J. Thomas Walker

The flat wall screen shimmered then began to glow, where once had been a dull wall that looked exactly like all the other matte walls in the house but always felt like glass was now the image of a forest overlooking a lake. Now it settled down and looked like a floor to ceiling window, the holo technology allowing for a great sense of depth. Heather, the house artificial intelligence knew John was in a bad mood and was trying to cheer him up. It wasn't working. He walked up to the molecular assembler and a cup of coffee with a full breakfast of Belgian waffles with strawberries materialized before him. This brought only a slight smile to his face. He picked at his breakfast and when he had eaten all he wanted tossed it in the disassembler, with a slight whoosh the plate and food turned into smoke then vanished.

Going into his room he took his silk pajamas off and stepped into the shower. From the floor rose smoke. In actuality, it was a swarm of nano-machines that enshrouded him and cleaned his body speck by speck. They carried off flakes of old skin, hair and dirt. Within seconds the swarm retreated and was done. Stepping out of the shower he asked Heather, "Why can't I take a water shower just once?" "Because, water doesn't clean as well and the nanites would drown, they weren't designed to work in water," came the answer from all around. He scowled. Before him materialized the naked embodiment of Heather, stunning as a super model. It was only a combination of nanites to form a skin that could be felt and the holo-walls projecting her image over top them, but still it was so life like that he was erect within seconds. "Sorry, don't have time, have to get to work," he said to her, putting on his bath robe. "Just a quick one to cheer you up," she said playfully as she ran her hand down the length of her body. "No, now I have to be going," he headed for the door still wearing his bath robe. Heather crossed her arms and nodded. John's bathrobe dissolved then coalesced into a suit and tie with all the trimmings, including an apparently gold watch. She came to the door pressed her still nude body against him and kissed him saying, "I love you." He did not reply but simply left. Secretly he wished she wouldn't do that sort of thing. She was a computer, truly incapable of any feeling, though programmed to be loyal and think she loved whomever she served.

Walking down the sidewalk in front of his house, John headed for his car. Getting in he whispered one word, "Red." The exterior paint shifted hues from forest green to lipstick red; the leather seats darkened from gray to black. The car backed itself out of the drive way and on to the road. Once there it accelerated toward the required speed minimum of 110 mph. No human could pull out into that kind of traffic but millions of smart cars managed to do it every day. Gripping the steering wheel he said, "Manual steering, automatic shift, windows down, Dvorsiak new world symphony number 9." Immediately all these things took place and he was driving unaided, his brain still knew the computer would save him if he was about to crash but his body didn't. Few people were even allowed to do this. It caused traffic tie ups because the computers never knew what the person was about to do, but he was a level five programmer and with that came perks. Each day he spent hours developing the next house AI or smart car brain and because of the stress of this hard job society allowed him to let loose in ways the average person couldn't. Just last week the guy down the corridor from him had been fired, he had released a car AI with a bug and 34 people had died in a 400 mph accident because of it.

John was approaching the place he was really heading for. "Silence, Windows up," he said softly but was still heard by the computer that did as he asked. "Install John456123 into subsector 12 of your AI," he commanded the car computer. Coming up on a large curve, he moved to the outside lane near the guard rails. "Confirm install," he said softly. "Installation confirmed," came the rapid reply. Then what he thought would be his last words, "Activate." There was no reply, that meant it had worked. He was now in the curve, hugging the rail. Calmly he turned the car left into the guard rail. John's car cut through the rail. The engineers had never thought anyone would go off the edge so they hadn't made the rail very strong although it would have been trivial to do so.

Over the edge John went. It was a long drop to the water below, but he had to ensure that the car would be destroyed and kill him in the process. Any shorter and the car might survive and save his life. It was constructed of super light, super strong molecular composite materials and was designed specifically to save his life if something was to go wrong. The car engineers had not been as lax as the guard rail designers. No one could stop him though because of the program he had installed in the car. Normally the car would have shot into action devising a means to save his life. If there was any way to save him it would do it, including using its nanites to construct a parachute. Instead it was silently spinning its wheels still thinking he was driving down the road. Indeed the only reason he had been allowed to turn off the road was because of that program. He wondered how long it would take to hit. He had calculated it in his head before, but could not remember it now. Needless to say he had plenty of time before he hit.

Now John's mind began to review the reasons he had done this. He was a programmer, well to do by the standards of this society. However, he was not happy. No one loved him, the computer might feign it and others might believe the computer but he knew better. He was bored with life, his work and everything. The program that kept the computer in the dark could, of course, be turned off at any time and if it had even a few seconds till impact could probably save him, but he had no desire to do this. John loved the silence. Society had become nothing but noise. Everywhere there was noise and flashing lights, that way no one could ever think about how bad their life really was. Only at work was it quiet, but then one was working. If they took their eyes of the screen for even a second the computer would know they weren't working and start in with the noise. It had taken him years to modify the programs he lived with to not do that. Now he enjoyed his last moments of silence.

The silence was broken with a voice. John snapped back to reality. There sitting beside him was Heather. She must have been monitoring him and was now here to stop him. How had she gotten here? He had almost forgotten that she was a computer program. By linking to the car she could use the car's nanites and holo-projectors to appear there beside him. She could not stop him though. The car would prevent her from doing that because of the changes he had made to its program. She could however talk him out of doing it. "John, you don't really want to do this. Come home, take the day off and we can go to the park or the movies. Whatever you want to do John, that's what we'll do," Heather said in a soothing tone. "I don't want to do anything except end this," he replied. "Come on John, what is it you want. Do you want a family? I can help you find a wife," she paused, seeming to think. Then out of her pocket she pulled a small pad. The image on it was the face of a woman about his age. The woman was very pretty but not a super model like Heather. "This is Micelle," Heather said motioning for him to take the picture. "She would be a good match for you. Brilliant, funny and romantic, she likes walks in the rain and most unusually silence," Heather said. He was not sure if she might be lying. The AI wasn't programmed to lie but it was programmed to save him and if it had to lie to do that it might. He looked away. "No, I've made up my mind and I am going through with this," he said firmly. "Fine, It's too late for the car to save you without injury now anyway. If you are going, then I'm going with you." "You can't die. Even if your here when the car hits your program will be fine." "Car transfer my program to your memory, all of it. Now close off all external data links," she command the computer aloud more for his benefit than anything else. She could have done it by simply thinking it. "Now, when this car is destroyed my program will be too," she said calmly, now eyeing the water rapidly approaching from below. Maybe she really did love him. No she was simply programmed to do this. Perhaps she wanted him to turn off his program to save her and that way it would have him as well. "I'm sorry you feel that way, but this is the end." The car impacted.

Boredom