WetWeb (26 page)

“What the hell is going on?”  McKnight demanded.

“It looks like the communications network
,
” Anand said, enlarging a window on the vid-screen so McKnight could see his analysis.

“We are overwhelming the Synaptic Interface with data from the Synapse Suit, the device cannot process the volume of information
,
”  Anand
explained.

Christopher Mark emerged from behind the Synapse Suit.  He was busy drying his upper body with a towel. 

Mark said, “This does not make sense.  We have a direct cable connection.  We should have more bandwidth, not less.”

“Quite, quite right…” Anand agreed, “But normally, the host is alive.  Even under the influence of Somnambutol the host’s subconscious is still providing the majority of the body’s muscular control.  The Synaptic Interface is usually only used to transmit conscious commands.”

“I see what you are saying
,
” Mark continued, “With a dead body, the Synaptic Interface becomes overwhelmed because the remote user needs to actively manage all of the bodies muscles
,
all of the time… balance… motor control
…
”

“So how do we fix it?” McKnight asked guardedly.

Anand looked at Christopher Mark for an answer
,
because he did not have one.

“Gentlemen
,
” McKnight continued, “We need to fix this.”

Anand was happy Mark was in charge.  Anand felt tired,
and
he was chilled, maybe
even
feverish.  He was ready for this to end.  He thought about his walk this morning and the pull of the open desert beyond the compound fence.  He was ready to walk outside and never look back.

Anand was dismayed when Mark said,
“The old system relied on biology for subconscious body control.  We had a living brain to help us.  In this new system, biology is not an option.  The dead host gives us form and function, but it does not help us with command and control.  Therefore the only answer is technology.  We need to introduce a computer system into the body that will manage the autonomic muscle controls and replace the subconscious mind.”

“An artificial intelligence?”
McKnight asked.

“Of a sort,” Chris Mark answered, “
I
t would definitely be a learning system.”

“Is it do-able?” McKnight asked looking at Anand.

Anand equivocated, “I’m not sure, in theory yes… but to build it and connect it.”

“The interface is already done,” Mark interjected, “You can connect into the existing Synaptic device.  At this point, all we need is a program that can learn motor control and manage the subconscious body movements.”

“It will need a large processor,” Anand said, “and a hard drive.  There is no room left in the neck to install it even if we could build it.”

“Take
out
the pre-frontal lobe,” Mark said, “We’re not using the brain for anything now.”

McKnight pressed the point, “Can you do it?”

Anand would not commit
,
“Maybe
.
” he said.

“Well,” McKnight stood up to leave, “You have three days to figure it out.”

Over the next three days Anand together with his new combined technology and biology team worked non-stop to design, build
,
and install a computer program that could simulate the autonomic functions of the human brain.  Computer technicians and
b
io-
e
ngineers worked side by side, until the biologists were comfortable handling complex computer components and the technicians were comfortable with gross anatomy.  The technicians began working on organic chores, replacing the work that might previously have been done by Dr. Singh.

As he watched a technician preparing a cadaver, Anand participated in a surreal conversation.

“I think we might be better off without the eyes,” Anand said
.

“How so?” the technician was focused on cutting and then lifting the skin that covered the forehead.

“The visual integration requires a lot of data.  I can replace the eyes with a simple video lens and interface directly to the Synaptic device
,
” Anand said.

The tech picked up the electric bone saw and went to work on the exposed skull across the forehead.  The cutting made a loud whirring noise punctuated by wet gurgling when the tech cut too deep. 

Anand waited till he was done with the saw and then continued
,
“If
we
can bypass the optic integration altogether
, it will
simplif
y
things.”

“Makes sense,” the tech said
. 

U
sing the edge of a scalpel he lifted the freshly cut forehead bone and set it gingerly on the dissection table.  Then he used the scalpel to open the dura mater exposing the pre-frontal lobe.

“Yes,” Anand continued, “Quite right, go ahead and remove all of the olfactory organs as well, the nose, the sinuses
, everything.
I can do the same thing… in fact, go ahead and take off the entire face.”

“Not a problem,” the tech said.  He was busy cutting the pre-frontal lobe free. When he was ready
,
he lifted it high to allow the strands of viscous fluid still clinging to the bone to clear
,
and then
he
placed it on the dissection table next to the forehead bone. 

“Do you want to leave the tongue?” the technician asked.

“No,” Anand said, “Take it out
.  T
ake out the whole face.”

The technician worked quietly.  Slowly he filled the dissection table with bone, brain, eyes, nose, tongue, bone
,
and teeth.  When he was done, the face and brain were removed from the lower jaw to the mid-forehead.  The empty cranial cavity looked larger than Anand had expected.  Using a small light he could clearly see the brain stem where they had connected the Synaptic Derivation device.  Spinal fluid seeped from the brain stem and mixed with residual blood that oozed from the grey flesh causing a pink pool of thick liquid to form in the back of the cranial cavity.

“There is plenty of room for a hard drive now,” Anand commented.

Anand stepped away from the cadaver and surveyed the scene as the technician collected the dissected bone and tissue
,
and
then
exited. 

The body was lying on a table hooked up to multiple machines.  The face, now removed, exposed a yawning cavity in the head.  In the hours since McKnight had exited, a steady stream of technicians and medics brought essential equipment into the room including both Bio systems and technology systems.  These machines were clustered around the lifeless body, measuring, maintaining, beeping, buzzing, humming
,
and dripping.

“I am Dr. Frankenstein” Anand said out loud.

* * * * *

“What happened to Dr. Frankenstein?” Anand asked.

Franklin looked up from his writing and considered this
.

“I synapped into a pulp feature about Frankenstein once,” Franklin said, “But I never actually read the book.”

“What happened in the pulp feature?” Anand asked.

“Let me remember… there
was a lot of blood and body parts
.
I think it ended on an iceberg or frozen tundra, hunting the monster
,
” Franklin said.

“Hunting, but not killing
,
” Anand said.  “The monster escapes in the end?”

“I think that’s right,” Franklin agreed.

Anand smiled
,
“It’s the same with me; I hunted my monster, but it escaped me.”

“The organic robot
-
the Warmbot that you created with the computer brain… it worked?”  Franklin asked.

“Not at first,” Anand answered, “It was a learning program, not a computer brain.  There was no way to create a new program that understood balance and motion and hand-eye coordination.  That was not possible in only a few days.  So I created a learning program
.  T
he system would improve over time based on positive and negative feedback from the host body.  The program learn
ed
the same way a child does.”

Franklin wrote a sentence in his notebook.

“When Frankenstein created the monster,” Anand continued, still interested in his side-bar topic
,
“
W
as it always a monster
,
or at first did people marvel at it and say it was wonderful?”

Franklin shifted uncomfortably in the steel chair.  He did not want to talk about the Frankenstein pulp feature he had experienced. 

“I can’t remember,” Franklin said, “It was just a frivolous pulp rip-off of a famous story.  I think at one point, I was experiencing the feature from the perspective of the monster, rampaging through the village.”

“I wish I had taken the time to read the original work,” Anand said, “In my life I have read only a few books. 
Mostly scientific journals or history; never fiction or science fiction.
  I regret that now.”

“No one reads fiction anymore
,
” Franklin said, “Old style books are not even sold anymore, it’s all about experience; either content or pulp
.  T
he people really only Synap into features now
,
”  Franklin
lamented.

“But
,
you decided to write a book, or are you back to writing a feature now?” Anand asked indicating the notebook open on the table between them.

“A book… I guess,” Franklin said thinking of Claudia and the small book club.

“The return of the written word,” Anand said.

“But
,
our book needs an ending, what happened next?” Franklin pick
ed
up his pen expectantly, “You were describing a learning program.”

“I think Frankenstein set out to create a man and made a mistake
,
” Anand continued, oblivious to Franklin’s efforts to get back to the story.

“Yes,” Anand continued, “Frankenstein was a talented scientist but he made a mistake, a flaw in the program, and the man turned into the monster.”

Franklin wrote a few lines in the notebook describing Anand’s fascination with the story of Frankenstein.

“I made a mistake too,” Anand said quietly, “When I created the first organic robot; the first Warmbot. The learning program we created to simulate the autonomic brain activity needed feedback and experiences that take would take years to accumulate. 

In order to create a viable Warmbot in only a few days
, I
took a shortcut.  I set the program to learn not only from experience, but also from observation.  The program would automatically observe and then imitate the activity it observe
d
from the humans around it.  Then to make sure it improved over time, I set the program to always seek new experiences to add to them to its data store.”

“Do you see it? Do you see my error?”  Anand asked growing agitated.

“No
,
” Franklin said
,
“It seems like a reasonable solution.  The Warmbot would learn much faster by watching people around it.  What went wrong?”

“The learning program
,
” Anand said, he was getting excited now, almost frantic, “the learning program was connected to the WetWeb.  This is the same
network
the
Synapse hosts
use
today.  People
were
paying other people to access their bodies, but wh
en this happened, the data from t
he observations and behavior
was
transmitted to
a Synapse Suit and
was
also shared across the network with the Warmbots.  They
were
programmed to watch us and do what we do.  I created a bio-techno loop
,
and it started growing exponentially.  It quickly grew out of control.”

“I still don’t see it,” Franklin admitted, “They imitate live humans, they do what we do, where is that a problem?”

“There is a problem,” Anand said tersely, growing louder with each phrase, “
T
here is a problem when people are allowing their bodies to be hosted
.  They would do it,
not
only
to be paid
, but
for spurious reasons
.  They would do it
because they are bored in their job
,
or they don’t want to attend a chemistry class
.  S
o
,
they
would
use Synaptic Derivation to allow the WetWeb to control them.  They don’t know who or what is actually in control of their bodies. 
When h
osts are connected to the WetWeb in this way
,
they cannot disconnect.”