Practice makes perfect

Cy sat with Lin at her spawn point. She was casually dressed as a female Voltaire, a common halloween getup. Cy had his Steve McQueen as it was just very comfortable as skins go. Cy sat still as Lin watched her tablet carefully.

“How long will this take, Lin?” asked Cy without moving much. Lin did not look up from her tablet and said, “Well, it depends on how much is up in that noggin, Cy. So, in your case, about eighty seconds; please hold still so the data flows evenly.”

Cy wasn’t sure if he had been insulted or not and decided to just stay still. Lin’s tablet chirped and she smiled at Cy as she looked up, “The load is done, Cy. Now we wait for the render. Shouldn’t be long now; you can relax.”

Cy picked up the tea that Lin had brewed. The teacup complained and started to sing something that started with “A Tale Beyond Time…”, a very ancient hymn about bestiality. The Disney overlay was difficult to keep controlled, even in a private space like Lin’s place.

Lin watched an empty space in the room as an exact copy of Cy’s current Steve McQueen was slowly coming into full resolution. It had started as a sandy brown blob up top, two pixels of blue in the field of brown, a brown middle blob, and two blue lower blobs. Piece by piece, the entire Steve was finally as detailed as Cy could reasonably be expected to afford with his salary.

Cy looked at his doppelganger and it copied his expression exactly. “What can it do?” Cy asked.

CyPrime mimicked “What can it do?”.

Lin smiled at Cy and said, “CyPrime is its name and it can do whatever you can do, but it can only remember the last five minutes”.

CyPrime looked upset and said “That is going to make my life difficult for sure.” He looked at Cy and Lin for more information.

Cy was confused and said, “The last five minutes of what?”

Lin threw up her hands, “The last five minutes. Like the last five minutes. Wait a few more minutes with me now. CyPrime, my name is Lin.”

Lin, Cy, and CyPrime sat in silence together for several minutes. CyPrime hummed an ancient tune and whispered, “it sounds like. it sounds like loving you is easy but they boosted the bass…” while they waited.

Lin broke the silence after a beep from her tablet sounded, “CyPrime? It’s great to see you.”

CyPrime smiled slightly and asked, “Have we been introduced? Are you CyPrime or am I?”

Lin turned to Cy and said, “See, he has a memory problem. All AIs have them, but these are cheap models so it’s pretty bad here. We don’t have many AppleRings or DollarDoos left from all the spending lately.”

CyPrime cocked his head and said, “I don’t feel cheap” and patted his body to check.

Cy was annoyed, “What spending? We bought the vee8etches and the emulators, but …”

Lin stopped Cy, “Ras needs help. No income for her, remember? We’re all pitching in.”

Lin caught Cy’s eyes “You know why I agreed to do this right? You’re right. Sooner or later, we’ll not be able to afford the next thing or the next joke that keeps us employed. Then, yep, somebody doesn’t like the fish and you’re now on your way to detubbing. Get me my lemon smasher boys! Lin is dancing for meat sticks!”

CyPrime brightened “Can I see that dance? It sounds fun?” He tried a few steps that he thought would be appropriate for a meat stick.

Cy watched his copy and said, “He, me, him, CyPrime, whatever needs work. He looks like me, but the memory issue is going to make it hard. What can we do?”

CyPrime stopped his dance and offered “I love taking copious notes. Can someone give me a pen and a notepad?”

Lin quickly looked at CyPrime in the eyes critically. She installed a notepad application subdermally with a quick stab from her monocle.

CyPrime yelled “Ouch! Oh. OK. That works for me as well. Oh. I can flip the pages like …” and CyPrime’s eyes rolled upwards back into his skull. The iris moved up from the lower lid as an ocular sunrise.

The AI held out his arms to keep his balance, “Whoa! Kinda makes you dizzy!” He managed to stay upright.

Lin was surprised by the eye movement, “I think the notepad is not exactly compatible with these cheaper models. Yet, we can’t have him using an actual pen and paper. He’ll forget it somewhere. So, I guess… Hm…”

Lin produced a pair of mirrored sunglasses and dropped them over CyPrime’s eyes.

CyPrime said “Oh man, I’m like the Fonz now.”

Cy asked, “What does he actually know, Lin? Where did the Fonz come from?”

Lin said, “Whatever was up in your noggin when the beep went off? That was what he knows from you. Or, at least, a bad model of that. If we find some money, maybe we could upgrade his capacity, but for now, it’s all I can do. My DisneyClubbsDiners is maxxed out.”

CyPrime’s eyes flashed behind the sunglasses as he operated his internal notepad, “Lin’s cards are maxxed out. First note. SAVE”

Lin was annoyed, “Don’t write that down, CyPrime! Why would you want to remember that?”

CyPrime’s eyes flashed behind the sunglasses, “First note. DELETE.” and CyPrime frowned as his worldview was reduced.

Lin offered him a replacement, “Try this CyPrime: YOUR NAME IS CYPRIME! That’s a good note, right?”

CyPrime smiled but its eyes did not flash.

Lin waited and then said, “That was the end of the note, CyPrime.”

CyPrime’s eyes flashed behind the sunglasses, “First note prime/replacement for ripped page. YOUR NAME IS CYPRIME! That’s a good note, right? SAVE”

Cy was very apprehensive, “Ok, this will take some time. I think he’ll need quite a few notes before we can get them in place. Are you working with all of the Primes?”

Lin noted, “Yes, actually, I have LinPrime, and her zero-copy clones LinPrime2, LinPrime3, and LinPrime4 working with the other primes. Zero-copy means they’re all sharing the same memory unfortunately, but the task is embarrassingly parallel anyway. So, pure clones are actually perfect for the work.”

Cy asked, “Are they all effectively the same underlying model, Lin? I mean are all the Primes a version of CyPrime?”

Lin said, “Pretty much. I did the same thing to you as I did to the others.”

She paused before adding “I won’t tell you how long each person’s extraction took, Cy.”

Cy was nonplussed, “That’s not why I asked. I just wanted to know if the memory issue was common to all of them.”

Lin replied, “Oh. Yep. Same basic model. Same basic issues. The model can be upgraded, which improves all sorts of things, including the length of active memory.”

CyPrime asked hopefully, “Improvements sound like improvements?” His eyes lit up, “I aspire to be improved when there’s extra cash around. SAVE”

Lin smiled, “Perfect, note, Cy-ster. We’ll get you settled soon.”

Cy said, “Great. Well, it sounds like we might be ready for our test run. We can set our hooks into Kane’s court.”, as he faded from view.

Lin touched her tablet and asked for a zero-copy clone to attend her.

Lin turned as LinPrime4 walked up. She said to herself, “Start in on him. Make sure he’s well trained with the plan. Have him download the base notepad.md from the tubnet or he’ll burn out his eyes. No cloning here. The AWS billing alert just fired and we’re breathing fumes on what’s left of our budget. Just carve in the data. He won’t remember after you’re done.”

LinPrime4, with a large carving knife in hand, nodded at herself and turned to CyPrime who returned her smile warmly.