Twisted Thoughts And Thoughtful Truths On Thursday #030

Twisted Thoughts And Thoughtful Truths On Thursday #030 – The Atrium – Chapter 10 – Incremental Progress, Part III

As promised, I’m releasing some of my upcoming book bi-weekly as part of the Twisted Thoughts And Thoughtful Truths On Thursday series here at SBS.  I don’t expect it to make sense…at least, not at the moment…but that’s okay.  Putting it out here publicly is intended to be motivation to keep me writing it, and that’s all the purpose any of it needs to serve.  Hopefully, if I get lucky, you’ll enjoy it in the process…that’s the best case scenario.  At the moment, I’d predict that things will likely change with the order I put these things out in…and what reads as “chapters” now, might end up becoming pure prologue, if it even ends up making the final cut for the whole story at all.  Regardless, if you find yourself being one of the few that wanna follow along and see where this goes, I can at least promise you that reading what is posted up here at the homepage will provide you with extra insight, details, and ideas that probably won’t even end up being in the book…so perhaps, by reading these postings at the start of each month, you might very well know more about what I’m writing than the publisher will by the time things are all finished. 

I truly hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading.

– Jer @ SBS

The Atrium – Chapter 10 – Incremental Progress, Part III

June 5^th, 1988

Randy, Dale, and Kevin sat quietly on the couch in a medium-sized room that was pretty much empty with the exception of a small bar that ran along the right side of it, complete with a mini-fridge and a fresh bucket of ice for their drinks, a large pane of glass in front of them, and a similarly large panel of mirrors that stretched out the length of the room behind them.  They didn’t come into the room silent; they were rendered that way.  Originally, they all came in laughing and joking around with each other, while discussing their favorite baseball teams and which of them would be in the World Series that year.  They continued to debate the merits of the Dodgers and the Cubs, while setting themselves up with a whiskey on the rocks as they got ready to observe the latest in a project that was being called “Artificial Intelligence.”  The concept sure sounded interesting to them all, though none of them seemed to quite understand what it would look like, and as they witnessed their secretary Kelly usher in some guy named Mitchell and a woman named Sarah, all three of them seemed to immediately get even more confused.

Kevin was the first to say something other than a baseball statistic as he observed the people coming into the room through the glass in front of him.  “I thought this was about like…robots or something?”

The other two nodded their heads in agreement and took thoughtful sips of their whiskey.  Randy said, “I’m sure this will go somewhere soon enough.  We’re all successful executives that have already built our own companies, and we’ve been investing in people since the beginning of time.  I mean, that’s why we’re here right?  I was told that we were about to witness an opportunity to invest in the future that’s never been seen before.  Wasn’t that what they told you guys too?”

“Yeah it was,” said Kevin.  “Maybe I just assumed it was robots.  What else could Artificial Intelligence be?”  Dale nodded his head slowly in agreement, implying that his experience was similar to Kevin’s.

Sarah sat down in her seat, and Mitchell in a seat that was just slightly positioned behind hers.  They had computer screens set up in front of them, and they briefly talked with Kelly about why they were there before she left them in the room alone, shutting the door behind them.  They could see Mitchell turn his head slightly to the back of the room, seemingly staring right at Randy, Dale, and Kevin through the glass, but never indicating that he actually saw anyone at all.  Then they both got a message flashed to them on their computer screen, and the trio witnessed a third room light up in front of the Mitchell and Sarah.  It looked very plain and bright white…somehow cold and uncaring.  It gave Dale a chill down his spine as he watched a patient being wheeled into the room.  From where they sat on the couch, they couldn’t quite make out what was being said, but noticed that both Mitchell and Sarah began to type into their computer screens, presumably noting what they were watching.  It looked like they had shaved a man’s head and were currently preparing him for some kind of surgery by making marks around his cranium.

“Umm.  I didn’t sign up for watching an intense medical procedure y’all.  Did you?” asked Randy as he took a nervous sip of his whiskey and swished the ice cubes at the bottom of his glass around in a circle.  The other two shushed him politely, and continued to watch intently for the reason they were watching.

Directly in front of them, they realized that Sarah had come completely to a halt.  They noticed Mitchell was now looking around the room nervously, as if he was wondering if he should call out for some help.

“That right there is odd, isn’t it?” said Dale as he got up to pour himself another whiskey.  “Anybody else want another of these while I’m up here?” he asked, offering his bartending services to the others.  They nodded their heads in agreement once again, and so Dale quickly served up a new set of filled glasses.

“How long has she been like that?” asked Kevin.  “I wasn’t really paying attention to the two in front of us, I think I was too busy trying to see what was happening in the room in front of them to notice that she just stopped moving.  You think she’s okay?  Should we be calling someone?  This guy on the left side seems concerned about her – maybe we should be too?”

Randy rolled his ice cubes around and signalled to give it a minute.  “We don’t really know why we’re here or what it is that we’re looking at just yet, now do we?  Maybe these are the robots they were talking about us investing in Kevin, what do you think?”

“Robots where?” he asked back to him.  “You mean the people?”

“Well…yeah…I suppose that’s what I mean.  What if those aren’t people at all?  What if they’re whatever this Artificial Intelligence is supposed to be?”

“My good man, take a hard look at’em will you?  How could those two, or the two in front of them be robots?  They look just like you and I do!”  Kevin was completely perplexed by Randy’s assumption.  “We all know that robots would be built of shiny mechanical parts and such.  You know, like a car engine is.  The two in front of us, and the two in front of them, are made entirely of flesh & bone like we all are.”

Randy nodded.  “Don’t get me wrong friend, it does appear to be that way, I agree with you.”

Dale chimed in again, with his eyeline never shifting away from Sarah sitting perfectly still in her desk – “Does anyone have any logical explanation for what we’re seeing right here in front of us though?”

The three of them sat on the couch, rendered silent in their confusion, trying to figure out what it was they were looking at exactly.  As the medical procedure two rooms ahead of them resumed, so too did Sarah all of a sudden, yet it seemed like she was typing at a way more rapid pace than she was before.  The lights in the room itself also seemed to be dampening, like the whole power source of the place was slowly on its way to a brown-out, right before it’d recover for a second, and then back again.  It was like Sarah was drawing the power around her from the room itself, causing the lights to slightly dim and brighten, back and forth in a strange electric tango.  If they could have seen the absolutely insane expression on her face, they might have run screaming out of the room – but all they could see was the horrified look on Mitchell’s face observing the craziness sitting right next to him, pounding at the keys.  Soon enough, they saw the blood flying from her fingertips, and they could see her slightly turn to face the guy to her left as she continued to hammer the keys.  Their voices had been fairly muffled by the pane of glass from the moment they got in there, but all three of the executives were positive they could now hear something being said.  More accurately, they were sure it would have to be screamed to be heard.  “What is that she’s saying?” asked Dale.  “I know what you’re doing over there Mitchell?  Is that it?”  The lights continued to dim and brighten as sawing of the patient’s head finally came to its grizzly conclusion, and the doctor pulled the lid right off, swiping away the last strings of sinew attaching it.

“That’s a man’s brain right there is what that is,” said Dale.  “Takes up the whole damn skull, don’t it?”

“It certainly does,” said Kevin in reply, practically mesmerized and frozen in place.

“What in the actual fuck?” said Randy.

Whatever the purpose was in detaching the man’s skull, was unknown.  The procedure from there seemed to last mere seconds, before they went about reattaching the two pieces back together again.

“Did I miss something?” asked Dale, sounding almost frustrated, like a person too far back in the crowd to see over all the tall people.  “Did they like, put something in there or take something out of it?”

“You mean from his head?” asked Randy.  “I didn’t see them do anything other than saw his skull open and start to basically reattach it right afterwards.  Did you see anything else Kevin?”

“I don’t think so,” he replied.  “I saw the doctor kind of run his hand gently over the guy’s brain I guess?  But so what?  I don’t think that could be considered anything special.  Maybe he was trying to figure out if it was the right kind of firm or something like that?”

“Like you’d pick out produce from a store?” Dale asked, bewildered.

“Now how the hell would I know what he was checking it for?  I don’t know.  Maybe I didn’t even see that.  Maybe I just thought I saw him wave his hand over the guy’s brain, but maybe he was just trying to make sure there weren’t some kind of pieces or bits of skull that got lodged in there after sawing him open.  I don’t know if you guys know this or not, but this is my first time seeing anything like this,” said Kevin with a savage hint of dry-but-seething sarcasm that the other two weren’t likely to catch onto.

“I’ll tell you this much, it sure doesn’t seem like this guy in front of us really wants anything else to do with the girl anymore.”  The lights were now completely back to normal, and she had gotten up to leave.  “From the looks of things at her station, I can’t rightly say I blame him either,” said Randy.  It was a little hard to make out for certain on a black keyboard, but equally unmistakable either when they considered the shape of Sarah’s fingertips or the drops of red that hit the floor below them when she stood up.  Her station was practically soaked in blood.  Visibly, you could see the reflection of the keyboard’s wetness, and when coupled with the sheer look of horror on Mitchell’s face, everything seemed to add up, with the notable exception of Sarah not seeming to give one ounce of a shit about her own physical damage.

“What the hell is really going on here?” asked Kevin, right as Sarah and Mitchell exited through the door to the side of them, and the door of the room the three executives sat in seemed to open only moments later.  Kelly appeared in its frame once again, and she walked into the room to check on its occupants.

“How is everybody doing here?” she implored.  “Would anyone like another whiskey or something to drink?”  Her face scanned the shocked faces staring back at her in return.  “You all look like you could use another if you ask me.  Shall I pour you a tall one?”  Kelly was clearly unphased by everything.

“Lady-friend,” Dale started into her, “can you kindly explain to us what the fuck is actually going on here?  We just saw a man with his freaking head cut open, a woman pound on her keyboard so hard that her fingers bled, and now you’re here, basically acting like none of what we saw even happened at all!  What gives?  What are we missing?  What is this really all about?”

“And where are the robots?” asked Kevin.

“Robots?” asked Kelly in return.  “I’m not sure what brought you all here today, but I’m quite sure that it wasn’t to see some robots.  Nobody in this building has ever seen one of those here, I assure you.  We did however, bring you here to witness the dawn of future technology and reality through what we call Artificial Intelligence.  Do any of you have anything to say about that?  Any thoughts?  Any feedback?”

“I have never been this confused in my entire life, and believe me, I get confused a lot,” said Kevin.  “Did you see the same things we just saw Miss?”

“No,” said Kelly.  “I’m just a facilitator.  I’m here to collect any additional insights you might have based upon what you saw personally, that’s it, that’s all.  Perhaps if I ask you all about this experience in a different way, we can get a better understanding of what occurred.  First of all, you witnessed a medical procedure in the furthest window from you.  How did that go?”

Randy spoke first.  “I don’t think any of us are qualified to speak on how a serious surgery like that would have gone, are we?  All we saw was a man’s skull get sawed open, and the brain on the inside of it.”

“I see,” said Kelly.  “And did anything about the brain you saw strike you as abnormal?”

“Again, with respect, how on earth would we know,” said Randy.  “We’re not doctors.”

“Fair enough,” said Kelly.  “How about the two people in front of you recording the event?  Did anything about them strike you as odd, or did anything happen that you wouldn’t describe as normal?”

“I think the point we’re making is that none of this is normal to us,” said Kevin.

Kelly looked back at him like he was completely wasting her time.  Dale continued on for him.  “I mean, you’ve got the lady in the room practically frozen in place with no explanation, and a guy that seemed like he was one breath short of yelling for help.  Then when the surgery started back up, the lady came out of her apparent coma, burst into action with such an intensity that her fucking fingers started to bleed all over the keyboard as she typed, while all the lights in the room flickered around them.  Any of that seem normal to you?  Cause it’s certainly not within the realm of anything I consider to be normal.”

“I understand what you’re saying, and thank you for that information Dale,” said Kelly.  Is there anything else that you’d like to add before you all go for the day?”

“Go?” questioned all three, collectively at the same time.

“Miss, I was brought here under the impression that there was something I’d be able to invest my money in,” said Kevin, seeming to become more agitated by his confused state.  “Where is this Artificial Intelligence thing that you wanted us to see?  We’ve all got money here, but it’s like you guys don’t want it or something.  I’m entirely confused as to what it is that we’re supposed to invest in.  Is it lighting?  Y’all seem like you could use a more reliable grid to power whatever it is that you’re doing here, but that’s not something I typically put my money into.  I was told we’d be looking into the future today.”

“I understand your concerns Kevin, and I assure you that you were.”

“But how?” he asked her back.  “Look, if we can’t get some answers soon, I’m fine to leave.”  Kevin was beginning to get red in the face with his frustration.  “I’m a businessman.  Every second I’ve got directly represents a monetary value of untold proportions.  If I’m not confident in what I’m going to invest in, guess what I don’t do lady?  Invest!  So if you want to start properly explaining what the hell is going on, I’m still willing to listen.  But if you’re not, then it’s about damn time that you stopped wasting my time.”

The lights in the room began to dim in proportion to the extremes of Kevin’s rage.  Randy and Dale took notice, as did Kelly.  Moments later, when Kevin seemed to shut down entirely, they definitely all noticed.  Very similar to Sarah during her recording of notes, Kevin locked into place for a good couple of minutes before he came back to the conversation and the lights around them came back to their full strength.

Both Dale and Randy looked entirely mortified.  Kelly resumed speaking right afterwards, once again completely unphased by what had just occurred.  “Like I had mentioned, I’m just a facilitator.  I’ll tell you what though – I think what you’re asking for is completely reasonable Kevin, and I promise you, your time was not wasted here today.  What I’m going to do from here, is walk straight down the hall, and get you someone that can answer all the questions you might have.  How does that sound to you?”

Kevin, looking visibly cooler, responded.  “Well yes, I think that’s what we’ve all been hoping for, right?”  He scanned the room to look at the faces surrounding him.  Kelly was as calm and collected as she always was.  Randy and Dale stared back at him like they were looking at a complete and total stranger.

“Okay then, that’s exactly what I’ll do,” said Kelly.  “I just have one final question for you all before I go.”  They all nodded their heads in unison, visually imploring her for whatever she might want to ask them.  “If I asked you who would want to invest with us, solely based on the experience you had here today and what you’ve seen with your own eyes, what would you say in response?  Any takers?”

“Miss, you have got to be completely crazy,” said Kevin.  “You haven’t shown us a damn thing that would ever be worth my money.  So far as I can tell, you haven’t shown us a damn thing at all if I’m being honest with you.  I did appreciate the whiskey though, and thank you for that.”  Kevin shook his head in disbelief, wondering how anyone could possibly want to invest in something that wasn’t even there.

“Fair enough” said Kelly.  “And what about you Dale & Randy – what do you think?”

In what almost appeared to be completely in unison, they each turned their heads towards the glass frame to look back into the room with the bloody keyboard, beyond into the room where the surgery was performed, then back to stare at Kevin for a moment as they considered their final response.

“I think I’d be interested in hearing more about what you’re doing here for sure,” said Randy.

Dale raised his hand slowly to support that idea.  “I’m in too,” he said.

Kevin looked at them both like they were from a completely different planet than he was.  His mouth opened, and a “what the fuck” trickled out of it, fully perplexed by the response from his peers.

“Thank you all for your time,” said Kelly.  “I’ll be right back.”  She turned to grab the door handle, opened it, walked through, and turned back towards the open frame.  Reaching through it to the panel on the inside, she flicked the lights off, closed the door behind her, and walked clickity-clack, clickity-clack, back down the white hallway, leaving the three executives silent in the dark, where they’d continue to remain.