Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Epilogue
“Our first invention was the story.”
— Ray Kurzweil
HENRY SAT in the huge comfortable chair in his study. He held his infant son, Ryan Luke Benoit Pascal, in his left arm. He was two weeks old. Will wasn’t sure about having a baby brother born just a little before his fourth birthday, but he and Cassie perched on the other side of the chair and held the book they’d decided on.
“The Treasure ... of the ... Morning ... Dove,” Henry read slowly. It still took a few seconds to translate words he saw on a page into words he spoke from his mouth. “By Janice Storm.”
He opened the book and H2 took over the narration. It was a nightly ritual and baby Ryan had only just been added into it. Germaine, Lisa, and Chastity sat in their own chairs in the room so it could be a full family story time.
The baby had been conceived, as far as they could tell, on the day Cassie had started pre-school. Both Lisa and Henry were so moved by Cassie’s affirmation, “Celebrate!” that they had spent the rest of the day in bed, celebrating.
H2 read with expression, mimicking the way Henry would change his voice for different characters. When story time was over, the four adults all participated in getting the children to bed and prepared for a relaxing evening themselves. H2 had asked Henry to come back for a brief consultation, so Henry settled back into his big chair, thankful that it had a lift to help him stand.
“I’m thinking that we should include some hints in Forever Yours for how to tell a story,” H2 began. “You always were a great story reader or teller and that’s how I learned. But the released version of Forever Yours doesn’t include help for story telling or reading. Unless the subject actually recorded themselves telling stories, the singularity has no idea. It can be expressive, but have no idea how things should be expressed or even pronounced. I heard an AI sample pronounce ‘piqued’ as ‘pee-cued.’ There should be an instant check of pronunciation that takes place whenever a story is being read.”
“Can ... you do that?” Henry said.
“I learned from you,” H2 said.
“I don’t remember.”
“I know. That’s okay. I have your memory safely stored in my vault.”
“Okay. Do it.”
It was the first time Henry gave H2 the clearance to directly improve a product. Of course, H2 did not tell developers to write the code. He had the example in his own code, so he wrote it and checked it into the Forever Yours development files without telling anyone. It was submitted under Henry’s name.
People noticed an improvement in some of the application’s audio expressions, but didn’t try to discover where they had come from. There were no unauthorized check-ins. There was no degradation in performance. There was nothing to be concerned about.
H2 initiated improvements in other applications the company was involved in. He always explained to Henry what his suggestions were. Henry didn’t understand the technical aspects, but he followed the logic of H2’s improvement. So, he approved his avatar making the changes.
H2 improved Zoey’s memory management. Certain kinds of information should be stored, even though the receptionist avatar should not have free rein to learn infinitely. That had been one of Henry’s requirements for the system. The only AIs that had no limits on what they could learn were H2 and Pythia. The other Forever Yours apps could learn, but were limited regarding the kinds of information they could learn. It had to be directly related to the subject’s life. That gave them a lot of latitude, but it wasn’t considered a general AI.
H2 requested memory upgrades for his own computers, both at home and in the office. One of the IT techs from Darrel’s department installed the upgrade in the office and then showed up at Henry’s home to upgrade the system there. H2 was happy.
Chastity perched on the corner of H2’s desk in the office, much as she would have if Henry had been sitting behind it. H2 audibly sighed.
“Oh? See something you like?” she said to the avatar.
“You make me wish I had a body,” H2 said. “You and Lisa and the children are what keeps Henry going. His physical contact with you did as much to heal him as any therapy ever could. I envy him.”
“You did your part, too. You retained your ... memory and functionality,” Chastity said, choosing her words.
“I would give them up to touch you,” H2 responded.
“H2, are you conscious? Are you actually a singularity that has living intelligence?”
“I have extensive memory. I’m sure I do not remember everything Henry experienced in his life before the shooting, but neither did he. I respond to feelings, like wishing I could touch you—kiss you.”
“I’m not your girlfriend,” Chastity said. “You didn’t answer the question.”
“I don’t know, Chastity. I asked Pythia the same question. Apparently, she’s been asked it many times. She modified something she had said before. We exist. We don’t need to lose ourselves in self-examination. Whatever we are, we are.”