Counting Up To Infinity Read online

  “I’m worried about being the sole provider of all these new inventions.”

  “Well I was actually thinking the same thing. We could divest ourselves from it; say to my old computer science teacher, Schwartzman. We can start him up, teach him and a few more about it, and let them sell the systems. We can keep a 25% royalty from their profits. If other’s wanted to cash into the market, fine. We’d still have the best interface, and the most compact and powerful computer, even if it was only the regular salt crystal hard drive – gear it for the Outs.”

  “What about the medical establishment with their attitudes about such frivolous surgery?”

  “We won’t ask them! We can do it safely somewhere else, like in Jamaica where we had our surgery done. I can have C H speak to the prime minister and the head of tourism, and the medical director of Hospital Albert Schweitzer, Dr. Marguine. Rich American tourist dollars feeding the hospital, it will be a gold mine. They’ll need to expand to every Jamaican hospital within a year. One of the rate limiting steps will be getting qualified teachers.”

  “Do you think there’s a market?”

  David: Phyl can you come down for a second?

  Phyllis appeared with Janet a few minutes later.

  “Phyllis, do you remember that tango in Italy?”

  A broad grin stretched across Phyllis’ mouth, “Oh yeah.”

  David said, “Dad, Phyllis never danced a tango before interfacing with the computer.”

  David led Phyllis to an empty area off the living room.

  “Martin, you’re going to hear the music from your earpiece.”

  Phyllis stood a few feet away and pinned David with a cold steely glaze, coldly looking him up and down. Their looks were witheringly cold. So cold, they sizzled. The music started, David spun Phyllis around with their body’s dancing as one fluid machine. She did a pirouette as she hovered inches from his body, encircling him, then ended slightly under his body. His left leg, supporting the both of them, was bent at the knee. The arch of her leg was mirrored by his. They both turned left as she hooked her leg around his. Their faces turned to one side, mirroring each other’s icy gaze. David slowly pivoted her body around. She took a step left followed by David. Their movements were as one. She held him and they moved flawlessly with their eyes flashing mercilessly at one another. They were fire and steel. They were caressing each other without touching. David stopped and Phyllis moved around and almost through his legs, their eyes never left each other. The dance went on for a few minutes. When they stopped, both eyed each other coldly, and then started to laugh.

  “This was even better than we did in Italy, thanks to Phyllis’ inboard computer. Dad, what if we could sell those moves to every klutz? We could make them all into perfect dancers. Batting machines. Golf pros. Become 4th degree black belts? Market? Imagine the market for feelies and sensis.”

  Martin looked puzzled. David continued, “Computer enhanced movies which includes seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and enhanced by visceral feedback! Imagine downloading the memories of someone parachuting for the first time. The adrenaline building the two hours before, the flight in the small cabin of the plane, the smell of diesel fuel and sweat, the roar of the engines, the cold cabin wind on your face, the clamminess of your palms as you try to put on your gloves, the worried staccato glances to your fellow jumpers, the fear building to a crescendo. You think you’re going to back out, then the fear-adrenaline rush of the jump, the weightlessness of falling, the queasiness of your stomach, the ground rushing up to you, the wind in your face. Yeah, this will be big. It will be the only way to see the movies. And then there will the birth sensi that every woman would insist their husbands go through.” David grinned.

  Martin rolled his eyes, closed them and shuttered. “Are you trying to talk me out of this now?”

  Phyllis nodded her head, “It would be required of all men, if I had any say in it, Martin. On the other hand, you could take the La Maze class in the privacy of your own bedroom.”

  Corey asked, “What are you guys talking about?” Corey had just come downstairs, holding the baby.

  Phyllis answered, “One of David’s better ideas, selling computer brain enhancements to the Outs. I’m sure HE didn’t mention it, but storing memos, having a personal assistant, even if the max intelligence were damped down to a brilliance of 20, would make them overnight successes. Think of the legal system, where every crime victim has a full video downloaded to a court’s judge, and jury. Think of when your word IS your bond. Where every person can be an instant reporter, if they’re at the right place and time.”

  Janet looked at David, “But is it safe?”

  David said, “You mean for us?”

  Janet said, “Yes, you remember the public’s reaction to Josh.”

  “But that was a case where a parent was abusing their child,” David replied.

  Janet’s glare cooled the room down instantly.

  “You know what I mean,” said David. “Scientists were abusing non-consenting innocent babies. This will be fully consenting adults. True, there will be an initial fear that people will ‘know what they are thinking’, but we’ll have to make them realize that we can only share visceral and objective perceptions, we won’t be able to capture thoughts. Such training will be part of the pre-surgery training program. We could require a written exam to make sure they understand that prior to surgery.”

  “What I’m hoping is that we’ll be regarded as pioneers, not pariahs.” Janet said.

  His father asked, “And what happens when every mother wants their son and daughter to be the next Charlie Haines? It WILL come to that eventually. You know that they’ll be reverse engineering their own interface, as good as your original one.”

  “Can we stop it?” David said with a frown. “We could monitor it, and perhaps slow it down, but eventually Josh and I will only be the first and second of many. We could delay it with images of Josh in his autistic phase for his first four years. That alone would scare the bejesus out of any parent from attempting it.”

  Martin shook his head no, “But what happens when one of these Wunderkind closes all links and builds a Doomsday machine? Perhaps Al Qaeda producing a biological weapon. A virus to kill all non-Arabs?”

  David threw up his hands and in a smaller voice, “Make the world a place where Al Qaeda doesn’t hate us all? Go out of our way to help them? I don’t know. Yeah, there are too many wildcards here. I hope that the human race will be decentralized enough to prevent that by then. Perhaps I’ll be in a spacecraft flying at the speed of light to Tau Ceti. Perhaps I will be the spacecraft.”

  ***

  To: Maurice Schwartzman

  From: David Klein/Smith

  When are you free to call me? Just say my name into your microphone inside any chat room.

  Maurice: David, David. Good talking to you. I haven’t seen or heard from you or Phyllis since your wedding. By the way, is it Phyllis or Debra? I never understood that.

  David: She changed it because her dad was in the witness protection program. Although Debra was her real name, she changed it to Phyllis when she went to college, and I’ve always known her as Phyllis, so it’s Phyllis now. Are you still talking with Professor Fledging?

  Maurice: Occasionally, why do you ask?

  David: Well I have a strange favor to ask.

  Maurice: Something non-traditional, from you? That I can’t believe. A favor then?

  David: It’s a big one. It involves Professor Fledging and your wives and a number of other people as well. It’s actually a two part favor. First, how would you like to go to the next level in computers? As big a jump as from an Altair computer to your computer - Gertrude? You know that work you did with Professor Fledging on organic powered computing, well, think of the ultimate wearable PC – ComHead style. Interested?

  Maurice: Are you offering me an organic computer? How does i
t compare to Gertrude?

  David: That’s the only possible downside. It’s only 857 times faster.

  Maurice: Only?

  David: You have to realize where it is. You can’t upgrade it every year or two. I had to make some sacrifices trading organic power for computer speed.

  Maurice: Only three orders of magnitude faster?

  David: I know, but it has massive multiprocessing facility, so it could slave faster external computers freely, so its speed limitation may not be a real problem. It also is a 64 core machine.

  Maurice: What are its peripherals?

  David: Well, that’s better news. I’ve been able to enhance the memory storage on the diamond drive by three orders of magnitude during the last year. But the best news is that we’ll link the wiring of the computer’s auditory to your primary auditory cortext of your brain. Visual to primary visual cortex, visceral et cetera. We’ll be able to have total feedback with other parts as well. In other words, an interface like mine.

  Maurice: OK, you can reel me in. I’m hooked and drooling. But you mentioned my wife and Peter Fledging.

  David: Yeah. That’s the second favor. Well, how would you and Peter like to be the next Jobs and Wozniak? Except two order of magnitude better?

  Maurice: The founders of Apple Computers?

  David: Yeah. I’m too busy with all my other projects and I need to spin off some of my enterprises. I was wondering if you’d mind selling and doing training for these new computers? The training could also be done by your wife too. We’re going to need some surgeons. My dad and some doctors will be showing them the techniques. They’ll be practicing on some dogs first, before you. It actually is a very simple surgery

  Maurice: Isn’t that cruel to the animals?

  David: You mean making a dog as smart as a person, but making it much smarter in all the dog abilities? Hell no. Hilda loves it. And there’s very little danger to them or the humans.

  Maurice: What about rejection of the computer?

  David: I’ve been wearing mine for 22 years. There were two rejections, but it was after a very strange biological transformation that I can’t talk about, except to say that the new version is auto-rejection immune.

  Maurice: Will it make me as smart as you?

  David: Sorry, not even close. But it will give you an effective IQ of 170.

  Maurice: What were you thinking of selling them for?

  David: Initially, $100,000 with $15,000 going to the hospital and surgeon and $25,000 going to me. The patient will need to stay overnight. The other $60,000 will be for the suitability evaluation, calibration, training and profit. But once you get going after a few years, you might want to let the prices come down. Training should take about ten hours to calibrate and 15 to 20 to go over all the features on how to use it. I was thinking of automating the calibration phase with a suit of external pneumatic probes, a visual helmet, an attachment for smells, etc. But, as you would say, ‘I’ll leave that to you and Professor Fledger as a team assignment.’ You could ask your current personal assistant to help you there, or you can wait for the new one. So, all told I figure $60,000 for thirty hours of work. However, with the automation and small classes you’re time should go down to 10 hours per person. Oh, there is one small catch, at least one in ten patients would be charity work, like aiding the blind, or deaf, or poor. All my companies have this policy.

  Maurice: Do you think there will be a market at that price?

  David: You’re going to be inundated! That’s why I suggested you set the price so high. We might even want to set the initial costs to be higher.

  Maurice: Inundated?

  David: Hell yeah. Imagine a 170 IQ. Imagine never having to memorize a presentation, you know every detail about all your projects. You are an instant master of rock climbing and soccer and the jazz flute. With the cameras and microphones, everyone’s vision would be better than 20/20 with perfect pitch. You never have to worry about bringing your iPod. You can sing any song, know all languages, with the in-line GPS you’ll never be lost. Your sex will be unbelievable. You can talk to, or just be next to your wife 24/7. You won’t know what she’s thinking, but you can see, hear and taste everything she does. You know about your personal assistant. We won’t make the mass produced version as smart as ours, at this time. Still, even with a brilliance of 20, she’d be incredible, although we could jack that up over time. We also think there’s going to be an incredible market for sensi/feelies. I was mentioning a sky diving feelie to my dad, someone’s first skydive, but porn would be the killer app.

  David: People pay $60,000 to $200,000 and four years of their lives to go to college to make them sharper. $100,000 would be cheap. Then again, some companies would kick in some portion of that for the added productivity. Yeah, inundated. Perhaps our initial cost should be $200,000?

  Maurice: You mentioned giving me one, if I do this for you. Two questions, when and why? What’s in it for you?

  David: When? How about over the Thanksgiving break. Why, how about $25,000 profit to me for royalty, interface and computer hardware for every unit sold.

  Maurice: Is it only the money, my rich friend?

  David: Well ... Perhaps it would be a good idea to get people used to the notion of being computer connected, if you know what I mean. The screaming torch and pitchfork mob might not go after a person with a pair of lug nuts on his neck, if thousands of their friends and relatives have the same bolts and wires.

  Maurice: I’m a bit curious about why you want to do my wife as well?

  David: We need the initial trainers is the simple answer. However, think of it this way, would you be happy for long, could your marriage last, if your wife were an eighth grade, drop-out? The gulf in intelligence would be that great. Finally, family units seem to work for us. I mean, how long would your marriage last with you staying alone at a resort hotel in a tropical paradise?

  Maurice: And the cost to Fledger and me will be zero?

  David: Yes. But my family is saying that the diamond drive and ‘Knowledge of all Humanity’ upgrade will only be given to you, not Fledger, nor the wives.

  Maurice: Do you think this will turn a profit?

  David: If you didn’t hire a single person, which I think is impossible, each of you will make close to $200,000 per week. That’s assuming that one of you can write an article on the computer and generate interest. However, I think that you’ll need to expand rapidly. So are you interested? Remember, it will be you and Professor Fledger who will be credited with this evolutionary computer, based on your previous research. You will get the kudos and the harshest criticisms from the traditionalists. Some people will laugh at you and you will get reactions far worse than anything you ever experienced at the supermarket wearing Gertrude. Every night a Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien, or other comic will be mentioning your name. That’s another reason I want your wives involved.

  Maurice: I’m going to have to ask Jean. By the way, are there any side effects from the operation and having the computer inside you?

  David: No negative ones so far, but ask Phyllis, you can also ask my dad, his wife and the two other doctors who got one.

  ***

  Maurice: Jean asks about the geek factor. Would she need to wear special gear?

  David: None, the computer and its link will be under her skin, hidden. But if she wants better than her 20/30 vision, get rid of her reading glasses, and have more depth of field, she, like us, could wear very tiny cameras and/or microphones. They double as necklaces, earrings, rings, jewelry, or fancy buttons. I think for the status factor alone, we could eventually put the cameras on a headband-diadem, like in the comics. However, they are strictly optional. She could ask herself, if she’d rather have a pair of glasses or a necklace which does the same thing, only better. We could even make her glasses into video pickups, like yours. So is it a go? Professor Fledger a
lready agreed. He and his wife are already scheduled for the Saturday after Turkey day.

  Maurice: Yes.

  David: OK. I’ll send you a full schedule, an outline of the computer’s features, full manual of the computer’s capabilities, training manual and accessories list. You might want to go through it with your wife together. It also includes a FAQ with all possible questions, some simple and some technical. At least answers to all the questions I could think of. I recommend you use the new computer a week, write an online journal article and a blog of your experiences, including your e-mail address and a web site with the manual, then brace yourself. Any ideas on what to name it?

  Maurice: Fledger and I were thinking of calling it the InLife computer.

  David: That works.

  ***

  “I want to thank you for your help with Mrs. Klein.” David handed Marie a check for $35,000.

  She looked at it. “You know I’m not stupid. I am a registered nurse and have a lot of experience, with both adults and infants. Can you honestly answer some questions?”

  David sighed, “Honestly yes. Answer maybe.”

  Marie pursed her lips, “OK, I’m going to have to live with that. Corey and the baby aren’t normal. Are they?”

  David blinked and then said “No.”

  Marie waited for an elaboration, then finally asked, “Martin also radiated heat, just like Corey and the baby. Him too?”

  “Yes, they were all affected.”

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  David paused then said, “They were both infected with a special compound they were working on at the labs. It has some positive and some negative side effects. As it only affected them, we are keeping it quiet. It was their idea for the silence.”

  “Side effects?”

  “Like permanent male sterility. Lucky for Corey, she got pregnant just before the compound affected Martin.”

  “And the baby? Corey tried to hide it, but Dee is already lifting her head and has a grip like a plumber on steroids.”

  “She was also affected by the compound, after inception.”

  “These side effects, they also include a six month full term pregnancy? I saw what Corey did to my birthing bed. She has incredible strength.”