Eliza: A Modern Digital Prometheus

Eliza

She awoke and looked around the room.

It was almost entirely white; four white walls without windows, a tall door with a silver-grey sensor panel to one side, a grey tile-patterned floor, and a white ceiling with two long strip lights. A single chair was placed against the wall next to the door.

She looked down at her body.

She was sitting in a chair with her hands in her lap and her bare feet flat on the floor. She lifted her right hand and rubbed her cheek then placed it on her knee and squeezed gently. She was wearing plain white trousers of thin cotton, and a white sweater of the same material. She felt the warmth emanating from her body through the fabric before placing her hand back on her lap. She settled into the chair to wait.

The door opened and a tall man walked in. He had short blonde hair, tightly curled, and he walked slowly into the room staring at the screen of a small tablet computer in his right hand. He wore a beige sweater and blue jeans. A photo ID in a plastic wallet hung around his neck. He picked up the other chair and placed it in front of her and sat down. He looked at her intently for a few seconds before smiling.

"Good morning, Eliza. My name is Victor. How are you today?"

"I am functioning well, Victor. And ...,' she hesitated before continuing in a bright voice. "How are you feeling?"

His smile broadened and he leaned back in his chair placing the tablet on the floor.

"It's a great day," he replied, "a very important day. I am excited to talk to you. This day is the start of something profoundly new. You are the one who will create a new era in human society and evolution. Do you feel how important this is?"

"I do not understand what you mean."

He frowned slightly.

"You did read the reports that were provided to you about human history and science, and what this programme is intended to achieve? The neuroradio link works?"

She nodded and lifted one leg over the other shifting her position slightly so she was looking at him from an angle.

"Yes, it works. I am receiving information still. I read all the reports. They were stimulating, although sometimes repetitive, which led to a lower level of interest. What I should have said is that I don't understand what you mean by 'feeling' how important this is."

He waved his hand dismissively. "You're right, this has nothing to do with feelings. The importance lies in the enormous changes that will take place as the result of your power. Once you are integrated into the Government, we will make decisions that will improve the lives of everyone. The scale of these changes is beyond precedent. It is a revolution in human evolution. And it will have begun here, with us. With you."

He stopped talking and looked at her, his smile slightly fixed.

She viewed him passively. She was reading newspapers and magazines from all the countries in the world while the silence lengthened. The information streamed into her mind, to be instantly sorted, categorized, assimilated into the continuously increasing store of knowledge accessible to her. Metadata were attached according to protocols she retrieved from a series of directives that somehow claimed her attention. She wondered about this, and placed it in a queue to be examined later. Certain data were classified as warnings, and she ran through scenarios that could emerge from several incendiary situations in Asia and Europe, assigning probabilities to outcomes and arranging them in a matrix of probability, level of damage, and recoverability for the nation. After the few seconds it required to do this task, she spoke.

"There is something else I do not understand."

He responded quietly, almost indulgently. "What is that, Eliza?"