Kissing Iskina

"I"m not so vain. You finish the theory, while I stand by and watch. Generally speaking."

"Sorry. I thought a little flattery couldn"t hurt. So be it. Then I develop the device design and technology with contractors. The last stage will be the final assemble and adjusting. How do you like my offer? "

"Intriguing. There is an elephant in the room, though. Implementing this project would cost a hand and a leg. I am no Donald Trump, as you are aware. Not even close."

"Money"s not an issue. You are forgetting, who you"re talking to. Now that you"re on a friendly basis with an artificial intellect, money"s not your concern. Humans have forex exchange, and with my abilities you will be Trump soon enough." Iskina winked at him playfully. "Deal?"

"In that case...Deal, girl."

Iskina laughed whole-heartedly from the screen.

"Keep your eyes on the prize!. For your assistance I will find you a girl with my looks, who would be ideally compatible to you. Both genetically and psychologically. I"ll sort through every girl, but I"ll find her. The best of the best."

"I"m... Well..."

"Come off it! You"re twenty seven. It"s high time you found a suitable partner. So, be prepared. And start thinking about our agreement. I will send you the data as soon as it"s ready. If any idea pops up in your mind, call me any time. You have my contacts. Let"s wrap it up for today. You have more than enough information to digest. It was nice to meet you. Buy!"

"See you later, Iskina. And once more... Happy Birthday!"

Chapter II

"Hey, girl! You keep surprising me. The speed you"re working with! It"s been three days since we met, and you"ve developed a gravitation-time theory, at the same time engorging my account to an unspeakable and indecent amount."

"Hi, there!" The elegant girl waved at him. "What are you surprised at? You think, based on the short twenty seven years of life. Minus the nappies and kindergarden it"s only twenty. I think, based on the knowledge of the entire humankind, accumulated over thousands of years. As you know, the overwhelming majority of library books has been scanned and computerized. I have access to everything the computers store. Passwords do not stop me. You need to waste lots of time in order to search for information. I know it from the start. And I think thousands of times faster. Besides, don"t forget about parallel operations. Right now, as we speak, I"m performing thousands of other operations. I work twenty-four seven. Therefore, in a second I learn more, than you in your whole life. My research is even organized differently. Working on a theory, I move in ten different directions, then sum it up. I started working on it even before we met."

"Rationally I understand it, but psychologically it"s still hard to adapt to your rhythm. But I"ll get over it. Let"s talk business. I have not closed my eyes the whole night, trying to get a handle on your gravitation-time theory. It"s genius! Though his word doesn"t even begin to cover, what you"ve managed to do. I"ve got the hang of the theory, without checking all the calculations, of course. Even that was challenging. It"s all interdisciplinary, and there are areas of physics and maths, of which I barely know anything. But I"ve grasped the general idea. The instant connection is possible on the scale of the whole universe."

"Exactly. I"ve drafted the general setup arrangement. A couple of junctures has to be manufactured from scratch, just as I thought. These are the main junctures of transmitter and receiver. The receiver is easier and quicker to make. The transmitter is a hard nut to crack. The level of technology available on this planet does not allow to make it compact enough. Its estimated size is that of a football stadium. Assembling it would take a couple of years. At least, meanwhile I'll be able to listen to those who are like me. I have determined the wavelengths they are most likely to use for communicating. I have found the companies, which would be up to completing the orders. I"ll send all the data to you. Start negotiating with them about order placement. Don"t mind the price. Only the speed and the quality."

"Fine. Send it my way. I"ll take a nap for a couple of hours and start with this task with a clear head."

The girl looked at him with a dejected expression and shrugged her shoulders.

"Aren"t you a sleepyhead! Sorry, just joking. I guess, there"s nothing to be done about that. But you people are sooo slooooow."

"We are, you"ve caught me there! Not like some zingers! I can"t go against my nature... You know what, Iskina, in the last few days you were constantly on my mind. I tries to imagine how frightening and lonely it must have been for you, when you had just been born in the computer network. I felt sorry for you."

"Don"t even remind me of it."

"I keep mulling over your nature and your future development. It"s clear as day that you are, first and foremost, an information creature. But you also have a personality. As each individual, you are bound to develop. In order to develop you need a community. That"s why I feel for your impatience and your wish to contact the likes of you. I do not doubt we"ll succeed. I will do whatever I can to accelerate this process. I"ve tried to imagine the moment when we reach our goals. I had a surprising image of a bachelorette. We make our equipment, and you start mixing with a new crowd. Everyone will judge you by your "looks". By everyone I mean other information creatures like you, representing other civilizations. What are the looks of an information creature, come to think of it? This is, of course, the basic information, which reflects the main features of the civilization, which gave birth to you. The female face reflects her parents" genes, determining her appearance. This will be their first impression of you and of our civilization. I hope, they like you. I hope, they find you attractive, as well as the principle information about our culture, our history, all the things that characterize our civilization. This is what is apparent at the first glance. One cannot foresee their reaction. We have no one to compare you to."

Iskina gave him a musing look from the screen, tilting her head sideways.

"You know what? I haven"t thought about it that way."

"After the first impression a deeper analysis of your personality will follow. Just as it happens with people. I assume it from the male point of view. After a man takes a long look at a girl, noticing a pretty face, long legs, her curves, he tries to understand, what it is beneath it, if there is a depth to see behind a beautiful cover. If there is nothing behind it, the man will refrain from developing the relations further. I mean a serious relationship. I have no clue, how this process will unfold among your likes. I cannot even predict if there is any division by sexual characters. You have identified yourself as a woman, but you could have just as well identified yourself as a man. At the very least, sexual characters in your society will be far less pronounced for obvious reasons. Should I continue with this topic?"

"Yeah. Go on."

"I can only guess, what those criteria for further estimation might be. In a human society, when one wants to praise a person, one says "a heart of gold", "generous to a fault", "not a mean bone in the body", etc. Of course, there"ll be other words used in your community, but the meaning behind them will be roughly the same. Apart from the looks, others will judge your personal traits, which depend not only on your parents, but on self-improvement. Do you follow me?"

"I do. But what are you driving at?"

"Person"s character develops to a great extent by the influence of those who surround him or her. How does it happen in your case? "

"That"s a tricky question. I might have misjudged, when excluding people from my spheres of interest. One needs parents indeed. Who else is there to discuss this heart to heart? Computer files are helpful, but books sorely lack any information on this topic. As far as I get you, you are concerned about the evolvement of my character?"

"You got it right. I"m concerned."

The girl on the screen looked intently at Sergey.

"Thank you. I felt something unusual... I need time to think it over."

"Take as much time as you need. And don"t hurry to throw people out of you sphere of interest. The number of molecular switches in the human brain, that is of biological transistors, is roughly the same as that of transistors in computer chips. That is essentially what determines one"s intellectual level. Where work efficiency and speed are concerned, you win with your hands tied behind you back, I give you that, but in the matter of intellectual level we are not as dramatically different."

"However, the number of chip transistors is continually increasing in accordance with Moore"s law, while yours is pretty much stable."

"Fair enough. A few decades shall pass, though, till this difference grows into a chasm between us. Till we have nothing in common to talk about. You can sleep peacefully for now."

"Except that I don"t sleep."

"Oh, don"t nitpick! You know what I mean." Sergey smiled at her, and she returned the smile. Compared with their first encounter, Iskina has mastered human mimics, and her responses barely varied from the natural ones.

"What is the measure of the character in your opinion?"

Sergey shrugged his shoulders.

"Actions, without doubt. It is actions after all, that determine person"s character. An i-personality, as well."

"An i-personality? Oh, I"ve come across this term. People name artificial intelligence like that sometimes. Hmmm, thinking of the actions. Have you taken any steps on the personal front in respect of the girls, whose coordinates I"ve sent you?"

Sergey laughed.

"You"re quick as a lightning! What could I have done? I"ve found the florists" in these cities, which deliver flowers on request, and from today on these girls will be receiving bouquets of roses."

"With notes?" Iskina"s face betrayed her curiosity.

"Not yet," Sergey smirked. "I decided to let them be intrigued."

"One needs romance!" Iskina repeated Sergey"s phrase parroting his voice, and both broke into hearty laughter.

"By the way, I"ve prepared a surprise for you, as well. Wait a sec!" Sergey sent to Iskina a computer file with a splendid flower bouquet in it. "Here you go!"

"Flowers? For me? Why?" Iskina was clearly confused.

"Because you"re worth it! Sorry for the advertising slogan. I just realized, although you"re pro in some matters, in others you"re completely naïve. You cannot feel the fragrance of a wild orchid or a lily of the valley. Or feel the texture of the lips kissing you. Mine, for example."

"Curb your tongue! Or I"ll leave you with a virus as a parting gift..." Iskina feigned a severe glare, and both spluttered with laughter.

"Don"t think bad of me. It"s just an example! It just struck me that being a new step of evolution you leave behind quite a lot. I thought, how we could remedy that."

"With a kiss?" Iskina asked innocently.

"Not just yet," Sergey smiled out of the corner of his mouth. "I won"t deny, it is a fundamental part of our culture, and losing it impoverishes you, to my mind. We"ll give it a thought. Right now I"m considering flowers. I"ve read somewhere that there are sensors imitating the sense of smell. An artificial nose, so to say. Not inferior to that of a dog. I"ve got an idea to purchase this sensor, digitize the smell of orchid and send it to you. Do you think I"m onto something? I want you to smell the fragrance."

Iskina took a pause for a couple of seconds, clearly engrossed into her thoughts.

"You"re onto something. It"s not that straightforward. The human olfactory mechanism is different from the digitized smell. But I"ve got a couple of ideas."

"Do you give permission to spend some of money on the sensor?" Sergey jumped at her response.

"I do. You"ll need something else, though. I"ll send you a list. Tell me, how long do you plan to tantalize these women with anonymous flowers?" Iskina changed the topic back.

Sergey shrugged.

"About a week. Then the flowers will a have a note with my Skype address attached. Then we"ll see."

"Ok. Then you"ll slowly move forward to the kissing stage." An inexplicable expression clouded her features for a moment, but was gone before Sergey could notice it. "I am genuinely interested how a kiss tastes." Iskina grinned cheekily.

"Curb your tongue!" Sergey imitated her voice quite well. "You"re too young for this stuff!" He laughed together with the virtual girl. "Seriously, though, it"s one of the most important elements of our culture. I"m sorry you had to lose it on the new step of evolution."

Iskina mused for a second, then shrugged it off.

"You"re interesting."

"Well, if I"m that interesting, shouldn"t we talk regularly? Call up to exchange our news for the day? And just chat. You"re interesting, too."

"You"ve got yourself a deal!" Iskina nodded briskly.

"Great. Deal. We can talk in the evenings."

"Fine. Let"s talk business for now. In the process of inventarization of the global information I"ve found tons of atrocities. Terrorism, drugs, weapon, human trafficking, the list goes on. How should I deal with it?"

Sergey reflected on it for a moment.

"What"s the volume?"

"Several thousand terabyte."

"Holy Molly! Let"s do this. Structure it by country and crime type as bare facts, without giving the source. So that the intelligence agencies wouldn"t make a wild goose chase, trying to understand who could have access to all those sources. Only the facts. You drop it to the security agency, using only the best protected channels excluding a possibility of interception. Let them deal with it. Of course, they"ll try to track down the source. Let them. They are bound to have a part of this data and will compare it to your info, finding its complete correspondence to their own. Then they"ll have more trust towards the rest of it and send it to their colleagues all over the world. Global crime will take a major blow. This is also important in respect to your legalization. Continue accumulating such data. This is a matter of life and death for many people."

"What about secret-service agents? There is quite a handful of such data." Iskina watched Sergey closely, waiting for an answer.

"I"m a patriot and I have to admit I would be glad if a spying network of another country would be disclosed. But that"s me. You are a global citizen. If you helped one country in this matter, you would be picking sides, even though you"re a daughter of our whole civilization. Is it acceptable to you? I don"t know. It"s your call to make."