By Rayden Tron
This is an excerpt from my soon-to-be-completed story, Growing Out, provided for its thumbnail sketch of the organic-to-mechanical brain/body transfer process. In it, the narrator is one Louis Babek, a victim of a DWI driver. He is 35, a successful, hard-working businessman left paralyzed below the neck. Operations to repair the damage to his spinal cord push his other damaged organs over the brink, leaving him with a few weeks to live. Upon a hint from his doctor, he decides to apply to become a robot and is approved.
In this scene he is accepted and has arrived at the transfer center. The day before the operation, two Techno Sapiens, Decker DaVinci, his caseworker, and Dr. Daneel Tesla, neurosurgeon and senior transfer specialist, are preparing him, when he asks for the details.
"Well, now that I’m here and prepared for anything, would you mind explaining to me how this actually works, how I’ll know for sure that’ll really be me as a robot and not a copy of me?"
"I don’t mind at all. I collaborated on the design of those information pages and we have our reasons for being vague. Aside from the fact that going into detail can unsettle the squeamish casual Web browser we also want to attract the tenacious and the overcomers; those who want to live no matter what they have to struggle through."
Dr. Tesla opened a nightstand drawer and pulled out a small box of tissues. Taking one tissue he dabbed the sweat from my forehead. In addition to my nervousness the robots weren’t much for air conditioning. Without a word, Decker DaVinci went to the far side of the room and opened the window. The breeze was truly refreshing and chased away the bit of claustrophobia I was beginning to feel.
"Your brain is composed of neurons, billions of them. Each has an internal state that can change over time, reacting to input or the lack thereof. Each has branches out to other neighboring neurons and accepts input from the branches of other neighbors. In addition, some secrete certain neurotransmitter chemicals and some have neurotransmitter receptors.
"We duplicate and represent these functions in the robot’s circuitry. We go sector by sector, following the natural organization of the brain. When we have set up the analogous intra-sector states and patterns of communication in your new brain we link it to the same sector of your old brain. The patterns become refined and synchronized with the patterns of your old brain until the two are running in parallel. Then we put the sector of your old brain through a range of stimulation and see if the parallel holds, allowing time for correction and re-synchronization when necessary. Then we jumper the sector inputs and outputs to the new brain and disconnect the sector of the original.
"It’s a gradual transition from old to new. During the process, you may feel some disorientation, some confused thoughts, some slowdown of mental functioning, some extreme emotions, like you’re intoxicated, but this is normal. When we’re nearly done, we set up the sensory inputs to come from your new body, and then load in drivers to handle motor nerve functions and connect the outputs. The core areas of the brain are the most sensitive to deal with, and we’ve developed drivers that will help the patterns there adapt and integrate as well. When we do the final cut-out against the brain stem, you may feel a flash, or nothing at all, but you will be functioning with a new brain inside a new body."
I had only a few days to live without dialysis but I felt safe, buoyed by this new hope that almost made me feel as if I could jump out of bed and dance in the street. I had only to put up with one more night of being stuck into tubes and having electrodes pasted on my forehead.
I closed my eyes for a minute. There were no more tears. Instead I was grateful that stupid drunk hadn’t taken me down, that I was getting a second chance. When I opened my eyes Decker was next to Dr. Tesla, and was leaning on the railing of the bed.
"So, what’s the good word, Lou?" he asked.
"Let’s do it," I replied.
Louis Babek eventually becomes the robot Gyro Souvlaki.
© 1998 rayden@erols.com