• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
  • Showing only topics with the tag "original content". Back to normal view
    1. miele.

      for those keeping track, this title's in italian, not afrikaans. normally don't "summer" kind of stuff, but as always, i just write what's on my mind once the liquor hits. hope you all enjoy.<3...

      for those keeping track, this title's in italian, not afrikaans.

      normally don't "summer" kind of stuff, but as always, i just write what's on my mind once the liquor hits.

      hope you all enjoy.<3

      much love

      bishop


      sometimes I need a bubble bath.
      ginger ale, vodka splash
      couple friends, a couple grams
      electronic cigarettes.
      bath bomb with the glitter in
      free pass to commit a sin
      babygirl let's dive in.
      bet we won't even remember it.

      standing at the precipice
      not a lot of trust to give
      broken down, a sad kid
      you're steady in the madness
      babygirl I feel it happening
      tension slipping kinda rapid
      cold beers and a hot kiss
      forbidden peach, like genesis

      i write music
      to sin to.
      baby let me
      sing with you
      sigh the notes, we
      can sing tunes
      you're the nectar
      the gods knew
      i write music
      to sin to.
      baby let me
      sing with you
      sigh the notes, we
      can sing tunes
      you're the nectar
      the gods knew

      (beat.)

      nicotine and a lotta weed
      open up a new side of me
      one that wanna see you smiling
      fuck what your other man think
      two friends in a summer fling
      you bite your lip when you kiss me
      's why you always invite me,
      when you're home and feel lonely.

      Want my music to go hard,
      Sing for my friends in the dark,
      Get to drunk to remember,
      The bullshit feeling sad part

      sometimes I need a bubble bath.
      ginger ale, vodka splash
      couple friends, a couple grams
      electronic cigarettes.
      bath bomb with the glitter in
      free pass to commit a sin
      babygirl let's dive in.
      bet we won't even remember it.

      3 votes
    2. A layperson's introduction to spintronics

      Introduction and motivation In an effort to get more content on Tildes, I want to try and give an introduction on several 'hot topics' in semiconductor physics at a level understandable to...

      Introduction and motivation

      In an effort to get more content on Tildes, I want to try and give an introduction on several 'hot topics' in semiconductor physics at a level understandable to laypeople (high school level physics background). Making physics accessible to laypeople is a much discussed topic at universities. It can be very hard to translate the professional terms into a language understandable by people outside the field. So I will take this opportunity to challenge myself to (hopefully) create an understandable introduction to interesting topics in modern physics. To this end, I will take liberties in explaining things, and not always go for full scientific accuracy, while hopefully still getting the core concepts across. If a more in-depth explanation is wanted, please ask in the comments and I will do my best to answer.

      Today's topic

      I will start this series with an introduction to spintronics and spin transistors.

      What is spintronics?

      Spintronics is named in analogy to electronics. In electronics, the flow of current (consisting of electrons) is studied. Each electron has an electric charge, and by pulling at this charge we can move electrons through wires, transistors, creating modern electronics. Spintronics also studies the flow of electrons, but it uses another property of the electrons, spin, to create new kinds of transistors.

      What are transistors?

      Transistors are small electronic devices that act as an on-off switch for current. We can flip this on-off switch by sending a signal to the transistor, so that the current will flow. Transistors are the basis for all computers and as such are used very widely in modern life.

      What is spin?

      Spin arises from quantum mechanics. However, for the purpose of explaining spin transistors we can think of an electron's spin as a bar magnet. Each electron can be thought of as a bar magnet that will align itself to a nearby magnetic field. Think of it as a compass (the electron) aligning itself to a fridge magnet when it's held near the compass.

      What are spin transistors and how do they work?

      Spin transistors are a type of transistor whose on-off switch is created by magnets. We take two bar magnets, whose north poles are pointed in the same way, and put them next to each other, leaving a small gap between them. This gap is filled with a material through which the electrons can move. Now we connect wires to the big bar magnets and let current (electrons!) flow through both magnets, via the gap. When the electrons go through the first magnet, their internal magnets will align themselves to the big bar magnet. However, once they are in the gap the electrons' internal magnets will start rotating and no longer point in the same direction as the big bar magnets. So that when the electrons arrive at the second magnet, they will be repelled just like when you try to push the north poles of two magnets together. This means the current will not flow, and the device is off! So, how do we get it to turn on?

      By exposing the gap to an electric field, we can control the amount of rotation the electrons experience (this is called the Rashba effect). If we change the strength of this electric field so that the electrons will make exactly one full rotation while crossing the gap, then by the time they reach the second big bar magnet they will once again be pointing in the right direction. Now the electrons are able to move through the second big bar magnet, and out its other end. So by turning this electric field on, the spin transistor will let current flow, and if we turn the electric field off, no current will flow. We have created an on-off switch using magnets and spin!

      That's cool, but why go through the effort of doing this when we have perfectly fine electronics already?

      The process of switching between the on and off states of these spin transistors is a lot more energy efficient than with regular transistors. These types of transistors leak a lot less too. Normal transistors will leak, meaning that a small amount of current will go through even when the transistor is off. With spin transistors, this leak is a lot smaller. This once again improves the energy efficiency of these devices. So in short, spin transistors will make your computer more energy efficient. This type of transistor can also be made smaller than normal transistors, which leads to more powerful computers.

      Feedback and interest

      As I mentioned, I wrote this post as a challenge to myself to explain modern physics to laypeople. Please let me know where I succeeded and where I failed. Also let me know if you like this type of content and if I should continue posting other similar topics in the same format.

      37 votes
    3. traan.

      fuck anybody who says my shit isn't cultured. sorry if my language isn't okay on the site. v drunk at the moment here it goes anyway enjoy. or don't i guess, either way. j'en veux plus exister...

      fuck anybody who says my shit isn't cultured.

      sorry if my language isn't okay on the site.

      v drunk at the moment

      here it goes anyway

      enjoy.

      or don't i guess,

      either way.


      j'en veux plus
      exister
      içi.

      c'est impossible
      à dormir
      depuis

      février quand
      t'étais
      parti

      la bouteille
      à remplacé
      therapie

      Tu m'as
      donné pas de
      sympathie

      c'est parce'que
      toi que je
      ecris

      tous les chansons
      qui parle'd
      mourir

      ouais c'est
      vrai q'je rêve
      d'suicide

      Je plonge
      dans l'alcool
      comme piscine

      Daily still
      wonder if
      you miss me

      Daddy still
      gonna miss
      his baby

      I really miss
      the way you'd
      reassure me

      comme

      "Oauis, papa
      c'est que tout va-t-
      allez bien

      Non, monsieur,
      tu ne mourras pas
      cette semaine.

      Je vais, faire
      sûr que je prends
      soin de toi

      I will love you,
      cross my heart and
      swear to God. "

      "Oauis, papa
      c'est que tout va-t-
      allez bien

      Non, monsieur,
      tu ne mourras pas
      cette semaine.

      Je vais, faire
      sûr que je prends
      soin de toi

      I will love you,
      cross my heart and
      swear to God. "

      J'en veux plus
      exister
      sans toi

      Je m'ai demandé
      chaque nuit
      pourquoi?

      Tu m'as laiseé
      completement
      pantois

      Je'm sens
      maintenant
      trop inadéquat

      Would you like me
      better if I had
      some photoshop

      Would you come to
      visit if my breathing
      ever stopped

      Better yet, I
      wonder if I'd rather
      have you not

      I just wish I had
      some truth before
      I fade to black

      ouais, monsieur.

      tu ne mourras pas
      cette semaine

      6 votes
    4. koeël.

      been sitting on two of these most of the day, might be a little messy. i feel like it's a little stale since i left it waiting, and i'm significantly more sober than when i usually write. as...

      been sitting on two of these most of the day, might be a little messy.

      i feel like it's a little stale since i left it waiting, and i'm significantly more sober than when i usually write.

      as always, comments welcome. or ignore this entirely if you're not feeling it<3

      bless.

      bishop


      also this one gets somewhat graphic, gonna start leaving these trigger warnings up top - drugs, alcohol, suicide, covers it i think, let me know if i should add anything else


      been smoking and drinking
      just so i can cope
      gave her the ring
      she put me on the ropes
      new girl show up but
      i don't got no hope
      my heart is still sinking
      i'm trying to float like

      Gretel, baby, where did you go?
      no crumbs left I can throw
      Hansel in the forest alone
      put me out of house and my home
      hands full of green and some blow
      no drinks left but the coke
      she's laughing now - am I the joke?
      turned my heartthrob into a stroke -

      your bedside's left wide
      open to the moonlight
      head high, red eye
      stranded on the roadside
      you kissed, i cried,
      while i watched papaw die
      No sleep, four nights
      you told me it's alright
      helped me keep my head high
      helped me say my goodbyes
      then you hit me blindside
      didn't get a goodbye

      peace, bye, next flight,
      right into his arms like
      you've been biding time,
      waiting for the day to strike me

      down.

      down.

      down.

      Left me tied strapped to the bed
      Headphones looping what you said
      Promises we could stay friends.
      Cool ones pour down my head
      I know the river Styx runs red
      Little siren told me "Baby, dive in"
      Closed eyes, woke up dead.
      Didn't know God's a raven.

      Now you got your Raybans
      and your black Timbs
      Got your new Amex,
      one in the black print
      Hope it was worth it
      on your conscience
      that you lied through your teeth
      and he fucking lost it

      costless

      Must be nice right?
      If it's not on the bill
      it don't have a price
      Fuck being nice,
      Fuck doing what's right,
      What's another sad white
      boy taking his life?

      Masochistic statistic
      when his legs kick
      Fuck vacation,
      Miami,
      Fuck a new chick
      Cool one rain straight
      to the forehead
      Gorgeous.
      One less problem
      to deal with. Lord, yes.

      Gretel, baby, where did you go?
      no crumbs left I can throw
      Hansel in the forest alone
      put me out of house and my home
      hands full of green and some blow
      no drinks left but the coke
      she's laughing now - am I the joke?
      turned my heartthrob into a stroke -

      4 votes
    5. kraai.

      hi there. before you read this, it's another one of my shitty sad poem/lyrics doohickeys. i generally just post these up here as a way to vent, clear my head when i cant sleep. if you're alright...

      hi there.

      before you read this, it's another one of my shitty sad poem/lyrics doohickeys.

      i generally just post these up here as a way to vent, clear my head when i cant sleep.

      if you're alright with sad stuff, feel free to read along. if not, that's cool too. just wanted to give a heads up in case there's stuff on your mind you're trying not to think about.

      anyways,

      thanks for stopping by,

      bishop.


      i just want to sip
      four bottles of wine
      fall asleep in the bath
      pray to god that i die
      summer's on hold
      only winter in the night
      i only felt right
      when i was by your side

      been in my head so
      long that i lost my mind.
      running little low on
      words, because you never write

      cant get to sleep until 4am
      nothing feels home like an angry bed
      cant find a shoulder to lay my head,
      missing warm lips and your icy legs.

      trying real hard not to fuck with meds.
      goddamn hard not to fuck with meds.
      can't get the picture out of my head
      of you in my bed so i guess instead

      i just want to sip
      four bottles of wine
      fall asleep in the bath
      pray to god that i die
      summer's on hold
      only winter in the night
      i only felt right
      when i was by your side
      hard to want to try if you
      don't want to be alive
      only crashing hard now
      because you made me feel high
      in a week you were gone,
      couldn't get a kiss bye
      bled your name out of my arm
      once upon a midnight

      can't stop looking at
      your shadow on my bedside
      all the worst demons
      are the ones we have inside
      splashing turned to drowning in
      the ocean of her blue eyes
      x on the map,
      wherefore does her love lie
      Nyctophobic and you
      took my dog and my flashlight
      Guess I didn't know that
      certain spiders can spin lies
      diamonds in midnight
      can try, but still won't shine
      cant turn it down, honey,
      do you hear a loud cry?

      (

      beat. sip some tea.

      )

      if the whole world's upside
      down, can you stand upright?
      guess this is the toll for
      the road less traveled by
      caught in the valley of the
      dark - ride, baby, ride
      make me feel high and
      you can hurt me until i die

      i just want to sip
      four bottles of wine
      fall asleep in the bath
      pray to god that i die
      summer's on hold
      only winter in the night
      i only felt right
      when i was by your side
      hard to want to try if you
      don't want to be alive
      only crashing hard now
      because you made me feel high
      in a week you were gone,
      couldn't get a kiss bye
      never heard that sound before,
      do you hear a loud cry?

      10 votes
    6. Winter poem

      A little pretext. I wrote this poem in november 2017, and I slightly improved it today. I enjoy creating stories and poems are a way that I did not try much before. I don't know much about it,...

      A little pretext. I wrote this poem in november 2017, and I slightly improved it today. I enjoy creating stories and poems are a way that I did not try much before. I don't know much about it, except the few things I learned in school and i can't remember most of it. Also english is my second language and there might be some words that don't fit in.
      The changes in lines and rythm are intended to match the story.
      If this does not meet the high-quality content and discussion and therefore doesn't fit in with ~, let me know and I will remove it.

      To stop my rambling: Feel free to leave criticism. I plan to make poetry my hobby so any tips, comments, feedback and thoughts are appreciated.

      Somewhere,
      deep in the wild
      Layed there,
      Cold a little child.
      
      It wasn't very long ago,
      The rotten did not show,
      All consuming deafening silence,
      Pierced only by crows crying violent.
      
      What happened here?
      She ran from fear.
      To escape the grasp,
      Of the ones she hold dear.
      
      One soul has passed before her,
      Taking with his life,
      The only thing she ever strived
      Her mother, father and her brother
      Two of these caused the disaster.
      
      It began with a fight,
      In a cold winter night,
      Snow falling lightly,
      And the ice growing wildly.
      
      Suddenly the moment
      when all seemed to fly
      Death was potent
      Coming in the blink of an eye.
      
      Crushed by the car's roof,
      Not needing any more proof.
      The little boy left,
      She cried over his death
      
      Sad things passed
      and bad will follow.
      To escape the sorrow
      Two chose their paths
      
      Alcohol in mornings and nights,
      Followed by overbearing fights,
      Inbetween this shit
      Was one little kid
      
      Treated like air,
      It was just not fair
      Her family's break,
      Was the last thing she could take
      
      She ran into the woods,
      Only on foot.
      Soon she lost her trail
      And soon after she wailed.
      
      In her last thoughts
      she met her god.
      Looked him deep in the eye
      And pierced him with a knive
      
      Somewhere,
      deep in the wild
      Layed there,
      Cold a little child.
      
      

      Edit: Formatting mistakes

      17 votes
    7. Burmese School Girls ~2012

      This is a photo I took in rural Myanmar October of 2012. We were on a group trek from the city of Kalaw to Inle Lake. We stopped at a school in one of the rural towns to meet the kids and donate...

      This is a photo I took in rural Myanmar October of 2012. We were on a group trek from the city of Kalaw to Inle Lake. We stopped at a school in one of the rural towns to meet the kids and donate supplies. We arrived during their school day but their teacher allowed us 30 minutes to an hour (can't remember) to play with and talk to the kids. It was an absolute blast, the kids were full of energy and opened up to the group quickly.

      The school was a single room school house where all ages study together. The teacher for this school was young and from another city/town/village. We were told that the community provided her food and shelter in trade for her teaching the kids. If money was required for something, maybe transportation back home, they would come together to help. I do not know the ethnicity of the community or kids, other than Burmese.

      Please critique the above write up, both grammatically and content wise, and help me with suggestions of titles. I severely lack in title creativity/ability.

      11 votes
    8. Speedart for June 5th to the 12th

      Okay, it's been a little while since the last speedart thread, but I think we are ready for another one! All the same rules apply. Remember, the purpose of this thread is not necessarily to create...

      Okay, it's been a little while since the last speedart thread, but I think we are ready for another one! All the same rules apply.

      Remember, the purpose of this thread is not necessarily to create a masterpiece, but to encourage people to dedicate some time each week to improve their art as well as providing critique and support. Thus this thread is open to all either as constructive critics and/or artists!

      There is no official theme, but if you are looking for inspiration checkout this month's Pictures of the Day over at Wikipedia Commons.

      Now grab your materials, set a timelimit, and get creative!

      8 votes
    9. Skeleton of Dreams - Prologue

      Author's note: I posted this a couple days ago in @Kat's WIP thread, but I felt it was a little too tough of an ask to put there. This is probably going to take a more serious time commitment to...

      Author's note: I posted this a couple days ago in @Kat's WIP thread, but I felt it was a little too tough of an ask to put there. This is probably going to take a more serious time commitment to review than the average submission, so I want to make sure everyone knows what they're getting into (such as through that nifty word count that will appear in the thread title). To that end, let me lay out some context so you're more grounded as to what this is, where I came from, and how serious I am about it.

      For starters, I wrote this as part of a complete manuscript (about 63k words total) over a couple months late last year on a challenge from a friend. Liking the direction it was going, I then spent much of the early part of this year fixing and tweaking and revising because it turned out I liked it so much I decided to plan out three more independent stories set after this one.

      So what is this? This is a first-person science fiction story of a test subject within an ongoing science experiment. It is set in not-too-distant future, 60-80 years give or take--I didn't want to be too specific for World Building Reasons. The nature of that experiment is unknown to the subject. I need to work on my blurbs.

      What type of feedback am I looking for? Any you're comfortable giving, and I've got a very thick skin (many calluses from toxic league of legends players, I'd joke if it weren't true). This is the fourth-or-so draft and I could use fresh eyes on the little things. I also highly value emotional feedback, like what something is making you feel, whether you found something upsetting or funny or confusing. This is an unreliable narrator, so there should bit of each. Endgame-wise, I am probably going to look to publish this somewhere somehow, but I want to make sure that I'm not barking up the wrong tree before putting too much more energy into this.

      If this isn't a great format for this sort of work (and I get it. This text is twelve pages on a good day), I am open to suggestions on how it might be easier to consume and respond. I've used my markdown wizardry to mimic the format of my word doc, which I'm not planning on uploading directly. So please forgive weird formatting things like inconsistent italics. I tried to catch them all, but it's like playing a game of whack a mole over here.


      Editor's note: The following text came to us within encrypted song files in specific order. We were also provided an executable file that decrypted the text so that we could publish it. The relationship between these songs and the narrative is often not clear. To allow readers the opportunity to judge any potential relationship for themselves, we have titled each bit of text with the correct song file it was encrypted within. The order was preserved.


      Prologue

      "Yesterday”.FLAC

      I'm not breathing. I'm dead. Is this hell? Heaven? I’m in a white room with Adam and Eve in white robes as the gatekeepers. Why is the room tilted? It’s not a hospital; it’s far too dirty. Will I recognize anyone? Am I dressed for heaven? The grime makes me think maybe this hell. That’s the breaks then, huh. But why would demons be in lab coats? And what are those tops? Is that a scarf? Indoors?

      Oh shit, they're staring at me.

      Hi. Am I dead? Did I say that? Can I speak? I can’t breathe.

      They looked at each other. Did I say anything? Maybe I'm not dead. But I'm not breathing. I’m not just not breathing, but I can’t breathe. I don't feel like I can move. Why can’t I breathe?

      Holy shit, I don't have any legs. My arms aren't mine. They're someone else's. Some hairy darker bastard too. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. What the fuck is happening?

      You're not dead, but you did die. That has all the clarity of a Taoist monk. I think the woman said it. She stepped forward a little bit and tilted her head to the side with some mouth flapping to match the words. Did I really hear it? How can I not be dead? Whatever happened in America froze you. Like, we talking cryogenics frozen? Disney movie Frozen? The Iceman cometh frozen? Even frozen people should be able to breathe, right? They needed to replace my arms? What was wrong with my old arms if I was frozen to death? You’re in a new body. Those arms are yours now.

      Yeah, the woman has to have said some of that. She started leaning in during the mouth-flapping like she was talking to a child. Now she’s straight as a country boy at church. I’m going to have to track her specifically. This is tedious.

      Asian woman. If you can hear this: sorry, I’m new here.

      “My name is Nadia, not ‘Asian woman.’ Can you tell us your name?” She glanced back to the man before looking back at me, with her hands clasped like she was pleading. Do I need to be pleaded with? She put her hands back to her sides. Where am I?

      “You’re in Istanbul.” That’s not Nadia. Her mouth didn’t flap. I think it’s a voice, and I think it’s the man’s, but I couldn’t see him flap. Nadia was blocking the view. I think she’s like two feet away or something. Just out of arm's reach, but close enough that I can’t see the man anymore. Now she’s backed away. Why does she do that? The timing is weird.

      So I'm in Istanbul. My legs are gone. My arms are fake and way super hairy. I'm not breathing, but I'm not dead, though I did die. I felt my eyes roll. I guess you two did something to me then.

      “Well,” This is the other voice. Now that Nadia has backed away I can see the man’s mouth flapping, but he’s barely doing anything else. Not even a simple hand-gesture. I thought he was just wallpaper. Breathing wallpaper. Or is it mine? Maybe mine is the mouth that’s flapping.

      “The frozen you died, but your brain was intact and incredibly well-preserved by whatever happened. We transferred the data that your brain contained into an android unit we designed for this purpose, and here you are." Yep, not mine. It’s got to be the dude, especially because he did a weird, body-length bobblehead bounce the entire time that voice was happening. Wait--

      “You designed an android not to have any legs?” I heard that one. That’s me. Okay, I'm getting better at this. That explains the breathing, I think. It at least explains the arms. I'm not dead, but I'm also not alive. This is fun. I'm having fun. “So what did you do to me and how the fuck did I get to Istanbul?”

      Whatever script these two had, I'm sure I've deviated from it. They're spending a lot more time looking at each other in silence than mouth-flapping. Okay. Fake-breath. What didn't I notice? The recorder is a little black thing on a little spot at the bottom of the mirror. Oh, I'm laid on this weird chair thing that has me positioned to look across the room. That’s why everything at an angle, I guess. Well, let’s just get off of that. I can just lean against this wall. It’s drywall, but that’s fine so long as I’m not throwing myself at it. I’ll have to lean because my ass is rounded with holes where legs should be. If I imagined legs there, I’d probably look like I have a nice ass.

      The room looks like a room you use to interrogate someone mixed with a kid’s idea of wall-design. The wall behind me and to my left are drywall, looks like. The opposite wall with the door and the wall to my right with a mirror are concrete. Not even brick, like just solid concrete. I didn’t even realize that was still code. If this is a hospital, I’m reporting a lot of code violations. This place looks like a pigsty, one that not even the hired help cleans up. Though, that might just be those concrete walls. I’m especially complaining about the lack of legs.

      "We felt it was a safety risk to give you legs." Safety risk? Safety for whom? I can’t breathe. Who is this guy anyway? "I'm Mehmet."

      "Wait, how did you hear that? Have I been saying everything?" I'd rather have a little privacy at some points, you know?

      "Well, you haven't exactly been silent." Huh. That's going to be a problem.

      "You should be able to create a subroutine for the thoughts you want to save without speaking." Nadia to the rescue, but how would I do--oh, I see. That's new.

      Let's restart this, then.


      "Mr. Roboto".FLAC

      Goooooooooood morning, subconscious! WELCOME TO THE FUTURE! Cue audience applause and cheers. I'm your host, Mr. Android! As you know, we’ve been off the air for a while. There’s a lot to catch up on. That’s why we’re bringing in two special guests to help reintroduce us to the anxiety of life: Mehmet and Nadia! We got a great show for you tonight, so stay tuned because you have no choice anyway.

      Before the break, Mehmet, you were saying that you felt it was a safety risk to give us legs?

      "That's right, Mr. Android. The design team and I thought that if you had legs, you'd be likely to use them.”

      You’re damn right. Cue audience laughter. What’s wrong with using legs?

      “If you had that mobility, we don’t know what you’d use it for. You could do anything a normal person could do, even walk right on out of this building.”

      I presume you wouldn’t like it if I walked out right now. What if I just wanted a coffee from our proud sponsor: BB's Coffee™?

      "First, don’t drink coffee. Don’t drink anything. That mouth wasn’t designed for drinking."

      We’ll see about that. Cue audience laughter.

      “Second, we need you not to walk out because we’re trying to monitor you to make sure you’re safe, as well as try to figure out what happened around your death.”

      We'll have to come back to that, Mehmet. First, tell us a little bit about yourself.

      "Sure. I was born and raised here in Turkey, but my grandparents were studying tornadoes in Oklahoma when everything went down."

      Your grandparents? How long ago are we talking about here?

      “It’s been a bit more than a half-century.”

      Alright, what is ‘everything’ and how did it impact your grandma?

      "Well, whatever happened to kill you. No one is really sure what caused the incident to happen. The best we could make of it at the time is that there was a large eruption near America's capital, and after that almost the entire east coast was some form of an infected mess. People who didn't die immediately had their immune systems too compromised to handle any other serious illness. That killed most of them within a few years." A moment of silence fell on the stage.

      How bad was the devastation?

      "Most of the coast was gone. Flights were stopped by the US almost immediately, so people in those areas were stranded. One flight got out to Montreal and it wiped out nearly a quarter of the city’s population. Cities along in the infected area lost an average of 75% of their population within a couple weeks.”

      How far did it get?

      “Atlanta was the northernmost city along the coast to weather the outbreak. A well-timed storm system kept the illness from spreading further west than it did. The mountains usually marked the furthest west it got. People who flew from those areas in the moments before the quarantine were tracked down and quarantined forcibly.”

      Did anyone come to help?

      “Sure, if a vulture helps a corpse.” Cue audience laughter. Audience might not laugh. “No one dared try to go near the infected areas, but Mexico declared a relief effort. That really was an attempt to annex most of the west and Great Plains under what it considered its historic claim to the land. The locals did not see things the same way. It turned into a classic occupation situation. They were resisted.”

      So Texas is the new Palestine? Or would Crimea be a better analogy? What did your grandparents do?

      “It was something like that. My grandparents just wanted to keep studying meteorology. There really wasn't a place in the United States safe enough to do that anymore. They applied for refugee status in Turkey and moved here. From there, they had a typical immigrant story. They earned enough money to start a restaurant and set their children up with a good education to be successful in Turkish society." Cue audience awe and applause.

      Fascinating stuff. Nadia, it's your turn. Tell us a little about yourself.

      "Well, I'm from Saudi Arabia. My parents were in California until about a decade before I was born. My mother was German-American, from Oregon. My dad was second generation Chinese-American, Californian born.”

      California was impacted by the incident?

      “Indirectly. After the incident, California tried to maintain some semblance of normalcy, but there were too many other nations that wanted to claim California for it to keep that dream alive for long. Russia, Canada, Japan, China, and Mexico each fought the other and the Californian government as they tried to claim it for their own.”

      So they were the prettiest gal at the ball. Cue audience laughter. How did they deal with that sort of peer pressure?

      “California had to start a mandatory draft program to keep up with the military needs of the new environment. Every citizen was theoretically part of the military’s reserves. After a few decades of near constant skirmishing at sea and especially in the north where most of the invading forces fought, California was out of resources and friends and collapsed after a military coup. Turns out if you can’t pay the active service personnel, you can’t keep a country.”

      Intense. How do your parents fit into that?

      “My parents saw the writing on the wall and applied for visas to work and live in Saudi Arabia a few years before the government collapsed. Saudi Arabia’s requirement for immigrants were twofold: it has to be a family and the man has to be educated, so here I am." Cue audience applause.

      That's wild. Turkey and Saudi Arabia are refuges for the educated for more than two generations. How much more than a half century are we even talking here? I feel like a Twinkie from a time capsule. Cue audience laughter.

      “It’s been about 60 years.”

      You heard right, subconscious. We've been dead and 'incredibly well-preserved' for about 60 years. Everyone you knew is probably dead. Everything you know doesn’t matter. Your parents are statistically 99.99% certain to be dead even if they did survive and were outside the zone impacted. You're a man out of time. Are you even really a man anymore? Oh well, at least you don't have to put up with that breathing nonsense anymore, right? That sure was a drag*.*

      Tune in next time for an interview with Toto. What is the matter with Kansas? Find out what Dorothy's breath smelled like as we ask Toto about his upcoming tell-all biography: Help, I'm A Dog And My Owner Takes Me On Tornado Rides.


      "Clint Eastwood".FLAC

      Oh good. There's a way to combine these tracking subroutines with living in the present. Now I don’t have to live in mortal fear of every errant thought becoming vocalized.

      "Thanks, Nadia. That was very helpful." I’m a bit surprised about how my voice sounds. It’s tinny and higher pitched than my voice. Almost nasally too, but that doesn’t make any sense. There’s no nasal cavity for this voice to work through, right? There is no booming echo that I’m used to feeling when I talk. I have a strange confidence that I hear my words exactly as they sound, with no perspectival shift involved as the one saying them. No sense in telling them about that. I don’t even know for sure what we’ve been talking about.

      I can tell that they've started to ease up. Nadia’s doing less of that leaning-to-the-children thing and Mehmet’s shoulders aren’t as far back as it’s humanly possible to bend them. He almost looks relaxed now. The bobblehead days might be behind us. Still, I think their increased comfort is more because I was off in that other subroutine most of that time. It feels like coming out of a blackout. Damn I'm going to miss alcohol.

      "You're welcome, but a lot has happened in 60 years that we should get you caught up on." Oh, we've moved on. I thought I was just making all that up. I guess not. Weird. She’s hovering near the recorder like she turned it on recently. Or maybe turned it off? That wouldn’t make any sense though.

      "You know what, Nadia. I think that's a lot to soak in. Unless there are more subroutines that help me process stuff like world events or that give me some newspaper articles or stuff from the past 60 years or something, I think I'm okay moving on from that for now. It's more interesting to me to talk about why you've revived me and what it is you're hoping to get here."

      "Are you sure? I made a presentation for you outlining the biggest trends and current ongoing conflicts around the world." This woman is a nerd. I like it, but damn. Calm down. I hope she didn’t make any spreadsheets. For her sake.

      Speaking of calming down, I should probably take a moment myself. Let’s see. The room isn’t nearly as white as I thought. I should have been either dead or in a hospital. This place doesn’t make sense. These people don’t make any sense. They’re not in any lab uniforms I’ve seen. They look rather like they’re about to go clubbing.

      Nadia is average height. She looks like she's in her late twenties or early thirties. Her look matches a mix of her parents’ heritage: half Chinese-American and half German-American. I wonder what part of China. Brown hair, brown eyes, olive skin. Now that I think about it, I’m not actually sure what about her face strikes me as especially Asian. Maybe high cheek bones are what do it. Small noses really don’t mean much to me. It’s just a holistic thing, I guess. She could easily be mistaken for just about any ethnicity. She’s wearing jeans and no burka, so hurray for Saudi progressivism. I bet she might even be allowed to drive! She’s wearing a traditional white lab coat, but it’s open and I can see a black flowy thing that is tucked into the front of the jeans. She is joyously well-prepared to talk about shit that’s in her wheelhouse. Then again, I do seem to be these people's lab rat and I know these two are just the ambassadors of a much larger team of scientists. Preparing for this moment is probably their job.

      Mehmet is probably in his thirties or forties. I can never tell age with men. Once you're over 26, you could be as old as 45 before I notice. He's maybe about six feet tall or six one--although this is Istanbul, so height is probably in centimeters here. What even would that be in centimeters, 181 cm? Anyway, he’s also wearing the open, white lab coat. Under it is a blue and gray checkered button down shirt with his jeans, and this tiny yellow argyle scarf. It isn’t long enough to protect your neck from winter, so it’s weird. Boots are yellowish. He's got sandy brown hair and ocean blue eyes. They look radioactive. They have to be fake. Eyes aren’t that blue. He also doesn’t have much of a tan. For a Turkish boy that’s awkward as fuck, but I guess his grandparents are from Oklahoma so maybe he's just a traditional, melanin-challenged, white American type. He didn't say anything about his other set of grandparents, but that's not related to what they want from me. Maybe Germans. Turks and Germans always had a close relationship going. Probably best to assume that Germans are part of an experiment like this anyway. They’re always getting into shady shit. Viva la Nuremberg.

      "I'm sure, Nadia. But we can go over your presentation later. Or maybe there's some way for me to watch it on my own time, or something. I don't know. You designed this thing." I hope there isn't. Call me old fashioned, but I don't like people messing with my thoughts.

      "Oh there is. Yeah, I'll upload it later." Great. Thanks, Nadia.

      "To your question about purpose, we revived you because we don't know what happened 60 years ago,” Mehmet, as usual and fitting the German thesis, is stiff and blunt with his delivery. He doesn’t make hand gestures as he talks, which I never realized someone could accomplish. He barely moves. Makes me wonder who’s the real robot here, you know? “It was an important historical moment. We want to understand what happened to put it into a broader context of how the world changed since the fall of Imperial Era America." I'll let that label slide. Too many things to focus on to let a naming convention derail things.

      "So you're hoping I can fill you in on the details."

      "Exactly, at least what you know," he says.

      "It would be a lot easier to put things into context if I had some idea of what context to put them into. Aren’t there like relevant stories or movies or something you can show me? Or anything that makes me feel a little less like a lab rat?" Mehmet winced, and Nadia glanced at him again. It’s especially noticeable because Nadia is almost always closer to me than Mehmet, so she has to turn around to look at him. Something makes them uncomfortable about me. Am I deemed unnatural? Is this entire experiment sacrilegious? Wouldn't be the first time for either. I goddamn hope there are some ethical qualms here.

      While I was searching for an answer for their perpetual discomfort, Nadia chimed in. "We have a list of topics that we agreed as a team to discuss. I hope you'd understand if we took your suggestion to the team before agreeing to it? If we give you too much context we might skew your presentation. It’s just something we’d need to carefully plan out with the team."

      "Sure, of course. Makes sense to me." Why are you even asking me though? I don’t have any power in this exchange, physical or emotional. Hell, you've even made sure I can't run at you. Oh shit, they’re about to leave.

      “Hey, before you head out, is there a way I can be positioned so I can see that mirror over there? I’d like to see myself. I don’t even know if I make facial expressions.”

      Nadia responded much faster than either of them have been up until now, “Oh you make facial expressions alright.” Fuck. She’s chuckling under her breath too. What have I been doing? If there were any blood in this husk, it’d all be in my cheeks right now. I used to cosplay as a tomato when I’d get the least bit worked up. I have that feeling right now.

      Mehmet moved in closer to the table I’m on for the first time. Unlike Nadia, who often looks to him, he doesn’t look to her before grabbing a side of the table. He looks to her after though, and gives her a nod. I can’t tell if that’s workplace hierarchy or respect or just a man in the workplace or what. "Yeah. We can move you. Could you get away from that wall?" Without responding, I slid away from the wall as he suggested. Made sense if they were moving the table with me on it.

      “Hang tight,” Nadia said, but she didn’t need to. I had already grabbed onto the edges of the table. Mehmet and Nadia lifted the table a couple inches and walked it slowly to the wall that was to my left. I’m not under any illusions about what this mirror is. It’s a one-way with a team watching on the other side. There’s no way it isn’t. The wall the mirror sits in looks like they broke through it just to put the mirror in; it’s got all sorts of chips and cracks like somebody actually chiseled the hole out. The important thing here is that I can see myself now.

      They certainly had an eye for detail. My face has a bigger, more squished nose than I'm used to. It’s all olive, which of course I imagined from the arms, but to see it brings a new depth to this place. Is this actually me now? The dark brown eyes are new, though they are probably contacts anyway. I bet they look red when the light catches them. That’ll be a test for later. They should be light-brown things that would look yellow in the light. They’re not. I can’t believe I miss them assuring me I’m going to be blind by the time I’m 50. Eyebrows are just as thick--like caterpillars resting on a face. They didn't bother with hair on the top, but that's understandable. Hair is hard and they put all their hair energies in the arms and eyebrows. For some reason they put on a light stubble all along my jawline. Why would they want to show I could grow a beard? That was never true before. I'm not really crushed it still isn't true now. They replaced all my freckles with a simple mole just under my left eye. They thought to put on a mole? Can androids even get skin cancer? It looks like real skin, except it doesn't play as much. They must have made me to look like the most stereotypically handsome, bald man in society, with a mole to make it all seem real. I'm okay with that. This body looks good. I’d date me. Now let's see those pearly whites. Holy shit, nevermind. This mouth is fucked. The teeth are perfect, but everything within it is this wiry abomination that probably didn't get enough design time.

      I realize now that I'm too busy gawking to think much about how this all must look to the people behind the mirror. Of course, this was after sticking my wire cage pretending to be a tongue out at them. Nadia and Mehmet are near the door now, watching me look at myself.

      I put on my best smile for them. Got to show a good game face, right? "Thanks. I was just dying to marvel at my own newfound good looks." Both Nadia and Mehmet smiled back, but it was Mehmet’s reaction I was after. It wasn’t a very big one, but it’s good enough for me. Hopefully that means he can react to a bad pun, but he could have just been smiling because I smiled. That’s a thing with meatbags. Though that smile didn’t move up an inch. It was one of those horizontal smiles that you give when you just want to be polite. This guy must have taken a martial arts class in self-expression because he does not react more than he has to.

      I want to ask them what the endgame here is. If they're just going to turn me off again after bringing me back from the dead to have a good chat, then that's kind of a bad thing for me. If they're planning on keeping me around, it's not clear what use I can be outside of this experiment. Maybe they want to have proof that they can bring people back from the dead and put them into androids? A new technology that gives people (who can afford it, or are deemed worth it) immortality and further leads to the singularity and domination of all humanity by robot people. It doesn't seem like there's any way out of this mess that can be good for me. God damn I need legs.

      They’re still here, watching and waiting. I might as well voice some of my appreciation for this body. "I have some hairy arms here. Oh, and I feel these washboard abs. I'm guessing that design choice was you, Nadia?" I felt myself wink. We're back. Breathing crisis resolved. “Were there some legs in the works for this project too? Are they a hairy match for these arms?" And what are the hair trends in porn these days? Is everyone hairy? I can’t ask them that. Incidentally, and unrelated: this mirror shows that this body can, in fact, blush. Not as red as I’m used to, but the cheeks do change color slightly. How did they do that?

      "The legs were in development because we didn't make the final risk assessments until after the base android design was tested and showed that the legs performed far better than expectations." Dang, Mehmet. That sort of response really goes beyond what I'd think the team would want you to say. I hope you don't get iced for that. I'm starting to like your blunt, no nonsense style.

      "Cool.” I nodded to make it seem like I was deeply offended. “Are there any questions you wanted to get into right away or did you want to talk with your team before moving forward?"

      "I … ” Nadia held that like she was interjecting on a conversation she wasn’t in. “I think it's probably best if we talk to the team first and give you some time to get adjusted. I'll also add that video to a list you can access internally while you wait. You already have access to some music, both contemporary hits for you and more modern tunes. There are also some other things that we put together." Nadia smiled gently as though she had done me some great service, but I’d prefer to find my own way thank you. They can’t know what I like or don’t like. They don’t know me. What happened to the internet? Can't I just access that or would that be way too much of a security risk? Fuck. They're gone.

      Well, might as well get a better look at this thing resembling a tongue.

      4 votes