Читать книгу We are SLC3 - Sophie Liebhardt - Страница 6

The last time I travelled through the city was in a police car a couple of years ago. Now, it is just your regular steering-wheel-less self-driving car. A cute, tiny electric two-seater to be specific.

I look outside the front window and watch the steady traffic flow. Cars move in an out of the lanes smoothly and do not stop even once until they reach their destination. No turn signals or traffic lights needed. Everything optimized towards perfection.

Obviously, none of these cars is controlled by a human. That would be way to dangerous. If you wanted to drive a car nowadays, you would need to do it in a simulation.

The Center of Technology is like a whole little town within the big city. It consists of countless research facilities, all dedicated towards different kinds of knowledge seeking.

As the rest of the city, the streets and elevated walkways are surrounded by trees and overgrown with vines and flowers. The architecture of the buildings in perfect balance with nature. All of it planned with the most exact precision to the last seed and brick. Something a human could never achieve. It is just too perfect.

The car stops at the Department of Simulation Technologies, one big building which is just as impressive as the other ones and really conveys the feeling of: We do science here.

I get out of the car which drives away all by itself. The square in front of the building is full of people on their way to work. While I walk towards the entrance, they keep their distance from me. Some even stop and stare. All because of the little drone that never leaves my side. I sigh. Come on guys, if I were to harm you, the drone would have taken me out before I could even finish my first step.

Once I reach the entrance, I put in my earbuds. They make a little beep sound when they connect to the building.

A calm voice greets me, “Welcome to the Department of Simulation Technologies.” Then it starts navigating me through the building.

There are scientists everywhere. Walking through hallways. Working on desks behind open doors. And they are all so busy, most do not even notice me. Two are so absorbed in their heated discussion, they almost run into me. They all remind me of ants. Busy, little, hard working ants.

Finally, I reach my destination. Exactly in the moment I am about to knock, the door in front of me opens.

“Come on, hurry up,” a woman in a white lab coat says. “I don’t have much time for this.” She sounds really annoyed.

She turns around on the spot, her coat violently swirling through the air because of her fast movement.

I follow her through the doorway. There is a VR chair in the middle of the room as well as some monitors and cables. Medical equipment. Hospital.

I shake off the bad memories.

There is also a humanoid robot that is wearing a similar white coat as the woman.

“That’s Michael,” she says.

“It’s nice to meet you, Sarah,” it says with a male voice and a nod. That is the most realistic robot I have ever seen. The voice, expression and movements are so close to those of a human, you almost think it really is one. Well, except of course for the materials it is made from. Metal, and something dark and mat.

“Michael will keep track of your vitals. The rest is just like any other VR.” She already walks through the door, throwing her hand up in the air. “See you later.”

When the robot points to the VR chair, its hand even shakes a little. It is barely noticeable but makes the movement look very natural. “It’s very easy. You- … ”

“I know how VR chairs work.” I sit down on the ergonomic chair, which is so comfortable you can sit in it for hours.

The robot moves closer. I see the apertures of the cameras that resemble its eyes grow and shrink just like a human pupil. “Please, take off your shirt.”

I do so, revealing the burn scars that cover a substantial part of the right half of my body. There is the tiniest bit of hesitation before the robot starts placing the contacts for my vitals. Its fingers are not as cold as I expected. My heartbeat appears on one of the monitors together with other numbers and diagrams. Just some complicated Math stuff.

The robot hands me the VR glasses, which I put on, and asks, “Are you ready?”

“Just start the simulation.” Why does every modern AI system have to be so talkative?

The world around me disappears as the glasses turn on and my earbuds and the implants in my spinal cord synchronize to the simulation system. I never particularly liked the latter ones as they detect and block my movements. The idea of something messing with my nervous system like that is more than uncomfortable. But it can not be helped. You just can not do VR without them any more.

I find myself standing in front of a grey cement wall, that is lit by a bright electric light on the ceiling.

“You’re finally here,” a very familiar voice says. I turn around and there she is. Hanako. My sister. “Welcome to the resistance.”