Chapter 17: Voyeur

Jaime and Keira

“WAS IT TERRIBLE?” Keira asked aloud when she picked up Jaime on Saturday. With her parents away for the weekend, she had use of the car. Since the theatre was on the south side in Lake Oswego, she was happy to drive.

«Not too bad. The video electroencephalograph was interesting. There are places that could be identified as possibly contributing to the ability to hear others, but one would need access to the equipment and a huge sample of people, including known head talkers, to verify that.»

“Are you going to pursue it?”

«No. I’m trying to block it from my mind. Why are you out-loud talking instead of in my head?»

“I’m driving. I’m afraid if I got inside your head I’d lose my concentration on the road. Why did you pick a play so far away?”

«I wanted us to be someplace where we weren’t near our usual environment. No interference from what we expect. And it’s an interesting play.»

“So, tell me what it’s all about.”

«R.U.R., or Rossum’s Universal Robots, was written by Karel Capek in 1920. Much like Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, it tells of a time when intelligent robots plot to take over the world from humanity. Unlike Asimov, Capek did not project the three laws of the positronic brain that would protect humans. It’s particularly interesting today because of the advances in artificial intelligence, and it asks a lot of questions about whether we are being taken over by AI.»

“Did you memorize that from a review?” Keira laughed.

«No. The play is so old that the English version script is in the public domain. The original was in Czech. I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg.»

“Your mind is filled with limitless surprises.”

«Good! This is our exit.»

The GPS spoke at the same time and both laughed. Jaime quieted himself, determined not to be a passenger seat driver.

Jaime and Keira agreed on a method of surveying the audience before they started discussing anything, determined to discover if there were any other listeners present. After they were satisfied they were communicating only with each other, they would further build mental barriers against being ‘overheard.’

The most important thing to both of them was that they would be holding hands. There was still a shy smile shared between them as they both experienced the pleasure of the physical contact.

«I love holding your hand. I find that I am physically pleased as much as I am emotionally pleased by the mental connection between us that it enhances. I love you, Keira.»

«I love you. Your touch makes me hungry for more. Now, let’s check out the audience as they enter.»

They opened the channels that allowed them to silently observe the people entering the 200-seat theatre. It was a manageable number of people and they rapidly sifted through the thoughts of those entering. In addition to people who were avid theatre-goers and students of theatre, there was also a smattering of family and friends of the actors and crew.

Both identified a half dozen ‘persons of interest’ in the audience. None of them, however, seemed to be aware of what anyone else was thinking. They were simply broadcasting their thoughts loudly.

An attractive woman in a short skirt and low-cut blouse—not the usual attire for an afternoon Oregon theatre crowd—drew the attention of two men as she found her seat. A minute later, her date entered the auditorium and the attention of the other men was rather abruptly cut off as he sat beside his girlfriend.

Lucky dog, they seemed to think simultaneously.

«I think we can shut out the audience with no problem, » Jaime said. «Maybe we can spend time observing them at intermission.»

«Mmm. If the play is no good, you can spend your time mentally ravishing me, » Keira sighed, squeezing his hand.

«Don’t test my resolve. I might not be able to limit it to mentally ravishing you.»

«Later, » Keira flirted.

The play began and the company president character began dictating a letter to his secretary. He was soon interrupted by the introduction of a visitor. The visitor was part of a league devoted to ‘freeing the robots.’ She could not accept the idea that the robots were not people, felt little or no pain, and had no emotions.

She then confused the human staff of the factory for robots and began to preach to them regarding their liberation, which they applauded. By the end of the first act, she’d agreed to marry the president because it would be a better way to influence the treatment of the robots.

«That’s weird, » Jaime said. «Reading the actors is like reading the script. They don’t have an identity other than the characters they are playing. Angus, Kate, and Thursday were basically themselves when they were rehearsing.»

«That’s not true of all the actors. Marius and Sulla certainly succeeded in blanking out everything. I’d have thought initially that they really were robots. Others have a bit of themselves leaking in.»

«Domin and Helena certainly built a convincing relationship between them rapidly. He was really quite heartfelt in his proposal. But she was just as calculating in her acceptance. She suddenly seemed much older than she appears on stage, and genuinely saw submitting to a man—any man—as a channel to getting what she wanted. Do you think that was really her thoughts and personality coming through?» Jaime asked.

«Her list of credits in the program would indicate she is certainly older than her role’s twenty-one. I don’t know if it’s her real personality or if she is simply drawing on other experience to create the character.»

«The more we listen to people’s thoughts, the more confusing I find people!» Jaime said. The second act began.

The second and third acts took place ten years later, the day the robots succeeded in their rebellion and killed all the humans on earth except one. This was one of the managers who was a builder and worked with his hands like the robots did. Unfortunately, he could make nothing of the process to create more robots and within a year the robots started dying out.

In the epilogue, it was revealed that two robots had been created who could love and care for each other—and presumably procreate. The last manager pronounced them Adam and Eve.

Jaime and Keira continued holding hands until they returned to the car. Keira used both hands on the steering wheel and Jaime seemed withdrawn.

“What is it?” she asked.

«It was ... depressing, » he responded.

“There was a note of hope at the end. A new Adam and Eve.”

«Yes. I suppose the play tried to be hopeful. It wouldn’t have been very successful if it just ended with ‘and that was the end of the world.’ I mean that one woman in the audience. I can’t get her off my mind.»

“Jaime, you need to close your mind to her. It can’t be good to keep contact like that.”

«I don’t mean that literally. I’m not still reading her. I just keep thinking about how awful it must be.»

“Oh. Yes. I’ve known depressed people before. I try to actively avoid their minds.”

«I couldn’t. She was unquestionably beautiful and the best dressed at the play. But her mind was filled with sadness. She wished she’d stayed home in bed. She wanted to sleep and not wake up. She thought she loved the guy she was with, but was just too tired to deal with him. She believes she’s ugly and doubts he loves her. She couldn’t let him see her without makeup and made excuses when he called.»

“I looked. He’s in love and at the same time totally oblivious to her sadness.”

«Always looking happy exhausts her. I’m worried about her. She thinks she’d be better off dead.»

“What could we do about it?”

«I wanted to go up to her and tell her life wasn’t that bad. She was beautiful and intelligent. She had nothing to be sad about. I shouted at her, but she’s head deaf and couldn’t hear me.»

“It wouldn’t have made a difference, honey. She didn’t need a reason to be sad. She’s depressed. She hates herself—everything about herself. Her boyfriend tells her she’s beautiful, but she assumes that means he wants sex from her, so she doesn’t believe him. She still has sex with him, but the euphoria of an orgasm only lifts her for an hour or so. Then she feels guilty about using him and her mood is even darker than it was before.”

«We ... Keira, we have to be completely honest with each other. I’d die if you believed I only told you you’re beautiful because I want to have sex with you. It would be horrible!»

“When we make love, you’ll know I want it as much as you do. I do want it as much as you do. We just need to pace ourselves a little. And there’s no one to help us do that but us. I know how hard it is. I just don’t want to go to bed with you and never be able to get up again. I want to go to college and become a pediatrician. Don’t you think that would be a good use of our talent? I’d be able to look inside and tell what the tyke is feeling and where it hurts.”

«Is that what you want to do or what you think you should do because it would be a good use for your talent?»

“Yes. It would be a good use, but I’ve always had a fondness for children. They are so creative and so vulnerable.”

«I’m not criticizing. Just asking. I want to do something meaningful, too. I’d really like it to be something that helps other people like us—assuming there are enough others like us to bother with. I’m worried about us. Someone wants to use us and I can’t help but think he is evil. And if more people knew about us, there would be more people who wanted to cage us and use us.»

They stopped for dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant not far from home and took their time over their meal, touching often and listening to people around them.

«How do you deal with people who think in a different language?» Jaime asked.

«Well, I can’t understand the thoughts in words. Some people have a very pictorial thought process and I can get the picture. But mostly, all I can do is feel their emotions. That’s pretty informative.»

«Yes. I dealt with it a lot when I was little. My best friends in kindergarten, some of whom are still my best friends, like Mex and Cheery, didn’t speak any English when we started school. We all learned sign language together and I learned a lot of Spanish as they learned English. I discovered there are a lot more emotions than I had words for. How many words in the English language? 200,000? American Sign Language only has about 10,000 distinct signs. Maybe I should work on signs for a broader range of emotions.»