AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan
Author:Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan [Lee, Kai-Fu & Qiufan, Chen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00
* * *
â
CHAMAL AND UNCLE JUNIUS took the elevator to Basement Level 3 of the ReelX Center, a gleaming new four-story building in downtown Colombo. As soon as the doors opened, a uniformed young Sri Lankan woman greeted them with an amiable smile. Then Uncle Junius spoke.
âChamal, Iâm going to hand you over to Miss Alice here. She will be very nice to you. Show them what a great driver you are, okay?â Junius winked at Alice, who ignored him.
âSay goodbye to your uncle, Chamal,â said Alice. âFollow me.â
Chamal trotted after Alice down a wide hallway. The walls and floors of the officeâor was it a laboratory?âwere pristine, glistening with the reflection of the overhead lights. White-coated staff hurried about. They carried digital tablets displaying flashing numbers, graphs, and charts. When someone needed free hands, they pressed the soft, smooth, almost leathery tablet to their uniform, and the tablet would contour itself to their body like clothing.
Despite all the workers, it was oddly quiet, thought Chamal. He could hear nothing but some soft whispers. In contrast to the VR Café, or the roads outside, there was no engine roar, no screeching tires, not even the click and bang of opening and closing doors.
Alice led Chamal to a small room the size of a doctorâs examination room, and told him to get changed. A black haptic suit was hanging on the door, alongside a matching helmet. Chamal frowned. He wasnât particularly fond of the color black. Mother used to say that the color white represented holiness, while black meant bad luck. Sri Lankans rarely dressed themselves in black. Usually they preferred bright colors, and they wore white only for holidays and religious rituals.
The suit was made from extremely stretchy material, and it felt like a second skin against Chamalâs body. It fit perfectly. The temperature was just right. Chamal turned in circles, twisting his body while observing his reflection. The boy in the mirror almost looked like one of those superheroes from his favorite comics, Chamal thought to himselfâalthough a stick-figure version with a comically large helmet.
âChamal, Iâm going to show you something important now. Pay attention, okay?â said Alice, who had been waiting outside the room. She motioned for Chamal to follow her down another corridor.
Beneath the heavy helmet, Chamal observed Alice. She has dark brown eyes just like Mother, he thought.
They entered a large room. Colored lights blinked at them from almost every corner. Eight pod-like cockpits extended across the room in two rows, each connected to engines by wires and cables as thick as old tree vines. Behind each cockpit was an enormous screen. On one of the screens was a displayâto Chamal, it looked like the livecast of a racing game. Alongside the video, Chamal could see a constantly updating feed of what looked like physiological measurements.
âSoon, youâll be put inside a virtual reality cockpit,â Alice told Chamal as he marveled at the room and its sensory overload. âYour uncle says youâre a whiz at VR racing games.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Automotive | Engineering |
Transportation |
Whiskies Galore by Ian Buxton(40332)
Introduction to Aircraft Design (Cambridge Aerospace Series) by John P. Fielding(32338)
Small Unmanned Fixed-wing Aircraft Design by Andrew J. Keane Andras Sobester James P. Scanlan & András Sóbester & James P. Scanlan(32141)
Craft Beer for the Homebrewer by Michael Agnew(17446)
Turbulence by E. J. Noyes(7039)
The Complete Stick Figure Physics Tutorials by Allen Sarah(6638)
Kaplan MCAT General Chemistry Review by Kaplan(6054)
The Thirst by Nesbo Jo(5785)
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou(5769)
Learning SQL by Alan Beaulieu(5412)
Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil(5037)
Man-made Catastrophes and Risk Information Concealment by Dmitry Chernov & Didier Sornette(4736)
iGen by Jean M. Twenge(4702)
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport;(4541)
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Tegmark Max(4507)
Audition by Ryu Murakami(4099)
1,001 ASVAB Practice Questions For Dummies by Powers Rod(4038)
Electronic Devices & Circuits by Jacob Millman & Christos C. Halkias(4027)
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan(4001)