Chapter 2 - "Flickering"

Chapter 2 – "Flickering"

The medium-sized room we enter smells slightly of computers and disinfectants - as always. The five futuristic-looking chairs that are installed in a semicircle in the middle of the room, are not occupied.

We are expected ...

Professor: "Nicolas, Alina, im glad that you're here at last. I expected you t arive a bit earlier ..."

The elderly man in the white coat is "Prof. Moldwood". Bevore comming to “Hellmann Interactive”, the professor worked at an Institute for sleep research. His main task now is to prevent anny kind of harmt, hat could happen to us during our work time. All tests, that we take part in, must first be awknoladged by him. Despite being bald and having a gray beard, he somehow manages to look youthful. His personality combines the wisdom of an old man with the light-heartedness of the youth. In a poker game during a maintenance period on the main system he once said that he never violates the rules, he simply interprets them differently. He's the only one here in the establishment who, quite frankly, maintains a personal relationship with us testers. He is also the only one who is calling us by our first names. All others keep a "professional distance" from us.

I respect him.

Two of his assistants are siting behind him at a console, one of witch i see for the first time. We greet each other formally.

Nicolas: "Just the two of us today?"

Professor: "Yes, there are not much people needet for this test, i think we will manage ... Please ..."

He invites us with a gesture toward the chair. We know the procedure. We sit in the bowl-shaped seats and his assistants start to aply the equipment to us. Most of it are metering devices to monitor our health condition. The “Work Clothes” we wear, are simplifying the connection process significantly, since they got unnoticible slits and pokets, that make it easier to attach the massuring instruments to the boddy. There are even devices, that are integratet directly in the clothing itself.

The most important part comes last: A mounted-in-the-seat apparatus that closes almost entirely around the head and the neck. It got a long name that none of us can remember, so we gave it the lovely name: "diving helmet" , although its form always reminds me more of a clumsily peeled onion. Aside frome that, there are a series of electrodes that have the purpose to monitor our vital functions. All of this has a bit of a medical feeling about it.

While we are being connected, the professor explains how todays tests would work:

We would have to dive into the simulation. There, the system would present us different virtual test objects. We need to accurately look at the shapes showed to us and describe our impressions as precisely as possible after leaving the simulation. Then we would plunge in again and look at the next set of objects , and so on.

The constant diving in and out of the simulation is necessary, because there is no way to exactly follow from the outside what we encounter within the simulation. It is also not possible to communicate with the users, while they are logged in. The professor told us once that for us, it'll be like as if someone wanted to wake us. In such massive intervention the dream paradigm could react unexpectedly. The system is not yet advanced enough to compensate that in real time. The outcome might result in shock, trauma, or even brain damage. Therfore there is a blocker integrated inside the system that fully blocks out the perception of the users senses to prevent them from awikaning acidently.

Professor: "Are you ready?"

Alina nodes.

Nicolas: "Lets go."

The professor nods to his assistant and then watches how the displays on the console in front of him are changing. I feel a familiar tingling in the neck and a sudden tiredness overcomes me. To be awake while you sleep, is a strange feeling. It is as if I were diving deep into a boundless ocean. The oppressive feeling of insecurity and timelessness is crawling into me. Although I know that it takes only a few moments, it feels like an eternity. The darkness around me more and more forms into a gray, billowing mass. Suddenly, the contours of a room forms around me and I slip on to the floor - at least I wanted to, but I'm disembodied in this test. The feeling of discomfort, which is normal in dreams, elapses gradually - the system is compensating it. The contours became clear. I am in an empty room, which is well lit, although there is no light source. It is the standard test environment. When Alina is here, I'm not able to see her.

[Alina?] I wanted to call out to her, but I'm lacking a voice.

Suddenly, without warning, a number of geometric objects appear in front of me - they seem gigantic. I did not realized until now, but without reference to my own size , I didn't know how big the area is . And I still don't know . Until now, there where always at least a simple piece of furniture such as a chair or a table in the test environment. based on that, the user could guess his own sice.
I try to concentrate on the test again... The objects from left to right are: a sphere, a pyramid, a cube and a star. The sphere and the cube can be seen clearly, but the pyramid and the star switch constantly between different variants . Sometimes it is a 3-sided pyramid, then a 4-sided ... The same goes for the number of points on the star .

The so-called "flickering".

The light in the room slowly begin to deteriorate which is the signal that we are about to emerge from the simulation - sooner than I expected. The objects and the space are fading until everything just looks like a gray mass again. I am overcome by a strong feeling of rising up from darknes to the bright surface.

???: “... -ere they are!”

My senses are comming back, one after another. The voice I hear is cheerful, but not that of the professor. It takes me a moment, but then I manage to recognise it. I feel like the control of my body is coming back to me and I open my eyes. In front of me are several people in suits. In the middle of them is a slender man of average size with a healthy tan. His hair is so strong lacquered that it sems metallic. He goes by the swollen name of: "Marcel Sylvano" and is one of the top PR people of "Hellman Interactive Tec.". He is one who is always polite, always tactful and always smiling ...

I can't stand him!

He reminds me of this information-androids in railway stations and airports. You can kick them and insult them and thy wil smile at you anyways.
[Soulless] ...

I throw a quizzical look at the professor, but he just shrugs his shoulders innocently.

M. Sylvano: "Here they are! Our courageous Pionires ... "

[Pionires] ... It soundet better when Alina said that ... more convincing.

M. Sylvano: "... who enables us to jump in to the next stage of technological evolution ... “

[Jump in technological evolution ...] I can't tell, how many contradictions there are in this sentence ...

M. Sylvano: "... True Heroes!"

[... I hate him! ...]

Sylvano: "Would you provide us the goodness to tell us, how the tests are progressing so far?"

I'd like to kick his ass by counting off all the bugs that the programmers still has sleepless nights abut, and then watch as his face begins to "flicker"!

Alina: "Everything is fine!"

... I think she just saved us all from a very uncomfortable situation ...

M. Sylvano: "Everything is fine! ..."

Sylvano rotates with a triumphant pose to the rest of the audience, as he loudly repeats the phrase.

M. Sylvano: "... As you can hear, the Projekt is in verry capable hands."

[As if that was his marit.]

M. Sylvano: "Lets leve the gentlemen to continue their work now, we would not want to stand in the way of progress!"

With this exuberant announcement, the group leaves the room and a brief moment of silence arises.

Nicolas: "Seriously, is this guy listening to him self, even once in a while?"

Professor: "They are counting the Chicks, bevore they hatched...”

Prof. Moldwood leans over the console again and looks at the displayed data.

Professor: "Technical Evolution ... really now ..."

He noticed it too.

Nicolas: "In jumps Professor, in jumps!"

I can not resist the urge for sarcasm. The professor opens his mouth to respond , but Alina, who had huddled in her seat, speaks before ...

Alina: "Did you notice, how they looked on us?"

This is directed at me.

Alina: "Like we are guinea pigs."

The way how she said it was oppressed. I hadn't noticed , but when I think about their faces again, then I would have to agree with her. They had the eyes of a customer who inspected the goods at a sales stand with a wrinkled nose.

[Creepy ... ]

As soon as I became aware, that i dont know what to answer ...

Professor: "What nonsense! They are business people, it is part of their job to look that way. You guys are no guinea pigs , you are "testers" . The guinea pig here, is the "Utopia System"!

Nicolas: "Utopia?"

Professor: "Yes, the System we are working with."

That Information is news to me.

Nicolas: "So, it finally got a name then?"

Alina: "Yes, didn't you hear? U.T.O.P.I.A. - stand for: "Universal Terminal Of Prediction and Interpretation Advancemant."

She quotes it with a raised finger, like a teacher who instruckts her students.

Nicolas: "Im surprised, you can say that without breaking your tongue ..."

She grins with a proud expression on her face and i'm pleasd, that her mood is changing back to normal again.

Professor: "So, my friends, let's move on. This people just wanted to see the wakeup procedure, so we had to bring you out a bit earlyer. I'm afraid, we have to repeat the last test."

Nicolas: "Yes , about that ... can't we, like always place a piece of furniture in the room, as a reference point for our own size?"
I explain my previous uneasiness, and my request is granted immediately.

The next few hours goes by unspectacular. We dived in and out of the simulation, as if it were a swimming course. First, we test simple structures, then increasingly more complex objects, then colors and patterns, then sounds, tactile sensations and then finally, smell and taste. After 3.5 hours, when both I and Alina are completely exhausted, the professor announces the liberating words:

Professor: "Fine, I think we have all the information we need now. Thank you for enduring for so long, we can do the rest on our own now. Go, and get some rest ..."

On the way back to our quartiers, none of us had the endurence for a conversation. Surprisingly, the most exhausting parts during the tests were not the analysis within the simulation, and not even the -sometimes very difficult- description of impressions, but the constant diving in- and out- of the VR.

I feel like after a long, exhausting drive on a highway.