Empathy for the Devil

By Alessandro S Scafato

Xico is a child who was born with a neurological disease which deteriorated his motor functions since birth. His life was saved by interfacing his brain to an AI, becoming a quasi-human.

In an attempt to experience life as a real person, Xico dives into the first videogames for quasi-humans. There he meets Ally, a psychopath b

• Language: English
• Publisher: AA
• Release date: Nov 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9783952579237

Book preview

Copyright Alessandro S. Scafato, 2019

Author

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-3-9525792-3-7

No parts of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted by any means (electronic, photocopying or otherwise) without the permission of the Author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

A few words before you start…

This book has come to be based on a collection of personal teenage experiences. Every single word written here is somehow a reflection of my life back when I was in my teens.

The story you are about to read is about a friendship in the world of online gaming, since such were my friendships back then.

The concept of playing games on the internet came to my home in Italy that I was maybe eleven or so. Back then, I did not think of playing games as a way to escape reality. It was, instead, my only way to experience it.

As a matter of fact, in my actual life nothing of what I did mattered. Actions had no consequences: my grades in school were not affected by my performance; my behaviour had no effect in my friendships; even my looks did not affect how people see me.

I know now that due to my background, society in the real world had decided for me what my life should have been. Independently from who I was or what I was doing.

This might sound counter intuitive, but opposite to my real life, the world of gaming felt very much like real life to me: if I was playing well, I would win; if I was a good friend, I had good relationships.

Out in the digital universe, my actions defined who I was, in a way that it made sense to me.

So you might understand why there is only one kind of story I could write which based on my teenage self, that’s a story within online games.

But at this stage I asked myself, what lesson from that experience I can pass on to the rest of the world, which lies within my childhood experiences?

I learned very fast in life that there is something deeply wrong each and every one of us.

Also, that the personal and societal perspectives of evil are very different. And that society is always, systematically wrong about it.

Every person I have met, including myself, have some degree of psychopathy or narcissism, which vary depending on the circumstances. You may call it a dark side, but I call it the essence of being a human.

Take for instance the idea that we are all psychopaths when thinking of someone really bad or really far away from our life.

If I say Hitler, you say kill him. If I say that a child died in Yemen, you might say that’s sad, but you don’t actually grieve. Even worse, you might rationalise their death, simply because you learned they are bad people and not related to you.

Unfortunately, both Hitler and the child from Yemen were just like us. We could have been either of them in slightly different circumstances.

We also develop dark traits when we are depressed, when we feel threatened, when facing someone we dislike. We are all psychopaths, manipulative and narcissistic several times a day, without even realising.

What makes us normal, is not the fact that we are always good and decent people, but the fact that we are good… sometimes.

On the other hand, there is the point of view of our society, which we experience exactly the same from every story, book, comic, film, game… from anything, really.

We are surrounded by stories and fantasies of bad people who have nothing in their personality apart from being bad.

They are the psychopaths, the devils, the villains.

They don’t have a reason, they don’t have life or a logic, they are just evil.

If they weren’t, then you would see that your heroes have not a super bone in their bodies. They are just as psychopaths and as narcissist, only in favour of what society calls normal.

Yet, if the devils were not just the incarnation of evil, but had good reasons, and rights within those reasons, then we wouldn’t try to hate them at all costs. We would feel for them. Empathise.

In my childhood, society constantly made me feel like the villain. It fought me and felt great about it.

Yet, I didn’t feel evil at all.

I had no clue of what made ugly or bad at school, so dislikeable to everybody around me.

I was just me.

Empathy for the Devil

A. S. Scafato

Logo-01

A Quasi-human story

Chapter 1

Francisco Martins - São Paulo, Brazil

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The writing appears surrounded by darkness, as a pair of monstrous eyes in the background slowly open and reveal their green feline irises. On the top, the floating logo titles: ‘Derelict.’

The graphics looks scary enough, I just hope the game is as entertaining as it looks.

After all, since I was born, gaming was pretty much all the entertainment I have ever had.

As the eyes fully open, and the loading is completed, the monster steps back and disappears in the dark, revealing his giant yet human-like silhouette. A light turns on and I find myself in the middle of an interactive room, there is a screen, with a floating set of buttons: Single Player, Multiplayer, Settings, Credits, Exit.

I linger for a moment on the irony of having to click on a screen in a Virtual Reality simulation. Feels like I jumped in a new reality, only to look at another screen.

I won’t be playing this one alone, after all video-gaming is the only proper social interaction I get. I select Multi Player and search for a random partner. Co-op mode.

Logging in…

Looking for other players…

Another player has joined the game.

The game begins with a cut scene, my partner and I are both sitting in a pod, as a computerised voice explains to us what’s happening: we were sent to investigate a strange derelict in space.

I look out of the window and notice we are approaching a large space base, too large and detailed to make sense of it, but impressive nonetheless.

As the voice finally decides to shut up, the pod lands abruptly on the base and the hatch opens, I don’t have control over my player yet, so our characters simply walk outside and onto the platform of a hangar in ruins.

A hovering text welcomes us ‘Chapter 1 - Arrival’.

Suddenly the HUD appears in front of me, signalling all my vitals, weapons and ammo. I can finally move autonomously. A name appears over the head of my companion: DeathOfRats.

I don’t know what that means, but I’ll look it up later… what a terrible nickname though.

Both of us waste a good minute or two ignoring each other, we run around in circles and stare at the endless space behind us, amazed by the sophistication of this game. I can move almost every articulation of my virtual body. It’s awesome! Yet, overwhelming.

This is just as much reality I have ever had in my life. I never got out of my bed since the day I was born, nor have I ever looked outside of my hospital room.

Now I am projected into the fantasy of some developer, surrounded by the metal scraps of this space thingy.

It’s not only the mere environment that staggers me.

I have walked and looked around before: rooms, forests, I even experienced the ocean in VR. It’s that in here I finally have a purpose to fulfil. A game to win. A game that feels as real as reality itself.

The irony is that all I know about the real world is a bunch of history classes I got from some of the private tutors they sent over the hospital to school me.

Sometimes I read some news on social media about things that happened somewhere in the world out there.

All of those facts are about a world I never got to experience… and never will.

I have a hunch that I will end up comprehending more of this virtual world than I could do with the real one.

The game’s interface brings me back to the matter at hand, by blinking my gun all over my HUD.

My partner equips his weapon, which appears out of thin air. He shoots a few bullets around, then point it to my face. ‘You think there is friendly fire, buddy?’ He says focusing most of his attention in tinkering with his gun.

I take my time to observe his character for the first time, he is a black man with a white and blue uniform. I guess it would look futuristic if I had the slight feel for fashion in me.

‘Only one way to find out!’ I say, by quickly spawning my weapon and shooting a couple of rounds at him.

He jumps away from me with incredible reflexes and immediately responds to the fire. I don’t have that kind of coordination just yet, not with real body movements at least, thus my vitals lower each time a bullet meets my body, yet no pain comes along with it.

‘Yup. I think there is!’ I reply to the original question.

My attention falls onto the red sleeves of my jacket, ending behind the hands of a white man. It doesn’t surprise me: somehow most main video game characters are white men, dressed in red. I always asked myself why. None of the people I have seen would ever dress in bright red, especially not a soldier.

‘I guess this is your first time as well?’ I ask, smiling my way in establishing some sort of friendship.

‘Yes, just got the bloody game. What interface you using? VR set? Whisper?’

‘Whisper.’ I state. ‘I am a Quasi.’ My answer falls with much more gravity than I consciously intended.

‘Nice… I am a quasi-human as well. Unfortunately.’ He must have been born sick too, like me… unfortunately. ‘Well hey! Starkiller, awesome reference you made with that nickname there!’

Reference? What reference? It took me days to come up with such a cool name! I try to object, yet my words fail me as my eyes meet the thoughtfulness of his wide black-bearded chin.

Somehow, his cheerfulness faded into a daunting silence. It’s probably due to the quasi-human thing… I feel oddly responsible for that, even though I have no idea of what triggered his reaction.

It’s the first time I get to read someone’s face in a game.

This videogame uses the full potential of my Whisper: being a brain-computer interface, it can literally trick your brain into living the simulation. Although, my past experiences in virtual realities were nothing as detailed as this.

We literally haven’t done anything yet and this experience is already too much for me. ‘Shall we crack the stupid tutorial?’ I say, refocusing us back on the play.

‘Ok, just don’t shoot me!’ He puts his hands forwards.

I smile and suddenly forget about how unfamiliarly scary everything about this game is.

I pretend to be n expert for as long as I can manage, by running through the tutorial’s obstacle course. We jump and crawl around pipes.

Soon after, I find myself falling behind, hiding my clumsiness from his sight as I try to imitate his movement.

After a few minutes of training, we end up facing the next door.

Rat presses some button on a console nearby and opens the hatch. On the next corridor, there is a creature on his knees, feeding from a human corpse, next to a pool of grease coming from a broken pipe, with plumbing tools lying around on the floor.

I extract my gun. Aim and… a firm gesture of my companion lower my arm before anything could happen. ‘Wait! This is the right time to test if we can beat the shite out of them, old style, fists and everything!’

I find his idea very amusing. ‘Ok go for it, I cover you.’

‘No, Starky, you go, I cover you.’

‘Are you serious? This was your idea!’ I face palm myself.

‘Pretty please?’ He asks with puppy eyes. ‘I’m a still getting used to this, but I am too curious!’ He justifies. ‘Come on! Worst case I shoot the hell out of it.’

‘Ok fine!’ I give in.

My gun disappears the moment I open the palm of my hand, I step through the hatch, slowly, looking behind the corners for any bad surprise. I approach the pile of junk on the floor and spot something to hold as a weapon.

I pick a rusty wrench.

As I slowly lean down to lift it, my hand perceives the cold of the metal and the dirt stickiness of the oil texture. It all feels so vivid.

This is the real difference between playing through a brain implant rather than conventional VR.

The experience through the brain-computer interface, feels as realistic as the program allows. The developers have conveniently left pain out of the picture, yet every other feelings and sensations are buzzed directly into my brain by the implant, unfiltered.

Whisper sees what I see, understands what things are made from, and transmits me the right sensation. The things I touched in controlled simulations were nothing as sophisticated as this wrench.

I am spooked out by the stream of raw feelings running through my skin.

‘What are you waiting for?’ I hear Rat’s whispering behind me. I can imagine his excitement. Still, he is not the one who is trying it first-hand.

I walk towards the monster with as much caution as possible, I want to get close before it becomes aware of my presence.

Suddenly time seems to stop, the monster turns its head towards me and charges. I swing the wrench instinctively and appear to hit its face in the process. Its claws though, hit me with incredible precision.

Each time, my visual flashes red around the edges, the health bar decreases. I can feel the pressure of its limbs, but not the pain. The whole scene is so confused I hardly know what I am doing. At some point it grabs me and starts wrestling, I remember that I still have two legs, kick it on the stomach and finish it with one last swing of my wrench.

It falls dead on the floor, yet my health bar is still decreasing. I look at myself and realise I am covered in green blood.

‘O puta! Their blood is corrosive!’ I scream without much thinking.

My character falls dead as well. Just to regain my health a moment later, as nothing happened.

Rat is laughing, amused by the whole thing.

‘That was so cool! And… lame. No offense.’ He comments while approaching me.

‘That’s because you haven’t died man… I didn’t find it so bad for my first fist fight, to be honest!’ I debate.

‘Oh, come on, you want me to believe you never thrown a punch before…’ He taps on my shoulder and carries on. ‘Your reaction was priceless though! You’re Spanish or something?’

‘Brazilian, actually, you are going to hear a lot more swearing like that, trust me. It just comes out much better in Portuguese.’

‘That’s cool man, I never been there.’ He comments.

‘Where about are you from, Rat?’

‘Scotland here… ever been?’

His English doesn’t reveal anything of his origins, to avoid harassment, games now filter accents and real tones via computerised speech software.

‘I haven’t really been anywhere in my whole life.’ I confess vaguely.

‘Really? You should travel more man!’

At those words, I feel a wave of melancholia pervading me. ‘Sure, maybe one day.’ I dismiss my feelings.

We carry on past the corridor and immediately get stuck once more. This time there is a pit in front of us, nothing else. Then look around for a while, searching for something to tinker with, a button to press.

Yet, nothing.

‘What the hell, maybe we missed something before?’ Says Rat.

‘I think we jump.’ I decree only a blink before I charge towards him, grab him from the waist and throw the both of us into the pit.

We keep falling for a while, then respawn back where the monster was, everything restored as we had never proceeded. ‘Great plan!’ He comments.

‘It’s called revenge!’ I reply laughing.

‘What a bastard!’

‘Ok now seriously, let’s find out where to go.’

We search for another while, fall another few times into the void, trying to reach for things obviously too far for our jumping skills, until I happen to notice a piece of platform poking above us.

‘Found it!’ I shout.

‘About time!’ He comments frustrated.

‘You need to help me though, it’s too high to jump.’

Rat forms a little step using his hands, I climb on top of it and try to jump as highest as I can.

My leap ends with my hand gripped right to the edge of the platform. I hesitate, embracing the euphoria of my progress, as my grip slip and I die again.

Something inside me tells me I kind of deserved it. I respawn right behind Rat.

‘As long as one of us lives, we respawn nearby.’ He notices.

‘Sounds fair to me, but if wanted to play a platformer I would have got another Mario or something.’ I comment annoyed, as I wave him to try again.

This time I put a little more effort and grip the platform firmly, climb until my elbows are on, and finally stand proudly on the higher ground. I crawl and lean my hand to help him out.

Next thing we know, the tutorial is over and a new mission pops on our HUD.

‘I think I had enough for today.’ Rat says. ‘Are you up to add me as friend? This was fun, we can continue next time.’

‘Sure thing, let me know when you are around.’

‘Yeah, it’s dinner time here, I’ll probably be back tonight. What’s the time there?’

’4:30 in the afternoon’ I say.

‘A couple of hours behind, I think we can work this out!’

‘I believe so too. See you soon!’

He logs off and I remain in the game

DeathOfRats has left the game.

Single Player mode is on.

Looking for another player…

Underneath there is a button:

Log out.

Whisper: A New Hope Against ALS |

Scientific American

By Yasmine Shirazi – Award-winning science journalist

Among the rarest and most daunting things that could happen to a parent, Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), is probably one of the worst ever.

This is a motor neuron disease that normally affects people in the second half of their lives, but in extremely unlikely cases can manifest to a new born.

After Dr. Maria Oliveira from the Brazilian Research Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (BRAINN) received the news that Francisco Martins was born with this condition, she had no doubt her help was required.

‘Back in the days, I had been working with Whisper for only about a year, it was the time when the technology really boomed and everyone was developing new algorithms. Especially for saving lives.

When I heard that this kid was born with ALS only a few Kilometres from where I was working, I thought that was my chance to make a difference… we went really far since that day.’

Dr. Oliveira immediately went seeking counsel among the newly formed WhisperAI community and, with great surprise, her case caught a great deal of attention from the AI developers.

At that point, a decision had to be made by his family: either stick with conventional treatments or turn little Xico into a quasi-human.

‘I remember meeting with Francisco’s mother. I was scared, afraid of disappointing her. I didn’t want to give her false expectations, but I also wanted her to believe in what I was trying to do. We asked a few local charity fundraising experts if they could help us form an association. They have been one of the main pillars in funding Xico’s life since then.’

All this, was more than 15 years ago.

Today, Francisco is not only still alive, but receives care and education through Virtual Reality programs.

‘Things had changed since he was little, his life is not on the line anymore. Now he spends his days playing videogames and he even made few friends online. He goes to school, and spends time with us and sometimes with his family. He really enjoys his birthdays.’

Francisco Martins - São Paulo, Brazil

My whole life happened in this room. I was told I grew up in a small village outside town, though I never recalled any memory of it.

When they plugged me into Whisper and connected me with a computer, at first they thought I would benefit from seeing my surroundings, meet my doctors and react to my environment. They decided to install cameras, microphones and speakers so I could interact with people in the room.

At the time I was too small to speak, but eventually I got to go school as well. Now this is the only corner of world I know: a hospital room; some flowers that my mom brings me once a year in November, they lie dead on a counter by the window for most of the year; a large computer besides me, connected to my Whisper; an IV run through my arm, providing my body with nutrients.

Everything else is run by Whisper.

‘How are you today, Xico?’ Maria always checks on me at the same times. She is more of a mother to me than my mom ever was.

‘I read about myself on the internet today, you thought I wouldn’t find out?’ My reply resonates from the speakers of my Whisper.

I have no clue if this is my real voice, but after a while I guess I just got used to it. I remember as a shock when they changed it 5 years ago. That freaked me out.

‘Are you mad about it?’ She asks, leaning on my bed to check under my eyelids.

‘Not at all, no.’ I reply, paying no attention to my physical body. ‘But I’d like you to tell me next time, I wouldn’t mind being interviewed!’

‘There is no moment like now to be famous, right?’ Another familiar voice joins us, Luis, he is the nurse who does most of the heavy lifting around here. If we were a family, he would probably be an older brother.

‘Oh, I get it now! You wanted your share of glory!’ Maria says, poking on my shoulder.

‘Was she pretty? The journalist.’

‘Well, well… tiger, wouldn’t you like to know now?’ Her voice blend with the general laughter in the room.

As the euphoria fades, Maria begin reviewing my schedule.

‘You’ve got yourself a new game. Is it fun?’ She enquires distracted.

‘I don’t know yet, I have just started it, but I might have made a friend, so I’ll keep playing.’

‘Friends are always good.’ She turns clearly towards my camera and smile. ‘Are you ready to meet Doctor Jung?’

‘Is he here already? We have a lot to discuss.’

‘I think he’ll be here shortly.’

‘Man…’ Intervene Luis. ‘You’re probably the only person on earth who likes his shrink better than his own parents.’

‘You think so? I think most people are obsessed with happiness, to the point that they forget what it means to understand one another. Dr. Wolfie, on the other hand, is all about the understanding.’

‘You can’t blame people for wishing you well though.’ He replies.

‘I don’t, but sometimes is overwhelming, man, to the point that if I open up to them, the only answer I get is that I must get better soon. Sometimes I don’t need to get better, not just yet, sometimes we need to let people feel how they feel.’

‘I guess you’re right,’ says Maria, who so far had faked pay attention only at my charts. ‘It’s not for everyone to bear other people’s pain, especially among family. We know something about that.’

‘I agree.’ Comments Luis, ‘though give me a heads-up next time you are about to throw some wisdom at me like that. I need to record it for my new collection. I’ll call it: aphorisms of a robot boy.’

‘I bet they’d be worth some money!’

The door knocks in the middle of our cheering. ‘Doctor Jung is here.’

***

Loading… Please wait.

Invite friends: DeathOfRats.

Waiting for other players…

The incessant chattering of Rat welcomes me, as the world materialise all around. We are still at the beginning of the game, exactly where we left it last time.

‘…So?’ He looks at me impatiently, my confusion turns me almost catatonic. I forgot to pay attention to his words.

‘Starky? Are you still there?’

‘Yes! Yes, of course I am… sorry maybe there was lag for a second.’ I lie.

‘Cool! Let’s kill some space zombies.’ He says, shuffling nervously between copies of the only gun he owns.

‘Yeah but this time we shoot… no better: this time you shoot!’

‘Sure, sure!’

We look back for an instant, admiring the