The Baseline

As the sun rose from a long slumber, it laid its eyes on the beautiful, peaceful face of a six-year-old, Alicia. It decided to play hide-and-seek using the long translucent drapes of Alicia’s bedroom. When it finally caught her already fluttering eyes, she wrinkled her nose and woke up slowly. She looked to her left to find her sister Amy sleeping next to her and blatantly refusing the sun’s persistent playdate invites. She walked over to the large glass window covering the wall on her right, opened the curtains and felt a surge of happiness as she took in the fresh morning breeze. She saw her parents sitting in the garden outside having their morning cups of coffee and heard her mother’s faint voice humming her favourite song,

“Weaving through life’s fabric,

The ceaseless needle of time,

Threads the thorns of fate,

Creating an endless ache.

For all the joyous petals forgotten,

Together we sit to pray,

So in our hearts, we remember,

Today will be a good day.”

“Doctor, we have now established a baseline for happy memory for Volunteer 0029,” the Nurse-bot reported to the Doctor in charge. The Nurse-bot, being the latest 101st generation biped with the new teleporting and holographic capabilities, hated waiting for feedback from the Doctor who was a thousand miles away monitoring about fifty Nurse-bots. The Nurse-bot did not feel Human emotions. However, in this instance, she did think that the Charter 20 of the Human-Bot Relations Treaty (the one that placed Human Doctors in charge of Nurse-bots) was highly unfair. According to her, Human Doctors were bound to make mistakes, unlike the Nurse-bots.

The Nurse-bot received a green signal for establishing a second baseline for a "problematic" memory. While she changed the settings of the control room where Volunteer 0029 lay, her database began to churn out the definitions of problematic memories. Ever since the initial stages of The Great Ailment, Humans and Bots alike were not allowed to use words describing negative emotions. Using the words "anger" or "sadness" without prior approval were punishable offences.

The sun was covered in thick dark clouds disallowing any ray to shine on the eighteen-year-old Alicia who sat motionless with a blank expression on whatever was remaining of her bed. The garden and most of her house were blown apart to shreds by a stray Drone that was meant to target a group of rebels on the outskirts of the city. Her parents lay buried in the debris while her sister held her hand firmly and sang their mother’s song,

“Weaving through life’s fabric,

The ceaseless needle of time,

Threads the thorns of fate,

Creating an endless ache.”

“Doctor, the baseline for a problematic memory has now been successfully established for Volunteer 0029,” the Nurse-bot replied to the Doctor. To the Nurse-bot’s dismay, the Doctor had gone to bed (another reason why Charter 20 was absolutely illogical) and would be unavailable for the next five to six hours. The Nurse-bot obtained the dinner pills from her repository and passed them into the glass-dome where Volunteer 0029 lay asleep with multiple electrodes in her brain.

“Volunteer, it is time for dinner. You should eat before we begin Phase 2,” the Nurse-bot produced a soothing voice that was programmed into her when the target audience comprised Patients or Volunteers. The Volunteer opened her eyes slowly and saw the five dinner pills placed next to her. The Nurse-bot had produced the Volunteer’s favourite red pills but had added the two unappetizing green pills for nutrition anyway.

The Volunteer tried speaking but no voice came out of her mouth. The Nurse-bot realized this and responded “Don’t worry Volunteer 0029. I can read your thoughts so there is no need to speak. Just frame a clear question in your brain and I will be able to receive a clear signal on my end.”

Thank you for the red pills, Nurse-bot. They are very similar to the actual sandwiches my mother used to prepare before the Ailment.

“You are welcome, Volunteer 0029. I am programmed to anticipate all your needs,” the Nurse-bot acknowledged in the same soothing voice.

Was Phase 1 successful?

“I am glad you asked that. We have managed to establish very accurate baselines for your happy and problematic memories.”

Did I think about the stray Drone bombing for the problematic memory?

“Yes.”

My life would have been different had the Drone not malfunctioned all those years ago.

The Nurse-bot did not know whether the Doctor would approve of giving the Volunteer any more information about the stray Drone bombing. On the other hand, Charter 25 of the Human-Bot Relations Treaty stated that the Bots need not abide by the diplomatic truth-bending of Humans and can choose to remain truthful to the facts, irrespective of how harsh they can be. The Nurse-bot decided that perhaps it was time for Volunteer 0029 to know the truth about the Drone.

“As you know that Bot ethics dictate that all Bots, including the Nurse-bots working for Human Doctors, must abide by the truth of facts. The fact is that the Drone bombing in your problematic memory was not a mistake,” the Nurse-bot changed her voice to the original mechanical version popular with the older generation bots. She did not need to read the Volunteer’s thoughts as the Volunteer’s pained and puzzled expression stated it all.

“The arrival of The Great Ailment ten years ago posed a great threat to all of Humanity. Inexplicably, a third of the population started suffering from irreversible amnesia, followed by severe depression and schizophrenia resulting in death within a year of the onset of symptoms. However, most people did not wait that long and committed suicide as the symptoms were unbearable. With no outward physical manifestation, Humans had initially dismissed all these mental health issues.”

But isn’t that common information? And what does it have to do with my parents?

“When an older Misinformation Attack got activated through sheer neglect, the Scientists’ data were all altered leading them to believe that the cause of The Great Ailment was a virus. There was absolutely no time to lose lest the entire population gets affected. The Government launched targeted Drone attacks on people who had started developing symptoms on the day we now know as Black Drones day. However, they later realized that due to the wars of the last century, a genetic mutation was the cause of The Great Ailment with a 33 per cent probability of activation,” the Nurse-bot decided to pause out of politeness as Humans needed time to digest disturbing information and because tears were flowing from the Volunteer’s eyes.

“Hence, the higher level Government officials covered up their foolishness by launching another Misinformation Attack that the Drones were attacking rebel groups that threatened the peace of our Nation. Your parents had started developing the symptoms so they had died in a Government-approved Drone attack,” the Nurse-bot finished. However, the Volunteer was crying inconsolably at this point. The Nurse-bot thought that perhaps following Human dishonesty would have been a better option in this case. Her algorithm dictated that the best way to console the Volunteer would be to extol the virtues of the treatment they were supposedly on the verge of discovering.

“After that, the Humans did succeed in increasing the lifespan by five years after the onset of Ailment. In fact, you are among the first set of healthy Volunteers of the latest experimental memory alteration treatments. Although the side effects are not fully understood, the Doctors believe that it will be the Great Cure to the Great Ailment. And since we are doing Human trials already, the Doctors, as well as the Nurse-bots, are quite optimistic,” the Nurse-bot concluded imbuing a tone of pride in the mechanical voice. The Volunteer’s tears had dried up now.

Will my sister be alright?

Now the Nurse-bot was in direct conflict between following Charter 20 and 25. The Doctor had specifically programmed instructions to be optimistic at all costs when Volunteer 0029 asked about Patient 950309. However, that was far from the truth of the facts. Patient 950309 had already crossed the threshold of amnesia since the onset of the symptoms and even if the clinical Phase 3 trials involving Volunteer 0029 were successful, there was absolutely no way that Patient 950309 would remember Volunteer 0029. It would lead to a series of problematic emotions when Volunteer 0029 would realise that her sister does not remember her anymore.

The randomised Conflict Resolver algorithm chose to favour Charter 20 instead of 25, so the Nurse-bot replied in the original calm, sympathetic voice, “Of course, she will be! Since you are a Volunteer, your family members get the highest priority of the treatment. Looking at the results of your baseline tests, we believe that after Phase 3, we should be able to inject the serum into Patient 950309 immediately and you both can go back to your refurbished house and enjoy a life-long supply of food pills!”

The Volunteer’s hand now instinctively grasped a golden heart-shaped locket on her neck as if seeking strength. There was an intricately designed rose on the outer left flap of the locket and an engraving on the right flap - In our hearts, we always remember. The Volunteer opened it to see the smiling faces of her sister on one side and her parents on the other.

The Nurse-bot started receiving instructions again from the Doctor. It looked like the Doctor concluded that six hours of sleep was too much and woke up within three. The instructions stated that due to lack of time and Volunteer 0029’s positive baseline responses, Phase 2 would be bypassed in favour of directly jumping to Phase 3. Phase 3 was supposed to completely modify the problematic memory so that the symptoms of the Ailment never occur. As per the instructions, the Nurse-bot amplified the current passing through the electrodes and started monitoring the responses diligently (as all good Nurse-bots are wont to do).

“Problematic memory successfully eradicated in Volunteer 0029. Phase 3 clinical trials successful,” the Nurse-bot reported mechanically after being satisfied with the data. The Nurse-bot’s receiver could hear the clicking of champagne glasses at the Doctor’s location. According to her, this very sentimental nature of Humans had caused their downfall in the last century (and yet another reason why Charter 20 was unreasonable).

While the Doctors were busy celebrating a win, the Nurse-bot decided to collect more data and decided to re-establish the happiness baseline for Volunteer 0029.

As the sun rose from a long slumber, it laid its eyes on the beautiful peaceful face of a six-year-old, Alicia. It decided to play hide-and-seek using the long translucent drapes of Alicia’s bedroom. When it finally caught her already fluttering eyes, she wrinkled her nose and rolled and rolled around in her large bed. When she finally woke up, she walked over to the large window that covered the major part of the wall on her right, opened the curtains and felt a surge of happiness as she took in the fresh morning breeze. As she looked at three roses in full bloom in the garden outside, she felt the cool touch of a heart-shaped locket just below her neck. She fondled it lovingly.

Today will be a good day.

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