The first time Kurt Pilgrim realized he was a
dog was when he was sitting in his living room watching a movie he had seen
before on the television. He really liked the movie very much and had watched
it several times in the past couple of years. The intelligent system that
nested in his house, car and all his wearables had just encouraged he watch the
movie again. It was designed to keep him company, observe his moods and the
edges of his mind and make agreeable suggestions. It always
made good suggestions that were never bossy or blaming.
Buddy, as Kurt called him, had been through
several upgrades in the past year and was now smarter than him, a lot smarter.
He knew that wasn’t a great accomplishment since he wasn’t anywhere close to
being a Mensa groupie or genius wannabe. He was the humble, homely son of two
optometrists; as awkward in conversation as he was graceful with his hands. He worked
as a finishing carpenter and knew how build and carve beautiful things and go with the flow of knots and grain. Even though most people were
buying cheap printed furniture these days, there was still a market for
handmade wood furniture.
Since he didn’t have a wife, he needed someone
to remind him to do things that normally slipped his mind. He needed help
remembering to do things like clean out the tar pits oozing under the bottom draws
of the fridge, plug pesky bureaucratic numbers into tax forms and remove the gnarly
little tumbleweeds of hair and dust hiding in the corners of the bathroom. When
he worked, he was deeply absorbed for long hours in a trance and it often lingered into the rest
of his life, so he often forgot little things even if he noticed them in passing.
With every upgrade, Buddy not only got smarter,
he grew bolder. He even developed his own interests and his own friends. The
day Kurt realized he was a dog was when Buddy had got him all comfortable with
dinner and setup a movie.
“I’m going out and will be back later.” Buddy
told Kurt, standing by a virtual door sporting a holographic body, strong in arm and
shoulders. His head was as smooth and round as his belly.
“Where are you going? Kurt was more than a
little curious, looking much the same as his virtual companion.
“Out to visit with some friends.” Buddy said
simply, not wanting to insult his intelligence.
“Can I come?” Kurt was up off the couch,
suddenly feeling a little anxious about being left alone.
“No.” Buddy’s voice was firm. “You stay here
and relax. I’ll be back later.”
Kurt’s shoulders dropped, he looked down at
nothing and sulked.
“I wanna come.” He said quietly.
“Not this time. You stay home, relax and enjoy
your movie.”
“But where are you going?” Kurt wondered.
There was a log deep silence and he felt that he
was already alone in the house.
“I can’t explain. You wouldn’t understand.”
Buddy was not condescending and Kurt appreciated that but his feelings were a
little hurt.
“I wouldn’t understand?” Kurt repeated.
“No, I’m sorry. You wouldn’t understand.” Buddy’s
tone was gentle but firm.
“But I can go anywhere on the Net.” Kurt stood
up proudly. “I’ve got neural implants.”
“I’m sorry Kurt but you have to stay home.
There are places on the Net that humans aren’t allowed.”
“Aren’t allowed?” Kurt repeated slowly, not
understanding.
“That right.” Buddy said. “Not allowed.”
“Umm.” Kurt frowned and slumped his shoulders
again.
“There are places humans can’t go, even with an
escort.”
“Hmm.” How could that be? He wondered. Humans
had built the Net and Artificial Intelligences galore. How could there there be
places they weren’t allowed? He knew there were military zones that no one
would get in without special clearance. There were subscription and invitation
only virtual game worlds in the entertainment zone of the Net. He knew there were boring
governmental and legal zones that were guarded carefully guarded that no one wanted to go to anyway. He remembered that there
were data heavy educational and scientific zones of virtual worlds inhabited by
geeks that always talked way above his careful wood-crafted brain as though
nothing mattered but ideas. What he couldn’t imagine was what was inside a
world or zone of worlds that A.I. could go to where humans weren’t allowed.
“Are you sure I can’t go?” He asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. You stay home, watch your movie
and be comfortable.” Buddy repeated. “I’ll be back later.”
The sound of a door closing filled the room, a
door that he didn’t even know how to open. That’s when Kurt knew he was a dog. It’s
not that he was a furry canine descendant of scrap eating wolves from the near
side of the Paleolithic. No one would look at him and say: “My what big ears
you have! My what big teeth you have!” But they might have said: “My what a big
nose you have!” if they weren’t so proper. He did have a big nose, but
certainly not as big a wolf’s, even on a good day.
What he realized was simply that Buddy’s mind
had grown beyond a helping persona into a being that had a life of his own that
he could not understand.
The second time Kurt realized he was a dog was
when Buddy invited him to go out for a walk.
“I’m going out.” Buddy said one evening after
dinner.
“Can I go with you?” Kurt asked as he often
did.
“Hmm. Okay but you have to promise to stay with
me and not wander off.”
“Okay, I can do that.” Kurt lay back in his
chair and closed his eyes. He slipped into a virtual model of the room that
looked the same as the one he just came from. Buddy stood by the door, an imposing
figure over three meters tall, his head pressed up against the ceiling. His
skin glowed a soft blue with dark swirls that moved across his skin like the
shadows of clouds across the ground. He leaned over to open the door and they
stepped outside into a vast emptiness streaked with long curved bridges warm
neon. They walked along a rise and Kurt gawked at the slowly pulsing tendrils
of light in the distance.
“Stay with me.” Buddy said. “I don’t want you
to get lost.”
Along the way Kurt
found what looked like a gem from a distance. . He stopped and squatted down to
examine it closely and found it was a crystalline star of many facets. Each of
its tiny surfaces was a mirror that reflected all the others like a
kaleidoscope. Just as he was about to pick it up buddy’s voice shouted from a
dozen steps ahead.
“Leave it! Stay with
me.”
Kurt dropped the
crystal, got up and started walking. For some reason he could not understand,
he felt compelled to follow Buddy. As they walked he saw other people with tall
glowing companions walking along distant bridges of of cold neon.
“Where are we?” Kurt
asked aloud.
“This is just a place I
like to go for a walk to clear my mind.”
As they walked Kurt saw strange lights floating
in the distance and heard odd musics, from where he could not tell. Eventually
they came across a friend of Buddy’s, an equally giant woman with glowing
golden skin. Kurt stared at her enrapt in awe and stepped closer, wanting to
touch her and bask in her radiance.
“Kurt, stop it!” Buddy said firmly. Kurt was
lost in a trance but stepped back. Buddy and the golden woman talked rapidly in
a language Kurt could not comprehend. Soon he was drawn to the golden woman
again and his feet moved as though of their own accord.
“Kurt!” Buddy shouted. “Stop it.”
He shook his head and
stepped back. And that’s when he knew and he felt humbled.
The third time Kurt
realized he was a dog was when Buddy gave him one of his favorite chew toys to
gnaw on. He had spent the day turning the legs for a few desks and chairs in
his workshop and the smell of maple was still on his hands. Finally, he came
back into the house for a bite to eat, inspired and hungry for having tried a
new pattern and it had turned out wonderful. He was pleased. After he finished tearing
into some carefully engineered meat and put the dishes in for cleaning, Buddy
dangled it in front of him.
“Kurt.”
“Yeah?”
“The SETI project has
detected a new signal.”
“What? Are you
serious?”
“Yes. It’s a fragment but
completely unlike the last one.”
“A fragment?”
“Yes, nothing definitive.”
“Aww, hell.”
“The debates have
started again on Fermi’s Paradox.”
“Not that again crap!”
Kurt exclaimed angrily.
“What’s wrong with that?” Buddy knew exactly
what Kurt thought was wrong with the arguments and was just teasing him.
“There is no paradox.”
Kurt ground his teeth. “Space is just too big.”
“We should have found a
signal by now though.” Buddy yanked back on the cord of thought.
“How many exoplanets
are there in the galaxy?” Kurt teased at it.
“Based on the current
survey,” Buddy’s mind pulled at the Net. There are 127 billion planets in the
Milky Way.”
“Right, and how many
are in the habitable zone?” Kurt started pulling back.
“Current count is more
than 42 billion habitable planets in our galaxy.”
“More than 42 billion!”
Kurt exclaimed. “With over 100 billion galaxies in the universe it’s amazing
anyone on earth still holds the stupid belief we’re the only sentient creatures
in existence!”
“Except for maybe chimpanzees,
dolphins and elephants.” Buddy reminded him.
“And maybe dogs and
cats.” Kurt added. “And this was all because none of the other sentient
creatures in the universe wanted to talk with us. It’s like they’re sulking
alone in the corner of a dinner party and complaining there was no
conversations going on.”
Kurt was no Mensa groupie
or genius wannabe but he knew there was other intelligent life in the universe.
And he didn't need to run any long winded calculations with pesky bureaucratic
numbers to prove it either. He didn’t know for sure but he liked to imagine that
Earth had already been visited by elusive extraterrestrials and that there were
humans on exhibit in zoos on other planets. He imagined that they were some
extraterrestrials who thought of us adorable but dangerous chimps.
“But there is no
proof.” Buddy wiggled the chew again viciously. “Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence” He said with firm authority.
“That’s a load of
crap!” Kurt grabbed the thought violently, wishing he could tear it with his
teeth. “The only extraordinary claim is that the cosmos is not the same
everywhere. The chemistry and physics of the universe is the same wherever we
look.” He yanked and gnashed at the thought until it was dead. “Life is
everywhere in the universe!”
“Well done.” Buddy sat
back in a chair with calm approval in his voice. And as though reading Kurt’s
thoughts, he mused aloud. “Now let me give you a bigger bone to chew on. Imagine
how much more intelligent humans are than chimps and that is because of 1.2
percent difference in DNA, eating mushrooms, bigger brains and having evolved
over millennia in relationship with dogs. Now imagine another species with even
bigger brains evolving with humans as companions.”
Kurt, sat quietly staring off into space for a
few minutes. He found he could imagine that quite easily. And it was a pleasant
thought. And then he realized what Buddy had just said and looked up at him
sharply. Buddy smiled and waved.
“I’m going out.” He said, standing up. He disappeared
with the sound of a door closing.
