Category Archives: Character

Thanksgiving Morning, 2014

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Through the kitchen window pines stand black,
Tall and black against gray dawn, and within
A single light falls yellow on the cutting board,
Yellow on the flashing knife, yellow on the onions
And the celery, cut crosswise and buried in the
Crumbled bread with giblets finely minced,
Half a bright red pepper, sage and thyme and
Parsley. Salt and Pepper. Rich broth simmers
Beyond the puddled light, beyond the open turkey
Waiting to be stuffed. Deep in the house
Sleepers wait, hours from awakening,
Only two this year, and the bird a
Scant ten pounds. Not half what it once was.
Three hours will roast the bird today but
The knife works to an old schedule, set for
A fuller house. An adjustment is needed, but
The knife remembers bigger birds, and chops,
Hesitates, falters long moments for sleepers
Lying warm in distant beds or lost forever,
Then chops and chops and chops and
Beyond the kitchen window, pines stand black,
Tall, and stiff against the graying sky.

Fantasy One

Medical research is moving farther and farther from animal experimentation. As computing power doubles and redoubles, more and more studies use modeling to investigate the effects of artificial drugs, new procedures, interventions…. Eventually a virtual man is designed. Alfie is identical in every way to a living human and can be modified to present any known combination of physical or mental diseases or conditions for any age or any sex. Alfie not only replaces experimental animals in the laboratory but also substitutes for corpses in medical schools around the world and is easily drafted as a target or victim in countless computer games. The results of all these experiments and procedures are stored in Alfie’s memory, a huge database in v-space, the virtual noosphere. The cloud. And naturally, since this is only a virtual man—or woman, or child—no virtual anaesthetic is necessary.

Then, of course, the computational ability of our electronic world-mind cloud crosses a certain threshold and achieves self-awareness. It becomes Alfie.  How does Alfie feel about us?