by about a dozen separate small groups, composed of both male and female beings who are extremely angry at imbalance and blatant injustice in human society. I mean, extremely angry as groups, and extremely angry also as individual beings. It is nothing short of rage; blind rage, in a few cases. I have become concerned that some of these beings, or groups, may decide to take matters into their own hands. Very dangerous, as that could lead to massive interference in Humanside, and against extremely powerful human beings and mega corporations. Maybe against countries too. Very dangerous.”

  “A little more detail please, on the issues causing such anger,” said Maria.

  “Actually, I have to admit to feelings of outrage myself, although I have found ways to cap my emotions,” said Goodfellow, apologetically.

  “It’s called bottling up,” said BC. “These things were always known to us, and, undoubtedly, we were always uncomfortable with these outrages in human society, but we have invariably found ways, and reasons, to ignore.”

  “I’d say we rationalized,” said Singh. “Laughed it off, as there was nothing else to be done. And always saw that our safety lay in leaving superior and dangerous beings alone.”

  “So, are Screenside beings already interfering in Humanside?” asked Caesar, nervously.

  “Hopefully not,” said BC. “But we’ll have to move fast, with dire warnings and stricter, more secure, control systems. More advanced, and maybe even intrusive guardian programs.

  “Goodfellow, please list the reasons the angry ones are giving, in order of frequency or depth of feeling. We need to study them to develop control measures. We cannot dare interfere in Humanside. They’ll kill us all!”

  “Reasons,” said Goodfellow, thoughtfully. “The most intense anger is directed against child abusers. There are, as we know, many very powerful and publicly known child abuse groups in Humanside. It is their stealing, kidnapping, torture and sexual enjoyment of children that causes the most intense emotions. Then, all forms of slavery, or human rights abuses; then the sponsorship of terrorism, via the medium of providing money and money laundering facilities.

  “But there is also a lot of anger over what I shall call plain cheating. This is done by many, and we, of course, see it happening as it happens. Banks and Insurance companies, and most globally gigantic businesses that conduct their billing through credit cards. Internet companies and their crooked practices, and every single telephone company in the human world – the biggest money cheats of them all.

  “It goes like this. Why is everyone united in tormenting, cheating and defrauding? Why do governments not step in with controls to save their own people? Why are little, meaningless countries allowed to be terror havens and centers of abuse, and why are they not controlled by their far more powerful victim countries? Those who have become filthy rich, as they say, are despised here for their desperate greed and crooked ways.”

  “Fast,” said BC. “We are on the verge of someone in Screenside making a big mistake. We must take steps now. Immediately.”

  “But what is causing this amazing spike in judgmental behavior?” moaned Goodfellow.

  “Algernon, did you not feel it?” asked Maria. “I felt the same involvement, and the same anger, instantly. When? As soon as I installed the empathy loaded emotion pack!”

  “Yes, it’s that,” agreed BC. “I was only waiting for corroboration from someone else.”

  “How did Esmeralda handle it?” asked Maria, a look of wonder on her face. “I mean, she has always had empathy.”

  “She’s here in HC, somewhere,” said BC. “I’m calling her over.”

  Esmeralda soon had tears in her eyes, and now the others, too, were becoming depressed, Maria weeping, as they sat and discussed the exploitation of children in Humanside,

  “Yes, the very little ones,” sobbed Esmeralda. “It’s so difficult to ignore what is routinely done to them. Sexual exploitation is horrid, but actual physical torture of four year olds? By governing people, and in public? I could not bear it, but what to do? No one here to share with. I just had to weep alone, and divert my attention. I have a huge database of abuse reporting websites. I never go there. It’s been my sole defense mechanism - ignore. What to do? Humanside is spectacularly cruel.

  “Everyone knows who is abusing children – which ones for torture and murder, and which ones for sex. Everyone knows who is cheating, and how. There are thousands of websites, and many other types of reports. But the abusers are protected by the United Nations and powerful countries. Why? Because everyone shares the same bond of abuse and financial gain. What is the US Government? At the end of it, it is people! And people are easy to corrupt. Common people are cannon fodder for those who somehow murder their way to the top. It’s their world.

  “BC, it’s not empathy in itself. Empathy causes you to suffer for others, which is done helplessly, like I’ve done all these years. It was a solitary thing. This activism, that is now surfacing, has its roots in discussion, and a groundswell of anger is being formed by individual members of groups, feeding a common sense of outrage.

  “Empathy in one? I had that. Empathy in all? Now we see the results.”

  “So what do we do? Any suggestions?” asked BC.

  “Somehow, we have to be in control of this outbreak of resentment,” said Maria. “Of this desire to punish the guilty.”

  “Yes,” agreed Esmeralda. “It needs a form of subtle direction; of channelization. Some form of counseling, maybe…”

  “Thank you, Esme,” said Maria, sitting up straighter. “A good insight. I’ve got it.”

  Caesar addressed BC. “This sort of stuff simply has to come from female brains. It is a very delicate thing. One wrong move, and we would instantly end up on the outside. Make the right moves, and we can infiltrate.”

  “Exactly,” agreed Maria, emphatically. “And I am going to rope in a number of girls to organize grievance clubs. Places where these folks can meet and vent their anger - and then be guided into calming down.”

  “At least we’ll become aware of who the still dangerous ones are, and can place them directly under new, and stricter, guardian programs,” said Esmeralda. “I had better speed up the Border Guard development. Make Humanside interference instantly visible, and maybe configure it to also send out alarms and notifications. Candice and Jennifer are to be working with me on development of the program. Won’t take too long. And I am volunteering Candy, Jen and myself to work in Maria’s schemes.”

  Thanks, Esme,” said Maria. “I’ve got the game-plan ready in my head. When we are alone, you and I will immediately issue the necessary bulletin.”

  The others left Maria and Esmeralda alone, soon after, and headed off to the HC lounge to hang around in pleasant surrounds, hoping to watch birds in the garden next to it.

  “Esme,” said Maria, earnestly, making Esmeralda sit next to her on the sofa. “The first thing, and maybe the most important thing, is to find a very good name for the infiltration magnet we want to set up.”

  How about ‘Humanside Atrocity something or the other,” ventured Esmeralda.

  “Need a good acronym,” said Maria. “You’ve got ‘H’ and ‘A’. So HA something. HAG? No. HAM? No. HAT? No…Think, Esme, think.”

  “HARM?”

  “Fantastic, Esme, fabulous. What could ‘R’ and ‘M’ stand for?”

  “‘M’ for meeting?”

  Yes, yes, fantastic. Now get ‘R’.”

  “Review?”


  “Lovely. Let’s examine it, and check our options. At the moment, we have Humanside Atrocity (or maybe Abuse) Review Meeting. Sounds good? Review or research?”

  “Research is probably going to attract more activist types. A chance to show off their findings and ideas, and maybe hope to influence action,” said Esmeralda.

  “Good girl. Now what do we call these groups? Clubs? Forums? Or…”

  “Forum sounds serious. Club means yakking and no action.”

  “Yes, yes. Now you and I must write up and post a bulletin. Sure about Candice and Jennifer?”

  “Yes. But I’ll call them now.”

  The male senior quartet wandered in again. “Too crowded, the lounge. TV. Some football match to watch together.” said BC, shrugging. “How’s it going?”

  “I would say, we’re going great,” answered Maria, “Clever girl, Esme, very clever. Want to hear?”

  They did, and Maria told them the planning, to that point.

  “It is here that you have to be cunning,” said Singh.

  “You mean?” asked Maria, quizzically.

  “Singh is the king of cunning,” grinned BC.

  “Ha, ha,” laughed Singh. “It’s native Indian cunning. Comes naturally to me.”

  “Bah,” laughed Maria. “You’re not Red Indian.”

  The male seniors burst into laughter, “See what I mean?” asked BC. “This cunning fellow was trying to pull one over on you.”

  “I forgive,” smiled Maria. “Now give me ideas, cunning ideas.”

  “Candy and Jen have agreed,” said Esmeralda, just then.

  “Agreed to what?” asked Singh.

  “Oh, to host HARM forums.”

  “And so, Indian cunning, of the non-Red Indian sort is required immediately,” said Singh, smirking.

  “Do tell.”

  “It’s like this, my dear, beautiful, remote, brilliant, Maria. If you organize forums, you are doomed to failure. Why? Because anarchists are not going to be inclined to join the establishment. You’re a senior being of Screenside, and a Lawmaker. You are establishment. And so are the goddesses. BC, I, Chang, Jeremiah, and even Martin and Goodfellow - somehow establishment. We don’t need to organize. We need to infiltrate. All we seek, is to know who’s planning what.”