Justinian gave a snort of derision. I dont have any strong feelings for the Watcher one way or the other. Why should I? If it exists, the Watcher is just a fact of life. You might as well say I dont particularly like the moon. All those tides it causes
The pod laughed. You say that, but I think youre not being truthful to yourself. Interesting. It could explain a lot.
Explain what?
The pod didnt answer.
What happened to Leigh?
I was trying to tell you
Justinian got the call a week after his last visit to Leigh Sony. He was in a public processing space at the time, counseling a sixteen-year-old who had had himself replicated and was now regretting it .
But, Loja , he was saying , the atomic Loja is another person, alive and well in the atomic world. This processing space here is where you live. The digital world is as much your natural environment as the atomic world was at your birth. Theres no going back .
Justinians console gave a shushing noise. It was Aelfric, his colleague from the Southern Europe sector .
Justinian , said Aelfric , Ive got some bad news. Its about Leigh Sony, from EA Public Space number four. Shes killed herself .
Justinian felt nothing, not even numbness. He merely stared at the man in the viewing field .
Aelfric shook his head . Half an hour ago. Managed to find the handle of the destructor routine by peeling away her brain with a scalpel. Got it a good way in, too, before she interrupted the motor routines in her arm. It was very messy .
Aelfric, do you have to be so graphic? She was a living thing .
Aelfric looked chastened . Sorry, Justinian. But you know the case better than I do-Cotards syndrome. She thought she was already dead .
I know. How did she fool the hospital, though? Surely they saw it coming ?
No. Her mood swings were too extreme. They couldnt predict it .
She shouldnt have been let anywhere near the equipment .
Aelfric nodded slowly . Tell me about it. Look, Ive been assigned to you for the short term. Would that be okay ?
You might as well, Aelfric . Justinians eyes were burning . Youre a good counselor. Better than one of those fucking machines
Back on Gateway, Justinian had the impression the pod was letting him know it had scored a point. It was an AI: it could force you to feel things, do things, even realize things about yourself that you didnt want to. Okay, so he didnt like the Watcher. He had always avoided thinking about that in the past, and now the pod had caused him to face up to the fact. Each pod he had met so far had done the same: forced him to face up to some aspect of his personality. Everything from his jealousy at his sisters success to his feeling of failure for not doing better at school. This was home truth number fifteen. He just didnt like what the Watcher did to personality constructs. It troubled Justinians personal worldview that the most intelligent being known to humankind, if it really did exist, would choose to inflict suffering on sentient beings.
The pod was reading his discomfort: it now paraphrased the words originally attributed to the Watcher.
She was a human personality construct, Justinian. If she lived forever, she wouldnt be human. If she never got ill, or ran the risk of illness, she wouldnt be human.
Thats not an excuse.
Its all that youre getting.
Justinian gave a mental sigh of relief that this section of the interview was over. To have an AI dip so deeply into his mind-what damage could it have done? Was there any way of telling? Now Justinian called up the visual representation of the pods intelligence on a narrow-beam viewing field from his console. The pod shouldnt be able to see it, but it could probably read by his reactions what he was doing. It would no doubt mention the fact in a moment.
There were no clues there. The pods VRep looked just the same as those of all the other pods he had examined on this planet: concentric bands of color vanishing into infinity at the center of the image. The picture always reminded Justinian of a cross section of an incredibly old and gnarled tree trunk. On cursory inspection there was nothing unusual there: it was an apparently sane and healthy personality. There were no clues here to its creation
Does my VRep give you any clues to why I committed suicide? I feel like Im rattling around the inside of this case, just looking for answers.
No, nothing. Do you realize that you have exactly the same personality construct as all the other AI pods I visited? Its like you all agreed on a common template before you wound yourselves down. All of you answer my questions in the same way.
Is that your child I see, there in the hatchway to the flier? asked the pod, changing the subject. Nobody likes to be told theyre not an original . Justinian looked towards the flier. The crafts lights were dimming as the sun rose. Leslie was standing just inside the rear hatchway, gently rocking Justinians son in its arms.
Yes, said Justinian. Thats the baby.
The baby? Doesnt it have a name?
Justinian was used to this question by now. Even so, it didnt diminish the twinge of pain he felt whenever he gave the answer.