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Circular Logic

Circular Logic

Yancy sat with his Dad in their living area after dinner. He wondered how to go about asking the questions that his friends had been pushing him to do. There was no good way to open up so he blurted out, “Dad do you know Mike Thiele? He’s a tinker like you.”

Dad, “Well I did know him a long time ago. He died about five years ago. He was my instructor when I went for my tinker license. He was the best. Why do you ask and how do you know of him?”

“Died five years ago!”

“Yes, he was quite old in his mid nineties, although I heard he worked right up till the end. They found him passed away in his pod working at his virtual programming desk I assume.”

“Wow, so people can actually die in virtual reality?’

Dad said, “Hold on. I didn’t say he died in virtual reality. I said he died while in his pod.”

Yancy thinking he has it straight, “So if you die in virtual you don’t die in the pod?”

Dad, “Don’t get confused. I don’t know of anybody passing away in virtual from virtual. That doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. I am unaware that it ever has. If you die and happen to be in your pod at that time, of course that can happen. Anybody can drop dead at any time, so of course they can be in the pod when it happens. It would be hard to determine if those who died in their pod, died because of what happened in the virtual. Do you understand?”

“Sort of. What about my teacher in class. Is she real like me or is she part of the program?”

Dad, “She could be either. A good example would be a music teacher. Some parts of her human self might add to her effectiveness so she would enter your classroom the same way that students do. The other side is true as well. A virtual bot would have infinite knowledge of the topic. Through out history some of the best musicians had no real education but could make a musical instrument like a guitar come to life. Some could not read a note of music but could astound fans with their playing of the piano. I would say it might be best sometimes to have some of both. The human side offers a less perfect version of education and sometimes it can be better. Why do ask?”

“We asked out teacher which she was and she did not answer. She gave a riddle about us figuring it out over the course of the semester. I didn’t like that answer because as a teacher I feel she must be honest with her students.”

Dad, “It does seem unusual that she would answer that way. It almost points to her being human because it would not serve any purpose for a bot to be coy about it. Does her personality seem on the warmer or cooler side?”

“She is in the freezer like a corpse with an accent.”

Dad laughed, “Accent, what kind of accent?”

“Not sure but could be German.”

“Having an accent points toward human virtual twin in there. Can’t think of any other reason a bot would have an accent.”

Mom, “A German accent may give her a leg up. People tend to think Germans are smart. At least they are portrayed that way in movies. So maybe it is done on purpose to give the students the perception of the teacher being well educated.”

Dad pondered, “Yeah, maybe. Son, you haven’t told how you know of Mike Thiele?”

“We met an old man in the class environment. He said he was one hundred years old and the best tinker in the world. I told him about you and he remembered you and a phrase you used that annoyed him.”

Dad immediately said, “Dag blast it.”

“That’s it. He told us our classroom might have been targeted by a virus and it could do harm to us.”

Dad, “He said that? I wonder how he is alive in your classroom. How would a bot know about that saying?” He brought up a search prompt on the display they were watching a show on and typed in Mikes full name. It came back with lots of interesting information, but it also showed he passed away in 2045. “What was he doing in your classroom in the first place?”

Yancy explained a short version, “The teacher froze in place and their exit buttons did not work. We went outside the class into the hallway and found only one other door unlocked. Inside we found Mike. He came to our room which was still locked. He found the room across the hall open which he referred to as an application mirror. We entered that room and when the door closed the teacher starting teaching again, finally finishing the sentence she started hours earlier as if nothing had happened. It was hours later according to our time perception in the hallway. Everything returned to normal after that and we exited normally at the end of the day. We didn’t understand what happened so my friends wanted me to ask you about it.”

Dad, “I’m glad you did. First, I can’t see how Mike is in their without him being a bot. An application mirror is very complicated. I don’t work with them normally. They require a lot more code than humans can handle well so are written by AI coder’s. What you told me sounds very unusual. It could be the class was hit by a virus.”

“Are we safe in there?”

Dad wasn’t sure, “I don’t know at this point. Children safety should have the utmost priority in there. I would say you are safe for now, but you must not leave that classroom under any circumstances from now on. Do you understand?”

Yancy felt both relieved and worried at the same time looking at his Dad, “Yes,” he replied.

Dad, “I will bounce this off some tinker friends of mine, OK?”

Yancy shook his head yes. Dad set the display screen back on the show they were enjoying and seemed to but the topic to rest.

In class the next day Josh appeared at his desk and Yancy was already there. Josh asked, “Any luck with your Dad?”

“Well I talked with him about it. I gave him a short simple version so he didn’t think I was going crazy. He was surprised that Mike was here. He died five years ago. We even looked it up and it’s true. He said Mike has to be a bot. He did not understand what reason there would be for him to exist in that form though. He said mirror applications were very complex. He said he would check with colleagues about what I told him. He said we should be safe, but forbid me from going into the hallway again. He said it may not be safe there especially if we were warned about it.”

“OK, thanks. That is all good helpful information.” Sheri popped in and heard most of the conversation while Pete was there, but thinking big thoughts about something so he heard nothing. He was smiling when he caught a reflection of himself in the desk display which was tilted up ninety degrees by the student sitting in front of him.

Everything seemed normal that day and the next. Josh spent little time on it and got back to his school work.

Yancy was home with his Dad after school and he asked him if he ever got any feedback from his tinker friends.

Dad answered, “Yes, I did. One suggestive a complete psychiatric evaluation of you. Another thought it was interesting, especially the part about Mike Thiele. He had never crossed anything like you described. I am still waiting for others to get back to me. They are pretty busy. How are things there? Any more problems? Do you feel safe now?”

“Things seem to be fine. I do feel safe. I guess it was just a software glitch and being new to the virtual school we probably over reacted.”

Dad, “If Mike comes to your room again why don’t you ask him to contact me however he can through the network. I would love to examine this more closely but as you know I am also very busy with work.”

“Yeah, I know Dad. I will ask him if he shows up again.”

His Mom came into the room and asked his Dad if he had completed the financial comparisons that she was waiting for. Something to do with their retirement accounts or something. They had to both agree before they could make any changes. She got angry when he nonchalantly said no and that was when the fireworks went off and they started to argue again. Yancy left and went to his room and plopped on his bed with his laptop computer to do his homework. He couldn’t concentrate. He didn’t like it when his parents did this. It seemed to be getting worse and he new the outcome could be really bad for him. He loved them both and didn’t want them to split up.

Josh went back into his pod after dinner not to do his homework but to try something he thought of. He grabbed the zapper from the shelf in the class closet. He wondered if the help voice could make that part of his saved digital self like his watch. “Hello can you help me?” he said in class by himself.

Help voice replied, “Hello Joshua, what would you like?’

“Can you make this tool part of my digital apparel like you did with my watch so that I will always have it in my pocket when I arrive at school?” He held it in his hand.

The voice said, “It has a digital signature so I can add it to your entry accessories. Done. Anything else?”

“No, thank you.”

Yancy appeared at his desk surprising Josh who was walking away from the closet where he returned the zapper to the shelf.

Yancy said, “I’m back to studying here again.”

“Trouble at home?” asked Josh.

“You guessed it. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I was checking out a theory I had.”

’Don’t tell me you are thinking of Mike and the viruses again?”

“I know, I forgot about them but something brought them back to my fore thoughts today. The time dilation we experienced between the hallway and the stopped classrooms was interesting don’t you think? I did some research on servers and networks and learned that communications happen extremely fast between devices. I’m guessing the hall is the network traffic and when we step out there we are kind of riding on its wave, so that is why the classroom is so slow compared to it. I wonder if we have seen the last of them?” Josh went to the door and grabbed the handle. It was open. He turned the knob and pulled the door inwards toward him. Then he poked his head out into the hallway. And looked both ways.

“Yeah, it’s cool in a dangerous kind of way. You are making me nervous. How about closing that door now before something else happens.”

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