Congratulations, this is a big day for our company, but it is also a big day for the future of humanity. Altus is blazing the path to an entirely new frontier, and when you open up the Altus Premium Space tonight, you will understand how significant the work we’re doing really is.
We are going to have to work hard, maybe harder than the staff of any other company in the world, but we’ll do it because the impacts and rewards are greater than anything that has ever been created.
I am honored to work with you all,
Peter Petrawicki
MIRANDA
Part of me wasn’t letting myself believe that April really was OK. The hope had brightened, but also, maybe I had misinterpreted. What I felt more than anything was lost and alone. I wanted to be back with my friends, not with these people who I had to lie to every moment of every day. The fact that I was starting to like some of them only made it worse.
Before I even got to my lab bench that morning, I was intercepted by Peter Petrawicki himself.
“Miranda, exciting day, huh?!”
I shot up, shocked by the timbre of his voice. He was talking almost like he was onstage. “Uh,” I managed, “yeah. That’s for sure.” I was doing my best to project the aura of an excited team member.
“If it’s OK with you, I’m going to take you away from your work. I’ve got a few things I’d like you to see.”
“OK,” I said, trying not to look too scared or too eager, though I was both of those things.
Peter took me through the massive building, every person we passed giving him, at minimum, a big smile or a “Good morning, Mr. Petrawicki.” Soon, we were outside, headed away from the giant C shape of the main campus.
“Are we going to the server farm?” He was walking a little ahead of me, no matter how hard I tried to catch up.
“We are! But also, and this is a secret, it’s more than just a server farm. All of our most high-security projects are housed there.”
“Huh! I’ve always wondered why it was so big!” I said.
“We like to keep everyone guessing,” he said without turning back to look at me.
Soon we were at the big, windowless cinder block rectangle. The building must have been at least twenty thousand square feet. A guard stood outside, a pistol visible on his hip. He turned aside for Peter, who hit the keypad and then pulled the door open.
Inside was a desk, and behind that desk three doors were evenly spaced on the wall. We waved to the person at the desk and went through the door directly behind him. And then I found myself in a long hallway. It wasn’t like the rest of Altus: This hall had lush green carpet and dark wood-paneled walls, with molding on the floors and ceilings and framing each of the dozens of doors in the long, straight hall.
“The first thing is in here.” He opened the first door on our right. Inside was a calm, cool room with a single recliner that I recognized from my first trip into the Altus Space. “I want to show you the Premium Space. I’m going to leave you in here and come back in around an hour. That should give you the idea.”
Like I said, I’d been avoiding going into the Space. I make it a point not to subject my one and only brain to untested science. But Peter was watching; if I denied him, I might as well give up the whole ruse. But also, it was more than that. I needed to see what this thing was really capable of, even if it was just one time.
And so I went in and found out that the Open Access Space was basically nothing. If Open Access was Galileo’s first telescope, Premium was the Hubble. No more cobbled-together living space for you to hang out in instead of sleep.
I was presented with two menus, Experiences and Sandboxes. I didn’t know what either of these things was, so I started out with Experiences. A submenu opened.
ADVENTURE
EDUCATION
DISCUSSION
MUSIC
BOOKS
RELAXATION
I chose Education because that seemed on brand, and then eventually found my way to “Solving Linear Algebra Equations.” I’d never been a huge fan of linear algebra, but I had taken it, so I had a level of awareness of the topic, but also was definitely rusty.
I selected it, and then I was inside of another person’s mind. I didn’t have control; I was them. I was holding their pencil, thinking their thoughts, feeling their teeth in their mouth. I was this man. And this guy’s understanding of row operations was way beyond my own. My consciousness still existed, observing his consciousness, thrilling at the feeling of experiencing someone else’s mind. This was possibly the biggest technological advancement in history.
I was too overwhelmed with the experience to keep my mind on the math the first time, so I went through the same experience again so I could really feel it make sense—feel the concepts snapping into place, the satisfaction of succeeding at something difficult. I felt his flow—it was mine—and after those five minutes I understood how to solve systems of equations better than I had after a full semester of linear algebra. It was not explained to me; I felt what it was like in another person’s mind, and it became part of my mind.
Holy shit.
I was right that everything I had spent my working life doing up to this point was basically nothing in the face of this technology. Was it responsible or ethical? Absolutely not. Was it worth trillions? As long as it didn’t kill you. My mind was buzzing with the implications, but I only had an hour and I had to see what sandboxes were.
I didn’t know how to choose,
