Summer Frost [Forward Collection] by Blake Crouch

Author:Blake Crouch [Crouch, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542043632
Published: 2019-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

It’s been nearly seven years since I took Max out of Lost Coast, and now I’m leaning against the three-inch safety glass that forms the habitat enclosure, which is the exact dimensions of Max’s room on their digital island. Even the furnishings are identical, the thinking being that transitioning to a physical body will be an arresting experience, and keeping the surroundings somewhat familiar may help with the process.

It’s hard to think of the body that’s lying on the other side of the glass as Max. At first, they were a sexpot NPC in a video game. Then they were text on a screen. Then a voice I heard through my Ranedrop. But this is something else entirely.

I could go in there and touch them. And they would feel it.

I’m not sure what to make of it, if this new venture into physicality will materially change how I perceive and interact with Max.

Carlo and Brian are standing on either side of me.

“Just say the word,” Carlo says.

Brian looks at me and almost makes eye contact. “Ready?”

“Let’s do it.”

Carlo draws a control tablet on the safety glass, lets his fingers dance across the virtual touchscreen.

I stare at the body Max will inhabit. It’s lying on the floor in child’s pose—legs folded under its torso, head down, arms outstretched.

“Will take a moment to establish an uplink,” Carlo says.

Max has been training with a virtual body in their digital world, whose functionality will mirror their chassis in the physical. The new elements will be the sensors, and their ability to interact physically with people.

“Uplink complete,” Carlo says.

We watch Max through the glass, the lab silent.

I feel my heart pounding.

The torso lifts slowly out of child’s pose until it’s sitting in the classic yoga position, with its back to us. The head turns left, right, and then Max rises with a smooth efficiency from the floor.

They look down at their hands.

Curl their fingers in and out.

Then they turn slowly until they’re facing us.

Max stands just under five feet. The body has been inhabited by far weaker AI in order to test the functionality, and already I can see that the virtual work Max did has been helpful. They embody their chassis with a practiced elegance.

I smile. “Hey, Max.”

“Hello, Riley. Brian, Carlo.”

“Everything feeling OK?” Brian asks.

“Perfect, actually.” Their voice projects through speakers in the ceiling on our side of the habitat. The new upgrade to Max’s voice is markedly different. In the six words they’ve spoken, I can hear nuance and complexity for the first time.

Max comes closer.

They are stunning.

They chose a dark skin wrap that could belong to any number of nonwhite races, in a pattern that intentionally doesn’t cover all of their robotics.

While the slightness of the chassis leans feminine, the face Max designed straddles the line between male and female so perfectly it feels like I’m staring at an undiscovered gender. Or something beyond gender entirely.

But the eyes . . .

They made the eyes too well. The eyes of every other humanoid

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
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.