Insurance - part 9

[miriam_e]

(1670 words)

total so far:

16,972 / 50,000
(34%)

Yikes!

This part was the hardest to write so far. I spent a lot of the day reading my notes and working out more of the theory behind it. And for all that work it is just talky-talk. I hope it is not too boring. I needed to get this stuff out there because it forms a lot of the foundation for the story. One happy part of this is I introduced another two characters. They'll turn up again later in the story. I'm already starting to regret making the woman straight. :)

Let me know what you think.

Note that what follows contains adult concepts.
The love of two females for each other is central to this story so if you are offended by that stop reading now.

09 - social ecology

Rachel walked up the steps through a large garden to the front door. She waited a minute till the door opened and Zoe was there with a man and a woman she'd never met before. Zoe welcomed Rachel in and introduced them. "Rachel, these are friends of mine, Marc and Dina. Marc was part of the group who did the ground-work for early scanning technology. Dina is a psychologist like you, but she works on androids. Dina, Marc, this is Rachel, the psychologist who worked the Insurers Consolidated case." They shook hands.

Marc was thin and angular, had short, straight, black hair and short-trimmed, black beard and moustache. His arms and legs were almost woolly with black hair. He was dressed even more conservatively than Zoe, with baggy tan-colored shorts, a white t-shirt, and scuffed, black ankle boots. There was something written on the t-shirt. It looked like a mathematical formula.

He noticed Rachel looking at the formula and explained, "Euler's equation. A thing of beauty. Um... it's a math-geek thing."

Dina smiled at that. Her eyes were unsettling. They had no whites. She was wearing the fashionable contact shades some young kids had now adopted. It meant it was impossible to tell where she was looking. She wore normal clothing: a standard-sized bikini in navy blue and white sandals. Her green face and body looked agelessly young, as was the norm. At odds with that was her grey-hair, like Zoe. Rachel couldn't help wondering why she let her hair go grey when she apparently spent effort maintaining her youth.

Dina motioned them all in to the livingroom.

Zoe followed Rachel. "I'm surprised Sally didn't come."

"She would have, but we had an unexpected visitor at the last moment, so she stayed to entertain her. We are both grateful for the green dye, by the way. We went to the dancehall and had just the best time."

Zoe smiled. She looked wistful and rather tired. "I'm glad."

Marc asked if he could get Rachel anything, but she thanked him, saying she was fine.

He sat next to Dina on the lounge. It was clear that they were a couple.

The livingroom was large -- almost twice the size of Rachel's -- and there were a lot of old things in here: paper books, framed paintings on the walls, a globe of the world and another of Mars. On the coffee table there were some sheets of paper and a pencil. Rachel hadn't seen paper and pencil since she was a child.

Zoe spoke, "Have you asked the insurance people to reconsider working with the veeps yet?"

Rachel nodded. "Yesterday."

"They won't agree of course. They think they have achieved some kind of meaningful win. The next thing will be to approach one of the more senior board members and point out to them how precarious is their position and how much they could benefit from working with the veeps."

"I've set that step in motion. I should have a meeting in 2 or 3 days."

Zoe looked pleased. "Wonderful. It is important that veeps and androids gain human status as soon as possible. It is inevitable, but the sooner it happens the less the damage along the way."

Rachel picked that up, "You mentioned damage during our chat by the river, but you didn't enlarge upon it. What did you mean?"

Zoe thought for a moment. "Imagine society as a medium like the water in a lake. That lake is inhabited by all kinds of organisms. Some are larger than others. Some are predatory, most are harmless. Some move faster than others. Some use camouflage, others advertise their presence. Many of these groups would dominate all if allowed, but a healthy ecology is one with greatest variety. Veeps are being excluded from human society. As more and more people emigrate to VR the pool of society shrinks. It becomes easier to dominate. The worst times in human history are when this natural variety is forced out. That is when repression and mass murder become common."

Rachel frowned, "Surely mass murder is a thing of the past, now we have androids."

Zoe held up three fingers. She touched the first. "It is not widely known, but in the wars at the beginning of this century primitive AIs were used in battle. Androids could conceivably be used as the tools of mass murder if society became unbalanced enough." She touched the second finger. "The deliberate destruction of a virtual universe inhabited by thousands of veeps is mass murder. It has already happened on more than one occasion, back in the days when they could be cut off from a power source." She touched the third finger. "Never underestimate the ability of cynical leaders to use fear to stampede an otherwise peaceful and intelligent population into doing despicable things."

Dina spoke for the first time. She had a voice like honey, soft, throaty, warm, and a slight accent. Was it Russian? "This risk to society is entirely artificial. Veeps are definitely human so should not be excluded, and it doesn't take much thought to realise that androids deserve human status. These two things together would restore the safety of variety to society. Best of all, humans are like children and would benefit greatly from the stabilising effect of veeps, who often extend their intelligence without limit, and androids, who are kinder and more loving than humans."

Rachel noticed Dina referred to "humans" rather than "we" or "us".

Zoe nodded. "Things will fix themselves in time anyway, but it would be nice to avoid the risk of the insanity that results from a uniform society between then and now."

Dina spoke up again, "We have come up with a number of ways to help bring about the needed changes. We need to convince potential emigrants (mainly the elderly and the disabled) and their families that it is in their interests to ensure they retain human status after they emigrate to VR."

Rachel interrupted, "I've asked to see the oldest member of the Insurers Consolidated board for exactly that purpose. I'm hoping he is intending to emigrate after death. I'll impress on him how his company will be his opponent in that situation. I'll eventually see all the members of the board."

Dina nodded and continued, "We are already producing machinima blockbusters and popular series that promote understanding of veeps and androids."

Zoe said, "I'm working with a lot of veeps on that. There will be many more subtle, and not-so-subtle, machinima conveying those messages screening soon. We've decided to make a few frankly pornographic ones too in order to attract attention. The publicity will be useful."

"More androids need to understand that human status for them would benefit flesh and blood humans. I'm personally working on that. I've been incorporating that understanding into newer models. But we need to talk to androids and get them to understand it.

"More needs to be done to counter the prejudice against human-android love relationships."

Rachel said softly, "Oh, you have my total agreement there."

The other three smiled at that.

Dina continued, "Machinima is helping there, but we need to think of more strategies to help there, without exposing individuals. Outing people is not an option."

Dina paused for a moment. "We need to gain the support of the cyborg community and explain to them that they will likely be the second target in any fear campaign. I am active in that area too."

Rachel thought, that explains her distancing herself from the word "human". Dina was a cyborg; a person who was largely replaced by synthetic parts. Strictly speaking most of us have been cyborgs for centuries with our reliance upon technology: shoes, memory and calculation aids like written symbols, glasses, hearing aids, replacement hips, false teeth, wheelchairs. But cyborgs now quite often had more android parts than flesh and blood ones. And suddenly Rachel knew where Zoe obtained the green dye for Sally.

Dina was still speaking. "And we need to get some important industries to recognise the benefit to them of granting veeps human status. Three that we've started working on are the insurance, travel, and research industries."

Rachel asked, "Travel? What do they gain?"

Dina answered, "The Earth is a limited resource, but virtual worlds are quite literally infinite in size, and there are hundreds of thousands of them."

Marc raised his hand. "I'm working on members of the mathematical community. Most scientists and mathematicians already recognise veeps as human because a lot of the best thinkers in most fields are already veeps, but they don't mix with wider society much to spread their views, and also there is a little professional jealousy among some because not many of us can hope to compete against veeps' brainpower and the fact that they don't need to stop for sleep or food. They can just work on something continuously for weeks if need be. But most researchers don't have a problem with veeps being human because they intend to emigrate eventually and are looking forward to doing those things themselves."

He grinned. It was clear he anticipated that future for himself.

Zoe spoke to Rachel, "I know you are committed to androids gaining human status, but I think you are less sure about veeps. I'd like you and Sally to visit my virtual world with me tomorrow and meet my partner, if you would. I'm sure you'd enjoy it."

Rachel was a little surprised, "Umm.. I'll check with Sally, but I think it will be OK with her. Hang on..." She called Sally via her cap and asked her. She was not expecting Sally's excitement for the invitation.

When Rachel told Zoe that Sally was delighted, Zoe brightened.

"Early morning at your place then?" Zoe asked Rachel.

And it was agreed.

The rest of the day was spent mostly getting to know Dina and Marc. Rachel left for home late in the afternoon feeling she'd made a couple of good, long-term friends.


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Comments

This will be short but I really liked this chapter

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

Great stuff! I like the new characters, they sound lovely and interesting. You're really doing well, keeping up with your writing. I'm enjoying reading your chapters. Keep it up!

Re: This will be short but I really liked this chapter

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:) Thanks. I wish it came as easily to me as it seems like it does to you.