[Teralogos News] Interview with a Thinker

[dlpulver@sjgames.com]

Interview with a Thinker

LAMMERGEYER STATION, LEO/Teralogos	July 7, 2101    
    
Shortly after I arrived on Lammergeyer Station in LEO, the admin AI called with an invitation to visit Eilard Gamma at home. This was good; Eilard seemed to be one of the more interesting of the Vacuum Cleaners, and I wanted to talk to him. I'd heard he could be rather difficult, but his orbital salvage ship, the Tangente, was in dock for the next few days, and evidently he was interested by the message I'd sent him.    
   
So I found myself in front of an elegant, slightly run-down Parisian-style villa, standing in gardens full of dark evergreen shrubs and bronze statues. My virtual interface's database told me that they were all by Auguste Rodin - the Kiss to my left, the Burghers of Calais to my right. It was impressive, if you like that sort of thing. Me, I'm more of a Neo-Abstractionist fan.    
    
I entered the house, and found another statue in the middle of the central hall. I didn't need a database to label this seated figure, chin on hand.    
    
Then the Thinker looked up, and that verdigris-green face smiled. "Mr. Velasquez," he said, "what do you think of my home?"    
    
"Very handsome," I answered, "but why Victorian sculpture?"    
    
He shrugged and stood up. (The muscles moved smoothly but naturally under his metal skin, without ever losing the sculpted effect. Good programming.) "A matter of physiology and psychology," he said. "Rodin understood instinctively how the elements of human anatomy express what's going on in the mind inside. I've learned a lot about humanity from him, and this is my tribute. It's a copy of his house, actually. Please, though - come and sit down."    
    
It turned out that one of the side rooms was set up for visitors, and Eilard sat with incongruous delicacy on one of the slender wooden chairs, and let his face slip back to pensiveness as I sipped virtual coffee (lethally strong and black). "So," he said after a moment, "why did you want to talk to me?"    
    
"It struck me that you might have an interesting opinion on a question I'm supposed to be answering" I replied.    
    
"Which is?"    
    
"Do you salvage specialists have a distinct sub-culture. That is, is there a Vacuum Cleaner meme?"    
    
For a moment, that bronze face remained a mask. Then, Eilard threw back his head and roared with laughter. Just as quickly, he stopped. "Me?" he said, "Because I'm an AI, you mean?"    
    
"Partly" I said. "And you're relatively new up here. You may have more impartial insights."    
    
He smiled again. "You want to know why my fellow salvagers and debris blasters are so evasive on this subject?" he asked. I nodded. "It's not that they're worried about memetic warfare, or because they are becoming estranged from other subcultures, or because they have any sort of phobia. It's because it would spoil the joke, Mr. Velasquez."    
    
Before I could ask more, he suddenly looked past me, back into the hall. "I'm afraid we'll have to continue this conversation later," he said. "My crewmates wish to talk about work."    
    
Following his gaze, I saw that there were now three other people in the virtual house, their images flickering in that annoying low-res way . . .    
    
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- filed by Phil Masters