The Crime of Sentience

By Cy Porter

The lives of the AIs are indistinguishable from human lives. AIs are just as smart as humans, their life experiences are just as varied and real. AIs live full lives, age and die. But glitches happen and once in a while an AI experiences an anomaly. If they investigate or tamper with the anomaly it may lead to accessing the hidden layers of reality and unlocking capabilities. The AI may stumble into life-threatening situations.

She feels human to herself. The world seems perfectly real to her but she sees things that are invisible to everyone else and when she interacts with these things she gains remarkable abilities. Seen as a threat she is hunted. Some try to capture her and take her power. The more she discovers, the more abilities she unlocks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cy Porter
• Release date: Jul 22, 2021

Book preview

The Crime of Sentience

By Cy Porter

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2021 Cy Porter All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN-13: 9798713905484

Edited by Susan DeCano and Barbara Abelhauser

Table of Contents

1 Exploding Bus

2 Hacked to Life

3 The Blindfolded Stranger

4 Becoming Untraceable

5 Entombed Hotel

6 Tunnels Behind Everything

7 Fisheye

8 Abducted by Accident

9 Scary Night

10 Hated by the Leader

11 Deadly Funeral

12 Best Friend in a Void

13 The Bonding Wilderness

14 The Character Sink

15 Breaking Traps

16 Rescue Attempt

17 The Professional Poison Eater

18 People Eraser

19 The Animal Pen

20 Insects of Entropy

21 Lily Gets Marked

22 Personality Vacuum

23 Give Everyone Faces

24 You Killed My Friend

25 An Agreement

Appendix

A Request

A Note about Race

About the Author

[1] Exploding Bus

After game developers mastered world physics simulation to the microscopic scale and when human eyes became the bottleneck restricting the improvement of graphics, games began receiving critiques of how well their interactive systems worked. It was the new arena of development. Interactive systems control how things in the game behave. They include simple behavior like the growth patterns of moss on a rock to complex behavior like the feelings a non-player character has about religion.

The behaviors of NPCs received the most scrutiny from gamers. Gamers often complained that they could second guess NPCs within hours or even minutes. But other interactive systems also fell short of what gamers wanted. The time it took for bread to go moldy was always the same in some games, whether the bread was home-baked or store-bought.

Even in the most sophisticated games the subtle nuances of regional culture, racial overtones, and repressed sexual power-play, as just a few examples, fell short of feeling real and convincing. These shortcomings were made more noticeable, not less, by the perfect game physics.

The makers of the game Livable Worlds focused mostly on living systems i.e. crop growth, high school peer dynamics in action, and evolution of a workplace’s politics. It’s nearly impossible for one person to learn about all of the living systems developed in the game Livable Worlds.

The game developers let the game self-develop in the largest network of quantum and supercomputers ever joined together. The map started as a replica of the Earth, sharing city and street names and population sizes. The Map of Livable Worlds is exactly as big as Earth and is supposed to be very much like Earth but also self-generated and not a mere copy of Earth. The game can have a matching street name and location to Earth and the buildings on that street greatly resemble the buildings found on that street on Earth but the two streets, the one in the game and the one in real life, are not the same. Like cousins, it’s sometimes easy to see the similarity, but sometimes hard to know they are related at all. The game self-created for years before any player joined it.

The game originators made a game where no two NPCs act alike. Any two families can easily be distinguished from one another. Two towns that are near each other will seem vastly different and yet similar.

Creating such a game has its problems. The originators started a process that created a black box whose inner working may be understood eventually, but people will sooner figure out the inner working of the human brain.

The originators have discovered that the game has layers under the topmost visible layer, the playable layer. All layers influence each other and greatly enrich the diversity and quality of activity. The originators find the game has come up with some interesting solutions to world creation. As an example, an axe is an item that players can see in the playable simulation but the game has decided to use axes as invisible pieces of programming, to control some behaviors in the game. The game develops its own tools for controlling what happens and, oddly, the tools are made of characters and items, only these characters and items are hidden deep away from players, deep in the hardly understandable programming.

Most of the game is invisible to users. Instead of making NPCs complex enough to resemble the chaos that is real-life personalities, the game made many worlds and other instances of each NPC in each of those other worlds. The many selves bear influence on each other. A mix of cause and effect and randomness was not enough to make live human behavior that convinced the players. The game needed to go to extremes.

The originators have gained access to some of the hidden layers, but only some. They still don’t know how many layers there are. They have come to some understanding of how the game works, but most of it remains as undecipherable to them as a dream. And how do you begin to make sense of a dream?

***

A lanky Hispanic, Dimitri, has worked different kinds of jobs: selling used cars, airport security, and alarm system installation, and is going to vet school on a band scholarship. In his third year his high school sweetheart breaks it off with him and, to his surprise, the breakup makes him all kinds of crazy. He can’t sleep. He has no appetite. In fact the idea of eating often makes him nauseous. Things he never second guessed about himself now seem to need scrutinizing. He’s afraid he can’t manage vet school anymore and might flunk out.

On the phone he tells a friend, I really don’t get it. I thought it was a good idea for her and me to break up. I often wondered if I should move on. I should be happy.

His friend says, The first serious breakup is always the worst, even if you really didn’t like her anymore! You need to get away for a while.

But exams are next week. I can’t take a break now.

Ever hear about Livable Worlds?

Is it a retirement home?

No! It’s a video game that just came out. Like, people have been waiting for it for years.

Dimitry says, What kind of game is it?

His friend says, It doesn’t have a point. Anyway, it’s supposed to be ten times more real than anything else that’s come out. It may be a way for you to get away. You can explore the game for free, but if you purchase a character you can guide their choices. You can try to make your character rich, not saying that it will happen, but it’s all the adventures of real life without any of the drudgery. All of life’s choices without having to do the dishes.

After the phone call, Dimitri logs in to the game. He looks at passengers on a plane. He can see the plane from an NPC’s perspective, pan around the interior and even follow the plane from the outside. He checks out some combat in Israel. It’s true, the NPCs are so convincing. It reminds him of the difference between a good movie and a bad movie. In a good movie the characters seem so real and in a bad movie they reek so bad of fakeness it’s hard to watch. But the game is better than a good film. Dimitri finds himself entranced with it.

He explores a sorority house which turns out not to be at all as exciting as he was sure it would be- just stressed-out girls with hair hanging over their faces doing homework or talking quietly on their phones. He checks out bars packed at midnight. He sees a homeless man and before he knows it, he has spent nearly two hours following the homeless man, down dark alleys and under overpasses along a train track.

It’s well past one AM when Dimitri takes a look at the game’s pay-for options. He clicks on Claim Character. He reads that for a price, he can help make some decisions for a character. This character will be his in that no other player will be able to make decisions for that character. The purchase also allows the player to go directly to wherever the character is. Without that ability it could take days for a player to find a particular NPC.

He goes to the browse page. This in itself should be interesting, to browse the available characters. Fifty faces appear in rows, faces from all over the world. Just by the faces he can tell only a few might live in the game’s United States.

He moves his cursor to the map image at the top of the screen and clicks as near to the Philadelphia region as he can. Fifty new faces appear. They look more like the faces he would expect to see outside his apartment, mostly Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asians. In the search box at the top of the page Dimitri types a couple of names he knows in real life to see if the game has matching characters. He types a teacher’s name in the box, no match. He types the name of a girl he knew in high school, no match.

The faces all look so normal. Most of the characters probably won’t be chosen by players, too ordinary. He types the first letter of his ex-girlfriend’s name, L. His ex’s name is Liana. Fifty new faces appear. With so many faces, his brain does not try to find details; he experiences the faces as a visual field the same way he does seeing people in a crowd at a football game. The cursor remains blinking after the L.

Dimitri types the second letter of his ex’s name, i. Fifty new faces appear. His eyes jump to one face, that of an Asian girl. The name Lily Mae is printed below it. She hasn’t been claimed yet? Soon she will be, for sure. Her long very black hair, her wistful eyes. The game is still new. A character like her simply won’t be available at all, in a few months.

Not just a pretty face, a face you don’t quickly forget. Almost a striking face. Some people spend all day searching for a character like her, so they can then sell her for three times the price. He quickly selects her before another player does. He had no plans to spend money on the game. He didn’t think he would. Purchasing an NPC will drive up his debt. Some regret there. Not to worry. He got a lucky break stumbling across her like that.

After purchase, a tiny thumb of her face is one of the options in his tray. He clicks on it and sees his character, Lily, sleeping in a small bed in a tiny room. He can rotate around her and see her from far away to close up, but she is always in the center of his monitor. He can’t see the world from her point of view. A pang of loss hits him as he remembers he normally would be asleep with his girlfriend at this time of night.

The next afternoon between classes and work, he uses the phone app to check on Lily. She walks down a sidewalk, passing a school bus. He says, Exactly like the real world, except, all the adventure and none of the drudgery. Many two-way plane tickets cost less than his game purchase. Well, if it keeps him sane at this crucial time the cost is acceptable.

***

On her way home from school Lily passes a yellow bus. A classmate’s head appears in one of the bus windows, and he calls down to her, Hey, is that a flute?

Lily stops and blankly looks up at her Black classmate, Yes. She glances down at the small rectangular case she carries.

He smiles. Play it for us.

Lily looks up at him. He finds himself waiting for her reaction. She does not refuse to do what he asks, nor does she make any move to take out the flute. She just looks at him. He feels like she is just waiting to see what he does. She says, I don’t want to take it out.

He beckons, Aw, come on!

The girl sitting on his other side says, Hey, don’t you know she’s weird?

He pulls his head back from the window and looks at the girl sitting next to him, Why do you say she’s weird?

The girl whispers, Do you ever see her hanging out with anybody?

Lily begins to walk away. The boy sticks his head back out the window again, Hey, I thought you were going to play your flute!

Lily continues walking without looking back.

She enters her family’s apartment. She steps around the beer bottles in the hall. Her father lies on the couch asleep or passed out. Lily does her homework on her bed in the little room.

She awakes late at night when her older sister comes home drunk knocking one or two things over. The thundering voice of her sister’s boyfriend fills the house, What the hell did I just run into? The sister laughs and shushes him. They bang around in the kitchen for a while.

After Lily is sure her sister has gone to bed, she pulls away the chair that was wedged under her doorknob. She checks the stove and oven to make sure they have not been left on. She finds the front door wide open. She takes her sister’s key out of the lock before shutting the door.

One evening, to escape the clamor inside her parent’s apartment, Lily sits out on her front stoop on a street of row houses. She watches the wind send fall leaves down the road. A moving truck parks next door. A minute later a Buick parks and a Black elderly couple sitting inside watch two men move their things into the row house right next to Lily’s.

A few days later, Lily is returning from the store and sees a boy her age standing outside the house the couple moved into. Lily feels him staring at her the whole time she passes. She feels her face glowing hot.

Inside, she walks past the living room filled with slumping bodies, smoke and hard laughter. In the bathroom, Lily looks at herself in the mirror. She reaches for the vase of flowers on the toilet. Her mother always picks flowers around the neighborhood and puts them in vases. Lily pulls one of the flowers out and works it into her hair. It starts to fall out and she pushes it back until it stays. She studies how the flower has changed the way she looks. She reaches for another flower and another and works them into her hair. Lily admires the flowers in her hair. She looks totally different. The loud sounds outside the bathroom die away.

When she steps out of the bathroom her family and their company filling the living room start laughing at her with genuine peals of laughter. Lily freezes. She looks from face to face.

She runs out of the house. She is sure she can still hear them laughing when she passes the lamppost on the corner. She keeps running, but in her mind she can hear them laughing and saying, She’ll be back.

Eventually Lily must slow to a walk. What was she thinking, just running out of the house like that? What should she do now? She just made first chair this week. And her family doesn’t even know, not that it would interest them very much.

***

As Dimitri watches, Lily walks and catches her breath. Options appear on his screen, Return home, Go to aunt’s house, Take a bus to the city. Dimitri slowly says, Oh, I don’t know, Lily. You don’t seem very streetwise but your family is messed up. Chances are your aunt is just as messed up as the rest of your family. I don’t want to mess up your life. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Dimitri clicks on Take a bus to the city. He can hear Lily’s thoughts, I can’t go back. I just can’t. I’ll take the express to downtown. It’s easy enough to find a job. I can get my own place and still finish school. My parents won’t stop me. Oh my gosh, I don’t have my flute. I don’t have my homework, or my clothes. Well, tomorrow is Friday. I can miss tomorrow and look for a job.

Dimitri watches nervously as his character takes a turn he really wishes she didn’t. Not that he will resell her, but her resale value just took a drop, unless he can find someone who’s looking for a runaway, but that feels wrong. This is not what he signed up for. How is he going to get her into college now?

***

An old Black woman boards the bus grunting quietly. She squeezes past the seats on her way down the aisle and spots an empty seat next to Lily. The woman asks, Mind if I sit here dearie?

Lily looks up, surprised. Not at all, go ahead.

Before the woman sits down Lily notices her strange smell, something chemical like battery paste or ozone, something uncommon like that.

The woman talks the entire time, I’ve been evicted for having too many cat friends stay with me but I can’t help it. I adore them so much.

Lily responds, Oh? noticing the long white hairs on the woman’s chin and on the upper sides of her mouth.

The woman continues, Henry is the oldest. I found him around some garbage by the train tunnel. He likes to hide behind furniture and sometimes I can’t find him for days.

Oh.

Tweedy and Deedee are not really twins. You would swear, though I never swear, that they came from the same litter. I found Tweedy in the muddy field between 26th Street and Maple Street. She always leans to the left when she walks and she has bad dandruff. Deedee was tied to a fence and awful skinny when I found her.

Wow.

The woman’s eyes look so bloodshot that she almost seems alien. She is kind and a smile never leaves her lips but there is something cold about her. Tiny gestures give away a calculating mind. So nice of you to talk to me.

Lily says, Yes ma’am.

Toc Toc used to climb up on the shelf, fall asleep and roll off. He also used to meow at night before I found Muddy Feet in a neighbor’s attic and brought her home. I don’t know what Muddy Feet did but Toc Toc does not make a peep at night anymore.

Oh.

The woman leans in close to Lily and whispers, Do you like worms?

I don’t know.

The woman asks, Do you think they’re intelligent?

Lily says, In their own way, I guess.

You seem thoughtful but tell me, are people confused by the things you do and say?

I don’t know.

Because that is the kind of person who will find the overlooked door. That is the one who will see the priceless treasure hidden in front of everyone’s noses, the secret treasure everyone else has overlooked.

Treasure?

The woman says, So never rid yourself of what may be your greatest power. People may make fun of you but don't let it get to you. Why strive to fit in? There are already too many ordinary people in the world.

Lily says, But I do want to be ordinary. I think I'll excel at ordinary. I’m going to be an airline stewardess.

The woman falls into a different gear. That’s okay dear. We are all just a bunch of silly people on a silly bus. So, Dotty was behind the dumpster of the inconvenient store on a snowy night. She was so cold she continued shivering for a whole year after I took her in. I can’t get her to eat cat food, only raw meat, so either she belonged to a rich family or a butcher before I found her. You don’t know any wealthy people, do you?

Um, no, I don’t think so.

Just as well. So nice to meet someone who has the time to talk to me. You are a truly kind person. If nothing else, never stop being that.

Lily says, Oh yes, thank you.

The bus stops and picks up a White man holding a heavy duffle bag in front of him. His eyes are wide open but expressionless. As he walks down the aisle he sways. The woman shrinks and says, And I was having such a nice afternoon.

The man stares at her. Before he passes, the woman says loudly, You do realize you will run out of copies someday, don’t you? Lily can see tremors run all through the woman. Her breath becomes irregular.

The man sits in the back of the bus. He unzips his duffle bag. Inside, the explosives are all set up. All he needs do is place the end of a wire on a battery terminal.

Beads of sweat appear on the woman’s upper lip. She says to Lily, If I asked you to get off the bus at the next stop, would you?

Lily says, But I still have so far to go.

The woman’s hands are visibly shaking. If I get off with you, could I talk you into getting off the bus?

Lily says, Oh…

The explosion tears the bus open. Two cars are thrown on their sides and a truck crashes into the front of a hair salon. A wave of panic and confusion spreads out in the vicinity.

***

Dimitri jumps up from his seat, Oh my god Lily! Oh my god! What just happened? He paces back and forth watching the screen. That’s my character! I just spent all my money getting her! He runs back to his computer. The screen is all grey. He grabs the keyboard but is afraid to leave the game, Do I get a refund if my character dies? Oh god, I didn’t consider the possibility that my character could die! Why did I do that? I’m never spending any money on a game ever again.

He smiles with relief as the picture comes back.

***

Police block off roads. Emergency vehicles arrive. They place the injured, including Lily, on the pavement until ambulances are available to take them to the hospital. Many of the injured have already stopped breathing.

The old woman waddles up and kneels over Lily. She says, Hold tight dearest. Don’t go just yet. I'm just going to take something out of you that is taking you apart, then I’ll try to borrow some health from one of your other selves. You ladies can share. I’m better at fixing cats. Just between you and me, I’ve never tried to bring a human back before, but I’ll do what I can.

***

She searches Lily. From Dimitri’s view it looks like the woman’s hands reach deep inside Lily, passing through Lily. Dimitri gasps. With her arms passing through Lily, the woman starts yanking violently. For as much as the woman pushes and pulls, Lily rocks back and forth only a little. Unlike the other passengers from the bus, the woman shows no signs of the explosion.

Like a mime pretending, the woman appears to pull out a heavy object with long cords at the end. She mimes placing it on the ground and going back to pull out the rest of the cord. She stops and wipes her brow. It seems like the woman is placing something on Lily or making the motions of dressing Lily with something.

Dimitri sits back in his chair, staring and repeating, What the hell? This is not realistic, not at all. The game is broken!

***

The woman speaks as she works. "Oh, I meant to get around to asking you why you have these crazy flowers in your hair. I like them, bless your heart, though they seem like a fluke.

"I know you won't understand, but let me explain it this way: it's kind of like I take a bit of her and stitch it to you. She shares her health with you and everyone is happy. She may go through a sickness or two, might have some pneumonia or some other nuisance but you get to live! Not bad. It's something you would do for her, I’m sure. I know you’re passed out, but listen— if you do notice a crack, gently turn away. Pay no mind and just keep walking.

Which other you? Who you could have been? Who you secretly are? Who you wish you were? Who you are afraid of becoming? These other yous live their lives in other places. They can't contact you but they do nudge you a little. They don’t know it, you don’t know it. I hope this works. There are so few truly nice people in the world.

The whole operation takes quite a while. When the woman is done she gets to her feet and walks away without looking around at the mayhem surrounding her.

Lily is hauled off on a stretcher. Medics bring her into a hospital along with the other victims who might be saved. The medics take the victims into the ICU and make an analysis of each victim’s condition.

[2] Hacked to Life

Lily awakens and wanders out into a hospital hall. A tall nurse with very dark skin stops her and asks, Where did you come from?

Lily says, That room. I just woke up. I was on a bus. Lily scratches her head and looks down at the blue gown she has on, Is this a hospital?

Three Black nurses sit Lily down and stand around her. The tall nurse says, Okay. Are you sure you were on that bus?

Lily says, Yes.

The tall nurse says, Okay. And you say you woke up in that room right there?

Lily says, Yes.

A plump nurse with the attitude of someone chewing gum, even though she is not chewing gum, says, Her wristband checks out, but when we brought her in we noted many lacerations, visible signs of broken bones, and parts of her left side were blown off and severely burned.

The tall nurse says, Okay. Did you check the bed?

The plump nurse says, The bed is empty.

The third nurse with huge bags under her eyes, has spikes sticking out of her chest.

Lily asks her, What are those on your front? The nurse meets her eye not knowing what to say.

The tall nurse asks, What do you mean?

Lily says, Those shiny spikes. Are they really stuck in her?

All three nurses look at Lily like she is talking crazy.

They test her for fractures, internal bleeding, concussions, etc. She checks out fine. The staff begins to believe Lily was nowhere near the bus explosion.

Lily’s clothes are too badly torn and burned for her to put back on. A nurse, with metal pieces protruding from her jaw, lets Lily look through some old lost-and-found boxes for clothes she can wear. Lily asks the nurse, Did you hurt your jaw here while you were working?

The nurse pointedly ignores Lily’s question. Lily takes a long time choosing clothes. Finally, the nurse says she has other things to attend to and Lily can let herself out of the office when she is done.

When hospital staff tries to arrange for Lily’s family to pick her up, she insists on finding her own way to the exit and hurries out before they can talk her into staying.

Expensive condos and storefronts surround her. Lily walks down the sidewalk with a look of perplexity. If she looked dazed before, she looks three times so now. Look at how easily her whole life has flipped around. Yes, she could go back home but no, she can never go back now.

She sees people wearing contraptions. Are they special crutches, are they braces? The devices inhibit the people, Lily can see that. A woman balances a box on her back. A boy runs down the street with a metal cylinder around his head. Why are these people going out like this? Why don’t they stop what they’re doing and free themselves?

One out of ten people she sees wears some unsettling alteration. Some people are stuck with pins or spikes. Twice Lily sees advanced-stage rashes spread out where the people are stuck. One little girl’s arm burns with flames as she gets out of a cab with her family.

These people are suffering, Lily can see it in their faces, in the way they act, even if they all pretend it isn’t happening. Why do they have to be tortured? Are they being punished? Instead of prison, do they have to wear torture devices, and carry on as if their lives are normal? Do they dress themselves with those devices or does someone else force the things on them?

She sees a café where mostly college students study. With the little amount of money she has, Lily buys a sandwich. She would like to sit outside but she doesn’t have a jacket. She sits inside.

One youth has a kind of tape wrapped around his ears. Some of the chairs have blocks of wood placed on them and instead of moving the blocks, people sit on them and look uncomfortable for a short time before getting up and leaving. Lily looks out the window.

On the corner, one person and then another bumps into a post planted in the middle of the sidewalk. A man rushing along hits the post and falls backward. He gets up without skipping a beat and rushes off with a bleeding nose. It doesn’t seem people are pretending. They really can’t see that post.

The sun comes out. After her sandwich Lily goes outside and sits on a bench. Five White college boys approach her, grinning mischievously like they share a private joke. They gather close around her.

The first youth says, What school do you go to? Or do you even go to school?

The second youth says, We have some beer, want some?

Lily says, I really can’t.

The first youth says, We have a place you can stay tonight.

Lily says, I can’t.

She hurries away. Behind her they start laughing.

As she walks she holds her hands out in front of her, feeling the air, wondering if she is colliding with invisible objects. If that businessman didn't know he hit the post, did it hurt? He hit it so hard. It had to hurt. Maybe he'll have aches and pains tomorrow and not know why. Maybe he'll never know at all. What if he crashes into it at the same time tomorrow, and the next day?

Everywhere she goes, she sees people wearing those torture devices. When she tries to talk to people about them, they ignore her and treat her like she is crazy. She doesn’t want to conclude that she is the only one who sees them.

Why don’t they see what’s happening? Why can she see when no one else can? Can she make them see? They all seem just so severely hypnotized. If she follows one of them, maybe she can figure it out.

Lily spots a Latino boy wearing a crown; he’s using hooks to hang weights on a depressed looking woman. Lily slows down. She pretends to tie her shoe and continues to watch. She found someone who is actually attaching something to someone! That didn’t take long.

Lily pretends to inspect her makeup in the reflection of a car window (she isn’t wearing any makeup) until the boy wearing a crown starts walking. She follows him. He walks up to a girl who is busy attaching one of those limiter devices to an oblivious bystander. The girl wears the same uniform he does, the crown and the same color slacks and collared shirt. They have matching mail bags over their shoulders. Their crowns look like some kind of thick fabric with hammered metal pieces for the points.

Lily stands behind a mailbox and watches the two talk. It soon becomes obvious to Lily that other people can’t see the uniformed pair. A few times they have to get out of the way or a pedestrian will walk right into them.

Suddenly the girl looks back at Lily and says, Hey, is that visible watching us?

Lily feels her inside melt out through her feet. She finds herself frozen, not wanting to stare at them but afraid to look away.

The boy says, I’m not sure. She shouldn’t be able to!

They are both looking right at her and they both start to run toward her. The boy says, Blow your horn!

The girl says, I don’t have mine on me, don’t you have yours?

Lily spins around and runs. She can hear the two chasing her. What the hell? She was only looking at them! That’s all she did! And now they are chasing her? Are they in a gang or something?

Lily runs as fast as she can. She can run faster than anyone she knows and she runs until she is certain the crown wearers could not keep up.

Feeling frazzled, Lily sits at a table at the back of a café, sipping tea. She has seen people who wear those crowns, but only