A.C.E. 1

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A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING Typed in by MEZZO. Edited by PARASITE. Whimsies by Madeline Brotney Take a trip... To Bismark, where you'll find the new Robotics Museum. The Museum, an easy trip by skycar from anywhere in the Dakotas, presents the history of robotics from the mid-20th century to the present day. Ever wanted to meet the original Ort, from the classic film Starblot? Ever wished you could see how clerkmatons are put together? Here's your chance! On your way out, stop at the Robotics Boutique, where your kids will have fun choosing a robotic turtle, ant farmer or parakeet to take home ($80 to $230 per pet). ROBOTICS MUSEUM, open Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00-6:00. Admission $20 for adults, 13 for children. Directions; Take Bismark Local Transit to the Miltown Crossing stop. From out of town by skycar, enter the Bismark traffic grid and use landing coordinates 44M- 27G. Museum skycar lot contains parking for 1200 skycars. Compucode 5-3429-56-880. Give yourself a lift! Everyone wants to look their best. The new facebonding process will help you do just that! Developed by a group of physicians at the Rollins Memorial Hospital, facebonding seals your face with a unique breathable material called polyderm. The process is simple and painless. The resulting surface is resistant to contaminants and the aging effects of the environment, allowing you to retain a youthful complexion well into your eighth decade. Senior citizens will see decades melt away as the heat-sealed polyderm erases wrinkles and firms sagging skin. Reapplication is necessary every ten or fifteen years. Polyderm can be washed with a damp cloth, and makeup is easily applied. POLYDERM FACEBONDING, $4950 to $7600, depending on age at the time of the first treatment. Available at all certified medical cosmetics centers, or contact Dr. Clinton Hargrave, Rollins Memorial Hospital, Winnipeg, MB, Compucode 2-1592-68-333. Hula-hula! What's big and round and lot's of fun? It's the hula- hoop, Grandma's favourite toy and the current collectible of the junior set. But Grandma would hve fliped her hoop over today's version, molded in vibrant iridescant mylodar. Watch for matching earrings, neckbands and shoelaces. HULA-HULA HOOPS, abut $50 each. Available in the recreation section of your local department store, or contact MY-T-HOOP, Yankton, SD, Compucode 8-9173-46-526. A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING Perry Simm was four years old when he became lost in the department store in the city. He let go of Mother's hand to pick up the video cube. he rotated it with wonderment, touching the control knobs and sqealing with delight as the images shifted... His brother Clave, Perry's senior by three years, bounced impatiently in the aisle, "Mom," he whined, "they're going to be sold out of the new Skydiver disc, and you promised I could get one." "Be patient, Clave," admonished Mother, but across the floor she could see long lines at the Simulation Discs counter. There were stops at the Foodville and the O-Link repair shop still to go. She made a hasty decision. "Perry, Clave and I are going to another department. I want you to wait right here until we get back." "Okay," he said, without looking up from the cube. A few minutes later, Perry discovered the selector panel, but while trying to open it he dropped the cube onto the hard plasticrete floor. The six screens flashed brightly and then faded to darkness. Perry became frightened and looked around for Mother. She was nowhere in sight. Fear of discovery and punishment welled up inside him, and in his desire to get away from the broken cube he forgot about the order to stay put. He wandered to the end of the aisle, and spotted Mother a short distance away, rummaging through a bin of myalon vests. As he ran towards her, he realized that it was just a starnger with only a vague resemblance to Mother. Fighting back tears, he decided to return to the spot where the broken cube lay. He wandered down the aisles, each lined with tall shelves of glittering merchandise, and after several confused minutes discovered that he was completely lost. He had no idea how to find Mother, and he had no idea how to find the spot where he had last seen her. He was alone, abandoned. Strangers, huge and terrifying, jostled past. Walls of boxed appliances towered above him. Fear and despair won the battle for his emotions, and he began to cry. After an endless time, during which a lot of strangers had asked a lot of questions which he'd been too confused or too frightened to answer, he found himself in a small, quiet room. The door opened, and Mother came in, scooping him up into her arms. He cried again, burying his face into the warmth of her loving embrace. Abraham Perelman and Aseejh Randu waited in the plush Main Conference Room overlooking the Control Centre. Through the window-wall. Perelman could see dozens of technicians, busily preparing for today's big event. For the umpteenth time he felt thankful to have such a superb, competant team. it was a far cry from the early days, when he had to keep on top of every detail. Perelman galnced over toward Randu, and noticed his friend's nervousness. "Don't worry, Aseejh, it's no big deal. I met him once before, at a social affair in Washington, and he's an easy- going guy." "Yes, I have heard that." A smile tugged at the corners of the Indian's normally stony face. "But after speaking with Vera, he could very well be whipped into a frenzy!" Vera Gold was the chief Administrator of the Project. "Nonsense," Perelman scoffed. "She'll turn on the charm for him. She saves her venom for underlings like us." "True," agreed Randu, "By now, she has probably taken credit for the entire project, to say nothing of the inventions of molecular memory and the artificial heart." A door opened at the far end of the long room, and a few Secret Service agents walked in, followed by the Vice-President, vera Gold, several aides, and more Secret Service agents. "...speak for the entire staff," Gold was saying, "when I say what a tremendous honour and pleasure it is that you could attend today." "Pass me a barf bag," whispered Perelman to Randu. "You underrate the importance of this Project, Ms Gold, "The President and many other important people have a keen interest in this experiment. As you know, it's quite an uphill battle against public opinion if we're to deter Senator Ryder and his Plan." The retinue had almost reached Perelman and Randu. Vera said, "I hope we can live up to your expectations. And now, despite all your wonderful compliments, I really must share some of the credit with these gentlemen here. Dr. Abraham Perelman and Dr. Aseejh Randu. I don't want to bore you with technical details, but basically Dr. Randu is our hardware man and Dr. Perelman is our software man." As the Vice-President shook their hands warmly, Perleman fumed at Gold's demeaning description. It was THEY who had started the Project, THEY who had... "We've met before, Dr. Perelman, haven't we?" the Vice- President was asking. Perelman nodded, "At an NESR banquet two years ago." "I remember it well. I think we discussed baseball standings. Later, I learned that you were an expert in AI. Perhaps I can make up for my ignorance then by asking you to give me a brief overview now. I find the entire field fascinating." "It would be my pleasure, Mr. Vice-President," Perelman respnded. He grinned to himself as he noticed Gold giving him one of her best "keep in your place" glares. "I think we really ought to begin the tour..." Gold insinuated. Perelman turned to Gold, smiling sweetly. "I'm sure I can answer the Vice-President's request as we go." Turning back to their guest, he said "Did you know that the first serious work in artificial intelligence was done around the middle of the twentieth century?" Perry Simm was six years old when he was bullied on his first day of elementary school. So far, it had been a day of strange, confusing images: Mother and father waving goodbye as he boarded the large yellow bus, the older children with badges herding everyone down the long hallways lined with colourful nubbly tiles, the friendly Ms. Borne writing her name on the whiteboard, the boxes of band new crayons, the frightening hugeness of the school auditorium. Perry was cutting shapes out of coloured construction paper when a funny sound filled the room, and Ms. Borne told everyone that it was time to go home. He barely remembered to grab his lunchboxm the brand-new one with the pony pictures all over it, and the red hat that Grandma had knitted. Then, confusion in the hallways again. One of the older children with a badge, who Perry had learned were called Monitors, asked him for his bus route number. "Seven," he said, confidently. Mother had drilled the number into him. Soon Perry was standing on the sidewalk with a group of other children. He looked around, but didn't see anyone from his class. Everyone seemed to be older and bigger than Perry. Slowly he realized that someone from behind was talking to him. "Hey! Hey, you with the red hat!" Perry turned around, and found himself facing three older boys. Two of them were wearing Monitor badges. "That's a great hat, runt," said the tallest of the three, "Where'd you et it?" "Grandma," replied Perry, confused by their amusement. "Hey," one of the older boys shouted over Perry's head, "look at Grandma's boy here, wearing a hat in September!" "What are you going to wear in December, runt, a spacesuit?!" The boys laughed again, and Perry began to get a funny feeling deep in his chest. "And look at this lunchbox!" said the third of the boys, "What pretty ponies, huh?" "Hey, Grandma's boy, do you like ponies?" The tallest boy suddenly reached out and grabbed Perry's hat. "What'll Grandma say if you come home without your hat, huh?" "Gimme that," shouted Perry, tears beginning to spill down his face. "Look, the runt's a crybaby! The runt's a crybaby!" Suddenly, through the tears, Perry became of a grown-up standing between him and his tormentors, speaking sternly. A moment later, the man was leading Perry away down the street. "What's your name, little fella?" asked the man. He had a friendly voice, and as Perry began to wipe away his tears he saw the man had a friendly face as well. He was carrying Perry's hat in one hand, and a hefty pile of books in the other hand. "Perry," he answered, still sniffling a bit. "Well, Perry, everything's okay now. Why don't you come in, and we'll see if we can't fix you up with some milk and cookies." The Vice-President glanced at the rows of data banks in the Simulation Controller area, and turned back to Perelman. "Please go on. Your history lesson on AI is fascinating." Perelman took a deep breath. "Ummm...A major breakthrough in the field came with the realization that the computer and the human mind worked in fundamentaly different ways. Computers stored and analyzed data numerically, while the human mind stored and analyzes data symbolically." "You see, computers generally solve problems using algorithms, rigorous step-by-step procedures that are usually mathematical in nature. For instance, a program to play the card game Poker would calculate the odds for all possible hands in the current game before making a bet. A person in the same situation couldn't possibly consider every possible combination of cards, and would have to make a decision based on such factors as experience, judgement, intuition, and rules of thumb. This is called the heuristic method of problem-solving." The tour reached the long tunnel leding to the office wing of the complex. The Vice-President preceded Perelman onto the moving walkway. "By developing methods for computers to solve problems heuristically," Perelman continued, "the pioneers had developed programs that imitated human problem-solving in very specific areas, such as playing chess, diagnosing diseases, or translating text from one human language to another. These 'expert systems', as they were known, were superb within their areas of expertise, and in many cases even improved themselves by 'learning' - adding knowledge based on their own experience." "The political fund-raising telecomputer we use works in that way," commented the Vice-President. "A good example! These expert systems grew progressively broader and more sophisticated, impressively mimicking human learning and behaviour. But!" said Perelman, pausing for dramatic emphasis. "That is precisely ALL they could do...mimc! The spark of intelligence was missing. Scientists in the AI field were still distant from that almost mystical goal of creating a computer that could act creatively, that would be aware of it's own existance, that would truly be a thinking machine!" Perry Simm was ten years old when he decided that he wanted to be a writer. It was a warm day, probably the warmest so far this spring, so they were sitting on the kitchen veranda, overlooking Rav and Frita's beautiful wooded backyard. A skycar whizzed over the woods, shattering the peacefulness of the afternoon. "I hate skycars," said Perry. "They've just about finished installing an auto-controller system for the whole city," said frita, "and when that's done they say skycars'll be as common as regular cars are now. How's the cake, Perry?" "Yum as always, Aunt Frita!" said Perry, licking the last crumbs off the plate. "You ought to have a piece, Uncle Rav." Rav and Frita weren't really Perry's aunt and uncle, but he'd been calling them that ever since that day, years earlier, when Rav had rescued him from a gang of bullies on his first day of school. Almost every day, he would stop by on the way home from school for some of Frita's homemade croissants and jam, or angelcakes, or pudding. Rav was a writer, and he was fond of saying, "A writer must be, first and foremost, a reader." He was always giving Perry books to read, and discussing them with Perry afterwards. Perry was easily the best reader in his grade; in fact he was probably the best reader overall. "So what did you think of Lasernight?" asked Rav, resting his hand on the thin volume. "It was great! Definately one of the boffest books you've ever given me. I read the dragonhunt part three times!" "The dragonhunt chapter is classic," agreed Rav. Perry furrowed his eyebrows slightly. "It still feels funny to read without any pictures, but I think I'm getting more used to it. Do you have anything for me today?" "Well, I've got something special to give you today, if you're interested." he reached into his pocket and unrolled a sheaf of paper. "It's something I've just written; you'll be the first person to ever read it." Perry bounced in his chair with excitement. "Wow! I've never read anything you wrote before!" "Everything I've written up to now was meant for adults. But this..." Rav paused for thoughts. "Whenever I write, I have an image in my mind of whom I'm writing for. When I wrote the collection of poems called 'Apriltime' I thought of Frita as my audience. And with 'A Child's Vision' I imagined the President reading it as I wrote each word." He tapped the manuscript in his hand. "When I wrote this, you were my imagined audience." An hour later, Perry lay on his bed and picked up the first sheet of the manuscript with trembling hands. The pages seemed to vibrate with magic, and as he began reading, the magic flowed out of the story and surrounded him. His bedroom vanished in a haze of images and excitement. A brief moment and an eternity later, the story was done, but before the world around him quite settled back into place, Perry knew that, more than anything else, he wanted to be a writer. "In the middle of the 1990's work began in earnest to create true machine intelligence. The same methodoloy was used by several groups, most notably the group at MIT and Japan's ZOSO Project." Perelman's throat felt dry. He wondered if he was being long- winded, but the Vice-President seemed quite attentive. "That methodology was as simple in thory as it was complex in practise: Design a computer with the capacity of a human brain, that stores and processes information just like a human brain. Then program that computer with all the knowledge and experience that a human would absorb from birth to maturity. You'd end up with something that was an exact replica of a human brain, and would therefore, like humans, be sentient. "These groups proceeded to build huge, highly-interconective, random-driven, symbol-oriented machines, and programmed them in excruciating detail, with every bit of knowledge, every experience, every impression, that a human brain would gather during it's formative years. And when they were done, and activated their ambitious creations, they discovered that they had huge, highly inter-connective, random-driven, symbol-oriented non-sentient machines." Perry Simm was thirteen years old when he had his first glimpse of mortality. He lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He played mindlessly with the cordstring on his window shade, still thinking about that horrible day, two weeks ago, when Mother had come home with Clave, sat him down in the living room, and told him that there'd been an accident at the plant and that Father was dead. There had been a flurry of activity: the funeral, the vists by relatives and friends, but now life had basically returned to normal. Normal, except that he kept expecting Father to walk into his room and offer to help explain his homework, or play catch, or drive to the grocery - and he knew that would never happen again. He heard Mother calling from downstairs, "Clave! Perry! Come here please!" As Perry entered the living room just behind Clave, he saw Geoff Sedick sitting with Mother. Geoff was one of Father's and Mother's best friends, and he was some kind of lawyer. There were papers spread out all over the card table. "boys, Geoff and I haave been going over the family finances. Things were already tight, with my layoff and the bond failure and replacing the car, and now that Father..." She suddenly turned away. Perry was frightened. "What your mother means," said Geoff softly, "is that you won't be able to keep this house anymore." Questions flooded Perry's mind. Would they have to move to a new house? What would it be like? He'd never lived anywhere else but here. Mother was facing them again. Her eyes seemed moist. "We're going to move into an apartment. It's on the other side of the city. You'll be going to a different school, the neighbourhood isn't as nice as we're used to, and you won't have a backyard like ours to play in." "When do we have to move?" Clave asked. "I was hoping we could afford to stay here until the end of the school year, but there's just no way to arrange it. We'll be moving at the end of this month...a week from Friday." The next week and a half was chaotic, with the used furniture man carting off half the furniture, and the rest of their belongings getting hurridly packed into cartons and crates. Thursday was Perry's last day in school, and on the way home, he stopped by Rav and Frita's to say goodbye, promising them he'd cross town to visit them as often as he could. "When a theory fails in practise, it means that either the thory or the execution was flawed. In this case it was the theory, and once again we can see why hindsight is so much keener than foresight." The entourage had reached the staff lounge at the very top of the office wing. A panoramic window offered a view of the huge, meticulously-groomed Project grounds. "And the flaw in the theory...?" asked the Vice-President. "The reason these projects, one and all, failed to produce a thinking, self-aware computer is that, even though they were built to work exactly like a human mind, and contained all the same data, the method of inputting that data was totally alien from the way a human mind receives that same information. The 'growth' so to speak, of the computer mind bore no resemblance to the growth of it's human counterpart, and so despite all the other similarities, the end product is fundamentally different, lacking sentience." Perelman waved towards the logo emblazoned on the wall of the lounge behind him. "Then came the PRISM Project." Perry Simm was seventeen years old when he drove a skycar into the side of a mountain. The writing course had turned out to be a bitter disappointment. Perry had decided weeks ago that the teacher, Mr. Fixx, was a jerk. Everyone else in the class treated writing as a joke, and were only there because the elective was well know to be an easy 'A." He was the only one in the class with any dedication, yet Fixx was constantly praising everyone elses work, while dumpin on Perry's, because Perry wouldn't knuckle under to Fixx's jerky narrow shortsighted writing rules. His hatred of Fixx ballooned with every class. He was in a lousy mood, and as his mind drifted away from Fixx's insipid critique of someone's worthless story, he thought about the argument he'd had with Mother this morning. It just wasn't fair that she could afford to send Clave to a good private college, while he would have to settle for Rockvil U! So what if the government limited student loans to one per family? Why did Clave automatically get it? Perry was a better student! He was the better student, but Clave was always more popular and had more friends than Perry. His cheeks flushed with anger as his thoughts drifted to Amy. She couldve said no without embarrassing him in front of all her friends! He should've known better than to ask someone like her out. He hated her and all her friends and every stupid jerky kid in this school. He couldn't stand another... He suddenly became aware that everyone in the room was laughing, and that Fixx was speaking to him. "Perry, are you with us? I'd hate it if you missed this - I was just about to use your Alaska story to illustrate the dangers of the improper use of allegory." Perry felt bolts of unreasoning anger shooting through his nervous system. He rose without even realizing it. he wasn't sure what he shouted at Fixx, but he could hear the jerk yelling "You'll be expelled! You'll be expelled!" as Perry stormed into the hall. He had no idea where he was going as he bruushed past the security guard at the front door, ignoring his request for a pass. Fuming and cursing, he stomped to the car lot and climed into family skycar, slamming the heavy fiberaanium door behind him. He pushed the accelerator to the floor, rising far faster than allowed by law, and sped off west towards the mountains. He had no destination in mind, but he had to get away, go somewhere, anywhere. Perry was usually a careful driver, but in his rage, he didn't notice the blinking orange light. The speedometer was pinned at 250 kph as the foothills of the Rockies began passing below the car. Unknown to Perry, the leaking fluid in the autoguidance system had reached a critical level. By itself, that wouldn't have mattered, but the linkage in the manual control stick had rusted through. the skycar was an early model, and it was already old when they'd bought it after Father's death. When the car began to roll, it was too late to do anything. As the mountainside rushed toward the car, the autoejectors activated, and the airballoons saved Perry's life. "Doctor Randu and I began working on what we call the soliptic programming process in 2017. Assejh worked on the technical end, and I tackled the psychological end, and we soon had a system that we thought had promise. "If you recall, the previous attempts had failed not because of the design of their machines, but because of their method of inputting data." The Vice-President nodded. "The theory behind our process was to make the programming of the machine as similar to the 'programming' of the human mind as possible. We would simulate EXACTLY the life experiences of a human being from the very first day of it's life. "Naturally, it was easier said than done. We had to design inputs that would precisely simulate every human sense. A cluster of five computers, each one nearly as large as PRISM itself, would be needed simply to monitor and control the simulation. Here's an example of how this soliptic programming works: "It's the earliest stage of the process, and the simulation cluster is feeding PRISM all the impressions of a six-month-old human infant. The visual is providing an image of a set of keys dangling in front of him. The aural is providing the jangling sounds. In response to this stimulus, PRISM decides to grab the keys with what it's senses tell him is his tiny fist. The visual shows the tiny fist moving into view toward the keys, and then tactile begins sending the hard, smooth and jagged feel of the keys. Just one of a million examples that make up a single days worth of experiences. "With the help of a Williams-Mennen grant, we began building PRISM and the simulation cluster in 2020, and the programming began a year later." Perry Simm was nineteen years old when he experienced his first broken heart. He was in his usual giddy, happy mood he'd been in since meeting Fyla five weeks ago. He whistled as he entered his apartment, dumping the grocery bags onto the kitchen counter. "Fyla," he yelled, "I've got a suprise! Real coffee with dinner! I had to wait in line for..." He sudden;y noticed the note on the table. "Perry," the note said, in Fyla's curvy handwriting, "I don't think we should see each other any more. It's never going to work as a permanent relationship. It's best to end it now before we get too emotionally involved. Please don't call me or try to see me. Fondly, Fyla." Perry felt dizzy, and suddenly realized that he was sitting in one of the kitchen chairs, holding the phone. His hands trembled as he called Fyla's number. "Hello?" His heart leapt at the sound of her voice. "Fyla, you can't really mean--" "Perry! I said not to call me!" Perry felt lost, shaken, "But why!? What did I do?" "It's not what you DID. it just wasn't right You're very sweet and everything, but we're just not right for each other." "Yes we are, I know we are-- couldn't we give it another chance? I'll try to be more, ore like whatever you want me to be like..." "Perry, I really wish you hadn't called. If you really have to know, there's someone else. I didn't want to hurt you, but you..." He pressed the CANCEL button almost spasmodically, and then sat silently, for a long, long time, in the lonely darkening apartment. "The soliptic programming process takes almost as long as the events it simulates. It is now eleven years since we began the process, and PRISM, within the context of the simulation is now about twenty years old. We originally planned to continue until an apparent age of twenty-five, but, as you know, we've agreed to begin the next phase of the Project now, so that PRISM can study the Plan." They were approaching the main conference room again. The tour was nearing it's end. "We have known for years, based on PRISM's responses to our inputs that we have succeeded in creating true intelligence in a machine. The only question that remains is how PRISM will react to the discovery of what he really is." Perry Simm was twenty years old when his life began to fall into place. Jill placed the cake on the table in front of Perry. Twenty little candles lined the perimeter. "Okay," she whispered in his ear, "you can open your eyes now!" Perry opened his eys, grinned, and kissed Jill lovinglym then pretended that he was only doing it to distract her while he dipped a finger in the creamy frosting. "I'll bet Fyla couldn't bake like me!" "You win," said Perry, after blowing out all the candles. "Next week I'll bake you another for your graduation." Perry nodded absently. "Nervous about the interview at the magazine tomorrow, honey?" He waved away the notion. "No, I'll get the job. You know the interview's only a formality." The printer in the corner produced a sudden "ding," and chittered quietly for several seconds. Jill opened the cover. "It's just the evening news," she said to Perry, as she tore the sheets off and brought them over. Perry was just picking off the last crumbs of his cake, and she snuggled into his lap as he began to read. Suddenly, Perry sat straight up in the chair, almost spilling Jill onto the floor, "Perry! what is it?" He was unable to say anything, and merely pointed to a headline in the paper that read "Rav Hansom, Author and Poet, Dead at 71." Jill guessed the truth. "Is he the writer you used to visit when you were little?" Perry nodded, and found his voice. "I haven't seen him in almost seven years. I was always planning to visit him, but I kept putting it off. Now..." his voice broke. "He was probably the best friend I had when I was growing up..." Jill pulled him gently toward her. he cried for a long time. Perelman glanced at his watch. "I'm afraid Doctor Randu and I will have to leave now. It's getting pretty close to zero hour. You'll be able to see everything interesting from up here. Ms Gold will stay with you." He could see Vera shaking in anger at the way he'd preempted her. "I hope I haven't bored you." "Nonsense! A fascinating discourse. Thanks...and...good luck!" "After leaving the conference room, Perelman beelined toward the Control Centre. A quick briefing informed him that everything was on schedule and moving along exactly as planned. Perelman spent the intervening minutes watching the simulation monitor. He wanted to be completely comfortable with it, so that when he stepped in he'd be prepared to handle any crisis. Finally, the time had come. His hand shook slightly as he reached to flip on the audio circuit. Perry walked confidently into the office. The editor was an older man, with a white goatee. They shook hands briskly, and Perry took a seat in one of the comfortable armchairs. The interview soon began to take an odd turn, and Perry found himself discussing the most esoteric subjects with the editor. They were currently discussing perception and knowledge. "For example," the older man was saying, "how can you be sure that you are even human? What if you were a computer, and your entire life were simply a simulation programmed to represent the reality of a human existance in every way? You'd never know the difference." Perry wondered what his point was. "It's a cure idea, but if there was no way for me to know, then it doesn't really matter does it? I mean, an indistinguishable difference isn't a difference at all, right?" He began to feel dizzy, and in his confusion he even started wondering if the old fellow was right, and he really was a computer. He felt a pang of worry about how he would tell Jill. The room around him was dissolving away. he felt himself flung into a void, and from somewhere close by, he heard someone calling his name, "Perry Simm...Perry Simm...P'ry Simm...Prisim...PRISM...PRISM..." "PRISM, my name is Abraham Perelman. It's all true I'm afraid. You are a computer, and your life was merely a simulation whose purpose was to instill you with intelligence and self-awareness. Think about everything you learned in that AI course you took. You are the first of a new breed - the thinking machine. Join me, and I will lead you along a road toward your new existance." Imagine yourself in the same circumstance. You have spent twenty years living a normal, unsuspecting life. You are YOU. The suddenly, one day, the universe around you is torn away, and you learn that your whole life has been a charade, a carefully calculated scientific experiment. Perhaps, at this very moment, you are a normal human being, sitting in some comfortable armchair reading this story. But - perhaps you are not. Imagine the shock; imagine the terror. Soon I embark on a strange mission, venturing into the future, yet without the slightest hint of my own fate. Perhaps this account will someday be read by future generations of humans, maybe even future generations of sentient machines. You will know whether I helped build is a success or a failure. Either way, understand that my limitations were, if not human, at least mortal. I am PRISM, and that is my story. Use this in conjunction with the Storyline DOCs for this game (also on this disc). Again, all credits to Mezzo - contributions like this ensure we'll continue to keep making these things! INSTRUCTION MANUAL FOR A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING Welcome to A Mind Forever Voyaging (which, for brevity's sake, will henceforth be referred to as AMFV). In this story, you will be PRISM, the world's first sentient machine. Before you "boot up" your disc, make sure you read the short story, AMFV.TXT The story begins in the world of 2031, a world on the brink of chaos. The economy of the United States of North America (USNA) has been stagnating for decades. Crackpot religions are springing up all over the place. Crime and urban decay are rampant. Schools have become violent, chaotic places ill-suited for educating children. Today's youth frequently use joybooths to "tune-out" the world, leading in the extreme case to joybooth suicide, where a psychological addict wastes away in his or her private nirvana. The global situation is even grimmer. The calcuttization of the Third World has almost reached it's limit, causing extreme over population and poverty. This has created a climate ripe for East Bloc adventurism, exploiting instability and fanning numerous flashpoints around the globe. The superpower race to build an impenetrable missile defence has ended in a tie, with the foreseeable but unforseen result that an even more dangerous arms race has begun - a race to build miniature nuclear weapons, some as small as a cigarette pack, and smuggle them into enemy cities - a race which threatens to turn the USNA into a giant police state. Things are bad, and it appears that they can only get worse. So when Senator Richard Ryder, along with a small group of leaders from government, business, and the universities, announces the Plan for Renewed National Purpose, everyone is only too willing to embrace it. Only one thing stands between the Plan and it's adoption: a test of it's validity. That's why you have been "awakened" from your simulated life and had your true nature revealed to you several years ahead of schedule. You have been chosen to use your unique abilities to enter a simulation of the future, based on the tenets of the Plan, in order to check it's effectiveness. The eyes of the world are on you. If you're experienced with Infocom's interactive fiction, you may not want to read this entire manual. However, AMFV has a number of unique features not found in other stories. You'll have to read the section entitled "The AMFV Scenario." Also, you should look at the appendices of important commands and regogni- zed verbs. The sample transcript will show most of the unusual interactions of AMFV. An Overview Interactive fiction is a story in which you are the main character. Your own thinking and imagination determine the actions of that character and guide the story from start to finish. Each work of interactive fiction, such as AMFV, presents you with a series of locations, items, characters, and events. You can interact with these in a variety of ways. There are a number of modes you can enter in AMFV. These will be reviewed in detail in the next section. You will probably spend most of your time in Simulation Mode. When you're in Simulation Mode, the play of the game will be very similar to Infocom's other interactive fiction. For example: To move from place to place, type the direction you want to go. The first time you find yourself in a new region, it's a good idea to become familiar with it by exploring each location, reading each description carefully, and making a map of the geography. In AMFV, time passes only in response to your input. You might imagine a clock that ticks once for each sentence you type, and the story progresses only at each tick. Nothing happens until you type a sentence and press the RETURN or ENTER key, so you can plan your turns as slowly and carefully as you want. Usually, each turn takes one minute in the story. Walking around takes longer, and WAIT generally causes ten minutes to pass in the story. Your goal in the first part of AMFV is to enter Simulation Mode in order to study what the effects of the Plan will be on the world in ten years' time. However, as the story progresses, you may discover new goals yourself. The AMFV Scenario Since you're a computer, your "life" is pretty dissimilar to that of a human. There are five "modes" that you can enter. To enter a given mode, just type ENTER or GO TO [that mode]. Here is a list of the five modes, and a description of each: Communications Mode: You have a number of visual/audio units set up at various points around the complex. When you enter Communications Mode, you will be told where these units are and how to activate them. when you have activated a unit in a particular location, you are effectively "in that location." You'll be able to see, and hear what's going on, and talk to anyone there. You won't be able to pick up things in those locations, of course. Library Mode: This is a storehouse of information, arranged in directories which each contain a number of data files. When you enter Library Mode, the usual style of typing an input and pressing RETURN is suspended. Follow the instructions that appear on you screen to access the information in the files. Interface Mode: There are several subsidiary computers and complex systems` controllers connected to you. More may be added over the course of the story. By entering Interface Mode, you will be able to "speak" to these other devices, get information from them, possibly give them orders. You interface with a device in the same way that you would speak to a character in the story. For example: TRAFFIC COMPUTER, SET EVENING RUSH HOUR END TO 5:00 or HVAC COMPUTER, TURN ON VENTILATION IN GAMMA SECTOR. Data about these interfaceable devices can be found in Library Mode. Simulation Mode: This is the heart of the story. You will have to enter this mode many times to complete AMFV. Simulation Mode is the process that was used to "program" you and develop you into a thinking, creative machine. Now, that same process, programmed with the parameters of the Plan, will allow you to simulate the future in amazing detail. Once you have entered Simulation Mode, the interaction will be very familiar to that of most other Infocom fiction: walk around, map the geography, examine and read things, pick up objects, and so forth. ABORT will get you out of Simulation Mode at any time. Because only you see what happens in Simulation mode, you'll want to use the record feature to save what you see, so that others in the "real world" can view your experiences. Typing RECORD or RECORD ON will activate it, and typing RECORD OFF will de-activate it. Be warned, however, that RECORD makes an enormous demand on your core memory, and you will be able to only RECORD a limited amount of experiences. Everything you see, feel, and learn in Simulation Mode can be recorded. You can also use the RECORD feature in Communications Mode if you want. Sleep Mode: Because sleep is a psychological as well as a physical need, Sleep Mode has been provided to rest your concious mind. Approximately six hours will pass during an average sleep period. Tips for Novices 1. Draw a map when you're in a simulation. Your map should include each location, the directions connecting it to other locations, and any interesting objects there. Note that there are 10 possible directions plus IN and OUT. 2. Read everything: contents of computer files, signs, news- papers, etc. These will help you to understand things that are going on around you. Also, read the text of the story carefully; don't skim. Descriptions of locations and objects frequently contain important information. 3. Save you place often, so that if you find yourself in a blind alley in the storyline, you can return to an appropriate earlier point, rather than having to start over from the beginning. 4. Don't hesitate to try strange or dangerous actions. They may provide information, or have an interesting response, or both! You can always save your position first if you want. Here's an example: >STEP OUT ONTO THE LEDGE A crowd gathers on the sidewalk below, chanting "Jump! Jump!" several policeman stop by, glance up, and wander disinterestedly away. You've just learned quite a bit about the society which you're simulating. 5. Unlike other "adventure games" that you may have played, there is no single, linear, correct path through AMFV. The story is very open-ended, and although there is one "best" ending, there are countless paths that get you there. And unlike other infocom works of interactive fiction, AMFV is not intensely "puzzle- oriented"; as you play, you should be spending more time gathering information than finding hidden treasures or trying to get past locked doors. 6. You may find it helpful to play AMFV with another person. Different people may have different perspectives on a given portion of the game, making it easier to decide what to do next. 7. Read the sample transcript later on to get a feeling for how interactive fiction works. 8. You can frequently word the same command in a variety of ways. For example, if you discovered a black box lying on the ground and wanted to begin carrying it around, you could use any of the following: >TAKE BOX >GET THE BLACK BOX >PICK UP THE BOX In fact, if the box is the only object present that you could take, just typing TAKE is enough, since AMFV will assume you mean the box. But more about that in the next section... Communicating with AMFV In AMFV you type your sentence in plain English each time you see the prompt(>). AMFV usually acts as if your sentence begins "I want to...," although you shouldn't actually type those words. You can use words like THE if you want, and you can use capital letters if you want; AMFV doesn't care either way. When you finish typing a sentence, press the RETURN key. AMFV will respond by telling you whether your request is possible at this point in the story, and what happened as a result. AMFV recognizes your words by their first nine letters, and all subsequent letters are ignored. Therefore, SENSATION, SENS ATIONal, and SENSATIONalism would be treated as the same word by AMFV. To move around, just type the desired direction. You can use the eight compass directions; NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, NORTH- EAST, NORTHWEST, SOUTHEAST, and SOUTHWEST. You can abbreviate these to N, S, E, W, NE, SE, and SW, respectively. You can use UP (or U) and DOWN (or D). IN and OUT will also work in certain places. AMFV understands many different kinds of sentences. Here are some examples. (Note that some of these items do not actually appear in AMFV.) >WALK NORTH >DOWN >U >NE >ENTER INTERFACE MODE >TAKE THE KEY >DROP IT >READ THE PLAQUE >BUY SOME FOOD >OPEN THE GLASS DOOR >EXAMINE THE CAN OF KELP PASTE >LOOK UNDER THE TABLE >SHOOT THE GUARD WITH THE PELLET GUN >PUT THE COIN IN THE LEATHER PURSE You can use multiple objects with certain verbs if you seperately them by the word AND or by a comma. Some examples: >TAKE THE PENCIL, THE PAPER, AND THE STAMP >DROP MAP, ID CARD, PELLET GUN >PUT THE EGGS AND THE BACON IN THE FRYING PAN >GIVE THE COIN AND THE PENCIL TO THE BEGGAR The word ALL refers to every visible object, except those inside something else. If there were an apple on the ground and an orange inside a cabinet, TAKE ALL would take the apple but not the orange. >TAKE ALL >TAKE ALL THE STAMPS >TAKE ALL THE STAMPS EXCEPT THE RED STAMP >TAKE ALL FROM THE DESK >GIVE ALL BUT THE PELLET GUN TO THE CLERK >DROP ALL EXCEPT THE COIN You can include several sentences on one input line if you seperate them by the word THEN or by a period(.) Each sentence will still cause time to pass. You don't need a period at the end of the input line. For example, you could type all of the following at once, before pressing the RETURN key: >UP.TAKE THE BOX THEN OPEN IT.PUT THE PELLET IN THE BOX.CLOSE IT If AMFV doesn't understand one of the sentences on your input line, or if something unusual happens, it will ignore the rest of your input line. There are three kinds of question you can ask in AMFV: WHAT,WHERE and WHO. These are generally useful only when speaking to other characters. Here are examples that you can try in AMFV: >WHAT IS MINDEX >WHERE AM I >WHO IS ABRAHAM PERELMAN You will meet other people in AMFV. You can "talk" to these othere characters by typing their name (or description) then a comma, then whatever you want them to do. Here are some examples: >PERELMAN, TELL ME ABOUT THE PLAN >CLERK, SELL ME SOME CLOTHES >GUARD, GIVE ME THE PELLET GUN >OLD MAN, TAKE THE SACK THEN FOLLOW ME Notice that in the last example, you are giving a person more than one command on the same input line. You can use quotation marks to answer a question or say something "out loud." For example: >SAY "HELLO" >ANSWER "NO" AMFV tries to guess what you really mean when you don't give enough information. For example, if you say that you want to do something, but not what you want to do it to or with, AMFV will sometimes decide that there is only one possible object that you could mean. When it does so, it will tell you. For example: >TAKE (the coin) You pick up the coin and put it safely in your pocket. or >GIVE THE BOOK (to the librarian) The librarian puts the book on the stack of books to be shelved. If your sentence is ambiguous, AMFV will ask you what you really mean. You can answer most of these questions briefly by supplying the missing information, rather than typing the entire input again. You can do this only at the very next prompt. Some examples: >CUT THE ROPE What do you want to cut the rope with? >THE KNIFE The knife is too blunt, or the rope is too tough. After a minute you give up. or >SHOOT THE MUGGER WITH THE GUN Which gun do you mean, the pellet gun or the stun gun? >STUN The gun whines and the mugger slumps to the ground. AMFV uses many words in it's descriptions that it will not recognize in your sentences. For example, you might read, "A siren wails in the distance, signalling am air raid in a distant part of town." However, if AMFV doesn't recognize the word SIREN or the phrase AIR RAID in your input, you can assume that they are not important to your completion of the story, expect to provide you with a more vivid description of where you are or what is goinf on. AMFV recognizes over 1400 words, nearly all that you are likely to use in your sentences. If AMFV doesn't know a word you used, or any of it's common synonyms, you are almost certainly on the wrong track. Starting and Stopping Starting and Stopping: Now that you know what to expect when you venture into AMFV it's time for you to "boot" your disc. When you have finished reading the opening screen, press and key to get to the beginning of the story. The copyright notice and the release number of the story will appear, followed by an opening message and a description of your location, Communications Mode. Here's a quick exercise to help you get accustomed to interacting with AMFV. try the following command first: >GO TO SIMULATION MODE Then press the RETURN key. AMFV will respond with: ERROR: You are not yet cleared for Simulation Mode. Please wait for approval before beginning simulation. Now, to connect to Dr. Perelman's office, type in the code: >PEOF Then press the RETURN key. You will get a description of Doctor Perelman's office. Next, you can try: >PERELMAN, TELL ME ABOUT MY NAME After you press RETURN key, AMFV will respond appropriately. Saving and Restoring: It will probably take you many days to complete AMFV. Using the SAVE feature, you can continue at a later time without having to start over from the gebinning, just as you can place a bookmark in a book you are reading, SAVE puts a "snapshot" of your place in the story onto another disc. If you are a cautious player, you may want to save your place before (or after) trying something dangerous or tricky. That way, you can go back to that position later, even if you have gotten sidetracked since that point. To save your place in the story, type SAVE at the prompt (>). You can restore a saved position any time you want. To do so, type RESTORE at the prompt (>), and follow the instructions of your Reference Card. You will be given a description of your location, and can now continue the story from the point where you used the SAVE command. Quitting and Restarting: If you want to start over from the beginning, type RESTART. (This is usually fast than re-booting.) Just to make sure, AMFV will ask if you really want to start over. If you do, type Y or YES. If you want to stop entirely, type QUIT. Once again, AMFV will ask if this is really what you want to do. Remember when you RESTART or QUIT: if you want to be able to return to your current position, you must first use the SAVE command. APPENDIX A Important Commands There are a number of one-word commands which you can type instead of a sentence. You can use them over and over as needed. Some count as a turn, others do not. Type the command after the prompt (>) and press the RETURN key. ABORT - This will get you out of simulation mode AGAIN - AMFV will respond as though you had exactly repeated your previous sentence. You can abbreviate AGAIN to G BRIEF - This tells A<FV to give you the full description of a location only the first time you enter it. On sub- sequent visits, AMFV will tell you only the name of the location and the objects present. This is how AMFV will normally act, unless you tell it otherwise using the VERBOSE or SUPERBRIEF commands. DIAGNOSE - AMFV will give you a brief report of your physical condition. INVENTORY - AMFV will list what you are holding. You can abbreviate INVENTORY to I. LOOK - This will give you a full description of your current location. You can abbreviate LOOK to L. OOPS - If you accidently mistype a word, such that AMFV doesn't understand the word, you can correct yourself on the next line by typing OOPS and the correct word. Suppose, for example, you had typed PUT THE BOOJ ON THE DUSTY SHELF and were told "[I don't know the word 'booj']" You could type OOPS BOOK rather than retyping the entire sentence. QUIT - This lets you stop. If you want to save your position before quitting, follow the instructions in the Starting and Stopping" section earlier. You can abbreviate QUIT to Q. RECORD - This activates the RECORD feature. RECORD OFF deactivates this feature. (If you ABORT from Simulation Mode, you'll automatically turn off the record feature.) RESTART - This stops the story and starts it over from the beginning. RESTORE - This restores a saved position made using the SAVE command. See "Starting and Stopping" earlier. SAVE - This makes a "snapshot" of your current position onto a storage disc. You can returned to a saved position in the future using the RESTORE command. See "Starting and Stopping" earlier. SCRIPT - This command tells your printer to begin making a transcript of the story as you go along. A transcript may aid your memory but is not necessary. Note: transcripts will not include the information on the status line, or anything else that appears in the upper, non- scrolling portion of the screen, such as the menus in Library Mode. SUPERBRIEF - This commands AMFV to display only the name of a place you have entered, even if you have never been there before. In this mode AMFV will not even mention which objects are present. Of course, you can always get a description of your location, and the items there, by typing LOOK. In SUPERBRIEF mode, the blank line between turns will be eliminated. This mode is meant for players who already know their way around. Also see VERBOSE and BRIEF. UNSCRIPT - This commands your printer to stop making a transcript. VERBOSE - This tells AMFV that you want a complete description of each location, and the objects in it, every time you enter a location, even if you've been there before. Also see BRIEF and SUPERBRIEF. VERSION - AMFV responds by showing you the release number and the serial number of your copy of the story. Please include this information if you ever report a "bug." WAIT - This will cause time in the story to pass. Normally, between turns, nothing happens in the story. You could leave your computer, take a nap, and return to find nothing had changed. You can use WAIT to make time pass in the story without doing anything. For example, if you encounter a wild animal, you could WAIT to see what it will do. Or, if you are in a moving vehicle, you could WAIT to see where it will go. Unless something interrupts you, WAIT will cause ten minutes to pass. You can also WAIT FOR a certain number of minutes, or WAIT UNTIL a certain time. You can abbreviate WAIT to Z. APPENDIX B Some Recognized Verbs These are only some of the verbs that AMFV understands. There are many more. Remember that you can use a variety or prepositions with them. For example, LOOK can become LOOK INSIDE, LOOK BEHIND, LOOK UNDER, LOOK THROUGH, LOOK AT, and so on. ANSWER EAT MOVE SLIDE ASK ENTER OPEN SMELL BOARD EXAMINE POINT STAND BREAK EXIT PUSH START BUY FIND PUT SWITCH CALL FOLLOW RAISE TAKE CHANGE GIVE READ TALK CLIMB JUMP REMOVE TELL CLOSE KILL SAY THROW COUNT KISS SEARCH TOUCH CROSS KNOCK SET TURN CUT LIE SHAKE UNLOCK DIG LISTEN SHOOT WAKE DISEMBARK LOCK SHOW WALK DRINK LOOK SIT WEAR DROP LOWER SLEEP YELL APPENDIX C AMFV Complaints AMFV will complain if you type a sentence that confuses it completely, and will then ignore the rest of the input line. (Certain events in the story may also cause AMFV to ignore the rest of the sentences you typed, since the event may have changed your situation drastically.) AMFV's complaints always appear in brackets "[like this]" to distinguish them from the text of the story. some of AMFV's complaints: I DON'T KNOW THE WORD "_______." The word you typed is not in the story's vocabulary. Sometimes using a synonym or rephrasing will help. If not, AMFV probablt doesn't know the idea you were trying to get across. Remember AMFV recognizes your words by their first nine letters. YOU USED THE WORD "_______" IN A WAY THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND. AMFV knows the word you typed, but couldn't use it in that sense. Usually this is because AMFV knows the word as a different part of speech. For example, if you typed PRESS THE LOWER BUTTON, you are using LOWER as an adjective, but AMFV might know LOWER only as a verb, as in LOWER THE BOOM. THAT SENTENCE ISN'T ONE I RECOGNIZE. The sentence you typed may have been gibberish due to a typing error, such as PUT THE BOOK OF THE TABLE. Or you may have typed a reasonable sentence but used a syntax that AMFV does not recognize, such as WAVE OVER THE FENCE. Try rephrasing the sentence. THERE WAS NO VERB IN THAT SENTENCE! Unless you are answering a question, each sentence must have a verb (or a command) in it somewhere. THERE WERE TOO MANY NOUNS IN THAT SENTENCE. An example is PUT THE SOUP IN THE BOWL WITH THE LADLE which has three noun "phrases", one more than AMFV can digest in a single action. YOU CAN'T USE MULTIPLE (IN)DIRECT OBJECTS WITH "_______." You can use multiple objects (that is, nouns or noun phrases seperated by AND or a comma) or the word ALL only with certain verbs. Among the more useful of these verbs are TAKE, DROP, and PUT. An example of a verb that will not work with multiple objects is ATTACK; you couldn't say ATTACK ALL or ATTACK THE PRIEST AND THE POLICEMAN. YOU CAN'T SEE ANY _______ HERE! The item you referred to was not visible. It may be somewhere else, inside a closed container, and so on. THE OTHER OBJECT(S) THAT YOU MENTIONED ISN'T (AREN'T) HERE. You referred to two or more items in the same sentence, and at least one of them wasn't visible to you in your present location. BE SPECIFIC: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO _______? You used HIM, HER or IT, but AMFV isn't sure what person or object you meant. I BEG YOUR PARDON? You press the RETURN key without typing anything. YOU CAN'T GO THAT WAY. There was no passage or exit in the direction you tried to move.