Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

Chapter 38

Saturday, 12 March 2022 – 11:00 a.m. SAST

Ramesh had been traveling for nearly fourteen hours when he awoke to some minor turbulence. He had tried sleeping, reading and watching movies to take his mind off the flying, but it had not been successful. He stretched out in the comfortable leather seat and lifted his eye mask. It was dark.

The green start icon still sat unused in Ramesh’s field of view. He had not been motivated to try his implants since he had left. There had been so many things happening in the past few days that he relished the quiet. He groaned. He still didn’t want to run through the tutorial, but he wasn’t sleeping. He closed his eyes and focused on the pointer. He forced it to start.

Craaaack! Ramesh jumped nearly out of his seat as the auditory implant activated. He slammed his hands to his ears then realized that the sound was coming from inside his head. It had not been particularly loud, but it was initially unnerving. A moment later, a vibrant audio-visual presentation began. It was Valerie’s voice.

“Welcome to the Q-Morrow military-grade a/v implant user tutorial,” she began. Ramesh settled back in his seat. There was still a slight ringing in his head, but it was not particularly distracting. The tutorial provided a vast amount of information. It was broken into segments with practice opportunities throughout. The first segment was dedicated to the user controls and the overall feature set.

After twenty minutes of instruction, Ramesh found that he was able to identify all of the wireless devices on the plane. Most of them belonged to the crew. The implants provided not only information about the existence of the devices, but also the approximate physical location of each. He noticed that many of the devices had inadequate security and he was able to access some mundane information such as phone number lists and camera images. He shook his head and sighed. He had no interest in continuing his electronic voyeurism, but realized how easily this kind of technology could be abused by the general public.

He continued through the training. He found that he had access to the net at large, to databases, libraries and research facilities. He was instantly able to create text messages to be carried either by email or instant messaging. He also had instant access to imagery, video, maps and other media of all types. It was overwhelming. He mused at how quickly he would be able to organize his writing career using the instant accessibility of the implants.

The next portion of the tutorial introduced the text editing capabilities. Using the simple up, down, left, right, forward and backward controls combined with an advanced predictive text algorithm, entering long sections of text was surprisingly easy. Ramesh began by attempting to enter his favorite quote from Gandhi, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

He started by selecting the letter t. Then by simply indicating a move to the right, and up, the letter h slid into position. The predictive text algorithm only presented letters that could logically follow the preceding ones. For longer words, the text seemed to nearly flow without any effort. Ramesh was impressed.

He stopped the tutorial and wrote a one-line message to Quinn: “This is amazing technology. –Ram”

He thought again of his writing career. He detoured from the tutorial to see if he could access his home computer directly. Within a matter of a few seconds, he had full remote access. He laughed with the giddiness of a child as he checked his messages, replied to some colleagues and started a draft article for one of his regular columns. The in-flight hours passed much more quickly.

After spending some time experimenting with the implants, he eventually returned to the tutorial. The next segment covered the use of the futurestream. This is not a module that is not usually discussed in the military-grade package, he mused.

He learned far more about the futurestream than he had expected. It was more than simply a stream of information. It was a comprehensive database of information indexed and categorized and scored. Every bit of information was evaluated using not only simple database indexing techniques, but also using natural language algorithms to further categorize and classify the information. Scoring was based on a complex mathematical formula that comprehensively evaluated all relevant information. For each mention of an event in the future, all other similar events were cross-referenced and weighted. The more consistent the events were, the higher the score.

“Few events ever appear with a probability of one hundred percent,” said the recording of Valerie. “This is due to many factors, some of which we have yet to identify. When considering the probability of a future event, consider both the immediacy of the event and the possibility of human interaction with the event. For example, an event listed with a high probability that is to occur within the next hour is very likely to actually occur. Any event in the more distant future is less likely to actually occur unless the impact of human interaction on the event is negligible. Future weather events and geological events are not affected by human interaction. They will happen as listed in the futurestream.

“Completely random future events like lotteries have high probabilities. However, anything that can be affected by any human interaction has a decreasing probability of actually occurring over time. Stock markets are affected by emotional buying or selling conditions. Births, deaths, marriages and other similar events are fully at the mercy of human decision.” The tutorial continued. Ramesh listened intently to the overview section, waiting anxiously to learn how to activate the futurestream so he could explore it.

Finally he found the information he was seeking. He activated the futurestream search. He sat for a moment, contemplating what he might explore. He typed in a name: Quinn Sorensen. There were over fifteen million search results. He tried again: Ramesh Kapoor. This time there were only a few thousand results. He looked at the list. It was organized very much like any network search page. He could sort by relevance or by date or by probability and he could search for results similar to other results.

He glanced through the list. Within the next few hours he saw that he would be mentioned in a few articles related to the International Genomics Consortium. He read the contents of an article and was disappointed to see that it was biased against genomic research. He continued searching his near future. There were some other mundane references and a few references to another person with the same name. At the moment that Ramesh was about to return to the tutorial, one of the results caught his attention.

“...American citizen, Dr. Ramesh Kapoor died at the scene. Local authorities calling this a tragic accident...”

Ramesh read the entire article. His heart pounded as he read an emotionless news story depicting a multiple-vehicle accident on the N3 highway near Pinetown in which he and several other people were killed. The date of the article was tomorrow.

Ramesh felt himself getting sick. He felt his muscles tighten as he tried desperately to control the input device. He couldn’t manage to clear the screen. He began to feel claustrophobic as he scrambled to deactivate the view. He couldn’t help but read the lines over and over. His breathing quickened. He threw off the eye mask and rushed to the lavatory. He fumbled with the lock and then spun around and fell to his knees. For a moment a waves of nausea ebbed. He forced himself to breath.

After a moment, he stood. He stared into the mirror. The article was still in his view. He gained enough composure to clear the screen. The last thing he saw was the probability of the event: sixteen percent.

He breathed. It was all he could do. Several minutes passed as he tried to process what he had seen. He decided to message Quinn.

Quinn, I have encountered a disturbing future event. I apologize for disturbing you, but will appreciate any advice.

Ramesh wasn’t sure how long he might wait for a response. He checked the time. It was just before four a.m. in Phoenix. He washed his hands and face then unlocked the door. A response appeared in his view as he took his seat.

Ramesh, I apologize for not having had more time to prepare you for things such as this. I found the article about your death tomorrow. I assume that’s the event you found? The good news is that it has only 10% probability (by the time you check it again, it will be less, or it will be gone).

Remember that you’re in control of your own future. To avoid this death, simply avoid taking that route. Or go at a different time. The article suggested that the accident occurred at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Go later or earlier – and avoid that area of the freeway.

Feel free to contact me anytime.

Quinn

Ramesh pondered the response. Though he had never given it much serious consideration, he had always believed in a bit of predestination about his own death. At the same time, he realized that he had always believed that something could have been done to save his wife and kids.

Ramesh thought about Brad. He now had a clear understanding of the moral battle that Brad faced every day he worked for Quinn and Sireesha. He sympathized with his old friend. They would have so much to discuss.

Looking out on the world from thirty-thousand feet, Ramesh saw the pale light of dawn stretching over the sky. It would still be several hours before he arrived in Johannesburg, then a few more to Durban. He wondered if it would be possible to access some of his personal music files and listen to them with the implants. In moments he found his collection. He chose a few selections from the Pat Metheny Group, a jazz band from the late twentieth century that he found relaxing. He adjusted the volume of the playback and settled into his chair. Within a few minutes he was asleep.