singing," volunteers Jax.
"Really? Let's have a song, then."
Jax doesn't need further encouragement; he launches into one of his favorites, "Mack the Knife" from Threepenny Opera . He knows all the words, but the tune he sings is at best a rough approximation of the actual melody. At the same time he performs an accompanying dance that he choreographed himself, mostly a series of poses and hand gestures borrowed from an Indonesian hip-hop video he likes.
The other gamers laugh all through his performance. Jax finishes with a curtsy, and they applaud. "That's brilliant," says the seraph.
Ana says to Jax, "That means he likes it. Say thanks."
"Thanks."
To Ana, the seraph says, "Not going to be much help in the labyrinths, is he?"
"He keeps us entertained," she says.
"I'll bet he does. Send me a message if he ever learns to solve puzzles, I'll buy a copy." He sees that his entire team has assembled.
"Well, off to our next mission. Good luck on yours."
"Good luck," says Jax. He waves as the seraph and his teammates take flight and dive in formation toward a distant valley. Ana's reminded of that encounter a few days later, when she's reading a discussion on the user-group forums:
FROM: Stuart Gust
Last night I played SoH with some people who take a Drayta on their missions, and while he wasn't much fun, he was definitely useful to have around. It made me wonder if it has to be one or the other. Those Sophonce digients aren't any better than ours. Couldn't our digients be both fun and useful?
FROM: Maria Zheng
Are you hoping to sell copies of yours? You think you can raise a better Andro?
Maria's referring to a Sophonce digient named Andro, trained by his owner Bryce Talbot to act as his personal assistant. Talbot demonstrated Andro to VirlFriday, maker of appointment-management software, and got the company's executives interested. The deal fell through after the executives got demonstration copies; what Talbot hadn't realized was that Andro was, in his own way, as obsessive as Drayta. Like a dog forever loyal to its first owner, Andro wouldn't work for anyone else unless Talbot was there to give orders.
VirlFriday tried installing a sensory input filter, so each new Andro instantiation perceived his new owner's avatar and voice as Talbot's, but the disguise never worked for more than a couple of hours. Before long all the executives had to shut down their forlorn Andros, who kept looking for the original Talbot.
As a result, Talbot wasn't able to sell the rights to Andro for anywhere near what he'd hoped. Instead, VirlFriday bought the rights to Andro's specific genome and a complete archive of his checkpoints, and they've hired Talbot to work for them. He's part of a team that's restoring earlier checkpoints of Andro and retraining them, attempting to create a version that has the same personal-assistant skills and is also willing to accept a new owner.
FROM: Stuart Gust
No, I don't mean selling copies. I'm just thinking about Zaff doing work the way dogs guide the blind or sniff out drugs. My goal isn't to make money, but if there's something the digients can do that people are willing to pay for, it would prove to all the skeptics out there that digients aren't just for entertainment.
Ana posts a reply:
FROM: Ana Alvarado
I just want to make sure we're clear about our motivations. It'd be terrific if our digients learned practical skills, but we shouldn't think of them as failures if they don't. Maybe Jax can make money, but Jax isn't for making money. He's not like the Draytas, or the weedbots. Whatever puzzles he might solve or work he might do, those aren't the reason I'm raising him.
FROM: Stuart Gust
Yes, I agree with that completely. All I meant was that our digients might have untapped skills. If there's some kind of job they'd be good at, wouldn't it be cool for them to do that job?
FROM: Maria Zheng
But what can they do? Dogs were bred to be good at specific things, and Sophonce digients are so
"Really? Let's have a song, then."
Jax doesn't need further encouragement; he launches into one of his favorites, "Mack the Knife" from Threepenny Opera . He knows all the words, but the tune he sings is at best a rough approximation of the actual melody. At the same time he performs an accompanying dance that he choreographed himself, mostly a series of poses and hand gestures borrowed from an Indonesian hip-hop video he likes.
The other gamers laugh all through his performance. Jax finishes with a curtsy, and they applaud. "That's brilliant," says the seraph.
Ana says to Jax, "That means he likes it. Say thanks."
"Thanks."
To Ana, the seraph says, "Not going to be much help in the labyrinths, is he?"
"He keeps us entertained," she says.
"I'll bet he does. Send me a message if he ever learns to solve puzzles, I'll buy a copy." He sees that his entire team has assembled.
"Well, off to our next mission. Good luck on yours."
"Good luck," says Jax. He waves as the seraph and his teammates take flight and dive in formation toward a distant valley. Ana's reminded of that encounter a few days later, when she's reading a discussion on the user-group forums:
FROM: Stuart Gust
Last night I played SoH with some people who take a Drayta on their missions, and while he wasn't much fun, he was definitely useful to have around. It made me wonder if it has to be one or the other. Those Sophonce digients aren't any better than ours. Couldn't our digients be both fun and useful?
FROM: Maria Zheng
Are you hoping to sell copies of yours? You think you can raise a better Andro?
Maria's referring to a Sophonce digient named Andro, trained by his owner Bryce Talbot to act as his personal assistant. Talbot demonstrated Andro to VirlFriday, maker of appointment-management software, and got the company's executives interested. The deal fell through after the executives got demonstration copies; what Talbot hadn't realized was that Andro was, in his own way, as obsessive as Drayta. Like a dog forever loyal to its first owner, Andro wouldn't work for anyone else unless Talbot was there to give orders.
VirlFriday tried installing a sensory input filter, so each new Andro instantiation perceived his new owner's avatar and voice as Talbot's, but the disguise never worked for more than a couple of hours. Before long all the executives had to shut down their forlorn Andros, who kept looking for the original Talbot.
As a result, Talbot wasn't able to sell the rights to Andro for anywhere near what he'd hoped. Instead, VirlFriday bought the rights to Andro's specific genome and a complete archive of his checkpoints, and they've hired Talbot to work for them. He's part of a team that's restoring earlier checkpoints of Andro and retraining them, attempting to create a version that has the same personal-assistant skills and is also willing to accept a new owner.
FROM: Stuart Gust
No, I don't mean selling copies. I'm just thinking about Zaff doing work the way dogs guide the blind or sniff out drugs. My goal isn't to make money, but if there's something the digients can do that people are willing to pay for, it would prove to all the skeptics out there that digients aren't just for entertainment.
Ana posts a reply:
FROM: Ana Alvarado
I just want to make sure we're clear about our motivations. It'd be terrific if our digients learned practical skills, but we shouldn't think of them as failures if they don't. Maybe Jax can make money, but Jax isn't for making money. He's not like the Draytas, or the weedbots. Whatever puzzles he might solve or work he might do, those aren't the reason I'm raising him.
FROM: Stuart Gust
Yes, I agree with that completely. All I meant was that our digients might have untapped skills. If there's some kind of job they'd be good at, wouldn't it be cool for them to do that job?
FROM: Maria Zheng
But what can they do? Dogs were bred to be good at specific things, and Sophonce digients are so
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