Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 70: Virtual Battle
“I DON’T KNOW precisely why I’m here,” Henry said to the crowd of nearly a thousand at the Innovators of Tomorrow keynote.
It would feature four speakers from new technology areas and Henry had been asked to present.
“I’m not yet twenty-five years old and I feel like a kid standing among the greats of high technology. These are all the people I looked up to when I was growing up. Famous people. I was inspired by them when I built my first computer at eight years old. I studied what they wrote and how they created or ran the businesses that defined the twenty-first century.
“And here I am with an idea for a technology that might be a thing in the future. Onward to the holodeck!”
There was a round of applause for the title of his speech and a short clip from a science fiction television franchise played on the screen.
“It’s not like that,” Henry laughed when the clip finished, showing the grid room that was the backdrop for the holodeck. “Neither I nor anyone on my team has given a thought to projections that have substance. How do you even imagine that if you aren’t a science fiction writer? But we have made some strides and I have three friends with me to show you the progress we’ve made. First, I’d like you to meet Gina.”
A curtain was pulled and the holographic receptionist based on Virginia was revealed. The holographic screen faced front and a camera projected the image onto the large screen behind Henry.
“Hello, Gina. Welcome to CES.”
“Mr. Pascal! Does this mean we’re in Las Vegas?”
“It does indeed.”
“Will I get to gamble?”
“No, Gina. In this context, you are our gamble. Did you see how many people are looking at you?”
“Oh, my goodness. I can’t see them all because there’s a light shining on my camera. Are they all computer geeks? Or are they nerds?” Gina asked.
“How do you distinguish them?”
“A nerd is a four-letter word with a six-figure income,” Gina said to the laughter of the audience. “Hi out there! Anybody want to take me home with them?”
“Gina, that’s awfully forward of you,” Henry said.
“I never learn, do I?”
“Ladies and gentlemen, you might think of this as just another scripted demo, but the tech breakthrough represented here is that we didn’t tell Gina what the conversation would be. This is an artificial intelligence powered hologram. She responds to whatever questions or conversations are thrown her way. Her range of knowledge, however, is somewhat limited. She was made possible by a narrow AI with limited capacity to learn anything outside her job as a receptionist. Gina was based on a live model who recorded massive amounts of information based on the kinds of questions she might encounter as a corporate receptionist. Virginia, her model, is a delightful and friendly woman, but tends to be a little clueless with both her interactions with people and her humor.”
Henry then unveiled H2. The camera moved to pick up the newcomer and project it on the big screen.
“Aside from the general blue cast of the image, this one looks a lot like me,” Henry said. “In fact, you probably couldn’t tell the difference between which of us is talking, even if we’re responding to random questions. H2, as I call him, is the result of two technologies. The first is what we call Forever Yours, an application that allows users to record the data of their lives to train a narrow AI so that their heirs can talk to them after they are dead. Because it is a narrow AI, the amount of data is significantly less than the general AI that drives most chat bots. In fact, it will run on less than a terabyte of data and a reasonably fast personal computer. It does not require an entire server farm and the power of a small city to train. H2, say hello to the crowd.”
“You know I can’t see them any better than Gina could,” H2 said. “My eyes are limited in range and are affected by the lights, too. Can you even see them? I’ll just say hi and assume you are all out there.”
There was a round of applause that let H2 know there was an audience.
“I’ll take a break and let you tell about the second tech breakthrough that enables you,” Henry said.
“Great! I’m different than Gina, not only in that I’m smarter and more well-read than she is, but also that I’m projected in a cylinder, so I have the true appearance of an entire head in a jar. If the camera would look over at Gina, you’ll see that from the side you don’t see her at all. You only see her three-dimensional appearance when you are facing her screen. Now if you’ll come back to me, you can circle my cylinder and see me from every angle as if I were a real boy. Sorry, Pinocchio. This is the next step in dimensional holography. I am projected on the entire surface of the cylinder.”
The camera moved around H2’s projection and the audience could see him from all angles. There was significant applause.
“Of course, everything Gina and H2 have shown you still leave us miles short of the holodeck experience. Light-based holography depends on a surface for projection, even if the surface is completely round,” Henry said. “And that brings us to Pixie.”
The curtain was raised from in front of the spatial holograph of the newest version of receptionist.
“Pixie has the same general intelligence as Gina, though she’s a little more polite. Hello, Pixie.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Pascal. I hope you’re having a good day,” Pixie said.
“Very fine, thank you. We have an audience of nearly a thousand people in front of us,” Henry said.
“My vision is extremely limited at the moment,” Pixie said. “I was tuned to be able to see you, but I don’t have enough sensors yet to see beyond.”
“I understand. I’d like you to introduce yourself and tell the audience what they are looking at.”
“Gladly. My name is Pixie. I’m the sixteenth generation of spatial holography, under development at Open Cloak Design for three years. You might think that my image and responses are a little cruder than either Gina or H2, but if you follow the camera as it moves around me, you’ll see that there is no projection surface surrounding me. That is because I am not a light projection! Open Cloak’s dimensional projectors excite the air particles themselves, giving them my shape.”
Pixie finished her introduction and after a moment of grasping the implication of what she said, there was thunderous applause. In fact, people were standing.
“Thank you. Thank you, Pixie. People really like you.”
“Was all that applause for me? Thank you all so very much!”
“I’d like to wrap this up as well,” Henry said. “At Open Cloak, we are striving to open doors to the dream of what we want artificial intelligence to be with actual products that fulfill actual needs. We have a lot we could say on this subject. I invite you to stop by our booth and talk to some of the engineers who have made these products possible.”
There was another standing ovation. Gina and Pixie were simply turned off and their stations wheeled off-stage. Henry moved H2 himself.
The presentation and exhibit at the huge electronics show sparked an increase in the stock price of Open Cloak. The technology was front page news. But there was still a lot of development work to be done.
In the meantime, Pixie was installed in the lobby of Open Cloak’s new office building, greeting everyone who came through the doors. There were people who stopped in just to see the receptionist. For safety’s sake, the crew set Plexiglas panels around her so people wouldn’t attempt to get too close. The panels were low—just a barrier—and visitors could clearly see her projected above them rather than on them.
“We’ll be having a security drill soon, now that everyone is moved in,” Chastity told the board. “Getting a new office allowed us to upgrade systems significantly. Of course, no one comes through the office doors without a key card or an escort. We have security cameras, and the elevators will lock down automatically if there is a threat or fire. We’ve expanded our on-site security team to provide drivers for key employees and a floor person for each floor of our office. We’ve seen that personal threats are as real as cyberattacks. We’re not going to let that happen again.”
“Well, Daddy dearest won’t be posing a threat again,” Izzy scoffed.
“Do you know where he was deported to?” Chastity asked.
“In the words of our most famous founder, ‘Don’t know. Don’t care.’ Felipe might know if you’re all that interested,” Isobel said.
For all her feigned indifference, there was a sparkle in her eye that spoke of tears near the surface. Luke changed the subject.
“We are getting inquiries from major players regarding licensing the tech that drives the holography. Interesting that most are more interested in the AI that drives Forever Yours than in the actual holography. How soon can we license that, Henry?”
“I handed close to 200 business cards I received at the show over to Darla, so I know there is interest in both aspects. I think the core AI can be licensed within the next three months. The thing is that it won’t be as effective if they try to train it as a general AI. It’s really designed for a single specialization. It wouldn’t have to be on a singularity, but it wouldn’t work well with an LLM wall. We’ll work on specifying exactly what can be licensed and the restrictions on it,” Henry said.
“Darla?” Luke said, glancing at the company’s chief marketing officer.
“We’ve divided up the contacts and are treating them all as long-range prospects. However, one of the technologies that is attracting more immediate interest is the predictive text algorithm. Showing it work with the rapid conversations occurring with Henry’s avatar brought higher interest in more mundane applications, like text messaging. I think we can pursue licensing that technology before someone else comes up with something similar.”
The meeting drew to a close and as people were preparing to leave, Isobel stopped them.
“Just one thing I’m wondering. Has anyone noticed Pythia Speaks becoming more conversational? Or is it just with me?” she asked.
“I don’t usually pay much attention to her,” Henry said. “I did have an interesting conversation with her a few days ago. I find talking to her to be every bit as confusing and frustrating as she was designed to be.”
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