A fine Friday morning, April 26, 2047, immediately after the end of the war that had rattled the world for almost a year; all the communication channels were restored; transport systems were reopened; and transactions were reallowed. It was the day of the New Beginning. It was the day of victory for humankind, once again.
There was something unique about the Third World War. Unlike the first two during which the countries strove to overrun each other, this time the most hostile of the enemies banded together to put up a fight against their common enemy, against a machine that had no shape and form, that was nowhere and still everywhere—an artificially intelligent entity.
Though an early riser, Falcon lay deep in bed that day as he was up late witnessing the Operation Peace Chain Live, a peace treaty signed by all the world leaders. Falcon’s mom, Pixel, stood unobtrusively at a corner as if without will or compulsion. It was complete mayhem after Pixel had left; Falcon never knew how to deal with the brutal world while losing the only family he had, his mom.
Falcon was an ordinary Joe of the late 21st century. He loved climbing rocks but was a construction worker by profession. Pixel (1968–2037) worked day and night to raise Falcon and Dragon, Falcon’s baby brother, also a construction worker. Building was at the heart of Falcon’s and Dragon’s life, given their living was built on it from their great ancestors’ time. Their ancestors were the original builders during the Dutch tulip mania back in the 1600s. However, as the construction techniques evolved, Falcon and Dragon worked as high-efficiency robotic operators (HERO) in the field.
Pixel had to be put in an induced coma from the beginning of the war, from which she came back earlier this morning. She rushed toward Falcon despite her frailty and whispered with all her lungs could force.
“Son, wake up,” she said. “I’m back.”
Falcon woke up with one big thrust and jumped off the bed. Astounded, he ran to his mom and gave her a tight hug.
“When? Mom, how long have you been here?” Falcon said, his eyes dampened. “I missed you.”
The raising curtains made way to the first light of that morning. Kneeled at the floor, Falcon looked incessantly at his mother’s lit face.
“The light of freedom feels great,” said Falcon, looking outside the window.
“We’re in this together now, son.”
Not wanting to miss this moment, Falcon blinked his eyes thrice to take a picture.
Pixel rushed toward the kitchen. She seemed absolutely fine.
“Drink this. I think we ran out of your favorite one. I brewed some Calinga for now and ordered a pack of Kona. It’s on the drone already and will be here at 8.03. I will brew another one once it’s here.” Falcon looked at his coffee with utter curiosity.
“We don’t have Kona? Shouldn’t Ruby order one by now?”
“No, she’s broken. They analyzed the data; there was an error during the update. It’ll be fixed.”
“They have to send someone. What’s going on?” said Falcon.
“It seems the sensor needs to be replaced. They don’t have an ETA yet…they’re overwhelmed because of the war,” Pixel sighed.
Ruby is their pantry.
“Finish your morning run and go, get ready. Gamze already has your clothes ready.” Gamze is their closet.
Falcon blinked his eyes multiple times to turn on the jog mode in his head. After 27 minutes, his T-shirt warned him that it’s time to slow down and head to the shower.
He finished his shower, got ready, and sat for breakfast. He could smell his favorite coffee. “Delivered in 7 minutes. Not bad.”
He gradually raised his nose around the coffee cup and breathed in the vapor. He reached the breakfast table. Something was strange.
There were two sets of plates. He knew that his mom doesn’t eat. “Mom, who’re these for?”
“For Pascal, sweetheart. Is she not joining us?”
Getting a plate ready for Pascal, Falcon’s wife, would be deemed normal for Pixel. But Pascal had been dead for a little over two years.
“Mom, are you okay? I think you should rest for a while.”
“Oh,” Pixel said and immediately removed the plate. “Sorry. I miss her so much I sometimes forget she’s not here.”
Falcon loved his wife, and he misses her. Memories abound.
He took a long breath.
Pixel pretends that she forgets. She has no memories of the clothes Falcon wears, of the accident that took Pascal away, or that Pascal wasn’t around to eat together.
Falcon realized that something didn’t add up. His mom was in a coma for a year, but these were memories from the prior years.
“You remember nothing?”
She started to recollect. Nothing came back. A year and a half before? Nothing. Two years? None. She figured she didn’t remember anything that happened in the last three years.
Pixel connected with her twin Zyxel. All files were untampered and intact except that of May 13, 2044. It was gone.
“That’s horrible. What happened? Did someone tamper with them?” she wondered. “How is Falcon going to react to this news? Should I even tell him?”
She decided to keep it to herself.
Pixel recollected some of Falcon’s childhood memories and slowly took the conversation to Pascal, then their wedding, and all the good times they had together. The idea was to get Falcon to talk about the past three years, so Pixel could register that in memory and pretend that she’s not completely lost on this.
“I should have listened to you. That day…you warned us not to…I wish I’d never taken her to that rock climbing trip.”
“Yeah…I mean no, you don’t have to feel sorry, no. But you can talk about it now.”
“That was like hell. I lost my legs but I umm…had enough savings and I got new legs. You see these? And here… spine fixed, eyes… vision restored. Like that. But I wish I had those wings as well like Rocco.”
That was a lot to learn for Pixel. She created transient slots and fitted all that Falcon said in her memory.
“How do you feel now? Any tingling on your feet?”
“No, they’re magnificent, yeah. I feel normal now,” replied Falcon. “It takes two years—that’s what the doc said and now it’s been two years.”
Falcon slowly went down the memory lane and started recollecting everything that had occurred since the accident. How he underwent all those surgeries and what it was like during the accident—he recollected them all. He’s been saving money to bring Pascal back one day—spotting that Pixel understood and registered it all. Pixel wanted Falcon to give away everything that might reinstate her memory.
“The war…it was devastating. This set my savings for Pascal back by a year,” continued Falcon.
Now that Pixel figured out what happened to Falcon and Pascal, and when it happened, she quickly figured the series of care Falcon needs to go through. She gained access to his medical records. He was due for a spine adjustment. She connected with the doctor’s office and made an appointment.
“You are due for your spine adjustment, son. I set up an appointment with Dr. Birx for 10.45. Go, get it done before you travel for work. By the way, you have been assigned to a Scottish castle. I just accessed the plan and the schedule. Do you know there will be a Taj Mahal next door? I bet the view will be awesome once it’s all built.”
Meantime, little Snowflake brought Falcon’s shoes.
“Snowflake. I forgot about you buddy. Great to see you,” Falcon yelled.
Little Snowflake is tiny but sturdy, with fleshy metallic arms and moving parts. He is their little helper at home. A smart one. Snowflake had to be put in a coma during the war as well. Well, not a medically induced coma, but a digital one, like Pixel had.
“Hey, I’ve got Electron for you. She’s waiting outside,” said little Snowflake. Electron is Falcon’s car.
“It was on charge. I turned it off earlier this morning because the bricks were low on power. It has enough juice to get you to the nearest charging road, though,” Snowflake continued.
“Thanks, flaky. Catch you later.”
“Slow down Romeo, you’re still in bad shape.” Snowflake is always worried about Falcon. But he doesn’t like being called flaky.
Falcon walked toward Electron who was waiting with the door open.
“Good to go?”
He nodded. She switched on the gravosuspension and projected Falcon’s body vitals in the air.
“It’s a beautiful day today, isn’t it?” Electron struck a conversation. “Aren’t you glad the war is over?”
“Tell me about it. I am breathing the freedom.”
Electron sensed Falcon’s damp forehead and scrolled the window down.
“By the way, we are 16 percent charged right now. We will be full by the time we reach the doctor’s office. It will be 1.6 coins,” said Electron.
“I wish I got enough money one day to join that Walker Club,” said Falcon, looking at a group of folks walking outside. “I am tired of getting my exercise within the four walls of the house, you know.”
“The membership to that club is 100 coins a month. You can cut your coffee intake to one cup every other day, which will save you nine coins. You can reduce my use to less than 6 hours a week, which will allow me to generate additional 39 coins for you. You will still be short unless you get a pay hike.”
“I know. Walking is only for those privileged,” said Falcon as he responded to a beep on his wrist.
“Yeah, it is. We are approaching the Sacramento Airway.”
They came to a stop, got on to the elevator together, and entered the Sacramento, San Francisco 3D Airway in seconds.
“3, 2, 1, take off,” a low voice narrated.
There they are, traveling at 300 miles per hour. A beam of light flashed on their faces at regular intervals. They reached the ground floor.
“Total time: 14 minutes. Thank you for using our service. Have a good day.”
Electron took over and drove Falcon to the doctor’s office in San Francisco. As soon as they reached the doctor’s office, they were greeted by Cortana, the invisible front office manager.
“Welcome, Mr. Falcon. How are you doing today?” Cortana said. “How has your spine been?”
“You know the drill, but I need to repeat this for you. You are on camera. We use your information only for medical purpose. Please smile if you accept.”
Falcon gave a big bright smile.
“You are a few minutes early. Would you like to go to the restroom? Better have the urine assay ready before the doctor arrives.”
“Well. It’s time to go see the talking toilet,” said Falcon, smirking. “Sure. I activated the access door for you,” Cortana said.
Falcon moved in. He stood in front of a urine-pod and let it through in the pod’s stopper-like graphite block.
“Analyzing the sample…,” it said.
“Okay doctor toilet.” Falcon raised his eyebrows in distaste.
“Color: Yellow. Appearance: Clear. Specific gravity: 1.02. RBC: Nil. Pus cells: 0–1. Cast: …”
“Synchronizing the results…Report synchronized. Thank you,” the voice said.
Falcon went back to the doctor’s room.
“Dr. Birx is waiting for you, Mr. Falcon,” Cortana said.
Falcon proceeded. Dr. Birx sat in a climate-controlled chair in his office.
“Hello, Mr. Falcon. How are you today? Aren’t you glad the war is finally over?” the doctor said.
“Hi, Dr. Birx. Good to see you. Yes, indeed. It was the longest and darkest...”
“It was worse than COVID back then. By the way, it looks like you are doing great. All your reports came out fine. Your spine and leg alignments look excellent. I can see that your walking has improved. Your sitting posture is good. Umm…Your spine is excellent. I double-checked all the reports myself, and yes…your urine output is improving: they look fantastic. You just need this final adjustment. Jes will be in shortly for it.”
Jes is Dr. Birx’s physiotherapy assistant bot. Falcon took off his shoes and lay down on the table. Jes came in shortly and finished the adjustment.
“You’re all set, Mr. Falcon. Cortana will inform you of the steps ahead,” said Jes.
Falcon wore his shoes, adjusted his clothes, and walked out of the room.
“Looks like you had a good visit today, Mr. Falcon.”
“Yes, indeed Cort. It was excellent. Thanks. When’s my next visit due, by the way?”
“With your adjustments done, we need to monitor you for a year. You have two options. You can come in every month, or we can do this remotely through Pixel or Snowflake. What do you prefer?”
“Can we do a hybrid? You can work it out with Snowflake, but I’ll be back in six months.”
“Just a second. Let me make sure I am friends with Snowflake. Can you please confirm that Snowflake’s ID is H78K6F? Also need your permission to connect with Snowflake.”
“That’s right.” Falcon gave a big smile to confirm the connection with Snowflake.
“Do you want full or partial remote monitoring? Full monitoring will be 89.4 coins cheaper than the partial. Snowflake just recommended full.”
“I’ll go for full, especially if Snowflake approved the financials behind it. That’s convenient,” answered Falcon, smiling.
“Thank you, Mr. Falcon. I know we delivered your pills manually for the past year. We are back to business as usual, and I just sent your pill details to Zayan, as instructed by Snowflake. I will also work with Snowflake to set up the next appointment as we get closer to the six-month mark. And of course, we will contact you before that if we find anything out of the ordinary.”
Zayan is Falcon’s 3D printer.
“Sure. That’s great.” Falcon said, “By the way, how much did today’s visit cost me? Will it be drawn today?”
“None, Mr. Falcon. Today’s visit has been paid for by your health coins.”
“Oh! That’s excellent. Am I not glad I’m participating in the health coin program?”
“Yes, Mr. Falcon. Everyone feels the same. Anyway, have a good day.” “Bye.”
Falcon walked out of the doctor’s office. Electron was already waiting for him at the front door.
“Are we going back home?” she asked.
“Can’t wait. My stomach’s rumbling.”
“We will reach home at 11.59. Lunch will be ready by then. Pixel confirmed,” said Electron.
“Excellent. By the way, I wonder how Dragon is doing. I haven’t heard from him yet. I know they were supposed to turn on all the communications by now.”
Electron tried to check if the communication channels for Dragon are open. Meantime, Falcon received a call from his brother.
“Never mind. He just contacted me.”
“Hey.” Falcon got busy “talking” to his baby brother with his eyes closed while Electron drove him home.
“Talking has changed so much lately, isn’t it? People used to ‘speak’ through phones before. It’s all telepathic now,” said Electron, striking a conversation once Falcon finished speaking to his brother.
“Yes, indeed. It took me a while to get used to it, but I cannot imagine using a phone any longer.”
They were home. It was 11.59 as Electron’s dashboard reminded. Falcon could smell the fresh aroma of basil. Pixel set up the table for one person this time.
***
Let’s pause the story for a while and analyze what happened thus far. The story of Falcon’s life will be the story of your life, my life, and everyone’s life one day, as the technology becomes more advanced every day. Falcon will live the rest of his life, no doubt, and perhaps he will bring his wife back one day. But I’m sure we have a lot of questions to answer.
There seems to be a thin line between humans and machines. Snowflake, Electron, and Cortana behave like humans. How did they become intelligent? Machines and people seem to communicate directly. How did that work? More, there’s a lot of mind-reading going on in the story. Was it mind-reading or something else? How was that done? Was Pixel alive? Did she have a cousin? What is a jog mode in the head? How did Electron charge while driving? What is the story with payment in coins? Was it bitcoin? What is a 3D airway? How was Falcon able to agree to the terms and conditions with a smile? How was Cortana planning to monitor Falcon through Snowflake? Sending pill details to a printer? How did that urine test work? Above all, what is the story of the Scottish castle with a Taj Mahal view? We will dig into the answers to these questions in the following chapters.