Тед Чан - Exhalation - Stories

“That is clear,” says Felix, and hangs up.

Derek shakes his head. Normally he wouldn’t consider listening to such a sales pitch, even for money, because he doesn’t want to give the impression that he’d be willing to sell Marco and Polo as sex objects.

But right now the user group needs every dollar it can get. If listening to one company’s presentation could encourage other companies to pay for the same opportunity, then it might be worthwhile. He restarts the video of the visitors’ meeting with the digients and watches it at regular speed.

The user group has gathered to listen to Binary Desire’s presentation via videoconferencing; Binary Desire has made a payment to an escrow service, and the funds will be released after the meeting. Seated at the focus of her wraparound screen, Ana looks around her; everyone’s video feeds are integrated so that the user group appears to be gathered in a virtual auditorium, each sitting in a tiny private balcony. Derek’s sitting in the balcony to her left, and Felix in turn is to his left. At the podium onstage is Binary’s representative Jennifer Chase. Her image on-screen is blond and beautiful and tastefully dressed, and because the parties have agreed to use authenticated video, Ana knows this is how Chase actually looks. She wonders if Binary Desire assigns Chase to do all their negotiations; the woman is probably very good at getting what she asks for.

Felix stands up in his seat and starts to say something in Lojban before catching himself. “You will like what she will say,” he says.

“Thank you, Felix, but let me take it from here,” says Chase. Felix sits back down, and Chase addresses the group.

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. Typically when I meet with a prospective business partner, I talk about how Binary Desire can help them reach a wider market than they can themselves, but I’m not going to do that with you. My goal for this meeting is to assure you that your digients will be treated with respect. We don’t want pets that have been sexualized through simple operant conditioning. We want beings that engage in sex at a higher, more personal level.”

Stuart calls out, “How do you expect to get that when our digients are completely asexual?”

Chase doesn’t miss a beat. “With two years of training, minimum.”

Ana’s surprised. “That’s a major investment,” she says. “I thought digient sex dolls were usually trained for a couple of weeks.”

“That’s because they’re usually Sophonce digients, and they don’t become better sex partners in two years than they do in two weeks. I don’t know if you’ve seen the results, but if you’re curious, I can tell you where you can find a harem of Draytas dressed in Marilyn Monroe avatars, all bleating Wanna suck dick. It’s not pretty.”

Ana laughs despite herself, as do several others in the group. “No, it doesn’t sound like it.”

“That’s not what Binary Desire is looking for. Anyone can take a public-domain digient and reconfigure its reward map. We want to offer sex partners with real personality, and we’re willing to invest the effort needed to create that.”

“So what would your training entail?” asks Helen Costas, from the back.

“First off, sexual discovery and exploration. We’d give the digients anatomically correct avatars and let them get accustomed to having erogenous zones. We’d encourage the digients to begin sexual experimentation with one another, so they can get some practice as sexual beings and choose a gender they’re comfortable with. Since much of the learning during that phase will occur purely among themselves, there may be periods when the digients can be run at faster than real time. Once they’ve acquired a reasonable amount of experience, we’ll begin bonding them with compatible human partners.”

“What makes you so sure they’ll bond with a specific human?” asks Derek.

“Our developers have examined some of the digients in the shelters; they’re too young for our purposes, but they’ve developed emotional attachments, and our developers have done enough analysis that they believe they can induce similar attachments in older digients. As the digient gets to know a human, we’ll enhance the emotional dimension of their interactions, both sexual and nonsexual, so they’ll generate love in the digient.”

“Like a Neuroblast version of InstantRapport,” says Ana.

“Something like that,” says Chase, “but more effective and specific, because it’ll be custom tuned. For the digient, it will be indistinguishable from falling in love spontaneously.”

“That custom tuning doesn’t sound like something you’ll be able to get right on the first try,” says Ana.

“No, of course not,” says Chase. “We expect that it will take months for a digient to fall in love; throughout that period we’ll be working with the customer, rolling the digient back to checkpoints and trying different adjustments until the emotional bond is firmly established. It’ll be like the breeding program you managed when you worked at Blue Gamma; we’re just tailoring it for the individual customer.”

Ana’s about to say that it’s very different, but decides not to. All she needs to do is listen to the woman’s sales pitch, not refute it. “I can see what you mean,” she says.

Derek says, “Even if you can make them fall in love, none of our digients is going to be a convincing Marilyn Monroe.”

“No, but that’s not our goal. The avatars we’d give them would be humanoid, but not human. You see, we’re not trying to duplicate the experience of sex with a human being; we want to provide nonhuman partners that are charming, affectionate, and genuinely enthusiastic about sex. Binary Desire believes this is a new sexual frontier.”

“A new sexual frontier?” says Stuart. “You mean popularizing a kink until it becomes mainstream.”

“You could call it that,” says Chase. “But try looking at it another way: our ideas of what constitutes healthy sex have always broadened over time. People used to think homosexuality, BDSM, and polyamory were all symptoms of psychological problems, but there’s nothing intrinsic about those activities that’s incompatible with a loving relationship. The problem was having one’s desires stigmatized by society. We believe that in time, digient sex will likewise be accepted as a valid expression of sexuality. But that requires being open and honest about it, and not pretending that a digient is a human.”

An icon appears on-screen indicating that Chase has transmitted a document to the group. “I’m sending you a copy of the contract we’re proposing,” she says, “but let me give you a summary. Binary Desire will cover the costs of porting Neuroblast to Real Space in exchange for nonexclusive rights to your digients. You retain the right to make and sell copies of your digients as long as they don’t compete with ours. If your digients sell well, we’ll also pay royalties. And your digients will enjoy what they do.”

“Okay, thank you,” Ana says. “We’ll take a look at the contract and let you know. Is that all?”

Chase smiles. “Not quite. Before I release the funds, I’d like the chance to address any concerns you might have; I assure you I won’t be offended. Is it the sexual aspect that you have reservations about?”

Ana hesitates, and then says, “No, it’s the coercion.”

“There wouldn’t be any coercion. The bonding process ensures the digients will enjoy it as much as their owners.”

“But you’re not giving them any choice about what they enjoy.”

“Is it so different for humans? When I was a little girl, the idea of kissing a boy was completely uninteresting, and if it’d been up to me, that would never have changed.” Chase gives a slight, coy smile, as if to suggest how much she enjoys kissing now. “We become sexual beings whether we want to or not. The modifications Binary Desire would make to the digients aren’t any different. In fact, they’ll be better. Some people get saddled with sexual proclivities that cause them a lifetime of grief. That’s not going to happen to the digients. As far as each digient is concerned, it’s going to be paired up with a perfectly compatible sex partner. That’s not coercion; that’s ultimate sexual fulfillment.”