“Sit down and let me show you something.” said Linda. “It will help you to understand.”
We sat down on the couch together.
“Did you know that this window is adjustable?” she asked.
“No.” I replied. In the bedroom, the floor-to-ceiling window actually had drapes. They were part of the decor. But in the living room the window was a seamless floor-to-ceiling sheet of crystal clear glass. There was no frame or border of any kind. There was no obvious control for adjusting it.
Linda said, “It can be frosted.” And the window frosted. “Or it can be opaque.” It turned black, and the lighting in the room came up to compensate. “I can take the lighting down or bring it up,” She said as the lights adjusted. “It can even look like stained glass,” She said, and the window took on a modern stained glass design. “Or paisley wallpaper.” And it became what appeared to be a solid wall-papered wall instead of a sheet of glass. Then it became the familiar clear window again.
“How are you doing that?” I asked. She had touched nothing. She hadn’t really moved. She was speaking, but the window often changed as she was speaking the sentence, almost as though it were following her thoughts rather than her words.
“I’m using the Vertebrane system. Ask me anything.” Linda said.
“OK, What size shoes do I wear?” I asked.
“We don’t have shoe sizes here. Each shoe is custom made for the wearer. Next.” She said. “Try to ask me a factual question.”
“How tall is the Empire State Building?” I asked.
“1,472 feet to the tip of the antenna. 1,250 feet if you don’t include the antenna. Next.” She said.
“In metric?” I asked.
“448 meters and 391 meters. Next.” She said.
“In light years?” I asked.
“About 1.5 light microseconds.” She answered. “Next.”
“How do I know that you are right?” I asked.
“Take my word for it. Or ask me something that you can verify right here.” She said.
“How wide is this room?” I asked.
“16.5 of your shoes. Check it.” She answered.
I checked it by pacing off the room. She was correct. “Lucky guess.” I said.
“Next.” She said.
“Will we ever make love together?” I asked.
“I cannot predict the future.” She said. “But I would say that the probability of that event is high.”
I looked at her and she looked at me for a moment.
“Ask me something that is impossible for me to know.” She said.
I thought about it. Burt had a tattoo on his butt. I knew about it because I had seen it several times in the showers in Terrafoam, but there is no way Linda would know.
“What is tattooed on Burt’s butt?” I asked.
She paused for a moment. “The name Angie in a heart.” She said. “On the left cheek.”
I paused for a long time.
“How are you doing this?” I asked.
“That is what we are going to talk about today…”
Chapter 7
Linda looked at me and started to explain, “The Vertebrane system lets me access the entire information network here in the Australia project. It is like a network connection, a telephone, a TV, a computer and several other devices all rolled into one. You asked me what was tattooed on Burt’s butt. I used the Vertebrane system to get the answer.”
“Yes.” I said, “But how did you get the answer?”
“Let’s say you were holding a telephone in your hand. How would you get the answer?” Linda asked.
“I guess I would call Burt and ask him.” I replied.
“Right. But Burt doesn’t have a phone, so I called Cynthia and I asked her. She asked Burt. If I thought the answer was on the network, I could do a search instead.”
“But how did you do it? You never moved. You never picked up a phone. You didn’t do anything — how did you call Cynthia?”
“This is the interesting part about the Vertebrane system. I am going to explain it to you, but I want you to relax while I do it. Different people take this differently. That’s why I am sitting here with you privately, telling you about it one-on-one. There’s just no way to talk about it in a big group during orientation, because everyone reacts differently to it. I want you to understand that the Vertebrane system is a good system. It is the most advanced communication and networking system ever created. But it freaks some people out when they hear about it. My job is to help you get past that.” Linda was looking at me with an expression that was one of serenity. She just wanted to talk to me about this thing, whatever it was.
“I won’t freak out.” I said. “Just answer me one thing. Where is this system? How do you access it? This has been a question since I got here. In this room there is no computer, no TV, no telephone. I would expect my room to be filled with electronic devices, but I have not seen a single device since I got here.”
“That was the problem that people started to notice. The more advanced everything got, the more devices you needed. Think about the state of electronics in the U.S. — computer, TV, telephone, PDA, GPS, stereo system, portable music players, video players, video recorders, cameras… At some point the number of devices becomes insane. Sure you can integrate some of them together, but then there are compromises. Plus there are the problems of screen sizes, multiple screens, batteries…” Linda explained. “The Australia Project, with its level of innovation, was producing more and more devices in myriad forms and it was becoming quite unwieldy.”
“So how did you solve the problem?” I asked.
“We decided it would be easier to build in all of these devices.” Linda answered.
“Build them in where?”
“Inside of us.” Linda replied. “I know that sounds foreign, because you’ve never thought of ‘devices’ in this way before. You have always thought of devices being outside your body. When they are outside, though, they are always getting in the way. You have to carry them, you have to put them in pockets. You lose them. You have to hold them in your hand to use them, and you only have two hands. If you build them in, all of those problems go away.”
“That actually makes sense.” I said. “The whole idea of using a hand to hold a phone to your head seems awkward. But I have a couple of questions. First of all, where are the devices? I mean, you don’t look lumpy or anything. Are they in your torso?”
“No, they are not in my torso.” Linda smiled.
“And how do you push the buttons or read the screens?” I asked.
“That’s one of the most interesting parts about the Vertebrane system.” Linda said.
“What?” I asked.
“Pushing the buttons and reading the screens.” Linda replied.
“So how do you do it?” I asked
“Think about it this way. What’s the biggest problem with screens?” Linda asked.
“I don’t know. What, they are never big enough?” I replied.
“Very good. That’s the biggest problem with screens. We can make screens as big as buildings now, but they are really hard to take with you. In any sort of portable device, the screen is always too small. And what if you are walking?” Linda asked.
“Yes, that’s a problem. You can’t see the screen if you are walking because it jiggles too much. And you run into things when you look down at it.” I answered.
“Exactly. So here is the simple solution — what if you painted the image right onto the retina?” Linda asked.
“That sounds like it would work.” I replied. “How do you do it?”
“It turns out you can’t do it.” Linda said. “It just doesn’t work. You can try putting some sort of retinal projector in a pair of glasses or something, but it gets extremely cumbersome. When you are running the glasses still bounce a little and it is distracting. And there is still no way to push the buttons.”