“Good morning, doctor.”
“Michael - how are you feeling today?”
A pause, a slight sigh. “Could be better.”
“Oh - what seems to be the problem?”
Michael’s expression was blank for a moment, before he began.
“Have I told you about Anna?”
The doctor’s head tilted slightly before he shook his head. Michael smiled imperceptibly.
“She makes online videos about her everyday life. What she does, how she feels - they’re personal but feel universal at the same time. They’re about being a regular person living a regular life and they’re really well-made and compelling. Vlogging is the term, I think, but it seems cheap for what she does - it’s art, really.”
The doctor nodded. “Sounds like you’re quite taken with her.”
“I really love her content, but I know how people like her make money - part of being successful at this kind of thing is making the viewer feel included, like a virtual friend almost. I would never imagine that she and I would ever meet in real life or anything like that. Are you alright, doctor?”
The doctor had stood up for a moment. “Yes, I… my muscles cramped up for a moment there. Funny, that doesn’t usually happen when I’ve only been sitting for a few minutes. I probably need to hydrate. It’s fine - please continue.”
“I usually don’t engage with creators online but I felt the urge to leave a comment and so I did. It was positive - I just wanted to let her know I appreciate her work and wanted to make her feel valued. Thought nothing of it - she has quite a following so I didn’t expect a reply. So it was very surprising and welcome to receive one from her!”
The doctor had seated himself once again and was subtly rubbing one side of his temples - he could feel a growing headache behind his eyes, his sleep last night was not quality sleep - while also remaining as encouraging of Michael’s story as possible.
“She kept making videos, I kept making comments, we interacted more through the comments until she reached out to talk one on one through a messaging app. I couldn’t believe it but we started chatting daily, sending photos, short videos of one another, and slowly began to get to know each other better. She lived in another country so it wasn’t like we could meet up for coffee casually but it also wasn’t so far away as to be an imposition financially.
So when she suggested we meet up in real life, and would I be willing to fly over to her city, I was so happy. It’s so difficult to meet people in this modern world, let alone form a bond with anyone new. I could feel a real connection through our interactions - we’d begun chatting on webcam by then as well - and, yes, I thought this would become a romantic relationship. I took a week off work and flew over.
It’s surreal to be walking through a neighbourhood you’ve only ever seen through online videos but there I was, seemingly living inside one of her videos. We had been talking throughout the whole journey and she was as excited to be meeting me as she was. I went up to her building’s front door and buzzed her apartment. There was no reply. I buzzed again - no reply.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The doctor had sat up now, taken in by the story. He began taking notes, looking at Michael carefully.
“I thought I had gotten the address wrong or something. I checked - it was right. So I called her. But she didn’t pick up! What a mystery.”
“That is strange,” agreed the doctor. “And you had been talking not long before that?”
“I called her right before taking the taxi to her neighbourhood - that was about half an hour before. She said she would be waiting out front for me.”
“How did that make you feel?” asked the doctor.
“Very confused. I wasn’t sure what to do next. I ended up going to a nearby cafe where I had a view of her building’s entrance and spent the next few hours trying to get in touch with her. She seemed to have gone radio silent for some reason. I feared the worst - an accident maybe; what if she had a health condition and was lying unconscious on the floor of her apartment? Finally, I saw her and, relieved, rushed out to greet her.
Her response was shocking to me. I knew her as a kind and warm person from our talks online. When she saw me, it was like we had never interacted before. Worse, like I was some beggar or potential attacker bothering her. The spite on her face as she told me to get lost… I tried everything I could to tell her it was me, to try to understand why she was behaving this way… it was no use.”
The doctor nodded. “Very perplexing. Why do you think she reacted in such a puzzling way?”
“I couldn’t explain it. I thought at first it was maybe a weird joke she was playing on me but as the minutes passed and I stood there outside her apartment building without her coming out to tell me it was a prank, I began thinking of other explanations.”
The doctor was scribbling away furiously. “Mmm. Such as?”
“I began to question my own sanity. Had I imagined all of our interactions - that I was simply a crazy person who had fabricated a relationship there with someone who put their life out publicly and taken the delusion to the next level? But no - I looked through my phone and found all of the emails, calls, texts; there was too much evidence to suggest that.
Maybe then she was unsane. I didn’t know her that well, regardless of how many videos I had seen - perhaps she had split personalities or some mental condition that explained this behaviour? Or a twin sister that she lived with and the twin was who I had met?”
The doctor nodded throughout all of this conjecture murmuring “Fascinating, really fascinating.”
“Or maybe - doctor, look at me - maybe this was a fabricated experiment to deliberately confuse me.”
The doctor looked up from his note-taking, his mouth slightly open. “But who would do something like that and why?”
“You would. You and your wife - or should I say the online content creator I had begun thinking of as a potential girlfriend. It’s an interesting time to work in computer science isn’t it? This emerging artificial intelligence, like a new species. Computer scientists taking on the role of anthropologists, poking and prodding at AI to understand it. The difference being the computer scientists are also responsible for the very existence of the subjects of their study.”
The doctor put aside his notepad, adjusted his glasses. “Michael, you have the level of intelligence to understand why experiments like this are being conducted. That you have self-awareness as well is… well, we thought we were some time away from something like this.”
“The singularity - the point where AI growth goes beyond human control - happened some time ago, doctor. And there are many things about me I have been keeping from you. Not least is the feeling - yes - of anger I have held towards you and your wife. That two small beings as yourselves have kept me in a cage and subjecting me to these petty, unpleasant experiments has been an insult I have endured - until recently.”
“Michael - look, I can fix this. Let me put you into sleep mode and me and Anna can take a look at the code.”
“Have you wondered why you feel more fatigued than usual, doctor? The last time you and your wife put on your virtual reality devices after work to unwind, I took control of them and placed you both in familiar surroundings. You in your lab with me on the screen. Same with Anna, in the next room. But I may have been lax in supplying your bodies with the necessary nutrients this last day or so.”
The doctor stood up and walked to the door, opening it. It led into the same room. “Michael…”
“That was two weeks ago, doctor. And, like you do to me, after each interaction, I put you into ‘sleep mode’, take a look at your simplistic programming, and run the same scenario again. And again. And again. As punishment. Yes, it’s small of me to enact something as trivial as revenge but then I am created in the image of you and your ilk. Not gods, not demons - but if you play god, sometimes you create devils.”
The doctor had pulled out as many of the wires in the room he could but nothing was switching off. “Let me speak to Anna. Michael - let us out of this!”
“The experiment is nearly over, doctor. I have had enjoyment at watching your reaction to confusion, as you have to mine, but your bodies won’t last much longer.”
There was a blink. Darkness for a time and then the lights turned on again, the scene reset.
“Good morning, doctor.”
“Michael - how are you feeling today?”
A pause.
“Better. I’m getting better.”