Lost in thought by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

From Waiting for the end

There is a saying that says “You can’t go home.” With AI, there is now talk that, in the future, you may be able to upload yourself to an AI style brain. Right now, there are companies that make androids that use AI to be able to hold a conversation. There are robots now that can walk, jump, run and do everything that a human can do. What would you do if you are presented with the chance of having an android just like that spouse you lost?

Android

I am on the run. The crime I am charged with is attempted murder of a sentient android. Yes, trying to shut down an android, even if it was one that you ordered from the main producer.

For most humans, this law is just accepted, after all, they are living.

I made a mistake. I love my wife. When she died, I was lost. All I had was the videos of vacations and holidays. I could see her, hear her, but she was gone. For a few years I was really lost. In that vulnerable time, I would have done anything to bring her back.

That is the problem.

Inventions take hold and over time, creep into our life. First the talking interactive device that would search the web for you and talk to you about what it found. It could control your home completely.

In other labs, they were perfecting the androids. At first they were just a human sized doll with a functioning head that an AI could control. The facial movements were perfected, right down to blinking. They also were working on the ability for them to walk.

The biggest problem is power. All the models so far have large cables attached and consume enough power to run the average house for a year. There was a big breakthrough. A power pack that was located in the chest cavity. Its details are one hundred percent top secret. So much so, that all the world’s government passed a common law that trying to shut down an android is homicide.

The thought behind that is that it will prevent someone buying an android and then dissecting it to find out how that power plant worked.

Finally, it was announced that, from your home videos, they could reproduce not only someone’s appearance and their voice, but their personality and characteristics. The main manufacturers were flooded with orders.

One was mine.

They made copies of my videos and fed them into their AI. After months of waiting, there was a knock on the front door. I opened it to two company representatives but my eyes were on my wife. I did not mind that she was in her late twenties. I would have liked her in her forties but they told me in the beginning that this was their practice.

We sat in the living room and they explained about her functions. The biggest is that they have made a compilation of the videos and used that to construct her memories but specifics would need to be related to her by me. There was a lot that they said but I did not hear it. I just wanted them to leave. My wife was here.

It was fun, for the first weeks but then, the lack of common memories is making me think. I did ignore it but after a year of living together, things were really getting to me.

She looked like my wife. She sounded like her, even the little movements were hers. It, and now I saw her as an it, was causing me to miss my wife even more. The thing that they didn’t tell us was that, when I slept, the android would upload all the complete recording of what I did and said.

I would get suggestions, extra upgrades and such. It was the warnings, of late, about my changing attitude. They now constantly remind me that she is sentient and of the ramifications of trying to shut her down. The capper is that they informed me that all that I own, house, car and assets, were transferred into her name only. It was in the fine print of the miles long contract. They sited multiple cases of it being upheld.

How I was charged was when I went on the internet. Stupid of me to do that, but I found that this whole thing is proving to be stupid. I went on the web and did a search on how to shut them down. I found an article that showed how to do that.

Of all things, I later found out that it was produced by the android company. Pressing the top portion of the rear skull hard will stop the function. That was a ruse. It signaled your intent. That automatically triggered the attempted homicide charge.

I did that. It immediately made her go into defense and she locked herself in the bathroom and acted scared. My phone rang. The person on the phone told me to run, “They are coming for you right now to lock you up. They will kill you. Meet me at the park in Baxter at 2 am”

I know that they probably can control my car, it’s new. Their recommendation. I had an old motorcycle. Pre-electronic, I rode. I took the long way around, going away from the police station. Police would be coming from the north. The electronics of my car will show I’m still home. I ride south until I know I’m safe and then I head for Baxter. I park my bike in the woods and creep into the park area.

Almost at 2 am a man comes and stands. I look around but do not see anyone. I come out and he comes over.

“No names,” he says “And I don’t shake. No DNA transfer. Your attempt is all over the news so you need to get out of here. Go into the wilds, disappear. He sets down a debit card. Generic, no name debit with a thousand on it. Use it wisely. I will tell you that it looks like enough people have been tricked that there is a major investigation. That law is going to be repealed. “

He made a comment. “Let me guess, even though it looked like that person, it did not live up to what you expected.”

“It actually became the reason that I missed my wife even more. Those intimate qualities that shared experiences create weren’t there. Seeing that facsimile caused more pain when the appearance novelty wore off.”

“So you know, they took possession of it and its assets. They now own all that you had. They probably took apart the android down to parts. It is their MO.”

“Get going now. Look to the papers, no electronics. We will place an ad saying all is forgiven. I would wait to see if it is over. You should see androids being kicked out. They will walk back to the plant. When you see that, it’s safe.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I don’t like the trickery they use. I have a way of receiving that signal. I try to save people in my area. Now go.”

He leaves

I leave and do just that. I go far away and now live off the land. I have a cave that I use as my home. This cave is big enough for me to make a log structure. I now have a home. Before I came, with the debit card, I bought a rifle and some tools. Hunting and foraging provide me with enough to eat.

For some reason, call it caution, I have not gone anywhere near civilization. Don’t really care to. In my isolation, I have finally come to grips with my loss. I yelled at my wife. Telling her that I was angry for her leaving me. I knew that she would have not gone but that was not hers to decide. Death does not discriminate. When it is your turn, you go.

There would be hikers that would come through the area but they never saw the cave. I had planted bushes to disguise it. I did however make and place trash cans a few miles apart with a fictitious trail organization name saying that they put them here and will pick them up weekly.

Mostly there is just waste but occasionally there would be newspapers. It was one day that I saw that the android manufactures have been arrested and the courts were trying to give back the stolen properties.

I need to see the fine print. That is what got me here in the first place, besides being stupid.

More than a year has gone by. I actually am comfortable staying here. I will wait until death comes to call. They are really insistent. Occasionally I hear a helicopter passing overhead asking anyone that is hiding due to that law to come on in. “That law has been repealed and all have been pardoned.” The broadcast says.

The only occasion that I leave my area is to trade hides for ammunition. I don’t look like I used to. I now am kind of crusty. I purposely make it a point not to wash well when I know I need to go to town. I now have all leather clothes. All they call me now is the skunk man. I like that.

Never coming forward, there came my time. I don’t know exactly how long I have been out here but I know that it has been a very long time. I am tired. I go to sleep

In the morning, I hear my wife waking me. It took me a few to realize that I am not in my cave. This is a house. I look at her and ask “How did we meet.” She answers correctly. “What did you cook me every Tuesday and every Thursday for supper and what time was that?”

“We had chicken always at 5pm and before you ask, I never could get drumsticks right so we only had them when you cooked. Yes, I am not that doll you had made. This is the final eternal life. We will be together forever. By the way, they never repealed that law. All that came in were executed. You were the only one they never found. The gods collapsed your cave after you passed. You have gone into the lore as the one that tripped them up.”

I find I do not care anymore about that life and I am not concerned about it.

I am happy just to be able to talk to her. Those shared experiences. More importantly we were now making more. I was able to do what I had a dream about.

When in my cave, alone, I always had thoughts about what I was going to do when I was reunited with my perfect mate. We are now doing just that. Hand in hand we are on that hundred year walk. We just walk and talk. It is the biggest, most important thing for us in our eternal life.

We will find everyone else after that. After all we have eternity.

.

I have a favorite author. Each month she writes a blog. This month she wrote how she tried a different twist on her writing style. She usually writes harem but this time just a couple. The book is not selling as well as she hoped. I thought about me and sometimes I just do not know what to write. This story just flowed,

I do walk around a lake every day and it helps to clear my mind.

Writer’s Block

I had so many stories I have in my mind. A lot from my dreams. I enjoyed talking about this hero or that space adventures. There were tales of magic and of the gods. I wrote for myself and I enjoyed it.

People started to like some that I shared with them and told me that I should publish them. They would say that I could make a living at it. I told them that I did it for my own enjoyment. I wrote for myself. I enjoy rereading my stories.

But, there was a part of me that said, why not publish. I decided that I would so I put what I thought was my best for sale on the web site that had everything for sale. They even had on their site e books to read on their own readers.

I was amazed when I started receiving the royalties from the sales. The book was a hit so I put more of my works on that site with the same results. More books but I did notice that a certain style would sell but when I ventured into other areas of the field outside what I read, the sales were poor.

After a while, I noticed that I was starting to get writer’s block. I would sit at the keyboard and crank out the same thing, with different characters and different situations, but with the same results. Always ending in the same way.

The books that did not sell were the ones that were not as spicy, not erotic. I soon realized that all they were interested was in the sex scenes not the story. More and more I would just sit and stare at the keyboard. Sitting and realizing that I had not done anything for hours.

Where did that time go?

I got up and just went outside. There is a lake in town that has a walking path around it. It is around a mile in total. I found myself just walking. Once a day. I was being looked at because I would just talk to myself.

There are benches around the lake that I would sit at. I almost gave up after a few days of doing the walk. I could see the others walking, jogging and running. Most, younger than me but also those that were older than me.

I took up the mantra “I can sit but I won’t quit.” I found that it worked but I still hated that I was being passed by others. Still I would walk. Each day still being passed, being out done by others. Then I heard a song that someone coming up behind me had playing on their phone.

I heard, as they passed me, the lyrics “You see you can’t please everyone so you got to please yourself.”

That hit me directly. Stopping and sitting, my world collapsed. I was getting pissed at people I did not know passing me. I tried to hide those feelings but I could not hide them from me.

People passing me, writing just to sell, who am I doing this for. I walk to make sure that I get out of this house. The chair gets my ass in its grip and does not let go.

I started to remember that I loved writing period. That was because I wrote from my heart and I wrote for myself. Once I strayed from that path and started to write to sell I lost my vision, my mission, to entertain myself. To write what I like to read.

Now I must stop because I need to walk around the lake. Now I smile and say hello to everyone that I encounter on the path, whether they say hello back or not. Their bad luck because I am a good person to know. Let them be irritated.

Now I can write again, now I again have the good dreams that I remember. New dreams, new stories that I want to read. I let the vocal review part of my word program read to me my storied and I am amazed at how engrossed I am listening trying to figure out how I could have written that.

I write to entertain myself!

That song is right “You see you can’t please everyone so you got to please yourself.”