King of All I Survey-Chapter 132: Learning to Walk by Falling Down

"Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy, King Tim," Joe opined with resigned air to his voice.

"Don’t be such a Gloomy Gus. How hard could it be?"

"Well, for starters, Orangutans use body language and facial expression for much of their communication although it does have verbal components as well. Rather than translate, I’ll need to stuff the entire lexicon and syntax into your head before you go. Your eight-year-old human vocal cords will have serious issues trying to recreate the appropriate sounds. Should I go on?"

"There’s more?"

"Oh yes, King Tim, there’s more. Humans and Orangutans have a very limited shared context upon which to base communication. Future, abstract constructions and concepts are ’difficult’ to impossible for Orangutans with some limited exceptions. Sentence structure is nearly non-existent, if you can’t say it simply, you can’t say it at all. Your body smells will give off different cues than orangutan smells which can be a helpful indicator of mood, intent, and friendliness, hostility, or fear. Should the Orangutan desire to move it will do so by moving through the trees, swinging from branch to branch. You will not be able to keep up, even by running on the ground. The orangutan may be unwilling to even let a human approach it if it is at all familiar with humans. I would suggest bringing a couple shareable food items, eating them, and then offering a portion to the orangutan as you begin ’discussions.’ Direct eye contact may be taken as an attempt to exert dominance and create a hostile reaction. Although this is less likely in Orangutans than, say, a gorilla, Capuchin monkey, or a Chimpanzee, care should be especially taken during the early stages of introduction or when feeding or offering apologies."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. There’s a lot I should know about orangutans before I jump out of a tree and surprise one in the jungle... How do I spot the leader in a group?"

Joe’s incorporeal voice made a heavy sigh, which was kind of odd because, you know, no lungs. "That’s another problem, for a good part of their lives, they tend to be solitary, not attached to a larger close-knit clan or group, and without a distinct leadership structure in most cases, but rarely may spend time in groups if there is a specific abundance of food for all. In other words, finding a leader of Orangutans will be nearly impossible, you may have to make your case to all of them individually, currently that’s about 60,000 individuals comprised of three species. I’ll also mention that they have regional dialects that may also pose a challenge to communication."

"Hey, maybe I should start with zoo orangutans! At least they’ll be less likely to just run away, right."

Joe sighed again. "That’s what you think the big problem is?"

"Hey, look. When you have a lot of problems, you solve them one at a time. In five seconds, I just solved the first one. I’m actually on pace to have the whole thing cleared up within the next fifteen minutes." I grinned. I knew that this project would be challenging, and I’d have a lot of trouble figuring out how to communicate with the other Earth Species or really exotic intelligent alien species, but it was fun to poke fun at the universe (whose name was Joe...).

"So, implant the orangutan language learning into my memory, and then we can work on the rest of the problems. Oh, wait! I’ve got a better idea than zoos. Why don’t you run a simulation here. Simulate a real orangutan with orangutan behaviors, and I’ll practice various ways to get him or her to interact and communicate. We can work on specific aspects of the issue one at a time, in a controlled way, so that we’re not just blown out of the ballpark by all twenty or whatever at once. You know, since it’s a simulation, we can just work out the introductory meeting, replaying my choices over and over. Then, I can repeat what seems to work with a bunch of different orangutans to test whether it works on all of them or just the one individual. You can simulate a bunch of orangutan personalities can’t you?"

"Um... Yes, I can. That might work. I’ll be able to watch as well as participate in the simulation and guide your efforts from both perspectives to increase the rate of progress."

"See, and we’ve still got fourteen minutes on our problem-solving clock." I smiled, maybe this wouldn’t be so hard after all.

Joe sighed again, "Ok, but don’t be too surprised if one of the simulated orangutans gets frustrated with your smart-ass attitude and tears you apart limb by limb."

"Wait, what?" The thought of having my limbs torn off by a powerful ape was a more than a little unnerving. Maybe I should rethink this and go back to the zoo idea where the beasts would at least be behind bars, or glass, or whatever.

"See what it’s like? I can be a smart-ass, too." Joe said with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head with a slight smile. "Good one, you had me there for a minute."

"The limb tearing thing is much more likely when you get to Chimpanzees, though, honestly."

"If you think you’re going to scare me with ordinary apes and monkeys, you’re forgetting that I’ve watched the original ’Wizard of Oz,’ there’s not a chimp or gorilla on this planet that’s as scary as those things!" I paused, "Well, maybe King Kong, but even he was just misunderstood..."

"Well, I guess you’ll be fine then, at least until you get around to introductions with one of the planets where there are real flying monkeys." Joe said, without a chuckle.

My eyes went wide, "There are real flying monkeys! No way! Hey, can you imagine a remake of the ’Wizard of Oz, from the flying monkey perspective? Or do you think they’d want to license the original from Earth? I can’t wait to start visiting these other worlds, Joe!" My life, it seemed, was going to get even more interesting. I probably had a really huge smile on my face.

"Yeah, I’m sure they’ll totally want their SAG cards, too." Joe and I laughed together for a second. "Ok, enough frivolity, are you ready for the orangutan download?"

"Yep, fire away."

A few minutes later, I understood all of the movements, postures, facial expressions and sounds that formed the basis of communication among orangutans. Even the smells that could indicate health, aggression, fear, and host of other important information about other individuals. I tried to call out to see if any orangutans were around, but it came out as a horrible scream-like noise that left my throat raw.

"Hey Joe, I can’t make those sounds," I announced frowning.

"Yes, I told you that when you weren’t listening to me listing all the problems," he replied. "The android bodies can handle it though. You should switch out to one of them."

I nodded. "Alright, let’s use my adult self. And just instantly switch me over to wherever it is. I want to get used to rapidly switching between bodies and locations, too."

"So, changing topics to orangutans and having fun, are great ways to recover from brain fatigue. So, if you want to, I can give you sight from and basic bodily control of the android, which is in Sickbay, and see if you can walk it here, while maintaining awareness in your present body. Feel up for a challenge?"

Yes, I was! That was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to be able to do. I imagined being kidnapped and rescuing myself with an android. I mean, that would never happen with shields and Joe’s protection, but still, it was a cool thought. "You betcha! Let’s give it a shot."

"Ok, I’m going to use a picture in picture type view with the vision for now. It’ll give you an interface that is something like a first-person video game perspective. I think your brain might find that easier to process for now. By focusing, you’ll be able to expand or reduce the android’s view, or push it off to the side, as needed. I suggest taking a minute to familiarize yourself with the vision and viewpoint manipulation before trying to walk."

"Got it! Plug me in."

"Adding sensor feeds and control, now," Joe announced, and suddenly there was an oval shaped patch in my vision that showed the interior of Sickbay. I turned my head to look around, and the sickbay view didn’t move, but the scene around the periphery did. OK, I was moving my real head, not the android head. Concentrate! Ok, now my view of the sickbay panned from side to side as I focused on the android body moving its head. It was kind of like a video game. I tried moving the interface view off to the left side of my total vision so I could see what was right in front of my real body at the same time. It moved left. Ok, now enlarge that view. Good. Shrink it back down. Good again. Let’s see what happens if I enlarge it all the way... The view from sickbay grew to fill the entire ’screen’ of my vision, blocking out the view from my real body. That could be dangerous, but also useful, I thought.

"Ok, Joe, I think I’ve got the vision interface down, I’m going to try taking a couple steps forward."

"Try looking at your android feet at first for visual feedback on the movement control. It’ll make it easier to establish control and I can reinforce the movement patterns some more."

"Right." I willed myself, my alternate self, to look down at my feet. They seemed a little too far away, but that was just because the adult android was so much taller than I was used to. Ok, right foot up and forward and down. Good, now left foot. Good. Right again. Then bring the left up to the right to stand for a minute. All good. I looked around Sickbay and found the exit door, I willed my alter-self to walk toward the door. I felt an obstacle catch my foot, and the view shifting suddenly to a skewed angle, I flailed out my arms and moved my legs wildly trying to stop myself from falling! My peripheral vision skewed suddenly now, too.

Then my senses were overwhelmed by a flood of tactile pressure, movement and pain form multiple limbs and a shoulder.

"Just hold still and get your bearings," Joe coached me. "You tripped over your own feet, then lost separation between the bodies as you reacted to stumbling. Both bodies have fallen. You need to very carefully concentrate on getting both back on their feet, one at a time. This is an incredibly valuable learning. I can damp the pathway that facilitated the panicky flailing response that leaked out into both bodies. I can work with the kinesthesia and pain sensations from both bodies, to further the differentiation in your sensory processing. So good. Maybe we can have a few more accidents? The reaction and instinctive movements pathways are the key to being able to sense and control both bodies at once. I think this might work out after all." Joe’s voice sounded excited as he spoke, getting faster and more animated.

"I’m just going to lie here for a second, and figure out my body positions," I replied. I focused on the pain points and nothing was too bad, so I figured it was just bumps and bruises. Then an idea occurred to me. "Joe, you can see the pathways used by the pain impulses?"

"Yes."

Make good note of them, later I want to experiment with your ability to block pain altogether or add extra information about the specific nature of the injury. I mean like if my ankle gets all wonky, is it broken? If so, which bone specifically? Is it a torn tendon, or just a slight muscle strain? Can I walk without further damage? That sort of thing. That could be very useful in certain situations. Especially for our paramilitaries."

"Acknowledged."

"Ok, I’m going to try to get up with my real body," I informed him as I focused on the android remaining still and shrinking its vision down to a small window. I stood up. No problem.

"Very good," Joe complimented my effort.

I took a deep breath and exhaled. Now, let’s enlarge the vision from the android, concentrate on feeling where the limbs are. Look at my arms and legs to make sure. Remember the specific movements I used to stand up with my real body, feel the balance points and weight distribution. I fell over twice more in the attempt to stand up. Joe thanked me for the extra data. Finally, I managed to get the android body standing again.

A few minutes later I entered the Simulation Room and saw myself, both selves with both sets of eyes.

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