The cycling year started so well. I was up against my target until a period of protracted downtime. I'ev started again, but I've had to make a short-term decision to target my 'behind pace' number and try to reduce it to zero before I worry about anything else.
When I first looked at it, I was over 500 miles behind pace, year to date. Now, with significant exertions, I have managed to get it reduced to around 320 miles. There is still a way to go, and the next few weeks I'll be 'non-biking' whilst I'm on the Isle of Wight or planning a trip to Switzerland. In between those items, I've a trip to London to an author conference and then a 'do' with a bunch of friends.
I predict it will be around August before I can get 'back in the saddle'.
I first read The Rachel Papers when I was around the same age as Charles Highway in the novel - maybe a few years older, but certainly younger than Amis. I also lived in the kind of bedsit that he describes, with similar to-ings and fro-ings as well.
I always regarded Charles Highway as an insufferable elitist snob as well as an unreliable witness and therefore treated the book as humour throughout. The lead player builds various dossiers including one of Rachel and his pursuit of her which is a probably deeply inappropriate act nowadays. Amis has a way with punchy sentences and twists in sometimes deeply noxious prose.
I remember the story, the characters, from when I read it the first time, but the twists were now new again and something I enjoyed. It's not a story for everyone, and I can remember the difference between this and the London Trilogy (which I dutifully read on commuter trains) and then the difference again in the altogether more daunting Time's Arrow - which left a mark on me.
I think I must have fallen off the Amis wagon after that, because his later books about Stalin and so forth offer me no memories.
Something new for me to delve.
There were plenty of people in Matt's apartment. Bradley Floyd and his partner, Jennifer Hansen, who had brought some American style home-made cookies and a couple of bottles of booze. My Guinness and bitter selection looked a bit tame by comparison.
Then Bérénice Charbonnier arrived, but without Simon Gray, who I had not seen at all during the last week.
"Oh, and this is Niklaus, Niklaus Zeiler." Bérénice doesn't explain further, but I assume he is her latest conquest. Niklaus is a tall and wiry man, early thirties, piercing blue eyes, short brown hair, and a short, stubble-like beard. He wears a blue close-fitting sweater and has a red string necklace.
Niklaus is carrying a box of beer and places it gently on the table. It seems too early to ask what he does, but Bérénice is quick to explain. "Niklaus works on the boats, from across the river. If you ever want something special, talk to Niklaus."
Niklaus smiles, "Yes I do that in the summer. In the winter I go up onto the slopes, to teach ski-ing!"
"Oh yes," I ask, "and which area?"
Niklaus answers, "From Geneva there are so many choices all about an hour away. I am usually based in one of the villages of Les Portes du Soleil. There are nine different resorts and over 650 km of pistes and is easy for me and for tourists to get to from Geneva. It also has some of the most dependable snow. There is always someone to teach at any level. There's over 1,000 instructors there, so you know we are on to something!"
"Well, we are celebrating the cattle coming off the mountains today, so it can't be that long until the season starts again!"
Niklaus answers, "As a matter of fact, the snow usually starts in a small way in September and then gradually builds through to November. I usually pack my bags in November through until around the beginning of April."
"Are you going to go along?" Matt asks Bérénice, "I guess everyone in Switzerland can ski?"
"Oh yes, I'll be there enjoying the skiing, when the time comes," answers Bérénice.
Another buzz at the main door and some of Matt's friends who are staying at the Four Seasons arrive.
"Hello Matt!" booms an American as he enters the room, immediately recognising the tones of another American and making his way over to introduce himself to Bradley.
Then two women enter. I deduce they are Clare and Christina. I notice Christina looking at Bérénice as if weighing her up.
The front door again and this time it was Aude, "Wow, you have certainly got to know some people!" she says to Matt, amused to see so many people present, at which point the door rang again and an entire German oompah band arrives. They had brought traditional instruments but also seemed to have a couple of amplifiers and electric guitars.
Their leader smiles, "I think you'll get your share of Swiss traditional music now!"
The apartment was getting full by this point and quite noisy, but then the door again and Hermann and Rolf arrive, clutching bottles of Schnapps.
"Er - we invited Amy as well," explains Rolf, as Amy appears from behind them, clutching a plastic tub containing an Apfelstreudel.
"I hope it's okay!" she says sheepishly.
Then Matt makes a clumsy speech in French: "Eat, Drink and be Merry! Mange bois et sois heureux!"
Everyone laughs.
"Your French!" says Juliette, "It's improving."
Matt looks over to the band leader, who is named Oskar and says "This is ever so kind of you all!"
"It's so good to have a visitor who wants to make an effort!" answers Oskar, " And otherwise we would all be in the bar this afternoon, anyway!"
The band starts up with some traditional songs about Gathering the Cows and follows it with some yodelling and then several more German sounding folk tunes.
"Look - we've another musician in the house!" calls Chuck, "Can we get a song from Christina?"
Christina is Matt's friend and one of the four who arrived looking rock-chic from the Four Seasons. She looks sheepishly over to Oskar. He grins and says, "Sure, we can do a pop number as well, if you like." He points toward their two electric guitars.
Christina nods, "Okay, Let's try something. Do you know anything by The Rolling Stones?"
The mandolin player sketches out a riff on his mandolin and then moves across to the electric guitar. I recognise it as Jumping Jack Flash and Christina picks up the microphone and sings it with due force. We all applaud at the end.
"Wow," says Kyle, "I loved it!"
"Can I borrow the Telecaster for a moment?" asks Christina.
She plucks out the first few notes of Satisfaction, another Stones' tune, which she sang as a slow guitar and voice number, but each time when she got to the chorus, she left it out. "Cat Power.., " she trailed at the end.
The Swiss band applauded, and the band leader nervously says, "How about Nirvana?
I had to adjust my reality controls at this point. A Swiss oompah band asking Matt's friend to play Nirvana, was bizarre.
"You know I used Teen Spirit on my last tour?" asked Christina, "For when I was in the United States and especially in Seattle?"
My last tour. The penny was beginning to drop. "She's Christina Nott," whispers Kyle in my ear, "You know, the rock star." How could I not know this?
"I read about it," says the band leader. "But I never thought I'd get to hear it."
"Guys, it's Em-A-G-C-Em" he says, reducing one of Nirvana's greatest hits to a 5-note chord sequence.
The euphonium player picks up the bass notes Em-A-G-C, then Em-A-G-C again. Then Christina starts singing and picking at the Telecaster - she treats it as a performance and is doing some of the moves.
Load up on guns
Bring your friends
It's fun to lose
And to pretend
She's o-ver-bored
Self-assured
Oh no, I know a dirty word
Clare joins Christina at the microphone
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello
Then, to everyone's amusement - the band leader cuts in for the next verse, which he duets with Christina.
With the lights out
It's less dangerous
Here we are now
Entertain us
I feel stupid
And contagious
Here we are now
Entertain us
A mulatto
An albino
A mosquito
My libido
Yeah
Christina flips the controls on the guitar and goes loud. The euphonium answers back. This was a strange performance but kind of smokin!
The rest of the room was wrapt in the song. Amy looks as if she is about to explode with delight.
Clare picks up two table napkins which she uses as cheerleader pom poms.
Two more verses and choruses and the band brought the song into rest. Christina whoops a couple of yodels at the end.
Everyone claps everyone else. It has been a moment. I think Christina with the oompah band has just made the party. Christina is profusely thanking the band for letting her play with them. The guitarist is trying to get her to sign his Telecaster with a Sharpie.
Amy walks over to Matt. "How do you know her? She's fantastic!"
"Amy really enjoyed that," Matt says to Christina, "I think she has questions!"
Royal Mail has taken a nosedive.
We have one item due for express delivery over a week ago, which has become lost in their tracking system,. I've also been trying to send an item and have tried maybe 15 times now without success. It gets all the way to payment and with a variety of cards and techniques, it always fails. The site says it is up and running, but it clearly isn't.
And yes, I have sent plenty of parcels including with home collection without trouble in the past. This time it beggars belief.
Rolf explains about the test rig and the special hand-held controller. It was something that I'd already gleaned from Matt's description. I noticed Matt was not present at my briefings and I wondered if they had kept us apart by way of a 'control' test.
Juliette was only present for the first day and I'm pretty sure that was to keep me convinced I had made a good decision. The other two technicians were named Luc Klemm and Chloé Kammacher and both were native Swiss. They were both full-time Brant employees but both admitted they had both only worked in the facility for around three months. I sensed they knew the Lab protocol, but I wouldn't be able to get much additional information from them.
I ask Chloé, "So what do you know about the Cyclone?" It was about as open-ended as I could make it.
"Not much," she says, "Except that you will be trialling it for us."
"What about the other location?"
"What other location? Do you mean the place in Norway?" she answered, "I've never been to Bodø."
"No, I meant the other site here in Geneva?"
"No, I think this is the main one, right here, I've certainly never heard of another one."
I ask Luc the same questions and his replies were similar except he had some additional information about Bodø.
"It's got a really cool tidal current - the Saltstraumen. Before I started here, I was on a Brant research trip looking at wildlife inside the Arctic Circle and we travelled to Bodø. I saw a sea eagle there. Magnificent birds."
Fascinating, but not really helping with my current task. Except I realised Brant had another lab in Bodø. I had to look up Bodø one evening when I was back at the apartment. It is about two-thirds of the way 'up' Norway facing out to the North Sea.
I didn't really learn too much new during the week. The tests were about putting on the Cyclone and managing the contrôle de sécurité (safety controller). I wondered why they had called it that rather than, say, 'régulateur'.
Amy asks me about AI cases and persuades me to set up a 'persona' on the Brant system. It was a two part operation, one half to set up the characteristics of the AI, and the second part to create an Augmented Reality likeness.
There are some simple questions. Should it resemble a male or female form? What age? Then the inevitable form of the Persona. Its Presence. I fill in a few gaps. I decide to give it blue hair, to make it easily recognisable. I decide to ask it a series of questions to see how realistic its behaviour is. I name it Luka in the form of a female. I designate it as 'friend', but I notice it changes itself repeatedly to 'girlfriend'.
There was not much more to do. The process to create the AI had begun.
I'd forgotten that the bus doesn't run at the weekend, but the stop is by Geneva Bel-Air, which is a kind of transit interchange, so there were plenty of taxis around.
As I am driven to the Lab, I ponder the situation. It sounds straightforward enough. Put on the Cyclone and run some tests. Everyone else seems to be okay because of the tests and I've had Matt's account as well. The difference will be that this is the Cyclone 3. I just hope I can make it work.
I enter the Lab and see that Juliette Häberli is also present.
"Hi, Oliver," she says," I guess you are doing some homework? I believe Amy was giving you some new things to revise."
I realise Juliette must be in on what is happening. She looks as if she is involved in some kind of complicated test protocol. I walk towards her.
"Juliette, if you know about my situation, I'd like to ask you a few questions."
"Sure," she says, "But not here though."
She holds a small box towards me, and I realise she is gesturing to the Lab monitoring system. I make busy with the box, unplugging wires and then plugging them in again. To someone monitoring it will look as if I've just been assisting her.
"Read your files for a couple of hours, then we can leave here. I'll drive you," she whispers.
I move back to my area and sit at a screen reading the test reports form other Cyclone 3 users. It is consistent with Matt's description of the Cyclone 2 and no-one gets even close to a full speed interface. I decide that the tests I'll be running are probably doomed to failure. Mercifully, there don't appear to be any side effects either.
***
Juliette meets me in the lobby. Her car is already outside. She blips it as we walk over, speaking, "You know I'm studying the same disciplines as you? Theory of Mind and its applicability to Human Computer Interfaces."
I reply, "Not just theory of mind, but the susceptibility of the mind to modifiers. Like in those old US Army experiments with LSD. We need to know what could happen if the mind was influenced by a strong external force."
Juliette comments, "Yes but be careful you don't turn out to be the little boy in the cage. That's what happened to Dr. Van Murray Sim, the founder of Edgewood Arsenal - where the US experiment took place. Sim had the status of a minor military legend. The clinical research at Edgewood was conducted on soldier volunteers, recruited from around the country. Once Sim allowed self experiments he entered the chain of events that removed him from being the head of the laboratory. He was just a little boy in a cage."
I nod, "I agree it was a famous case. Even as Sim was being heralded before Congress, he was running a series of remarkable LSD experiments, designed to administer drugs to people who had no idea that they were getting them. But in this way, Sim helped guide the arsenal’s clinical research into the murky world of intelligence, interrogation, even torture. The work was given a special code name, Material Testing Program EA 1729, and kept secret at least until recent events. I'm concerned that Brant isn't on a similar course."
Juliette smiles, "Theory of Mind can be about the assessment of an individual human's capacity for empathy and understanding of others. One pattern of behaviour that is typically exhibited is being able to attribute—to another or oneself—mental states such as beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, and knowledge. That's why Matt was so shaken by the rat experiment."
I agree, "Yes, you are right. And I'm looking at whether machines can possess similar attributes, or whether those attributes in an organism can override a machine. By his account to me, Matt was overridden by the rat when it wanted to get to the food."
Juliette offers her opinion, "For a being or a machine, possessing a functional theory of mind is crucial for success in everyday human social interactions and used when analysing, judging, and inferring others' behaviours."
I shrugged, "It is more behavioural. The AIs designed at the moment mimic human responses but are easily led off course. You can confound them by simply changing topic. They don't remember context."
Juliette continued; she was still looking at me intently. "I agree the more primitive systems like ChatGPT and TensorFlow have this challenge. But layer in Theory of Mind and you can see differences. Brant has been using these ideas in Platoon Bravo and you'll see the systems pulling away."
She just mentioned the same secret group that Amy showed me. She must be an insider.
"But how do they show themselves?" I ask.
"It is still mainly scripted at present. There's been some attempts to make an Augmented Reality Bot but the real testing is of scripted interactions with an AI.
"You're telling me that Brant has made the AI work more convincingly than most of the stuff in the public domain?" I ask.
"Yes. If you start a conversation and then switch to something else, most conventional AI is confounded. It will jump to the new topic and forget the original one."
Juliette explains, "With Brant's Cognate system, which is a component of RightMind, then you can hold several contexts positioned at different points. A simple example would be discussing a cake recipe, how to fix a car tyre, discussing Shakespeare' Sonnets and having a heart-to-heart about whether to visit the in-laws next weekend."
"It can hold bookmarks for the progress on each separate dialogue?"
"Exactly. A regular AI handles one thing at a time. Usually to a depth of about five. It is still enough to convince most people that it is sentient."
"I've seen that. Just keep asking it why? And it will eventually forget what it is talking about and change the subject."
"Yes, the early versions used to send dubious photographs of themselves after about five or six levels. It was a way to distract the primarily male gaze."
We both laugh.
"Yes, I've seen that. So blatant!"
"But why is it limited to text-based interchange? Is it related to speed?"
"Exactly. The processing of the system is still running slow. We can't understand why an Exascale is reduced to a crawl and until we can fix it, then we can't move to the next stage."
I wonder whether to mention Matt's friend, but the Juliette does.
Saturday morning, around 10 o' clock and the Apartment entry phone rings. I go to the TV-access control and can see Amy van den Leiden standing outside. She holds up a bag, which I can see she has brought from the bakery. The good one near to our apartment block.
"Amy?" I say startled, "Come on up!"
I look around the room, which is mercifully tidy. The Batmaids came around yesterday and provided a full-service clean up, thanks to Aude.
I'd not been around much in-between and I'd even put my laundry away.
A couple of minutes later, Amy appears and I can see that she is carrying not just the patisseries but also a couple of cups of divine-smelling coffee in one of those pulp-paper trays.
"I remembered you take your coffee the same as me," she begins and sweeps into the kitchen area to put everything down.
"Er-welcome!" I say and look at this impromptu breakfast.
"I wanted to see you away from the office," she explains, "There is something I need to discuss. I didn't want the others to know I was making this arrangement."
That would explain the clandestine surprise, but I still don't know what it is.
"Oliver, we know you are a specialist in Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality. It is because of that we are asking you to do some tests for us. We have been testing the Cyclone 2 and its interfaces and making steady progress. Your colleague Matt Nicholson has been directly involved in the tests od C2 and his feedback is good. We think there will now be a way to link between a computer and a human interface. If so we will have achieved HCCI - Human to Computer to Computer Interfacing."
"I see, but if you are making progress, then how do I fit in?"
"You are the domain expert of AI and AR on our team. Frankly, you are also younger than Rolf and Schmiddi. That applies to brain plasticity."
"Yes but neuroplasticity peaks at five years old and by twenty-five, the typical brain has become rather set in its ways," I explain.
"I partially agree," says Amy, "But in your case, there is continued growth. We noticed it when we ran the tests during your induction to Brant. It means you are ideally placed to assist us with the Cyclone 3 testing. Don't worry, it is still non-intrusive, but means we are layering in two different technologies. It is the most advanced Cyclone variant here and way ahead of anything else disclosed in the Literature."
She was referring to the huge body of scientific papers around AI and brain research.
"The thing is, we have already been testing the Cyclone 3, and we can see hw it works but we need to 'send someone in' who can self-diagnose the current issues around performance."
I wondered if I should let on that I knew the Cyclone 2 was too darn slow, based upon what Matt had told me, but I decided it was better to keep quiet about it. Anyway, if what Matt says was true then his buddy would be along soon to try to speed things up and this problem may go away of its own volition.
Amy continues, "There is something else I want to tell you about." She pauses, "This part is sensitive and deeply confidential. I shoulder remind you that you signed a series of confidentiality agreements during your enrolment."
I'm wondering what comes next.
"We have a facility where we hold a group of volunteers. They are all ex militia and have come to us of their own free will. They still get the same pay that they would in the military, but are assured that they will not be placed in harm's way. They are called Platoon Bravo "
"So are they guinea pigs? For Cyclone 3?" I ask.
"Yes, Oliver, you are correct. We have around 35 people enlisted into our special group. It's about the same size as a platoon and run by a lieutenant then further divided into sections, squads and teams, with corresponding control structures. I was planning to take you to see them today. My car is in the car park."
"Okay, I take it they are on the campus somewhere?"
"They are, but discreetly hidden away in a quiet corner and in accommodation which looks like regular housing. Behind the row of neat housing is what can only be described as a building site. I'd say it was messy by Swiss standards, with diggers, concrete pipes, metal skips, trenches and semi-demolished houses. Incongruously, a couple of tanks are also parked in the area.
"It's a practice zone," explains Amy.
"For what?" I ask, "World War Three?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes," answers Amy.
We pull up outside a small shop. Amy leads the way.
We enter, and she takes me to the back, where there is an elevator. We step inside and she presses the button. It takes us down. I realise we are going underground.
The doors open, and we are in a spacious corridor. She turns left and we walk toward some steel doors. She flips an electronic key from around her neck and we enter through the doors.
Nothing could have prepared me for the sight. A brightly-lit aircraft-hanger-sized space, with a machined stainless steel floor. Varied military hardware spread around as well as regular cars, vans and trucks. There was also an intense scurrying of workers, mostly dressed in military uniforms.
"This is where the magic happens," starts Amy.
"These people have all been processed by Cyclone 3. They still wear the Cyclone 3 helmets, which give upon them certain extra skills."
"Bit I thought you said the Cyclone 3 interface was too slow to be effective?"
"That would be astute of you, but I guess you picked that information up from someone else, maybe Rolf or even Matt?"
I remember it was Matt that had told me - during our quiet lunch together.
"Monday we will want you to trial the Cyclone 3, and to see if you can work out why it is underperforming. I brought you here today to show you that these people have undergone Cyclone 3 trials and are still fully functional!"
"So why are you keeping them in this special area?
She looks at me earnestly, "We want to isolate them for a long period, maybe one year during which we can be pretty sure that they will not be spied upon by anyone else. They have been given a mission here. They are building a habitable recreation of the Mars surface."
"But it's a decoy mission?" I ask.
She nods, "Yes, they need to have something to keep themselves occupied along with a common goal. Mars is it. Between you and me, I think Jupiter's moons are a more useful target, but they are too far away to consider at present."
"Okay, say I'm in? What happens?"
"First you get a large bonus payment, paid immediately to a bank of your choosing. Then, in eight weeks, you will received a further bonus if you stay in the program. Your option to continue on similar terms occurs after every eight weeks."
"Is it the same for the people already here?"
"Not exactly. They have annual renewal options. You are a special case. We can tidy the paperwork and make the first payment tomorrow. I don't need to remind you of the confidentiality of this?"
"Let's shake. Agreed," I say.
I'll include:
