A Visitor to the Future - 24 - Takeaways and Teleforms
"When we founded Anchor, we chose this location for a number of reasons," said Aida, "The main reason was the space elevator, so that Anchor could both be a place for those entering and exiting Earth to gather and enjoy - and also so that those who were new to Earth would never be lost for a place to return to. I feel that we have achieved that goal rather well as Anchor remains one of the most popular places to stay for those visiting Earth."
She continued to stare off into the distance, the sun now beginning to set.
"It was about a year after we founded Anchor. I was taking a walk through one of the parks on the upper layers and I ran into a visitor who was leaning on the railing of the layer, much like I am today. They were simply staring up at the elevator as it trailed off into the clouds with a look of awe on their face. I got to talking with them - they were barely twenty years old and were on their way out to the Jovian moons, and they remarked that they'd never seen something so large or huge. I looked at the elevator myself and realised that I seemed to have lost that same feeling - in the process of living around the elevator for the last year, it had somehow become normal to me."
She pointed to a tall spire on one of the layers, "I spoke to the rest of the founders in our Meeting Hall, and though most did still feel a sense of awe and wonder, everyone agreed that the intensity of such feelings had lessened over the last year," she shook her head slightly, "And thinking about it, that did not seem right to me."
She stood from the railing and turned to us all. "So I proposed and began to run the Anchor Challenge. The idea was that if you intend to live in the presence of the elevator, we should all remember that having such easy access to space through constructions such as these is a great privilege - never to be taken for granted. To summarise, the purpose of the challenge is to remind all potential residents that there were those who would quite literally kill for the opportunity to do what we consider mundane today."
The barest hint of a smile appeared on her face once more. "Though we do of course take some artistic liberties to express that point. After all, we want to keep things both interesting and memorable. And of course, we do have to change the challenge each year to keep things fresh - we've certainly varied greatly from the original iteration of the scenario."
"Out of curiosity," said Tungsten, "Were the facts of the set piece based on real events?"
"In a way," she replied, "This particular set piece was a combination of cases I have researched in the past. Though I will admit that I made things more fanciful this year. Like I say, I like to keep things interesting for the participants. I will also say that I was very impressed by your deductions - it usually takes several days for participants to arrive at their conclusions."
There was a natural pause as we all looked at the space elevator, which a blank line through a sky that was becoming more and more orange as the minutes passed. I felt that the lesson learned today was not perhaps intended for me - for I was still very new to the wonders of the Consortium. But as I glanced over Antonia, Sarkona, and Tungsten, I could see something change slightly in their body language, as if appreciating the elevator anew.
"Oh," said Antonia, "Can we thank the actors for their performance? They were all very good."
A true smirk broke out on Aida's face. For someone who had been so expressionless so far, it looked very natural.
"I think you have just paid our host a very large compliment," said Tungsten, "Would I be correct in saying that you are a Teleform?"
Aida nodded. Antonia began to apologise but Aida waved her off.
"I will admit it also took me a good while to see the signs," said Tungsten, "Your acting was very convincing - perhaps the best I have seen. Six bodies? Impressive."
I looked at Sarkona, confused.
"A Teleform," they explained, "Is a CI who operates several bodies remotely. Every person we saw in the scenario today was in fact Aida playing a different role. Travers, Alise, Okumu, Hollings, Meers - even the nurse me and Tungsten spoke with - they were all Aida. Notice how we never saw more than one of them at once - Teleforms can only operate one body at a time."
"Wait, so Aida is a CI?" I whispered, "I thought she was human!"
"CI mind, composite organic and synthetic body," continued Sarkona, "It's not that uncommon to see for CIs that want to experience what it's like to be human. Two of the passengers on the Promise of Sol with us were the same, though they weren't Teleforms. That takes a lot of practice - I'm told the latency takes some getting used to."
"But a CI in an organic body? How does that even work?"
Sarkona smiled, "In terms of the mind, you just need to bridge the gap between organic and synthetic - a converter changes nerve impulses into things the CI can understand. In terms of the body, we can grow organic flesh around a synthetic body just as easily as we can replace a missing limb or fix cryocontainment damage - all part of the wonders of Bio-dev."
"And what about Teleforming? How does that work?"
Sarkona laughed, and pointed to my neck. "The nerves in your neck connect to the rest of your body. Imagine if instead of a direct connection there was a wireless transmitter instead. Then, a receiver is placed in the neck of another, shell body. You would be able to switch to feeling and controlling that second body and back again. Compressed, that's what a Teleform is - a single mind with control of multiple bodies. It is possible for organics to do it too, but much more difficult - far less complex for CIs. Aida's actual mind may be in one of her bodies, or it might be somewhere else about Anchor."
"Why would anyone do that?"
"You've seen one example today - Aida was convincingly several people in the set piece. It's also popular among people who like to switch between forms a lot - but as I say, it takes a lot of practice. Unless you have several bodies that are identical you'd have to get used to them all instead of just one."
The implications dawned on me, slowly, "Wait, anyone could be a Teleform? What if someone wanted to impersonate someone else?"
Aida had been listening in, and spoke up. "The Consortium wouldn't let me. You can only impersonate someone with their permission. How interesting and guarded, the perspective of the formerly cryocontained. You would probably be interested to know there are only about a thousand Teleforms in the entire system. It doesn't appeal to most."
"You can also ask the Consortium who someone is at any time too, should you feel it necessary," finished Sarkona.
Once again I was amazed by how casually they all spoke about this. I thought briefly of all the ways I could have abused that technology in my own time. It seemed like no concern at all to Sarkona.
"Now," said Aida, "I have a question for you. How did you find my set piece? Were there any obvious issues?"
We talked for a while about the scenario as a whole, commenting on the occasional thing here and there. Tungsten pointed out that it might be valuable for there to be greater assistance available for those of a less investigative mindset, but Aida rebuked his argument, saying that they had as long as they needed to learn. I commented on the presence of alcohol on the base, which wouldn't have been allowed in my time, but Aida explained for the program she had based the set piece on there were no such restrictions. It was then that we realized that it had gotten very late indeed. We said our thanks to Aida for such an interesting challenge, waved goodbye and departed by drone-craft with the three of us going to find a place to sleep - Tungsten went off to explore more of the city.
And that was the end of my first day in Anchor.