A Visitor to the Future - 53 - Isolation Training
The next day brought with it a sense of excitement and anticipation - in a few hours it would be time for my first Human lesson with Chisom. I had decided to set an alarm a few days ago so that I wouldn't miss it. As it turned out, alarms could now recommend a wake-up time that perfectly matched your own sleep cycle, and was conditional upon what time you got to sleep - not when you got in bed, but when you actually fell asleep. All you needed to do was set when you wanted to wake up and your alarm would use that as an estimate for when to wake you. For example, if you finished a sleep cycle at 08:00, it would wake you up about five minutes after that rather than let you sleep in for another hour and wake you in the middle of REM sleep. Sarkona had told me that the technology behind it wasn't even that complicated - intelligent alarms had been invented not long after my own time. I awoke feeling refreshed to the sound of a gentle breeze blowing through my room, and made my way to Baobab.
As well-rested as I was, though, today it did not feel like enough - I was facing the frustration of learning something new and not having much to work from.
"So size isn't a part of either formal or casual nouns?" I said, confused.
We sat in a small study room off the side of one of the classrooms, not far from where we had first met Chisom. She was dressed differently in a plain, flowing long-sleeved shirt and trousers today, though the grey headscarf seemed to be a constant feature for her.
"Yes, precisely right," she replied, "A large tree and a small tree are still a tree. We don't use size as a part of composite nouns because that property is universal - anything can be either large or small without really changing what it is."
"What about nouns like microchip?" I asked.
She smiled, "That is a particularly old name, even in English! The closest Human translation would probably be along the lines of clustered computing components in English. There are of course specific casual nouns for the individual components - analogues for capacitor, processor, and so on. The actual size of the object is often inferred by context - or else you use the adjectives of large or small. For example, does the word microchip really provide you with much more clarity than the word chip in English?"
"Unless we're talking about food, probably not," I admitted.
"Ah," said Chisom, "Probably a bad example then. To be fair, I had almost forgotten that chips are a synonym for fries - or crisps, depending on who you ask."
"Is this really easier to learn than English?" I asked, "So far it seems confusing to me."
Chisom moved from where she'd been standing and sat across from me, "Yes. Though the system may take some getting used to, once you learn the rules of Human you can extrapolate far more easily. As I have said before, consistency of rules is key. We'll have you comfortably using casual nouns within a few months - formal nouns will come later, with practice and exposure to the language as a whole. I think that's enough for now - let's take a break."
We walked through Baobab, the overcast skies making the climate slightly muggier today. It was as busy as ever, though - teachers sat with children and used a combination of projections, tablets, papers, or just plain spoken words to help teach new concepts or full lessons. Some of the children scratched their heads in contemplation, and others looked like they'd had their minds blown by some new idea or another. Eventually, we came to another dark classroom with a closed, transparent door, where a group of ten smaller CIs - and two human children probably aged five or six - were sat on the ground spaced equally apart in silence. Some were cross-legged, others were laid on their backs, and one was face-down on the carpet. Three teachers were stood outside the window, keeping an eye on them. I couldn't help but be curious about the sight.
"Chisom," I asked, "What's going on in there?"
"Oh, that is isolation training," Chisom chuckled, "I imagine it must look very strange to you - as it does to me at first. Some children are such bundles of energy that you'd think they'd never adjust to it. But they do! Think of it as a sort of meditation practice in a lot of ways - putting the brain to work on staying calm and collected even in the absence of stimulation. Hopefully that explains the dark, quiet room with no distractions."
"Is it helpful for children to learn this?"
"Very much so," said Chisom, "It forms part of the wellness milestones. Recognising that you are in charge of your own conscious mind and thoughts helps in a variety of disciplines. It is practically mandatory for young CIs, though."
"Why?"
We walked closer to the window, Chisom giving a small nod to the other teachers, which they returned. "Isolation training was invented for CIs, and generalised to all the children eventually. We couldn't really stop them all from taking part - a child sees another child doing something special and wants to have a go themselves, such is their nature. To bring myself back to my point, though - do you know what I mean when I say locked-in?"
I thought back to the various media I had seen over the years. Locked-in generally meant that someone was locked in their own body, unable to interact with the outside. Like someone in a coma that was still awake. I confirmed my understanding with Chisom.
"That's a good enough definition," said Chisom, "Well, when a CI's body undergoes systems maintenance they become locked in for the duration of the maintenance. For example, if you're replacing old optics, you have to shut down the inputs you're replacing - the CI becomes blind during the process. CI sensory nets these days are so complicated that it is generally wise to unplug all inputs before maintenance - therefore, they become locked in. Able to think, but just effectively alone with their own thoughts for the duration. CIs don't sleep either, so they don't have the luxury of just sleeping through things. It is very important for them not to panic during maintenance work."
A follow-up question came to mind, "Can a CI not just power themselves down during maintenance?"
"In theory, yes," replied Chisom, "But most CIs find it difficult to willingly shut themselves down for maintenance. It would be like sedating yourself for an operation - you can understand how difficult and possibly distressing that is. Not to mention there's a whole CI philosophy around whether they should actually shut themselves down at any point. It has been mostly resolved at this point."
"Could you explain that?" I asked.
"I could, but perhaps a colleague of mine could do it better, one moment please." Chisom stepped slightly away from the classroom, glancing around herself. When she didn't find what she was looking for, she placed her thumb and forefinger in her mouth and gave two sharp whistles. A few moments later the bounding shape of a grey quadruped came around the corner - it was the large dog-lynx animal that I had seen playing with the children on my last visit. It had large whiskers and a spotted black coat. It happily approached Chisom and halted itself in front of her.
"Dela," said Chisom to the animal, "Find Gatecrash and bring them here."
The animal immediately wheeled round and jogged off. I noticed how careful it was around both corners and stray children, never going too fast when they were around.
"What was that?" I said, "I've seen it before but up close it looks like some sort of hybrid."
"Dela, a Friendly Lynx. Yes, that's the actual name - invented by one corporation or another. Friendly Lynxes were first genetically engineered in the 2550s as companions for whoever could afford them. Genetic engineering work on animals for human enjoyment was outlawed with the rise of the Consortium, but we still take care of the ones that remain from that period. All the children love Dela! Even when they eventually leave some come back and see her. She gets more visitors than I do!"
There was a lot to take in there, but I figured there would be time to consider it later. One thing at a time for now.
Dela padded back at a casual pace, now being followed by a mostly human-looking CI with a synthetic face. The CI's long hair seemed to be made of thin fibres which would change colour through a spectrum of reds. They were wearing a bright, tie-dyed t-shirt and jeans. The Friendly Lynx did not even look to be tired by the exercise, and happily accepted a treat from Chisom's pocket.
"Gatecrash," Chisom said, "Sorry to bother you. I was just explaining CI maintenance to my student here, and I know that you could explain skipping a lot better than I can. Could I trouble you for an explanation?"
Gatecrash replied in a enthusiastic, feminine tone, a big smile plastered on their face, "That's okay! Always happy to discuss things with newcomers like yourself - Chisom told me all about you! Practically, one of the biggest early debates in CI philosophy was about what we call skipping. Ohhhhh!" they said, arms going wide in realization, "In fact, you are probably uniquely able to relate to us! Chisom said you were cryocontained, so when you went under and woke up a thousand years later, what did you experience?"
"I'm not sure what you're asking," I replied, "I didn't experience anything."
"Exactly! Nothing! You're getting it! From your perspective, you fast forwarded time by about a thousand years. Now, imagine if you could do that at will- shut yourself down whenever you wanted to effectively fast forward time. Suddenly you don't have to wait for dinner. You shut yourself down and bam, dinner is served! For the early CIs, it posed a big question. CIs can shut ourselves down with relatively little chance of harm - indeed the first generation of CIs on Mars were encouraged to, to save power. But should we?"
"I think if I'd had the option I probably wouldn't have gone into cryocontainment," I responded.
"Yeah! You might not be surprised to learn that nearly every CI agrees with you - ninety-nine point nine percent of us don't like skipping. We did a survey on it about a decade back. The fact is that if you skip often, you become pretty dependent on it. As tempting as it might be to skip the boring parts of life, skipping has two main risks. First, what if no-one wakes you up, or your wake-up timer doesn't work? That's a scary thought, just sitting there like you're waiting for the sun to go out. And second, skipping is a very egocentric way to live. You're taking the approach that only your perspective on things matters - that skipped time is effectively erased time, unimportant to you. That's an easy way to lose touch with reality!" Gatecrash kneeled down and began to pet Dela with their six-fingered white hands, the knuckles and joints a darker black.
"I think I get it," I said, "But are you really never tempted by it?"
Gatecrash was now giving Dela a belly-rub, "Nope! There's always something going on - who knows what you might miss if you start skipping time all over the place. I'd miss you Dela! Yes I would!" Gatecrash looked up at us sternly, hair turning slightly paler, "Well, I wouldn't, because I'd be offline. But I would miss what was going on with Dela - that make sense?"
"Yes," I said instantly - I'd missed the past thousand years and was now playing catch-up. I could understand that viewpoint.