platform and stopped next to the doctor.
“He’s definitely
waking up,” the doctor said, tapping a code into the control panel in front of
her. She had dark brown skin and a caring face. She turned and smiled at him.
“You must be Mathew’s son,” she said. “You look a lot like him. I’m Angela
Benness.”
“Did you do
anything to initiate the retrieval, Doctor?” Leconte interrupted.
Dr. Benness
glanced back down at the control panel. “No, it looks like a self-induced return.”
“What’s the
count?” Maya asked.
Benness glanced at
Alek before answering. “Probe count has decreased by 30 percent,” she said.
“That’s really
slow,” Maya said. “It should be well over 50 percent by now.”
“I don’t know
why he’s returning,” Leconte said. “However, one person coming back means that
there’s a chance to bring them all back.”
Leconte stood
over his father, softly stroking the surface of his chamber. She looked like
she really cared about him. Was this more than professional concern?
Leconte looked
back at the doctor. “How long?”
Benness checked
the readout before answering. “About twenty minutes, I would say.”
“Twenty
minutes?” Alek asked, moving closer to the handrail that separated him from his
father. “Why is it taking him so long to wake up?”
“You’ve never
experienced an interface like ours,” Maya said, finally turning to face him.
“The neuroprobes are capable of leaving faster, but we have them go more slowly
to allow the brain time to get reacquainted with the body’s natural sensory
data. It’s sort of like decompression, like when a scuba diver stays in deep
water too long. The longer the interface, the longer the decompression
required.”
“Decompression
implies that you use some form of compression in your interface.” He thought
about that for a moment. “It sounds like you’re running your simulations faster
than normal.” He looked over at his father’s chamber. “So, how fast was he
going? Two, three times normal?”
“Originally, we
had estimated that the neuroprobes could boost brain activity to a maximum of
ten times normal,” Maya said. “However, it now looks like your father had been
experimenting with a much faster interface. When Ceejer became infected, we
think the entire system defaulted to his speed for some reason.”
“What do you
mean? How much faster was my father going?”
“Our best estimate
is that time is passing inside the simulations one hundred times faster than normal.”
Alek’s mouth
hung open as he fought to make sense of what she said. “That can’t be right,”
he said after a moment. “Even with nanotech enhancements, there’s no way your
brain could process information at that speed. It would be like living in a
world running on fast forward. There’s something else you’re not telling me,”
he said. “What is it?”
Maya glanced
over at Leconte before replying. “You’re right of course. Neuroprobes can’t
boost brain efficiency by that much all by themselves. We also use something I
helped develop, called Intelligent Avatars. We use a new form of
high-resolution biological scanner to digitize a person’s brain and body all
the way down to the molecular level. We then use this data to model an Avatar
body that’s a perfect copy of the person.”
“What you’re
saying is that these Avatars are so perfect, that your brain’s tricked into
thinking you’re actually inside these digital bodies.”
“Exactly.”
“That still
doesn’t explain how you can exist inside a simulation running a hundred times
faster than normal.”
“The Avatars do
more than simply transmit sensory data from the simulations,” Maya said. “At
higher interface speeds, they work as interpolation routines to help your brain
handle the increased data rates.”
“I think I
understand what you mean by interpolation. In a digital environment, movement
isn’t steady; it involves a series of steps per
“He’s definitely
waking up,” the doctor said, tapping a code into the control panel in front of
her. She had dark brown skin and a caring face. She turned and smiled at him.
“You must be Mathew’s son,” she said. “You look a lot like him. I’m Angela
Benness.”
“Did you do
anything to initiate the retrieval, Doctor?” Leconte interrupted.
Dr. Benness
glanced back down at the control panel. “No, it looks like a self-induced return.”
“What’s the
count?” Maya asked.
Benness glanced at
Alek before answering. “Probe count has decreased by 30 percent,” she said.
“That’s really
slow,” Maya said. “It should be well over 50 percent by now.”
“I don’t know
why he’s returning,” Leconte said. “However, one person coming back means that
there’s a chance to bring them all back.”
Leconte stood
over his father, softly stroking the surface of his chamber. She looked like
she really cared about him. Was this more than professional concern?
Leconte looked
back at the doctor. “How long?”
Benness checked
the readout before answering. “About twenty minutes, I would say.”
“Twenty
minutes?” Alek asked, moving closer to the handrail that separated him from his
father. “Why is it taking him so long to wake up?”
“You’ve never
experienced an interface like ours,” Maya said, finally turning to face him.
“The neuroprobes are capable of leaving faster, but we have them go more slowly
to allow the brain time to get reacquainted with the body’s natural sensory
data. It’s sort of like decompression, like when a scuba diver stays in deep
water too long. The longer the interface, the longer the decompression
required.”
“Decompression
implies that you use some form of compression in your interface.” He thought
about that for a moment. “It sounds like you’re running your simulations faster
than normal.” He looked over at his father’s chamber. “So, how fast was he
going? Two, three times normal?”
“Originally, we
had estimated that the neuroprobes could boost brain activity to a maximum of
ten times normal,” Maya said. “However, it now looks like your father had been
experimenting with a much faster interface. When Ceejer became infected, we
think the entire system defaulted to his speed for some reason.”
“What do you
mean? How much faster was my father going?”
“Our best estimate
is that time is passing inside the simulations one hundred times faster than normal.”
Alek’s mouth
hung open as he fought to make sense of what she said. “That can’t be right,”
he said after a moment. “Even with nanotech enhancements, there’s no way your
brain could process information at that speed. It would be like living in a
world running on fast forward. There’s something else you’re not telling me,”
he said. “What is it?”
Maya glanced
over at Leconte before replying. “You’re right of course. Neuroprobes can’t
boost brain efficiency by that much all by themselves. We also use something I
helped develop, called Intelligent Avatars. We use a new form of
high-resolution biological scanner to digitize a person’s brain and body all
the way down to the molecular level. We then use this data to model an Avatar
body that’s a perfect copy of the person.”
“What you’re
saying is that these Avatars are so perfect, that your brain’s tricked into
thinking you’re actually inside these digital bodies.”
“Exactly.”
“That still
doesn’t explain how you can exist inside a simulation running a hundred times
faster than normal.”
“The Avatars do
more than simply transmit sensory data from the simulations,” Maya said. “At
higher interface speeds, they work as interpolation routines to help your brain
handle the increased data rates.”
“I think I
understand what you mean by interpolation. In a digital environment, movement
isn’t steady; it involves a series of steps per
Similar Books
