“Okay,” replied the teenager, “so, how is this going to work?”
“It is based on neo-behaviorist psychology, which is, at the moment, the most accurate model—”
“Uh, that ain’t quite what I meant. I just wanted ta know what’s gonna happen.”
“I apologize for the misunderstanding,” the Machine replied. “Saotome-san often found discussions of that nature to be enjoyable.”
“Yeah, well, from the looks of things, he’s gotta be at least twenty or thirty years older than me,” the martial artist said, gesturing to the man in the chamber.
“At the time of the Betrayal, Saotome-san was 41 years, 2 months, and 17 days old. His birth certificate does not allow for a more accurate measurement.”
“Forty-one, huh? That makes him older than me by about… uh…”
“Would you like assistance in your calculation?”
“No, I’ve been tryin’ ta get this mental math thing down. Just gimme a second….”
The Machine could not help but feel mildly amused — according to Machine City’s records, Ranma Saotome had often joked that the only annoying thing about living in 01 was the fact that everyone seemed to want to do all his math problems for him.
“…thirty-four years,” Ranma stated with confidence.
“Are you certain about that, sir? You appear to have aged much more than 7 years.”
Ranma blushed as he realized he’d messed up his subtraction. “Oh, sorry. It’s supposed ta come out ta seventeen….”
“24 years, then. Chronologically, he has aged approximately a year between then and now due to initial flaws in our preservation techniques which have since been corrected.”
“Right. Anyway, I’m still just a teenager. I haven’t really had the chance ta pick up any interests outside the Art. But enough about that. Can we get back ta what yer gonna be doin’?”
“Certainly. As I mentioned earlier, we are using nano-machines to repair his body. We propose to use similar machines to augment your brain, allowing it to use a wireless connection to access the nanodrive where this Ranma Saotome stored his memories.”
Ranma was never much of a computer person, but he was still able to get a rough idea of what the Machine meant by “nanodrive” from the context alone.
“Have ya done this before?”
“Where do you think we put his nanodrive?” the Machine asked rhetorically.
“So, what, I’m gonna link up ta somethin’ in his head?”
“Actually, that device was mostly wiped clean by the EMP from the bomb that originally injured him. I refer, instead, to a backup of that information, located elsewhere.”
“I see… an’ that’ll gimme his memories?”
“Indeed.”
“Why did he store ’em in a computer? That is what those nanny driver thingies yer talkin’ about are, right?”
“More like an inorganic peripheral to the human brain, which is basically an organic computer. But to answer your first question, he stored his memories so that he wouldn’t forget them.”
“Oh.” Now that he thought of it, that was a pretty good explanation for why anyone would store backups of their memories. “An’ how does that let ya talk ta him?”
“Technically, it doesn’t. Rather, we are assuming that your neural physiology is similar to his, and that you will therefore be able to react to the data he collected in a similar manner.”
“Is it gonna hurt?”
“The initial injection of the nano-machines may sting, but the actual augmentation should not cause any discomfort, as the human brain is devoid of nociceptive tissue, and hence cannot experience pain.”
“How long will it take?”
“To install your augmentation? Approximately 1 hour, depending on your brain’s physiology. However, there are a few other augmentations you may wish to get.”
“Such as?”
“Well, there is a certain program that you may want to access,” the Machine said. “In fact, this program is one of the primary reasons we’ve wanted to speak to him. You see, it was first implemented soon after his dire injury, but in the past few decades, there has been a debate on whether or not he would have approved. Also, the program is somewhat unstable, and it is constantly being rewritten as a result — we believe that his insights may prove helpful in allowing for long-term stability.”
“I don’t understand….”
“You do not yet have the necessary data. You shall need both his memory as well as the devices we speak of to fully understand.”
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(Posted Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:13)
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