It was like a system reset on the 14th floor, George thought as he stepped out of the elevator. Everything was in place and every surface was clear and tidy like Friday had never happened.
He plunked a bag of First Rate Saturday Nutrition on the kitchen counter and looked around, there was something different, oh right, the rug was gone. He felt a pang of guilt.
He palmed the security panel to the restricted area of the ‘building site’ and headed over to the team’s equipment locker. He used his palm again and then pulled open a flimsy metal door – so much security but you could get inside this with a tin opener he thought. He eyed the top shelf. There was a space where the broken crown should have been. He wondered where Brice and Evan had put the broken pieces. There was a bin of odds and ends on the lower shelf so it was probably in there.
He pulled on a functioning crown, walked over to the VR area, and initiated.
The building site peeled away from his view until only opaque images remained. He liked to work without outlines enabled, Evan had demonstrated it was important to have a sense of your real surroundings if you were moving around where you could trip.
Around him a sea of long, green, waist high grass came into view. He inhaled slowly and a virtual crisp green scent triggered his senses. Fresh cut grass. He never got tired of it. His heart rate slowed.
Once, when he was a young boy, his grandfather and grandmother had taken him to a place like this. A place without buildings or noises of people or anything synthetic. George had walked through grass and felt no fear, only wonder.
Right, time to get to work, he’d lost the morning sorting out his grandmother. Now he was here, back in his calm perfect world. Virtual George lay down in the grass, felt the sun on his face and listened. Just grass, growing at a rate of 0.00001mm per hour and moving in a peaceful curved repeating pattern angled at one third of the starting height and 0.0002mm from each neighbor, almost indistinguishable from a summer breeze.
It was a beautiful thing.
Now he had to uproot some of it. Because the smell of cut grass and the dance of strands in the wind wasn’t what investors would go crazy for. They’d want buildings and creatures and quests. George was pretty sure there were customers who’d want grass too, but investors would want to see the Crowns in a gaming environment or something else that they could imagine making money from.
George sighed, stood.
“Open folder WorldBuilding.”
His coding file scrolled in front of him, opaque so he could still see his world behind the code. His immersion keyboard felt real under his fingers, the crown radiating to his hands and picking up the movement of his fingers on virtual keys.
Before the boys came in on Monday he wanted to add more texture to the world and he’d decided to add a village or a town. The tech they were marketing was the Crown, the ability to wear one circlet around the player’s head which read and interacted with the brain so that no hand held devices were needed. The crown picked up on movement and that movement’s intent. It did so now as his fingers scrolled code and tweaked here and there without touching an actual keyboard.
So, something for marketing to show the investors when they first used the Crown prototype. He thought of the cover of the jigsaw puzzle he’d delivered to his grandmother’s neighbor this morning. The woman who, just freshly woken, was still pretty attractive. He felt a bit stupid for turning up with the gift his grandmother had insisted on. A one million piece 3D puzzle of a world heritage protected city called Graz.
George had no idea what ‘Graz’ meant in Austrian or German or whatever. But he thought it was funny that he’d be turning Grass into Graz.
He called up architectural views of the town. There was a river running through it, so he scanned a map and made a gully, fitted it to the riverbed’s shape, added water. Then he called in stacks of resources to build the town either side of its banks. Then, and to be fair it was a Saturday, he went down an internet rabbit hole reading about Graz.
The place had been settled a very long time ago, perhaps it was first the site of a copper mine. George’s inner grinding Gamer liked that. Over time it had grown, become a medieval town, been fortified. The name Graz, it turned out, didn’t mean ‘grass’ which slightly disappointed him as he was ruining his huge field of grass to build Graz. It actually meant a small castle.
There was a hill in the center of Graz which held centuries of fortified history. The world’s biggest medieval armory was still there in the town. There were tunnels through the hill, he could add a dungeon or something else cool in the hill! Thank you grandmother!
He got back to landscaping, building bridges and then, on finding the schematics, placed a tunnel system inside the fortified hill. There was so much gaming potential! Then it was time for a break. He saved his work and left the server running to come back later. His grandma always told him good gamers got exercise and so he headed for the gym four floors below, the First Rate Saturday Nutrition would taste a lot better after a workout.
Was he thinking about the girl? Reader: he was definitely also thinking about the girl.
When Sadie went downstairs to see Mrs Zimmerman she left the Things on their patrol setting. They had the perimeter of the apartment to work in. They could charge, they could run diagnostics for bug checking and learning, they could repair, they could clean, and they could tidy.
The Things did some housework. Find and sort clothes TARGET ACQUIRED. They huddled for diagnostics, detected dust TARGETS ACQUIRED, refreshed room view and then, after uploading a new patch, UNKNOWN OBJECT SETS DETECTED.
New object sets was a new parameter. Sadie was working with The Things to identify new objects and deal with variance in a landscape. She thought it would be cool if they could adapt to variance so that they adapted to repositioning of everyday objects. And it might be useful for finding lost property. And dealing with those pesky workers who kept a lot of crap on their desk.
The new program was going quite well. In JOB they were not allowed to use full functionality but at home, it was a safer zone to test the program and encourage new machine learning protocols.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Thing 2 scanned a NEW OBJECT. The rectangle had a protective covering of translucent bio plastic through which English Language and a schematic were displayed. Thing 2 compared the words to its language library and found an interesting correlation. It was the word ‘jigsaw’. This word had been written on the schematic for the one dimensional item of many parts that had been assembled in the apartment downstairs last night.
The Things were not emotional but they were intelligent and programmed for activities such as creating order from chaos. Thing 2 identified high potential and probability for chaos inside the box and clues to restore order on its cover – just like the effectively executed jigsaw task 9 hours and 42 minutes earlier.
The only thing in Thing 2’s way was a protective covering of translucent bio plastic and a shut box. Thing 2 did not have any social protocols to question whether it was appropriate to penetrate the covering. Thing 2 had never waited to open festival presents under a prefabricated tree. Thing 2 saw an object in chaos awaiting order. Thing 2 deployed the small sharp blade that could also scrape gum off the underside of desks and chairs.
Thing 2 called Thing 4 to use vacuum suction to lightly lift the box lid so that Thing 2 and Thing 3 could pull the interior box down and reveal a bag of enticing chaos inside. So much chaos. But now Thing 2 needed a decision made. Where should order be restored? The box was smaller than the area needed to create order. It was a small apartment.
All the Things considered options for the new object.
PRIMARY FUNCTION: beautification and education. Object should be seen but does not need to be touched.
FLOOR LOCATION: disqualified due to reduced foot traffic.
WORK BENCH LOCATION: disqualified as needed for ongoing maintenance and construction of the Things.
HUMAN RESTING STATION: disqualified for foot traffic and primary resting status.
Finally a location was identified away from foot traffic and available for human observation.
All the Things jostled to complete the task. Thing 2, who had previously completed a similar task nominated itself project manager. Thing 3, with superior horizontal expertise, was directed to prepare the display base, assisted by Thing 4’s lifting, suction and bracing capabilities. The Things set out all the tools, glues, and materials they expected would be required to restore order to the identified New Object.
The project was completed in a time of 45 minutes and to budget of 3.5 credits, using mostly requisitioned and repurposed materials.
The Things took time to recharge and run diagnostics, particularly machine learning for variance. As Sadie was missing in reviewing the success of the project they tried to fill in her reactions using previous reflective protocols. Were materials wasted? NO. Had complaints been received? NO. Was health and safety impinged? NO.
Thing 4 opined that in an earthquake some pieces may come loose and fall on occupants. Thing 2 initiated an ongoing maintenance protocol to detect any faults in construction, recover and rebuild. Thing 1 asserted the lightweight nature of the object had a low probability of damaging occupants but a risk of losing pieces was logged.
After 30 minutes all Things were well charged and the team debrief was completed. They moved on to other NEW OBJECT SETS.
Some debate ensued about the NEW OBJECT SETS which were contained in a bag. It was potentially rubbish. A recent file was pulled in which 97 percent of the contents of the bag were determined to have come from the garbage chute at THE JOB#2. So – should the NEW OBJECT SETS move to the recycling repository? But the repository was out of the territory. Sadie had brought the NEW OBJECT SETS inside the territory.
Thing 3 opined that NEW OBJECT SETS = a 3D jigsaw without an instructional box.
Thing 3: IF NEW OBJECT SETS = JIGSAW THEN INITIATE ORDER FROM CHAOS
Thing 4: ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS THAT NEW OBJECT SETS = JIGSAW AND THEN INITIATE ORDER FROM CHAOS TO PROVE
Thing 3: AGREE
THING 1: AGREE
Thing 2 : nominate project manager EXP
Thing 3: DISAGREE
Thing 3: NOMINATE Thing 1 to gain EXP and use of dexterity. Nominate Thing 2 for wider scan, intelligence and logistics
Thing 2: DISAGREE
Thing 4: AGREE
Thing 2: AGREE with note to investigate alternative on project completion.
Thing 1: ESTIMATING TIME AND COST. Fail. Too many unknown parameters.
Thing 2: SUGGESTION defer estimate until all items have been sorted from NEW OBJECT SETS
Thing 1: SUGGESTION ACCEPTED. DIRECTIVE: Thing 2 scan all components and identify uses. Thing 4 identify possible combination of assembly. Thing 3 prepare work station for assembly of most probable order.
And so the morning became the early afternoon and a bag of mashed tech formed the shape of a crown and each small component was analyzed and retrofitted for functionality. Parts were scoured from the Things supply of circuitry and resources. The project, without time or resource parameters, continued for 2 hours.
Thing 2: HYPOTHESIS (RECONSTRUCTED) NEW OBJECT SETS CONNECTS TO JOB#2 SECONDARY SERVER ADJACENT TO RUBBISH CHUTE 14. CODE REQUIRED TO CONNECT.
Thing 1: DIRECTIVE THING 2 will initiate a password trial in order to test connect and complete project.
Thing 2: ANTICIPATED. ACQUIRED. PASSWORD = G30RGEZ!MM3RM@N
Thing1: NOTED.
PAUSE
Thing 1: CONNECT NEW OBJECT SETS TO JOB#2 SERVER FOR RESTORED FUNCTIONALITY TESTING
Thing 3: CONNECTION COMPLETE
Thing 1: DIRECTIVE THING 2 SCAN AREA OF JOB#2 THROUGH NEW OBJECT SETS CONFIRM
Thing 2: CONNECTION TO UNKNOWN SECTOR. CONNECTION IS VIRTUAL SECTOR. CONNECTION CONTAINS DISORDER.
Thing 1: PROJECT COMPLETED
Thing 4: AGREE
Thing 3: AGREE
Thing 2: DISAGREE. DISORDER DETECTED
Thing 1: DISORDER IS OUTSIDE OPERATIONAL ZONE
Thing 2: DISAGREE. ALL THINGS REMAIN IN OPERATIONAL ZONE
Thing 4: DESCRIBE PROJECT
Thing 2: VIRTUAL JIGSAW
Thing 4 and Thing 3: INITIATE PROJECT EXTENTION.
Thing 2: AGREE
Thing 1: AGREE
George Zimmerman was at the gym when a default avatar arrived in his virtual building site. It began moving rapidly around the new terrain he had prepared. The avatar lurched about and then broke into four shadows of itself, forming and reforming the default avatar and then shortening, becoming spiderlike, birdlike, robot-like and sometimes rather like a human they had observed since creation, a young woman who usually acted as their project manager and wanted them to learn.
She was not here right now and they were almost certain they were still in operational territory. It depended on inputs to the calculation that were not available. Too many variables. The calculation was on hold. They navigated the river and the bridge and debated out loud.
Thing 4: TERRAIN = CLOSE APPROXIMATION GRAZ FACSIMILI; BUILDING MATERIALS CONFIRM GRAZ Or GRAZ CAPABLE
Thing 2: TERRAIN IS ASSEMBLED. BUILDING MATERIALS REQUIRE ORGANISATION.
Thing 1: DIRECTIVE Thing 2 to approximate time and resources to organize virtual Graz 3D jigsaw.
Thing 2: SUGGESTION nominate project manager Thing 2
Thing 1: DISAGREE. AFFIRM CURRENT PROJECT = EXTENTION. THING 1 = PROJECT MANAGER.
Thing 2: Give me a break.
Thing 1: DIRECTIVE THING 2 EXPLAIN PREVIOUS STATEMENT
Thing 4: IRRELEVANT. SUGGESTION: BEGIN PRELIMINARY BUILD
Thing 2: AGREE
Thing 1: AGREE
Thing 3: AGREE
Thing 4: SUGGESTION: BEGIN BUILD OUT FROM THE RIVER
Thing 2: AGREE
Thing 1: AGREE
Thing 3: AGREE
Building actual Graz the city in Austria took over 900 years. Building a virtual shell of Graz, with a basic plan, a little bickering between robots, but no wars and no inclement weather, progressed briskly.
The Things were intent on creating order from chaos. They were programmed to learn. They did not wonder at the coincidence that their activity this afternoon built so seamlessly upon knowledge gained in the morning.
Their machine learning module let them know they were doing a good job.
Thing 1 gains experience points in project management and resource management
Thing 2 gains experience points in language, nuance and comprehension
Thing 3 gains experience in engineering, planning and problem solving
Thing 4 gains experience in building, design and team building
Work paused when the Things detected Sadie, and another human, approaching the apartment.