Крис Бекетт - The Turing Test

But here are a couple of adults, look. Bunnoo and Thrompin. Men or women, do you think? Hard to tell, isn’t it? Well actually they’re both women, but they are sexually undeveloped and always will be. They are what the Apiranians call huthi, which really means Ordinary People. Huthi are about ninety percent of the population. They run the economy, they raise the children, they defend the towns. Males ( merthi – Wanderers – as they call them) are about five percent. So are the fertile women who they call manahi – or Mothers.

Bunnoo and Thrompin had a room they rented out. That’s how we came to meet them. They were foster-parents to the children you’ve just seen. A sweet pair. They became real friends of ours.

Here’s the two of them close up. Salt of the earth really – or salt of Apirania anyway. You’d really have a job to say if they were men or women if you met them here, wouldn’t you? They are not just foster-parents to these kids, by the way, they are blood relatives too, aunts or cousins at least. Everyone in a town is related to everyone else because they are all descended from the same Mothers.

Ah, here are the twins again, Karl and Kara. Lydia took this one. Beautiful aren’t they? And so alike. Ever so close to each other too. When the family were all together those two would just sort of quietly gravitate towards one another, not necessarily talking to each other or ignoring anyone else, but just preferring to be alongside each other.

Yes, twins are very common in Apirania. Much more common than singletons in fact. Even triplets and quadruplets are more common than singletons. But it is unusual apparently to have a pair of twins like Karl and Kara, where one is a boy and one is a girl. Yes, she is a real girl. She only discovered that while we were there in fact. Her periods started. It was all rather unexpected and painful. At least the boys know what is in store all along.

Oh these are just some of the balloons from the bowava trees I told you about. After the rainy season is over you see them all the time: hundreds of them in the sky at once, sometimes, going up and up until they’re just tiny dots. They often call them merthi, funnily enough: Wanderers , that is, the same word that they use for men.

Lydia, would you like to open another bottle of wine? I expect our guests are thirsty.

Now this is Apiranian technology at its most advanced! It’s a wind-powered generator and every one of those wheels is cast out of iron. The Apiranians seem to have settled down comfortably at the early electric stage and never felt the need to move on.

This was rather a wonderful machine actually. I mean, look at those huge gears!

(What’s that? Yes, thank you Lydia. I hadn’t forgotten.)

As Lydia says, this turned out to be rather a distressing visit. We went up there with Bunnoo and Thrompin and their children. One of the kids had a pet with him, a little mouse, or the Apiranian equivalent of a mouse anyway. The little thing jumped off his shoulder onto one of these big gear wheels. Thrompin only just managed to get hold of the kid in time before she went after it. And there was the little mouse sitting on a cog on that big wheel, not seeing its fate coming towards it until… Well, it was horrible. But it was lucky it wasn’t one of the kids.

Now look at this. This is Karl and Kara with their mother, Diyoo. Yes their real mother. She comes down from the Motherhouse to visit them. Isn’t she beautiful? That wonderful bone structure. And look at that incredible dress.

Yes, she does look sad, doesn’t she? All the Mothers looked a bit sad like that, I thought. A rather restricted life, I suppose. Very little opportunity to make your own choices. In fact soon after this picture was taken the sentries spotted a band of Wanderers out on the plain and she had to go hurrying back at once to get ready at the Motherhouse.

Here she is saying goodbye, look. She’s left Karl and Kara a little gift of cakes. They adored her. Of course she has other children with other foster-parents, but in Bunnoo and Thrompin’s house only these two were hers.

Right, well now we are up on the wall. There are sentries up here all the time – there’s one of them here you see – always up on the wall, always looking out over the plain. They are not concerned at all about attacks from other towns but there’s a constant nagging fear that the Wanderers might get out of hand and take over if they were given a chance.

I suppose if they came to a society like ours that would be how they saw it: a world where the Wanderers have taken over!

Yes, I know, an interesting thought!

Anyway, as soon as Wanderers are spotted, they blow horns and pretty soon there are horns blowing all across the town. Ah look, here’s Thrompin blowing one. You can see it’s all a big laugh as far as she’s concerned.

There is a real fear of the Wanderers but there’s a sort of holiday feeling too when they appear. Once the gate is securely shut and everyone is safe inside, the entire city goes up onto the walls to watch the fun. And it turns into a big party.

Here they all are look: Bunnoo and Thrompin and all the kids. You can see that Bunnoo has even thrown together a quick picnic for them to eat while they watch. And there are other families behind them look. Look, that kid there has got hold of a horn and is blowing away.

Aha. Now here is the band of Wanderers arriving below the wall. Quite a small band, only about twenty of them, and all of them very young, hardly more than boys. As you see they have got a couple of moothai loaded up with all their possessions. Look at that one riding on the mootha’s back. Only about thirteen wouldn’t you say? It’s a hard life for them out there, walking from town to town, living on whatever they can find or beg.

And look at the reception they’re getting! Here’s Bunnoo and Thrompin and the kids. And they are all merrily booing and shouting out abuse, along with all the other huthi and children all along the wall.

“What sort of town put you little weaklings out to spread its seed?” they shout out.

“Call yourself men? You’re just huthi kids who haven’t had enough to eat!”

“No way are you going to get near our Mothers!”

Some folk even throw things down: bits of crust, little stones… Even young Karl is doing it, look. It doesn’t seem to occur to him that quite soon he’ll be out there himself.

And look how the young Wanderers stand there taking all of this! Poor mites. Twenty of them, facing the population of an entire town. Hungry too. When people threw down food scraps, some of the young Wanderers went to pick them up and eat them, at least until the older ones reprimanded them.

Ah, now this chap here was a sort of spokesman of theirs. You see he’s asking for silence so he can speak. It must have taken him all of ten minutes to get any quiet at all.

And here he is making his speech.

“Esteemed townsfolk of Formara. Open your gate to us please and let us visit your Motherhouse.”

Something like that, and as soon as he’s spoken everyone is catcalling and whooping and shouting out ‘In your dreams!’ and so on.

But eventually the leaders of the town go out of the gate. Here they are look: big fat huthi grandees in robes with their escort of huthi soldiers. They spend half an hour or so with the Wanderers, then confer among themselves. Finally the leader of the grandees turns and addresses us all on the walls. Look at her fine purple robes.

“Fellow citizens of Formara. We have met these boys and decided that we will open the gate for them tomorrow.”