The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (2 page)

“
Certainly, Mr. Cade, but this will be a
difficult task to accomplish.”

“
Did you just make a joke?” asked Spencer in
astonishment.

“
I am sorry, Mr. Cade, but once
again, this is something which has not been included in my
programming. I was simply stating a statistical fact. If you look
at current news programming and average out the amount that
consists of negative overtones…”

“
Stop!” yelled Spencer.

“
Yes, Mr. Cade. May I clarify
something?”

“
Yes, HICAMS.”

“
Why did you thank me for turning on the news
then complain about it afterwards?”

“
I was being sarcastic when I thanked
you.”

“
I see, Mr. Cade, thank you for
clarifying,” responded HICAMS who showed no real interest in the
misunderstanding.

As Spencer left his bed, he
placed his feet in his pre-warmed slippers and looked out the
windows of his eleventh floor condominium. He contemplated what his
day was going to be like when he noticed a partially nude man near
the entrance to his building, running around while screaming at the
top of his lungs.

“
Must be another loving couple
gone awry. I love New York,” laughed Spencer. While he continued to
stare out his bedroom windows he suddenly remembered he had to work
tomorrow. “I hate going to work on Fridays,” said Spencer aloud in
a very aggravated manner.

While still entertained by the
scene outside, Spencer heard a young female voice yell, “Dad!” and
replied as if on autopilot, “Yes honey what do you
want?”

“
I have to be at school no later than 7:09 am
today!”

“
Ok, give me ten minutes,” yelled
Spencer as he thought, “The joys of having a thirteen year old
daughter.” Spencer’s mind immediately jumped back to his job, “I
just hope I don’t have to work another eleven hour shift tomorrow.
I need to get some rest, or stop working all together. This job is
really starting to get on my nerves.”

Spencer walked into the bathroom
with a dreary droop while he mumbled, “Sometimes waking up just
plain sucks.” As he looked into the bathroom mirror, he just stood
there and stared while criticizing his facial features. “When the
heck did I get to be so old looking? I have more creases in my
forehead than I can count, and this gut, it must be at least seven
pounds of additional weight.” Spencer grabbed his belly fat and
jiggled it vigorously, “I need to start laying off those bagels. I
don’t understand, I’m fifty-one years old going on a hundred and
three.” He took a brief pause, shook his head, and continued with
his depressing observations with very little reassurance, “Well,
there’s not much I can do now is there?”

“
You could go on a diet and start exercising,”
replied HICAMS.

Spencer jumped back startled,
“Thanks for the words of wisdom. You maintain a full time job and
raise a teenager, then tell me how much time you have for exercise.
Now stop monitoring my private conversations!”

HICAMS replied in his normal
sterile delivery, “Yes, Mr. Cade.”

“
That’s another thing, we need to
get your voice fixed. I want it programmed with one of those hot
sexy female voices, you know with a British accent, no wait a
Swedish accent, yeah a Swedish accent,”

Spencer looked at his shower and
followed up with, “97 degrees.” During the time Spencer disrobed,
he started to prepare himself for a relaxing wash and called out
“Weather.” An image of a female Avatar soon appeared on the
bathroom mirror and reported today was going to be mostly sunny
with possible showers, highs around 61 degrees, lows around 53. As
she progressed into the next day’s forecast Spencer yelled, “Stop!
I’m only interested in today,” and the Avatar faded away. “You’d
think that in the year 2039 we would finally have the ability to
get a precise forecast.”

As Spencer brushed his teeth, he
continued to carry on about weather forecasters and his thoughts,
“How many people can go to work and give a statement like, ‘Mostly
sunny with possible showers.’ I mean come on, are they serious? I
think when I go back to work tomorrow I’ll start forecasting what
types of crimes will occur and explain how it will be mostly quiet
with a rash of burglaries.” Spencer’s mind once again jumped track
and thought about the positive aspects of being a weather
forecaster. “Maybe I can go back to school and become a
meteorologist. I wonder if that’s a particular study, or something
your boss assigns you if you really suck at telling the news.
Either way, I think I could do that. How hard could it be?” Just as
Spencer contemplated a new career choice, he soon realized he did
not have what it took. “Forget it, who am I kidding. I don’t have
the personality. Plus, I’d look twice as fat on camera.”

While Spencer continued to mumble
his thoughts, he stepped into his shower and yelled, “Holy crap! I
said 97 degrees not 37 degrees!”

“
Sorry, Mr. Cade. I will
recalibrate my temperature gauge.”

“
Shower off!” Spencer yelled.

“
Yes, Mr. Cade.”

Spencer stumbled around while
putting his bathrobe on and said aloud, “I’m sick and tired of
these malfunctions. I’m calling Reece at work today; maybe he can
reprogram my condominium. He owes me for those speeding tickets I
got him out of.”

While he finished his morning
duties in the bathroom, Spencer thought about how long he had been
a best friend to Reece. He soon recalled how they met during their
sophomore year of college and remembered if it was not for Reece,
he would have failed his Calculus studies, as well as been a
complete social outcast. During his nostalgia moment, he again
changed course and contemplated how Reece ended up becoming a
master programmer and now worked for one of the largest software
companies in the world, Central Circuit.

“
Better yet, I’ll go and visit
him at work today. I always love arguing with him about his
inventions,” said Spencer, while he tried to spike what little hair
he had left, already forgetting about the miserable experience he
just had with his shower.

After he finished grooming,
Spencer went back into his bedroom and asked HICAMS to select a
proper outfit for him to wear. A large door opened up and racks of
clothing slowly emerged. Each hanger had a small fiberoptic light
built in which allowed it to exhibit up to twenty-nine different
colors. HICAMS would proceed to match up each article of clothing
and assign each outfit a specific color. After HICAMS recommended
seven different outfits, Spencer chose the more casual and
blandest, a pair of faded blue jeans with a charcoal gray
t-shirt.

Once Spencer finished getting
dressed, he stumbled around looking for his personal digital
assistant (PDA). “Where did I put it? HICAMS can you help locate my
PDA?”

“
Yes, Mr. Cade, it is underneath your
bed.”

“
Ah yes,” Spencer quickly went to
his knees and looked, “There it is.” As he tried to reach for it,
he quickly learned his arms were too short and his body was too big
to maneuver. “Damn it, I need something straight and long,” as
Spencer looked around his semi- cluttered bedroom he noticed his
ski poles, “That will do.” He grabbed one and used it successfully.
“Mission accomplished,” said Spencer with a proud look on his face,
as if he had just conquered Mt. Everest. “Thanks
HICAMS.”

“
You are welcome Mr. Cade. May I recommend you
get a PIC implant?” asked HICAMS.

“
May I recommend you get a
lobotomy?”

“
I am sorry, Mr. Cade but
lobotomies were once used to treat mental illness in the 1900s and
have now become obsolete after the creation of a variety of drugs
and physiological treatments. Further, lobotomies were geared
towards biological life forms, something I am clearly
not.”

“
Yes, yes, I know. I wasn’t being
serious, it’s a figure of speech, and I’m not interested in a PIC.
They will have to kill me before they put one of those I see, I
hear, I know all, government tracking chips in me, so don’t ask
again,” ordered Spencer.

“
Yes, Mr. Cade.”

Spencer thought, “I swear they
purposely program these foolish in-house monitoring systems to push
products they want you to buy. It’s like living inside a
commercial. I really am contemplating getting HICAMS
removed.”

“
HICAMS, I will be in the bathroom again
taking care of some business.”

“
Yes, Mr. Cade.”

While Spencer was away, a public
service announcement started broadcasting to the cylindrical table
in the middle of his bedroom. A seventeen-inch hologram of a
government official appeared and said, “Are you thinking of a
Personal Identification Chip otherwise known as a PIC? If so, let
me explain to you the benefits of your decision. It holds all of
your personal data, including your health and financial
information. The procedure takes only a few minutes and the user
feels no discomfort as the implant fuses into his or her deltoid on
their dominant side. The PIC is then directly connected to the
user’s spinal cord, which monitors the user’s health, allows a user
to make financial transactions with a simple thought, exchange
digital data with other users, surf the Internet, interact with
millions of different applications, plus a variety of other social
and business activities. All of this data transfer completes its
journey wirelessly on an internal encrypted network tailored to
that specific user. The PIC can range in size, anywhere from 500
petabytes to 500 zettabytes in digital storage. Several upgrades
are available. Among our most popular upgrades is the ability for a
user to listen to audio, or make and receive calls. This device
communicates directly with a small transmitter and receiver that
the user carries in their ears and cheek. Once this procedure is
finished, the user can elect to get ocular implants, allowing them
to view and store any type of video. If a user has a friend or
family member with an ocular implant, the two can consent to tap
into each other’s feed and view live what the other person is
seeing. If you are interested please visit these local
retailers...”

A list of locations replaced the
hologram, and a warning written in red bold letters appeared. It
read, “Government Warning - if you were born after the year 2017,
International Law dictates you must receive a PIC implant by the
age of five. If an individual is convicted of a crime and has a PIC
implant, their PIC ties into the International Law Enforcement
Global tracking system. This will shadow the criminal’s whereabouts
and record everything they hear and see.” The advertisement faded
away and a historical program on past computer technology
returned.

After Spencer finished getting
ready for his day, he walked down the stairs and into an open
spaced kitchen. The design was simply yet artistically stylish.
There was a crescent shaped stone wash counter in the center, with
four metal stools, and a greenish amber oval light fixture,
suspended from the smooth metallic ceiling directly above. To the
right of the counter stood a stainless steel refrigerated flush
with the bluish tinted walls, only visible to the eye due to its
handle. The stove also blended in perfectly with its surroundings,
the only distinguishing marks exhibited were four thin gray
circles, which represented the burners. The circular sink sat on
the back wall directly behind the counter, and underneath the sink
housed a double-hinged dishwasher with stone washed facing. Lastly,
there were no small appliances littering the counters. Spencer
always felt preparing a meal in a slow relaxed manner made for
better family time.

Spencer found his daughter, Jade,
sitting at the metallic kitchen table across from the counter,
opposite the sink, eating cereal and fighting with the
holoscreen.

Jade was Spencer’s biological
daughter. She was in the eleventh grade and was considered a
savant. She could have already graduated high school, but decided
she did not want to miss out on her junior and senior years. What
was rare about her condition was she does not show any signs of
abnormalities other than her unparalleled math and science
abilities. Jade’s genetic makeup was compared against both her
mother’s and Spencer’s; the geneticists concluded Jade obtained
these unique abilities from her mother’s side of the
family.

“
I see you’re eating a healthy breakfast,”
said Spencer.

“
Dad, we really need to get a new
holoscreen. Every time I change the channel it takes, like,
forever. Look at the people, they’re all fuzzy like.”

“
What are you talking about, this screen is
only two years old.”

“
So, Look at it! The picture
sucks! I tried to fix it, but we don’t have the right
parts.”

“
Well, when you get a job you can
spend your own money and fix it however you like,” said Spencer in
a calm and collected voice.

“
Dad, why do you always have to be so
difficult?” whined Jade.

“
I’m not being difficult, I’m being fiscally
responsible. You forget there is only one income and if you want to
go to college we need to live economically.”

“
Economical is just another word for cheap.
Anyway, I have a full scholarship to MIT,” muttered
Jade.