Phoenix - the Insilico tales - chapter 12 - "Voices"
(originally posted 7/13/2011)
Phee felt herself being pulled, painfully, like a silk cloth pulled through a contortion of mismatched plumbing. It was the only sense her mind could make of the utterly alien experience she was going through. She didn't know the NURSE AI was a construct built over time and added to, that it had been designed and implemented organically, and that the resultant set of programs upon interfaces upon protocol conversions required that her mind undergo countless transformations as it passed through that system. As ever and and as always in her very young life, she only knew what she felt. Somewhere behind her was the ordered comfort of the AI core Cait had installed in her body for the sole purpose of carrying Phee's mind. She saw.. did she see? ... a reflection from a NURSE surveillance camera? Cait's own eyes? .... Caitlin gently holding a data cable connecting the cyborg to the NURSE network. Her new cyborg chassis looked like her mother. It hummed quietly, lying on a bed, its recently cloned empty brain receiving a flood of memories and personality information through its neural mesh, and then through the data line connected behind its left ear. Somewhere ahead was the boundless swirling ocean of possibility that was the human brain that would maddeningly refuse to offer Phee the slightest familiar comfort of a limit, of an edge against which the young mind could make sense of itself.
Phee felt somewhere in between. Confined, confused, and anxious to find her way through it. Her progress seemed to slow and to stop. Her mind was a chaotic swirl of sensations. Had she heard voices? Some perception of sound? She heard Sayer's voice.
"I love you."
That wasn't right. That hadn't happened. She met Sayer much later. She cast out with her perceptions, and could feel only a stifling confinement, a sense of being stuck. The transfer had halted. Her mind tried to scream out
"Caitlin, Doctor Faith, please help me! I'm trapped and I can't escape!"
No one seemed to hear her. They looked at the new chassis and chatted idly. What was happening?
Her mother's voice now: "Come back to us, Pest."
Her mind swam...
Rema's voice, piercingly loud, screaming "PHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
Phee was confused. She struggled to move. But she was trapped - deep in the bowels of the NURSE AI. And no one could hear her scream.
Phee felt herself being pulled, painfully, like a silk cloth pulled through a contortion of mismatched plumbing. It was the only sense her mind could make of the utterly alien experience she was going through. She didn't know the NURSE AI was a construct built over time and added to, that it had been designed and implemented organically, and that the resultant set of programs upon interfaces upon protocol conversions required that her mind undergo countless transformations as it passed through that system. As ever and and as always in her very young life, she only knew what she felt. Somewhere behind her was the ordered comfort of the AI core Cait had installed in her body for the sole purpose of carrying Phee's mind. She saw.. did she see? ... a reflection from a NURSE surveillance camera? Cait's own eyes? .... Caitlin gently holding a data cable connecting the cyborg to the NURSE network. Her new cyborg chassis looked like her mother. It hummed quietly, lying on a bed, its recently cloned empty brain receiving a flood of memories and personality information through its neural mesh, and then through the data line connected behind its left ear. Somewhere ahead was the boundless swirling ocean of possibility that was the human brain that would maddeningly refuse to offer Phee the slightest familiar comfort of a limit, of an edge against which the young mind could make sense of itself.
Phee felt somewhere in between. Confined, confused, and anxious to find her way through it. Her progress seemed to slow and to stop. Her mind was a chaotic swirl of sensations. Had she heard voices? Some perception of sound? She heard Sayer's voice.
"I love you."
That wasn't right. That hadn't happened. She met Sayer much later. She cast out with her perceptions, and could feel only a stifling confinement, a sense of being stuck. The transfer had halted. Her mind tried to scream out
"Caitlin, Doctor Faith, please help me! I'm trapped and I can't escape!"
No one seemed to hear her. They looked at the new chassis and chatted idly. What was happening?
Her mother's voice now: "Come back to us, Pest."
Her mind swam...
Rema's voice, piercingly loud, screaming "PHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
Phee was confused. She struggled to move. But she was trapped - deep in the bowels of the NURSE AI. And no one could hear her scream.
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