Good Luck, Yukikaze

highly probable that the code was fine; you were changing. At this point, I know that was correct. It’s very rare. You have noticed how much of an interest I have in you, right?”

“But that isn’t actually me,” Rei said. He lifted his eyes from the main display and looked back into the rear seat as he spoke. “You’re telling me that a person’s will can be determined by a simple code. But I could look at the same thing more than once, and I might like it one time and not like it the other, despite what the code says, right?”

“It’s not perfect, but if you keep working with T-FACPro II, it may be able to predict what you’ll say over the course of repeated iterations.”

“So, human beings can be expressed as some kind of numerical code? That’s ridiculous. Don’t you think so?”

“I’ll agree that it’s unrealistic to expect to perfectly express a person as a data string,” said Captain Foss as she looked at Rei. “Think of it this way: all humans carry a chemical code within them called DNA, but it’s obvious that reading that code won’t tell you everything there is to know about a person. You may be able to tell what sort of things a person with a certain code might like, but it won’t tell you where they live. You might be able to predict what sort of habitat they’d prefer, but nothing specific of course, because there are countless habitable places where an individual may ultimately settle. Since the code is limited, you can’t express everything in it. The PAX code doesn’t represent everything there is about a person any more than their DNA does. In other words, the code is simply an expression of possible properties that may materialize, and the probability of them doing so. People with the genetic code for longevity don’t all end up living long lives. They could die in accidents or be murdered —”

“What I’m trying to say,” Rei replied, cutting her off, “isn’t nearly that tortuously detailed. The way I’d put it would be along the lines of ‘Numbers don’t determine the man.’ ”

“What you’re feeling right now is discomfort at the idea that your existence is being manipulated by others,” Captain Foss responded, not missing a beat. “You don’t like the thought that you can be so easily represented by an external numeric expression called a code. The thing is, no matter what sort of number you’re talking about, be it your PAX code or your FAF recognition number, changing a number doesn’t change who you actually are. Changes within you change the code, never the other way round. The thing that changes you is yourself. As your doctor, I understand very well your discomfort over the notion of the code manipulating people, but I can tell you that you’re mistaken.”

“You think so?” Rei replied, turning back to the front and folding his arms. “But if changing myself changes my code, then by extension you’re saying I should be able to alter my own DNA.”

“You’re basing that premise on the idea that the code manipulates the person, which is definitely mistaken. That’s what we in my profession call a delusion. You can’t encode the essential character of a human being. You also said that was ridiculous, didn’t you?”

“What about the fact that humans carry a DNA code within them?”

“Well, if you’re going to put it like that, then I’ll say that DNA isn’t the only internal code that determines who you are. Think of it this way: humans are more than just the result of their physical DNA code.”

“Hmm...”

“You can’t change the arrangement of your DNA,” Captain Foss said. Rei listened in silence.

“But, assuming that changes in your essential character changes an internal code, then the only conclusion that works is that some part of you aside from your DNA gets changed. When you think of it that way, it seems much more likely. For example, all of the somatic cells that make up a human being carry the same DNA, but which parts of them are active at any moment is different for each cell. Suppose it was possible to encode that pattern. Aside from that, human intelligence and consciousness would have to be taken into account as well. The entire system would then become a variable length, endlessly rewritable internal code of limitless capacity. Who could write such a code? It would take the life span of the universe for you to do it yourself. I don’t think that humans and other life-forms operate that inefficiently, but assuming for now that such a code exists, a change in it doesn’t necessarily change your self. In the instant your self changes, however, that code gets rewritten. On that point, this imaginary internal code and the PAX code are the same. Would you agree?”

“If this turns into a debate in your field of expertise, I have no way of winning it,” Rei said.

“Debate is exactly the way I’d expect you to put it. Still, you raise a good point. Some experts have argued that, rather than an ideal internal code, a limited buffer area exists within people into which is encoded predictive behavioral awareness. That’s what T-FACPro II simulates. If you want me to give you a lecture so you can understand exactly how profacting works with T-FACPro II, I can do that later, once we’re off the clock. But we have a job to do now, and Lieutenant Katsuragi is the one being analyzed and not you.”

After telling Rei that it was natural for someone being profacted themselves to be interested in how T- FACPro II worked, Captain Foss began a new operation.

5

A BUFFER AREA encoded with predictive behavioral awareness... It was like a feed-forward control program, Rei thought, putting what Captain Foss had said into terms he could relate to.

Yukikaze had those functions as well. However, her countless varieties of programs — her codes, if you would — could all be analyzed and understood, but understanding the programs would not allow Rei to understand Yukikaze. That gap between coding and behavior applied equally to humans, Yukikaze, and other computers. As Edith had said, codes and programs simply indicated probabilities. They weren’t a being’s essential character, and besides, Edith had just told Rei that it was delusional to think of the codes as determining human essence.

Suppose Yukikaze’s essential character wasn’t simply a collection of codes and it wasn’t controlled by them. If that were the case, she wouldn’t need to rewrite her existing programs in order to perform novel behaviors she never had previously. In other words, she might not necessarily always behave as she’d been programmed to.

Rei instinctively shook his head at the idea.

But if he followed Captain Foss’s line of reasoning, that would have to be the case. Was it just sophistry on her part? No... It was possible that it was actually true. Yukikaze wasn’t controlled by her programming. He’d always had vague doubts that she was, and while common sense told him that such a thing was impossible, his own experiences in observing her behavior were telling him otherwise. He had a feeling that Yukikaze possessed some essential character that wasn’t fully determined by the limits of her programming

It would be impossible to understand Yukikaze by analyzing her code. You could say that the only way he might one day be able to understand her would be by observing her actions. That must apply to the JAM as well.

There was no predetermined model like the PAX code set up for Yukikaze or the JAM. That would make profacting them difficult. Now Rei understood why Captain Foss had been so hesitant to try it.

“I got an interesting result just from entering Lieutenant Katsuragi’s PAC code. Can you see it up there?”

Captain Foss’s question roused Rei from his reverie, and he looked down at the display, which mirrored the captain’s personal computer, Dr. Lecter. Something that looked like a correlation graph had appeared.

“Yeah. What’s it showing me?”

“It’s the result of my asking T-FACPro II who in the SAF has the closest profact to Lieutenant Katsuragi. The line tracing up toward the upper right shows Katsuragi’s individual psychological tendency components, while the red dot near it shows the person who’s closest to him.”

“And that is...?”

“Guess.”

He paused.

“Is it me?”

“Bingo. Exactly right. That red dot is you. Lieutenant Katsuragi’s personality is almost exactly like yours.”

Rei was silent, wondering what he should say.

“However,” Captain Foss continued. “Not as you are now. That red dot is based on the psych evaluation from your old PAC code. If Colonel Rombert had spotted you back then, today you might be serving in the Intelligence Forces instead of the SAF. Interesting, isn’t it? But you’re different now. Let me show you another readout.”

Captain Foss switched Lieutenant Katsuragi’s psychological analysis code to display as a horizontal line, the graph showing how the other SAF personnel matched up to it. Somebody with exactly the same code as him would