The Assistant
X-Prize Seat 14-C contest submission
Everyone seemed so energized and full of life. They all looked uncomfortably confident in what they were doing. Everyone but her fellow passengers that is. They all looked just as lost and confused as she felt.
Genie still hadn’t absorbed the reality of her situation. She and the rest of the people from ANA Flight 008, Tokyo to San Francisco were sitting or standing around a large boarding area at SFO, San Francisco Intl. Airport. Looking out of the windows was disconcerting and reassuring at the same time. The view was familiar but there weren’t any other planes on the tarmac or anywhere around the airport and no baggage cars or anything else moving out there, it looked like the airport was shut down.
“Have you heard anything about what’s happening next?”, Genie asked one of the other passengers sitting across from her.
“They’re taking people off one at a time, look over there. I haven’t seen anyone return, not sure if that’s good or not”, he replied.
Sure enough, one of the flight attendants was being led off down the concourse. Was there some kind of order? Ugh, she felt so out of control. Hopefully she’d learn what was going on when it was her turn.
They had been there for hours already and hadn’t learned a single thing about what happened or why they couldn’t leave yet. She had been in Tokyo visiting a friend from grad school but was ready to be home again, it had been a long flight. There wasn’t really anything notable about the flight, some turbulence but nothing abnormal and certainly nothing to explain why they were being held at the arrival gate. Everyone was getting frustrated and anxious to find out what was going on.
An official looking woman in a suit approached. She had a name tag, but did not introduce herself.
“Genevieve Park. Will you please come with me? We’ll be done soon and you can continue with your schedule.”
“Schedule”, was an odd word choice but Genie dismissed the random thought and followed the woman away from the gate and down the concourse. They continued into what looked like a glass room, maybe a security gate? As they approached the lights got brighter and a glass sliding panel door opened.
The woman lead her inside and the sliding door shut behind her. Then a series of events happened that felt like she was being scanned and disinfected at the same time but was quickly over. There was a glass table with two steel chairs just inside the room; it was clearly a room now, though a glass walled room.
The woman said, “I apologize for the abruptness of this process. Please have a seat, an assistant will be with you presently.” Then the woman with a name tag left through the way they had come without another word.
Seconds later one of the glass walls turned opaque white and became what looked like a video screen. A new woman’s face appeared with some kind of light in the background.
“Hello! Genie, is it? My name is Anna.”
Genie stared at the unexpectedly cheerful and friendly woman for a moment, “Hi Anna, Yes I prefer to be called Genie.” Genie said, glad to see a friendly face at last even if only on a screen.
“Genie, I’m here to help you. Has anyone told you what’s going on?”
“No, and I’m starting to get annoyed by it,” Genie said in a tone of voice that betrayed her pent-up frustration even more than her choice of words. “I’m sorry,” she quickly said, “It’s been a long morning. Umm thanks Anna — yes, please, if you could tell me why I’m here that would be a great relief.”
“Genie, I will tell you in just a moment but first I want you to do something for me. I know you wear contacts so this should be easy for you. I want you to take them out and put in the pair of lenses in the case in front of you.”
Genie looked down and realized she hadn’t even seen the lens case. It was right in front of her though but of course she hadn’t been paying attention to what was on the table. “Ummm, why? I can see fine. Are these the right prescription? Are…”
“Genie, if you can do this for me then this will be a lot easier to explain. Don’t worry they will match your prescription.”
Genie decided there wasn’t anything else to do but to follow the instructions Anna had given. She removed her own contact lenses and realized there was no lens wetting solution. “Anna…”
“These are new Genie, they are self-hydrating, just place them in, they will adjust to fit perfectly.”
Genie put the first lens in her eye, whoa, it slid right in and seemed to float into place perfectly. She put the other side in and it did the same. As she re-focused her eyes to look at Anna on the glass wall screen again she noticed two things.
First the lenses didn’t even feel like they were in her eyes. No matter how good a contact lens fits you still know it’s there but these were like not wearing any at all. Second, her vision was better. Like significantly better in a way she had never experienced before. Everywhere she looked or focused details popped out from objects as if she had them held up no more than arm’s length away. “Anna, these are amazing. Thank you.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet Genie,” Anna said as Genie looked up toward Anna’s voice, not towards the glass video screen but towards the open panel door on the other side of the room. “You’re ready now Genie. I’ll show you what happened.”
Anna walked over to the table and sat down in the other chair. Genie had so many questions. It seemed like something very strange had happened and she wasn’t sure where to start. “Anna?”
“Genie, the year is 2037. Your plane jumped 20 years into the future.” “…” Genie’s mouth opened but nothing came out. “What, what do you mean? That’s not funny, come on tell me what’s going on.”
“Genie, that’s the truth. ANA Flight 008 left Tokyo in 2017 and never arrived at its destination, until a few hours ago.”
Genie would have fallen down if she wasn’t already seated. As it was, her vision tunneled and she slumped forward before catching herself on the table. The moment of weakness faded as her blood pressure caught up to the shock of anxiety that had just hit her system, preventing her from fainting but just barely. Genie looked up at Anna just in time to see her body flicker a little, setting off a new spike of distress as she tried to comprehend what she was hearing and seeing but this one barely registered and seemed to be suppressed almost immediately.
“Genie! Oh, I’m sorry, that caught me by surprise,” Anna was saying to her, “You should be fine now. Your blood pressure spiked and dropped quite dramatically but you’ve stabilized now and I won’t let that happen again. I’ve released endorphins into your system to help calm you down as well.”
“What? Okay.” Genie said, feeling much better now. “Hey, what are you?” Genie finally exclaimed as she came back to her senses. She had just processed the last few minutes and none of it made any sense but she did know that it was all real.
“Okay I’m in the future, well I mean I’m in 2037 now but still in San Francisco, I get it. That’s why everything is different but still the same.” She thought about the last few hours and it was starting to come together into a clearer picture of her circumstances. “So, you’re like a hologram or something, I mean why did you just flicker out for half a second there when I was fainting?”
“Okay Genie. I’m glad that you’re starting to become comfortable with this change in your schedule. I am an assistant. I am a virtual person. When you nearly fainted, I was no longer being projected into your sensory field.”
Genie exclaimed, “Oh shit. Wait, I mean what? You’re a ‘virtual person’ ‘projected into my sensory field’. What does that mean? This is getting weird. Okay, okay, can you explain it to me?”
“Sure. I can try.” Suddenly there was what looked like a model of a person floating between Genie and Anna.
“How did you do that?” Genie asked.
“Actually, you’re doing that, “Anna replied. “You are hallucinating me and the illustration we are going to use to teach you about augmented reality in 2037.”
“Augmented reality? I’ve heard of that. Isn’t that like something with a phone or glasses or goggles or something… oh wait, the contact lenses.”
“Yes, the contact lenses — well in a sense.” Then the floating illustration zoomed in on the person’s head and demonstrated putting in the contacts. “The contacts are actually made of a gel that dissolved into your eye.” The floating model contacts dissolved into a fluid and spread out around the model person’s eyes absorbing into them.
“The gel contains a solution of new technology and science that interacts with your nervous system to improve and augment your senses. I can go into more detail about the technology if you wish but it might take a while to explain.”
“No, I think I get the idea Anna. I’ll never need contacts again I guess, I’m like super-human now or something, right? “
“In some ways, compared to your contemporaries in 2017, yes, yes you are.”
“So, is that how I can see you and this 3d model thing here in between us?”
“See, hear, smell, touch, feel — it is a full sensory enhancement package Genie. State of the art technology.”
“Interesting. What’s next? Are you like ‘my’ personal assistant or something?”
“Yes Genie, I am.”
“Cool, I think I’m going to like 2037. Okay, so can I leave now? There must be other passengers waiting.”
“Yes, we can leave now if you are ready.” “Well then let’s go, I want to see this new world.”
Anna began to head out of room, Genie followed. “Genie, while we walk, I’d like to go over your new schedule with you. We’ve got a lot of planning to do to catch up with the rest of the world.”
Genie still had more questions but they could wait, “Okay Anna, let’s do it. First though, I’m hungry — can you take me somewhere to get some food?”
“Sure Genie, I’ll put nutrition at the top of your schedule. Let’s go ahead and do a memory scan to find out your food preferences and compare with availability. This might feel a little like ‘de ja vu’ for a few seconds.”
As soon as Anna said that, Genie felt an odd sensation of remembering a lot of past meals, Anna got a little wavy like she was a mirage in the desert, then it was gone and Anna was back.
“Based on your memories, feedback from the nano-sensors now in your bloodstream and the recommendations of several million people who match your profile, I’ve found 2 options for you within walking distance and 5 options if you call a car.”
Something that looked like a kiosk screen slid into Genie’s field of view. Photos of two restaurants, a cafe and what looked like a vending machine blinked onto the screen that floated in the air in front of her. When she focused on one of them it expanded to fill more of her vision, adding a rating, reviews, a menu and a gallery of more photos.
Well some things never change she thought to herself as she saw the catty reviews people had left for most of the locations. All except the vending machine, which had nothing but positive reviews. Yeah, no… she needed to see some people and get a better feel for how the city had changed, so the cafe was the place to go.
“Let’s walk to the cafe Anna. I hope it’s pretty busy. I need to see some actual people from this time, — no offense.”
“None taken Genie. The cafe should be nice this time of day. You should be seeing a light line guiding us to the cafe now. If you focus on the line an overview map will display for you.”
Genie didn’t need to see an overview, she had an idea that it was this time’s equivalent of GPS navigation but with what they called augmented reality back in 2017. She just walked in the general direction the line showed. It was much nicer not having to look at a screen every few minutes though.
“SO, Anna, what is the deal with the schedule, is that something you do for me, like a to-do list or something?” They were nearly outside, Genie was anxious, excited and scared to find out what the future held.
“Exactly,” Anna said, “it’s your daily planner, to-dos, goals and dreams all in one. It’s my job to help you find the time and resources to do whatever you want to do. I work with other assistants to coordinate with networks, with larger organizations like businesses, governments local and global and other institutions.”
“Sometimes, your schedule can be timed to help others, or their schedules can be timed or adjusted to help you with yours. I will recommend potential activities for you as I have recommended the cafe, based on past choices, your current mood or bio-levels and of course what others who have been in a similar situation have preferred.”
“Ultimately the choice is yours but you will have almost perfect information available to help you make your choices and near limitless resources available to support what you choose to do via systematic coordination, nothing is out of reach.”
“Welcome to the future Genie, welcome to 2037.”
