between cubicles and down a hallway like The Flash.
“The most amazing thing you'll ever see is about to happen,” real Min said.
“Seeing him smile is the most amazing thing I've ever seen!” Sheila quipped.
“Stop it!” Min ordered.
“Wait. Play it normal.” Min pressed a button and the video returned to real time.
The camera focused on Max as he walked up to a large metal door.
“Yes, that confirms it. He’s got an amazing ass. That’s prime eye candy.”
“I mean it!” said Min.
Max typed a code into a keypad near the door and it clicked. He turned the handle and pushed it open. The light from the room was blinding. The TV went completely white with over-saturation until the camera exposure compensated. Then walls on both sides of the room came into view. They emitted a massive amount of blue light interspersed with speckles of red. Max and Min entered what was shaped like a large walk-in closet, about fifteen feet long by eight feet wide.
“I can see from your expression you're confused,” Max said. “Rightfully so. This is like nothing you've ever seen before. It’s not typical, but it’s our server room.”
“I've seen server rooms before. They’re usually darker.”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean. See that Qube in your hand?” Min opened her palm, not even realizing that she’d carried it from his office. “When those are powered up, they glow. These walls are covered with them. There are thousands. These are the core of the computer array.”
The camera panned across the scene, and Min (and Sheila) could see that there were rectangular panels along the walls forming layers. They were like shutters, or shingles, or the flip panels at department stores displaying posters for sale. In fact, these were virtually identical to those, and Max began flipping them.
“See, this setup allows us to pack in many more of these in this tight space and still gain access to them all. Each panel is three feet tall by one foot wide, and thus holds 300 Qubes. We have eight panels, four on each side, holding a total of 2,400 active Qubes. That’s how many thinking creatures we currently can have in our world at one time. But each Qube costs a lot to make, so this was all quite expensive. Luckily we were funded by an eccentric billionaire.”
“Really, who’s that?” Min asked.
“Graham Neilson,” Max answered.
“No shit!” blurted Sheila. “He’s from my hometown. A living legend in Australia.”
“… that’s the problem,” Max continued. “We’ve noticed that those Polyans that act disruptively tend to have a Qube that glows red. Those that behave neutrally glow a light pink. And those that seem cooperative glow blue. We gained this insight early by watching behaviors in our first set of prototype Polyans. Now we intentionally weed out the destructive ones.”
“I don’t think I understand,” stated the recorded Min.
“Yeah, it’s deep. Remember when I said the Qube is like the Polyan’s soul?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the Polyans in our virtual world aren't built to be indestructible. In fact, we’ve created a rather hostile environment. They die all the time. So when they die, the associated Qube stops processing and blinks. What we then do is make it available for another Polyan, so that when a new one is born, the Qube is recycled. Or, to put it another way, resurrected. That’s actually more like the truth because the new Polyan inherits the previous one’s core personality traits. Here, I’ll show you.”
Max searched the closest panel and pulled a flashing red Qube from it. “The blinking ones are connected to a deceased Polyan. They flash because they’re no longer receiving data.” He walked to the back of the room where a workbench supported a large computer screen and keyboard. Next to it, rising from the floor, was a round metal cylinder with a hinged lid. It was covered with thick red paint like a fire hydrant. Max pulled out a stool from under the
“The most amazing thing you'll ever see is about to happen,” real Min said.
“Seeing him smile is the most amazing thing I've ever seen!” Sheila quipped.
“Stop it!” Min ordered.
“Wait. Play it normal.” Min pressed a button and the video returned to real time.
The camera focused on Max as he walked up to a large metal door.
“Yes, that confirms it. He’s got an amazing ass. That’s prime eye candy.”
“I mean it!” said Min.
Max typed a code into a keypad near the door and it clicked. He turned the handle and pushed it open. The light from the room was blinding. The TV went completely white with over-saturation until the camera exposure compensated. Then walls on both sides of the room came into view. They emitted a massive amount of blue light interspersed with speckles of red. Max and Min entered what was shaped like a large walk-in closet, about fifteen feet long by eight feet wide.
“I can see from your expression you're confused,” Max said. “Rightfully so. This is like nothing you've ever seen before. It’s not typical, but it’s our server room.”
“I've seen server rooms before. They’re usually darker.”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean. See that Qube in your hand?” Min opened her palm, not even realizing that she’d carried it from his office. “When those are powered up, they glow. These walls are covered with them. There are thousands. These are the core of the computer array.”
The camera panned across the scene, and Min (and Sheila) could see that there were rectangular panels along the walls forming layers. They were like shutters, or shingles, or the flip panels at department stores displaying posters for sale. In fact, these were virtually identical to those, and Max began flipping them.
“See, this setup allows us to pack in many more of these in this tight space and still gain access to them all. Each panel is three feet tall by one foot wide, and thus holds 300 Qubes. We have eight panels, four on each side, holding a total of 2,400 active Qubes. That’s how many thinking creatures we currently can have in our world at one time. But each Qube costs a lot to make, so this was all quite expensive. Luckily we were funded by an eccentric billionaire.”
“Really, who’s that?” Min asked.
“Graham Neilson,” Max answered.
“No shit!” blurted Sheila. “He’s from my hometown. A living legend in Australia.”
“… that’s the problem,” Max continued. “We’ve noticed that those Polyans that act disruptively tend to have a Qube that glows red. Those that behave neutrally glow a light pink. And those that seem cooperative glow blue. We gained this insight early by watching behaviors in our first set of prototype Polyans. Now we intentionally weed out the destructive ones.”
“I don’t think I understand,” stated the recorded Min.
“Yeah, it’s deep. Remember when I said the Qube is like the Polyan’s soul?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the Polyans in our virtual world aren't built to be indestructible. In fact, we’ve created a rather hostile environment. They die all the time. So when they die, the associated Qube stops processing and blinks. What we then do is make it available for another Polyan, so that when a new one is born, the Qube is recycled. Or, to put it another way, resurrected. That’s actually more like the truth because the new Polyan inherits the previous one’s core personality traits. Here, I’ll show you.”
Max searched the closest panel and pulled a flashing red Qube from it. “The blinking ones are connected to a deceased Polyan. They flash because they’re no longer receiving data.” He walked to the back of the room where a workbench supported a large computer screen and keyboard. Next to it, rising from the floor, was a round metal cylinder with a hinged lid. It was covered with thick red paint like a fire hydrant. Max pulled out a stool from under the
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