Chapter Two – Bessie’s
Head Injury
It
was early April and an unseasonable foot and a half of snow had blown in on
central Wisconsin. Between treacherous driving conditions and people slipping
on icy walks, Covington Memorial Hospital was having a very busy day.
Stretched out
on the Emergency room hospital bed, Bessie’s head was turned to one side as Dr.
Myers examined the back of it. Across from him, Connie worriedly hovered over
her.
He looked up.
“Connie, go on back to the reception area, okay? From what I can tell so far,
it’s not serious, maybe a mild concussion. I’ll get with you out there soon as
I can.”
Myers was not
only their family physician but a long-time friend. Taking him at his word she
hurried back out to the reception room. Keying Rob’s number on her cell, she
hated to bother him at work and especially of late, now that he and partner
Marsh were even busier than usual. Even so, he would definitely want to know
about Bessie. When Rob answered she began filling him in.
He interrupted, “She fell off the
ladder? Jeez sweetie, doing what?”
“Dear, the
wind tore off a big branch and dropped it on the roof in front. We almost had
it down when she slipped off and hit her head.”
“On what?
There’s nothing out there but snow drifts!”
Connie sighed,
“Rob, you know our daughter. She managed to find the only solid thing showing,
my big clay planter.”
He sighed
right back, “Yeah, with Bess that figures. So how is she?”
“From what Tom
Myers told me, it’s not serious. He’s giving her a head scan to make sure.”
Normally a
great kidder, he sounded anything but. “Look, they’ve cleared the roads pretty
well by now. I can be there in half an hour!”
“No, there’s
no sense coming all the way over from Madison. Other than a bruise and a
headache, she’ll be fine. Later I’ll have her keep ice on it and feed her
aspirin. Trust me dear, our daughter’s a lot tougher than she looks.”
Somewhat
relieved, he answered this time with a short laugh. “Heh! She has to be! Honey,
our Bess might be one of the smartest kids in her school but I swear, she’s
also the clumsiest! It’s a wonder she’s survived this long!”
Connie smiled
into her cell. “Dear, she’s going through another of her growth spurts. Same as
the last time she’s all long arms and legs, none of them very coordinated. We
just need to keep her alive long enough to outgrow it!”
He said, “As
long as she’s all right, I’ll stay put. We’re pretty busy with Marsh’s new VI
(Virtual Immersion) brainchild. Meantime if there’s any more news give me a
call, okay?”
Telling him
she would, Connie switched off. Soon thumbing aimlessly through the lobby’s
magazines, she closed the one she had and tossed it on top of the rest. Next
pacing back and forth through the lobby, she glanced at her watch for the
umpteenth time. Ruefully, she shook her head – All I’m doing is making the time stand still. C’mon, Tom!
Annie, the elderly receptionist, knew
the Howard’s quite well. After answering a message on her desk speaker she
waved from the partition. “Connie, the Doc said to tell you the scan shows
Bessie is fine.”
As Connie let out held breath, the
receptionist went on, “Anyhow, since our rush hour around here has stopped,
Myers is freed up. He’ll be out any minute to see you, okay?”
She waved
back, “Thanks, Annie. Sorry I’m wearing holes in your carpet.”
She laughed,
“Dear, we need to get rid of that awful-looking thing anyway!”
A moment later
Myers appeared at the head of the hall. First giving Connie a thumbs-up he
motioned with his laptop for her to follow. Walking her back down the hall, he
said, “She’s good to go after we run one last set of vitals.” Ushering her into
a spare examining room he added, “There’s no fracture, just a mild concussion.
But I want to talk to both of you about what I found on her head scan. They’ll
free her up shortly.”
As they seated
themselves at the little examining table Connie knew he’d not be doing this if
it wasn’t important. She urged, “Come on Tom what did you find? You know I’m
not going to just sit here and wait.”
He said
genially, “It’s nothing bad but I’d rather hold off ‘til Bessie’s here too. How
old is she now, sixteen?”
“She won’t be
that ‘til next year.”
His eye-brows
went up. “She’s tall for her age. ‘Course, she always has been.” Then he
chuckled, “If we wrapped Bessie with all the bandages we’ve used on her since
she was little, she’d be a mummy! How does she do it?”
Connie
held up both hands. “Who knows? She gets so caught up with stuff buzzing around
in that busy brain of hers that she’s totally unconscious about what she’s
doing. Including being up on our ladder.”
“Well, luckily
the back of her head was only bruised. Keep ice on it ‘til the swelling goes
down and have her take it easy the rest of the day, okay?”
“I will. But can’t you at least give me a hint
about her scan?”
He relented,
“I’ll only have to repeat this when she’s here, so I’ll say just a little. You
see, while looking over the image plates, I found something very interesting.
It’s…”
The
nurse-practitioner stuck her head in the door. “Excuse me, Doctor and hi
Connie. Bessie’s right on my heels. She’s examining our new scanner to see how
it works, but the technician is chasing her out.”
Myers nodded,
“Thanks, Joyce. I’ll chase her home from here.”
A moment after the RNP left, Bessie
stood at the door. “Hi, again, doctor. Mom, they want me out of here, so let’s
go!” A wrap-around cold pack had her reddish-brown hair piled up behind her
head.
Myers waved
her in. “First, take a chair young lady. I want to show you and your mom what I
found on your head scan.”
Once she was seated beside Connie, he
turned his laptop to partly face them. Running a finger over her skull’s image,
he scribed a glowing trace line on the screen. Keying in a four quadrant
divider, he pointed to the bottom-left one. “I’ve high-lighted this lowest part
of the temporal lobe that rests atop the cerebellum. It’s the inferior temporal
cortex, or what we call the ITC .
Are you with me so far?”
Connie nodded,
“I had some of this in college.”
Eyes fixed in
the screen, Bessie’s bottomless curiosity was already taking a- hold.
Forgetting the cold pack, she nodded briskly, “My Biology class showed…ouch!”
she winced.
“You okay, sweetie?” Connie asked.
Rubbing beneath the cold pack, she
grimaced, “Long as I don’t nod I am. Anyway, doctor, I took Biology as a freshman, but this…ITC never got mentioned.
What does it do?”
Tracing
another line dividing her brain’s side view from top to bottom, he pointed
toward the ITC location. “It’s
what we use to see forms of all types. The amygdale and hippocampus are
structured here within the temporal lobe. These are crucial for spatial
navigation and memories of past experiences. This includes deciding the routes
we take to get from one place to another. These various parts are all linked to
the ITC .”
Seeing they
understood, he went on, “Bessie, your ITC
is much, much larger than average. First I’ll reassure that this condition
isn’t harmful in any way.” As she started to interrupt, he held up a hand. “You
know that I also work over at UW’s Computer Research Center, right?”
Born and
raised within today’s burgeoning cybernetic society, Bessie Howard was not only
a functioning part of it but an exceptionally good one. Interest sparked, her
enthusiasm was plain to see. “Oh yes Doctor Myers! I’ve seen you there while on
our science class tours!” Forgetting the injury, she nodded eagerly. With
sharply indrawn breath she gasped another “Ouch!”
As Bessie re-massaged her head, Connie
turned to Myers with a deep frown. “Tom, do you really need to do this question
and answer stuff? I’d just as soon get her out of here and home.”
Bessie waved a hand. “No mom, I’m
fine. Besides, I want to hear this.”
A trifle subdued by Connie’s remark,
Meyers shrugged at both of them. “It’s up to you, ladies. Should I go on?”
Mother and daughter traded glances,
and Bessie made a thumbs up. Smiling at Myers, she said, “Please do. Most of us
in my science classes know about the Center, but I’m still not exactly sure
what it is that you do over there.”
Indeed, back in 2015 the eminent Dr.
Myron Paul, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Computer Research Center
in Madison, let it be known that much additional funding was needed to upgrade
and expand its facilities. Lo, with their own self-interests firmly in place,
the Midwest’s newest and largest computer-manufacturer, Ultra Tech, generously
donated most of the amount that was needed to accomplish this. Accordingly,
though uneasy with being somewhat beholden to U-T from that time on, Dr. Paul
had nonetheless performed subsequent research work which these several short
years later years later had the Center positioned as one of the most
prestigious in its field.
Rightfully proud, the staff regularly
conducted tours for the general public and additionally for the many visitors performing
similar research studies at other learning centers and at field-related
businesses such as U-T. Especially encouraged to come on the tours were
students ranging from college age all the way down through K-5 in elementary
school.
Re-animated,
Myers eagerly bobbed his head. “More than happy to fill you in! Anyway, Bessie,
for starters you do know the Center
gears many of its tours and workshops particularly toward any of you students who’re
interested in cybernetics.” Pausing to hold up a hand, his smile widened, “And
don’t nod, OK?” They all laughed. He continued, “A lot of you are too, whether
hardware design, video games, robotics, and even AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Plus, like everything else these days it’s all tied to computers. Which is
where you come in.”
Her interest sparked, that last part
surprised her. “I do? Why me?”
Leaning toward her, he said with a
rush, “Whenever my wife and I bump into your parents, we talk about our kids.
And it’s mostly about what all you can do with computers these days. And Bessie,
your folks tell me how incredibly adept that you are with this. And especially when using your headset accessories.”
Stopping to think, he asked, “What do you youngsters call the virtual reality
kind? Immersive multimedia? Cyber-virtualization? Or what?”
Still not sure
where he was headed with this, she
paused, “Oh…” Then finished, “…all right. You see, Doctor, some use one term
and others another. My friends and I call it virtual immersion or VI.”
Myers nodded briskly, “Yes, I hear that
used by my younger assistants. Anyhow, both your mom and dad say you’re rather
exceptional with this.” Eyes alight he leaned even closer. “So are you?”
His just now closing their physical space
gave Bessie, for no particular reason she could think of, a gut feeling to play
this down. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Doctor. Probably any of us would look
computer-hot while using my dad’s units. He brings home the very latest ones
his partner designs.” Though hating to lie, even by omission, her half-truth intentionally
left out the other part. Because for a fact; yes, Bessie and her computer-savvy
pals were on a level playing field as users. But no, whether wearing either her
dad’s VI headsets or those made by others, like Ultra Tech for instance, none
of her friends had anywhere near her own abilities with them.
Nodding
eagerly, Myers rushed on, “I know that and your dad’s are a huge plus for us in
med-lab! We work hand in hand with the computer research people of course. And
as you probably know, they’re partly focused on developing a machine form of
intelligence. But they direct their main effort toward what their Director, Dr.
Paul calls…merging the human mind
with cyber-space. And believe me, when testing we all reach for your dad’s
Augie’s first thing! And like I mentioned, this is where you come into the
picture.”
Thinking – Uh-oh, now I get it – she stalled by
asking, “His…Augie’s?”
Myer’s own
favorite term, like many others these days, was “augmented reality”, although
this was substantially different from the “virtual” kind. He and Bessie both
knew the first type meant the operator could do an augmenting, for example,
of a zebra’s black stripes into becoming green spots or some such; hence, Augie. Whereas, conforming strictly to
the real images of people, places, and things, “virtual reality” gave one the
impression of truly being there with
and at whatever and wherever they saw
from within their VI visor.
Waiting for
Bessie to answer, he saw her eyes now regarding him thoughtfully. Mouth tightened,
she merely said, “Mm-hm.” By now knowing exactly where the good doctor was
going with this, she didn’t like it, not one bit. Her staying silent as the
seconds went by made Myers shift uneasily in his chair. Watching him, Connie
fully understood. Shortly after entering her ‘teens a few years ago, her
daughter began pulling this same routine on her too.
Beginning to fidget her-self, Connie
broke the awkward silence. “Those AI
people sure have their work cut out for them, Tom. I know our brain has billions
of…I forget. Neurons? Or synapses?”
Gratefully turning
away from Bessie, he faced Connie and tapped his skull. “We actually have a
trillion neurons up here and ten-quadrillion synapses for them to move through.
You and I both know the math with this. At ten to the twenty…something,
whatever it is…”
As studied
astronomers regularly considering the enormous sizes and vast distances
involved, both Connie and Bessie were well versed with exponential numbers.
Knowing his was larger than the total number of atoms in the entire universe, Bessie
finished with a sideways little smile. “The twenty-eighth.”
Catching
the dryness, he riposted with exuberance, “Yes and that’s a lot!”
Missing none
of their fencing, Connie intervened, “Do those AI people really think they can
duplicate this? I wonder.”
Myers agreed,
“Frankly so do I.”
Bessie’s mood
switching instantly, she countered with another vigorous nod. “Yes they…Ouch!”
First rubbing the back of her head for a few seconds, she kept it still and wagged
a finger instead. “Doctor, both I and a couple of my friends think we’ll do it
and soon!” Also through beating about the bush with the other thing, she went
to the bottom line. “And fine! But anyway, doctor, are you saying you’d like to
study my…ITC ?” She also had her
answer ready. “Because if you are, then no thanks.” Though never intentionally
rude, her directness was disconcerting to those who didn’t know her too well.
Caught off guard Myers stammered,
“Uh…actually, Bessie, I am. Can I at least plead my case?”
Reaching to
re-adjust the cold pack, she fed him the barest of smiles. “Sure.”
He gave her his fullest attention.
“First I’ll explain that at fifteen your brain structure has long since fully
developed. This simply means that your expanded ITC
definitely did not result from today’s injury. You were born with it.”
Despite wanting
to just get out of here anymore, Bessie could not keep from being interested.
But she kept it short. “Uh-huh. And?”
Realizing her patience was all but gone, Myers
hurriedly ran it out. “Here’s my point. As a researcher I’ve never seen an ITC the size of yours. There are hardly any
documented studies of this either, other than two in China and another one in
South Africa. Oh, and yes there’ve been hints of a few others besides. But you
all have one thing in common, an exceptional skill with using virtual reality
accessories. As yet we don’t know what sort of a correlation might exist but
I’m certain there is one.” His ingratiating smile wrapped it up. “So, I’ll try
again! How about wearing one of your dad’s Augie’s for us at the Center? This
would benefit our research tremendously!” He glanced at Connie, “We’d also pay
her of course.”
Knowing her daughter
really was finished with this, Connie shrugged, “It’s her decision, Tom.”
Bessie smiled
politely in turn. “Thanks for offering, Doctor, but my answer stands. I’d hate
being wired up at the Center like a lab rat.”
Again taken
aback he stammered, “I… um…wouldn’t put it like that, dear. I…uh…hardly think
those researchers would treat you that way!”
Fingers
drumming the tabletop, her smile grew tart. “You don’t think so?”
Both her tone and the fingers thing
told Myers there was no point in pursuing it any further. He threw up his
hands. “I’m sorry to hear you won’t. Will you at least think about it?”
Rising from her chair, Bessie said, “Yes, but
don’t count on it, all right?”
Connie followed suit. “Is there
anything else, Tom?”
“No, that’s
it. Bessie, you are a little banged-up, so take it easy today. If you
experience any dizzy spells or blurred vision, tell your mom and we’ll get you
back in here.” He could not help adding, “And please let me know if you
reconsider the experimental testing. Would you do that?”
It so happened
that this year whether summer or winter she was caught up more than ever with
astronomy. Bessie’s busy mind already light years away, she blinked, “Sorry,
Doctor. To do what?”
Taking her by
the arm, Connie pointed her toward the door. “It’s been a long day, sweetie, so
let’s head home.” Looking back at Myers, she added sincerely, “Thanks Tom for
giving her such a good going over. I’ll get back to you ASAP if she has any
problems later.”
As they left the building she called
Rob to tell him the news.
