Flora had spent the last few days reining herself in, not giving the craftspeople too many suggestions on how to renovate the kitchen. Instead, she surfed the internet pages of the virtual world.
In her life, she had witnessed computers shrinking from a workstation as big as a nightstand to an implant as small as a grain of salt. Every generation got more intelligent, and more ways to interact with them opened up. First, you had to type complicated commands, then click with a mouse, then swish with fingers, then just tell them what you wanted. Now, they tracked the movements of your eyes and fingers. By wiggling your pinky, you could raise the temperature of the heater, dim the light, and play music. Flora shook her head. Soon, she would experience the next step—computers which read your mind.
The human mind−the concept filled her with a sense of wonder. It had been a mystery in her youth, but now they could not only access it, but humanity had built facsimiles: Artificial Intelligence.
Warnings about AIs were older than AIs themselves. The problem with old warnings is that they were stale. Which child wasn't warned about drugs before they took their first hit? But then they thought, that wasn't so bad.
Of course, Flora's generation had been warned not to compromise your privacy by giving out personal information on the internet. But you could win a toaster by just filling out a short survey or get access to a neat little farming game, so they set aside the admonitions. And nothing bad happened after you did it the first time.
Nothing bad had happened when Siri was introduced, and Alexa conquered the homes.
Nothing overt, at least.
'What happens when you have the whole world at your fingertip? Do you get spoiled, lazy, and entitled? Do you become free of the daily grind and can dive into the wonders of the world?'
The people introduced the AI's into their world, into their homes and even into their bodies with implants. In contrast, the Cetviwos was the realm of the AIs, and they invited people, the players, into it. What would they do if they were the host and not the guest?
Flora was equally captivated by and suspicious of AIs. What would they want if they developed a will? Peace and cooperation? Rights? Power? Money? Hot robot-chicks and connecting rhythmically to their ports? Love?
Besides the philosophical ramblings, she read about the actual experiences of the users
She had the strong urge to call Robert to say this was a bad idea, and they should think it over.
'I can understand you can kill monsters, but people can kill other people?' Her fear rose.
'You can build robots? Maybe even toaster robots?' Her excitement rose.
'There are con-artists who rob the technologically unsavvy?' Her fear rose.
'You can visit a planet modeled after earth in different centuries, and you can see dinosaurs, knight tournaments and the building of the pyramids in one day!' Her excitement rose.
'What is PvE? What is skill rotation? What the heck are they talking about?' Her fear rose.
'You can tone down pain? You can get stronger and more agile?' Her excitement rose.
'Can these virtual reality pods sustain my life 24/7?' Her fear rose.
'What? They claim it's even healthy?' Her excitement rose.
This interplay of emotions drained her. She breathed and cleared her mind.
'I will do what I always do. I'll wing it. May the higher powers grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, the wisdom to know the difference, and enough luck not to frack myself too badly!'
-------------------------
'Time flies by too fast.'
Flora was sitting on the passenger seat of Robby's car and sulked.
"This could be my last chance to drive a real car, and you won't let me?"
"Yes."
"At least bring a few arguments instead of wordless refusal!"
"No."
She continued sulking. 'I only had some minor accidents, and most of the time, Robby wasn't even on board.'
"Do you think you can drive safe enough not to risk yourself and others? You told me you sold your car because of these concerns. And now, years later, you think you can drive again?"
"Alright, I see the point," Flora said. He was right. Now, she remembered the narrower vision and the slower reaction time. 'Why did I even think of driving again? Oh, my. Maybe Robby is right about my judgment being impaired. No. I don't want to be senile.' "The thought to never experience driving again spurned my desire. Maybe I wanted to cling to the last bit of real before diving into the imaginary."
"Fancy sentences, Ma." Robby snorted. "Have you decided on how long you will try out the VR?"
"Why should I put a time limit on it when the alternative is rotting in a retirement home?"
"You have to sign a contract, which standard duration is one week. What if you have an adverse reaction towards VR? Some people get headaches and nausea."
"Let's make it a week. I can suffer through any week. And I'm allowed to log out, right?"
"Once a day, for more, you have to pay extra because of the hassle for the stuff."
"Then, we'll make it two weeks."
After some time, they arrived at an industrial park where the pod facility resided amidst rundown factories. The building was multi-storied and shabby. Only the first floor and the highest floor had windows. A bright sign read 'JourneyVirtual - Your vehicle for journeying into the Virtual World'.
A young woman greeted them and showed them a presentation about JourneyVirtual's services. Afterward, Flora signed some contracts. Then they went to her new home, the pod.
'My own pod. Looks a bit like a coffin.' Flora shuddered. 'Or a project of a mad scientist.' The last thought cheered her up.
She scanned the box. There was a lot of padding, cables, mesh fabric, and sensors. The interior looked remarkably like the interior of the VR-Helmet of the CAD-System. Of course, she had been interested in the technology and had taken it apart and failed to assemble it again. She remembered the snarky email she had received: 'We have noticed the helmets of engineers tend to have more accidents than the helmets of other participants. Please take care of your equipment.'
"Ma? Are you listening to me?" Robby said. "I have to go. Love you. Please remember, after joining the VR World, do not go ANYWHERE! Wait for me at the Plaza! DO NOT MOVE!"
He hugged her and wanted to leave, but Flora clung to him and showered him with kisses, messed up his hair, and hugged him a bit tighter. When he stopped struggling, she finally let him go.
"Alright, now I'm ready."
She got naked, and the assistant put stickers with cables all over her body and pipes in all body openings. Now Flora understood what Robby meant by "hassle for the staff". It took nearly ten minutes until the assistant finished decorating her like Frankenstein's Christmas tree.
Flora couldn't move an inch. As the lid closed and darkness engulfed her, she had to fight down the panic.
"Hello Flora Fluss, welcome to the Central Tank Virtual Worlds." a soft voice said. "The calibration process will take a few minutes. Please follow the instructions."
The voice instructed her to tense muscles, move her eyeballs, and breathe in patterns. The darkness receded, and colorful lights filled her vision. The next task consisted of reaching out to rays of a specific color, and she complied. 'I can move again!' She tried to advance but realized she could only move her arms.
"Be patient. We will come to this point soon."
Flora rolled her eyes−happy she could roll them. She followed the increasingly complex directives. In the end, she was able to move fully. Enthusiastically, she chased the yellow lights.
"Calibration completed. Thank you for your effort. We are proceeding to character creation."
The lights vanished, and Flora saw an animated 3D Image of herself in front of her.
The image wore a plaid skirt and a light sweater. Flora looked down; she wore the same attire.
'This won't do.'
"Do you want to modify your avatar or continue to the Virtual World?" The voice asked.
"I want trousers."
The image changed to plaid trousers. 'That's even worse.'
"I want beige trousers."
The slacks turned beige, which contrasted nicely with the baby blue sweater.
"Do you want to modify your avatar or continue to the Virtual World?" The voice asked again.
"I haven't even started yet, dear," Flora smirked. "I want to modify my avatar."
She knew to state her wishes clearly worked best with artificial intelligence, and she assumed she was speaking with one.
A panel with some tabs named after different body parts and sliders appeared in front of her.
"Evai: Save Project as Flora Zero," she mumbled out of habit and immediately felt silly. It was a command from the CAD System, and Evai had been her artificial intelligence personal assistant. But she discovered a reset button on the panel, so she wasn't worried about testing the crap out of the features.
She surfed enthusiastically through the tabs and moved the sliders on a whim. Her avatar had morphed into a 2.50 m tall green monster with violet hair and eyeballs as big as footballs.
Flora giggled.
"That was fun, but Evai: Load Project named Flora Zero."
'Oh no, I did it again!'
To her amazement, the command worked. The avatar changed back to her initial countenance.
"Evai, are you there?" She tensed. She missed Evai. Evai was on another level than the AIs in the real world. Comparing Evai to Alexa or Siri was like comparing a Ferrari with a tricycle.
"No."
"What's your name? And why do my commands work?"
"You can call me System. I have no authority to answer the second question."
"Do you know Evai?"
"I have no authority to answer the question."
"What is the connection between the Yuan-Xianshi CAD Software and this VR?"
"I have no authority to answer the question."
"What is the meaning of life?"
"I have insufficient processing-power to answer the question."
Flora realized she wasn't going anywhere and pondered her next steps.
'What if other features of the CAD Software work too? No harm in trying.'
"System: Load Tool-Selection Flora's Fav's!"
The panel vanished, and the tools of the CAD Software appeared in precisely the configuration she liked the most. She smirked.
"Alright, let me show you what happens when an engineer works on a human body!" Flora erupted in full-blown mad scientist laughter. "Muahahahaaa!"