One Friday afternoon Sally Aston spoke to her intellectually drained daughter while driving her home from school. “Kelly. Paul Grey called me. There is a possible new connection for you, Level 5.3, a girl from Brazil. There is no one in the residences nearly that compatible with her, so she'd have to live with us. How do you like the idea?”
“Mommy, that's great! Another high level friend! To live with us? I love the idea.”
“Her name is Avelina Azevedo. She comes from a very poor family, Kelly. It might be hard for her to adapt to our home and school.”
“I will help her. I will help her with everything. Count on me.”
“I do, Kelly. I always have. Alright. I'll call Paul. He said that he'd arrange it right away, tonight, if you agreed. We will pick her up at the airport tomorrow evening, after dinner.”
“I can hardly wait! Does she have video?”
“No streaming video. Her school doesn't have it. But they e-mailed me a short video clip taken with a cellphone by an aid worker. She has been going to school for years in a series of tent schools set up by Catholic Charities workers. Her family is one of the poorest on Earth, Kelly. They live in one of the terrible slums that surround São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil.”
“Oh, poor girl. Mommy, now I really want to help. I want to see the video when we get home, OK?”
The video had no sound and was of poor quality. It showed a short girl with dark hair and olive skin, in a colourful dress which stood out against against the somewhat dirty side of a tent.
“The Brazilian government is thinking of having a school which would be a bit like ours, but only for kids from São Paulo. It is such a big city, almost as big as metropolitan New York, that they could get pretty good compatibility levels without the expense of bringing in foreign students. They had everyone in city schools tested and the Catholic Charities agency did the surrounding slums, too. Even though she comes from a family with no education, Avelina is a brilliant student. Her English is good – almost perfect, they say.”
After supper, there was a call for Kelly on the family video wall in the dining room. Kelly was pleased to see Beth Green, whom she knew from summer school and from the music generation project. The big video surface was subdivided, showing a girl about Kelly's age against a different background. “Kelly, this is my half-sister Future Green. We used to call her Churie, which sounds a bit like cheery but actually rhymes with curry. But I don't think she likes that much anymore.”
“Sounds too much like a kid. I usually go by Chure, or my full name, Future.”
“Chure is going to be Avelina's long distance friend. You and Chure are moderately compatible, no big deal, but she is almost Level Six with Avelina.”
“Wow.”
“I wanted Beth to introduce me to you first, Kelly, so that I got a chance to talk to you before you met our new friend. I am very compatible with her, but we come from very different world. Her family lives in a slum full of poor people and is one of the poorest there. I guess you know something about my father already.”
“I've met him.”
“Did you know that he is one of the richest men in the world?”
“I thought he might be. Mommy said he donated more to the school than anyone else.”
“Right. Well, you can see that Avelina might have a bit of a problem understanding how we stand. So I thought you might help.”
“I promised my mother I would help her every way I can. And I will. Trust me. I will make her comfortable, not just with living here and going to school, but with everything. You and your family too. Uh, could you tell me a bit about yourself, Future?”
“Well, I am the third child of my mother, Geena Telford. She owns and runs Telford and Green, Custom Automobiles. They build expensive cars for people who want something unique. My brother and sister work there. They got special tutors to make them car people, but my mother told my father he could educate me anyway he wanted. It's always up to the mothers, you see. Daddy has always been fascinated by the growth of technology, but hasn't had a futurologist in the family, so he hired tutors to train me for that purpose.”
“Oh. So your mother makes custom cars, and your father makes custom kids? Oh, oh, sorry, I didn't mean that to be offensive. I know he is a fine man, and all of his children are supposed to be wonderful.”
“No offence taken. He is very open about what he does, proud of it and proud of us. We all love him and share his pride.”
“So, you are a futurologist?”
“Yup. And Avelina is supposed to be very interested the future of technology. She hopes it will lift everybody out of the slums.”
“I hope so too.”
Next evening, after a supper which Kelly was almost too excited to eat, Sally drove out to JFK. There they waited until the American Airlines flight from São Paulo arrived. Holding up a sign with “Avelina Azevedo” written on it big letters, Kelly looked around for the face she had seen on the video. One of the last passengers to leave the plane, there she was, a small slight girl with a nervous smile on her face.
“Avelina! I am Kelly Phillips. This is my mother, Sally Aston. She is going to drive us home. You are going to live with us, if you want to.”
“Hello. Yes, Kelly. Please. I have nowhere else to go.”
On the trip home, Kelly sat in the back seat so she could talk more easily with her new friend.
“Kelly. Please. Tell me why I am here. There are many children where I lived, some very nice and very smart. They are better students than I am. But they did not to come to your country. Why am I here?”
“Didn't they tell you anything?”
“Yes, they said that the tests we wrote told the experts that I should come here. But I don't understand why.”
“Oh. Well we have a special school for students who are not just good in school but also have a friend in the school. You and I will be friends, if the tests are right. There is another girl for you too. You and she will be friends if the tests are right. They measured interpersonal compatibility as well as academic abilities.”
“Well, 'interpersonal' is a new word for me, but I can guess what it means. We are alike, so we will probably be friends?”
“No, we will probably be friends, but that does not mean we are alike. They told me you are interested in the future of technology. Did they tell you about me?”
“No. Only that you are nice and go to my new school. You seem nice.”
“Well, I suppose I should care about the future of technology, maybe I do, but it is not a big interest of mine. I like books and music and I want to study journalism some day.”
“That is very different. Can you tell me about my other new friend, or should I ask her myself?”
“The most important thing is that she lives a long way away and does not go to the school. She is connected with it, though. To talk to her you will have to use a video screen, like television.”
“We did not have a television where I come from, but I know what they are. So I will sit in front of a camera and talk to her, while she sits in front of a camera and talks to me? Is that how it works?”
“Yes, though we use more than one camera and they are very small. You won't notice them.”
“What is she like, this friend? Have you talked to her this way?”
“Yes I have, yesterday. She is smart like you and also interested in future technology. Everything about the future, actually, but especially technology and its impact. Can you guess her name?”
“No, why should I be able to guess her name? I don't understand.”
“Her name is Future. Actually, her whole name is Future Green. That sounds like an ecology movement, but its just because her father is a Mr. Green.”
“Future! I have never heard of anyone having that name!”
“It's a long story. You will probably use the short form of her name, her nickname, which is just Chure. Easier to say.”
“Chure. So strange. But if she is interested in the future I will be happy to call her anything she wants.”
“Friends sometimes call me Kel, short for Kelly. Do you have a short form of your name?”
“No, the nuns and lay workers said I should not be casual about names. They said names were important. But I am not sure why. I will call you what you like.”
“See what happens. Usually you use a nickname only once you get to know a person. Maybe someday you will decide you could be called Av, Ava, or maybe Lina.”
The two talked of various things till reaching the apartment building in which Kelly lived with her parents and sister Kate. It was a 12 story Art Deco building from the 1930's. Kelly was used to it, but still thought it beautiful. Avelina was overwhelmed by it. She was equally impressed by the apartment itself. More than Drake and Sally would ordinarily have spent, it was paid for by some Tech Fantasies donors, who insisted the two founding members take it as a condition of the donor's contributions to the organization.
Everything was ready for the girl. Kelly had offered to share her large room with Avelina, knowing that they were so compatible it would work out perfectly. Kelly had packed up all of the old stuff she never used anymore to make room for another bed, on the other side of the room. Kelly's oversized desk had been rearranged so that the two girls could work side by side each with her own computer.
“Just the two of us in this room, Kelly? What about your sister? In Brazil our whole house has only one room. We all slept in it.”
“Katie has her own room, Avelina.”
“A whole room for one person! For a young child!”
“It is not a large room. She is just barely old enough to have one of her own, but she likes it. We used to share so I could look after her, but not since she started kindergarten.”
After Avelina was settled, which amounted to taking a few possessions out of one small suitcase, Kelly led the girl into the dining room, where she called Future Green on the video wall.
“Oh, oh, Kelly, that wall, that is, it is a computer.”
“More than just an ordinary one. A very special computer handles the video communications, but the wall can also be used as a monitor. Here's your new friend. Hello, Future. This is Avelina. I've told her a bit about you, but not about your family.”
Kelly mostly sat and listened while Chure and Avelina talked. They talked mostly about technology. The Brazilian girl had read about a lot of it, but seen little. She would see much more Monday morning, when Kelly took her to Social Tech High.
That night the two girls sat up late, talking. “I know nothing of this school of yours. It is supposed to be very famous, but I have not been able to read about it. All our schoolbooks were old and we had no newspapers. The school had an old computer, but no Internet.”
“You will like it. Everybody there is very compatible with at least two other people. It used to just be one other person, but Mommy and Dr. Grey have filled in the gaps.”
“Your mother?”
“She was principal of the school until a few months ago.”
“Oh, a very important person. She did not seem important, just very nice.”
“Both. She's great. Tell me, Avelina, what did you study at your school in Brazil”
“A bit of everything we had a book for, by myself, and what the teachers taught us. They taught us mathematics and English, mostly. Reading and writing Portuguese first, then English. Do you think mine is good?”
“Very good. I don't know any Portuguese at all, though.”
“I have one other language. An older nun taught me Latin.”
“Hey! I take Latin. I had to pick a language to get started with in Grade Six at my school, and I chose Latin because people told me I should someday read the classics. It was a private school. I don't think kids that young take languages at ordinary schools. When did you start studying Latin?”
“A valde diu abhinc , Ego non vere memor. Forsit annus Ego coepi schola. Ego eram super septem annus vetus.”
“Oh.”
Kelly thought it would be nice to generate some music that they would both enjoy — “Hey, Avelina, we could merge our, oh, you wouldn't have a playlist, of course. We generate new music from a library of existing music. I can do that, because I have a collection of music that I like to listen to. I guess you will have, in a while.”
“I know songs.”
“Oh, hey, wait, there is a transcriber on the system. Sing a song and it will turn it into Midi that the music generator can read. Maybe we can do that in a while.”
“I have not heard of this music generator. How can a computer be creative? I love to think about what technology can do, but I don't think it can do art of any kind. Not real art.”
“We agree. The generated music lacks a kind of creativity, but it is fun to listen to. It can be inspiring, if the source music was inspirational. But it is all based on human creativity. It combines what people have done into new combinations, but is not really creative itself. Just a sec. I mean second, I mean wait a moment. I have to talk to my mother. Come with me.”
Kelly ran into the main hall and tapped on the door to her parent's bedroom, which was ajar. Drake said to come in, which Kelly did right away. Avelina hesitated outside. Drake and Sally were both dressed for bed, in bathrobes, Sally with a nightgown under hers. Peeking in, Avelina saw Kelly's father sitting at a computer, while her mother lay on the bed reading a book. The girl blushed when she saw Drake's bare legs below the robe, and tried not to think about what it might be covering.
“Mommy, Daddy!”, Kelly said right away, “Avelina has no playlist, no music library, nothing. Is there some way I can download the playlists of all Brazilian people except the really cosmopolitan ones? Can I do a weighted merge of them? More weight on the ones they have in common but not excluding any?”
“Um, let me see”, Sally began. “Yes, almost all anyway. Only a few students keep their playlists private, though a few keep some songs private. Probably the dirty ones. There is a search function.”
“And yes”, Drake continued. “A weighted merge is possible. But I'd suggest you use weights it so that you are in effect taking what they have in common minus what the school as a whole does. To eliminate all the pop songs that everybody likes but are not very Portuguese.”
“So I can generate a music library for Avelina, to start with, anyway? A playlist she can edit? Can you show me? I mean show us?”
“Let's go to the dining room and use the video wall as a monitor”, Sally suggested, putting aside her book.
Sally subdivided the screen, so that the left half was an overhead view of her hands on her keyboard and monitor, taken with one of the cams that came with the video wall. The right hand side was synched to her own small monitor, which Sally ignored.
“Here. We press Help, pick School Software, pick Music, pick Playlists, pick Search, then Collect. Type in Brazilian Portuguese students. There's a list of students, pick Merge All. Hit Help again. Select Arithmetic Operators, Frequency Weighting, Arithmetic Operators again, Subtract, then ignore the playlist name box, just click on School Mean.”
Avelina sat there, utterly dazzled. Technology beyond her wildest dreams!
“OK”, Kelly said. “I can take it from here”. She pressed Save As, typed in Brazil Minus Us, pressed Generate, then Play. Immediately sounds emerged from the hidden loudspeakers behind the screen and a few elsewhere in the room.
The music that emerged was Latin, of a flavour Kelly did not quite recognize. The Portuguese lyrics were Markov-generated too, rather poetic and almost making sense. Avelina listened in wonder.
Kelly left the music running, but typed some text which showed up on the screen in large letters. “Tomorrow you can do a merge with mine, and then another one with Future's. You will like the results, I promise. No, wait, you should edit the playlist first. That will take a while. No rush.”
After listening for a while, the girls went back to bed, but talked for hours. Avelina was tired out, as travellers always are, but just had to talk to her new friend. The next day, Kelly took Avelina out to see the city.
Stunned by New York in the dusk of the previous evening, Avelina loved to look at it in the morning light. There were not so many tall buildings were she now lived and would go to school, but she could see and admire the enormous ones not far away.
The first stop on Kelly's sightseeing tour was the Technological Fantasies office. The original office had once belonged to an accounting firm. Not large, it had a reception area behind a front window, with several small offices in the back. Now the organization was taking over space in the building above it as leases expired. Right above the ground floor was a large open area being converted into a museum of technology – past and future. Avelina spent so much time in this museum that the rest of the tour would have to be postponed.
Future Green had called earlier, at what should have been lunch time, but Avelina was still in the technology museum at that time. Chure left a message, but it would go unanswered for a while. Sally had bought a powerful cellphone as a present for Avelina, but had been planning to give it to her at lunch.
When the girls finally arrived home it was 4 PM. Drake was due home by 5:30. Sally decided to wait. When Drake arrived the couple presented Avelina with her new toy, a computer of great power packed into a handheld phone. Having just marvelled over such an item at the technology museum, Avelina was overwhelmed to have one of her own.
The school was in an older building which had been renovated inside and out. Only a warehouse before renovation, it was not altogether unattractive on the exterior and had been made attractive inside. The ground floor had a high ceiling above the entrance hall, which was beside the gym. There were rooms on the ground floor and on a mezzanine floor on the other side of the hallway. There was an elevator and escalators.
Kelly rightly assumed that Avelina had never been on an escalator, so she took the girl up the escalator to the mezzanine, then back down to the ground floor. There, Kelly led Avelina into the school office, for simple registration tasks, which included the production of a photo ID card. While there, she named and briefly explained some of the office equipment.
Kelly next showed Avelina to a locker where she could keep books and supplies. To the Brazilian girl's delight, the locker contained not only a few books but one of the laptop computers which the school issued to scholarship students.
“It is equipped with the school's software and has a wi-fi connection to the school's system. The user help system is very complete. See this button here? It is a help button. I will give you context sensitive help, which usually includes a search box and a menu of other help locations. There is enough help built in that you could learn all about it from the machine itself, but I will teach you how to use it.”
“Please, Kelly. Let me teach myself, first. I will accept your help when I need it, but I will learn more if I study on my own and try out what I learn.”
“Smart girl. That's the right idea.”
Avelina was not in Kelly's homeroom class, but was in the same class at the end of the day, the class based only on compatibility, not age or grade. She replaced another girl, who would be missed but never far away in the school.
“May I introduce my new friend and roommate, Avelina Azevedo, from São Paulo, Brazil. Avelina, would you like to say something about yourself?”
“Yes, Kelly, and thank you. I come from a poor place beside a rich city. Our school had few books and no computer, but I learned everything that was in the books we had. I am most interested in technology and in the future. Mostly I am interested in future technology and what it will do for the world. I hope it will change the world so that nobody has to be poor like the people in my favela.”
The others spoke kindly to Avelina, turning the conversation to her interests instead of probing into her background. They too hoped the future would have no poor places in it. They shared her hope that technology would make the difference.
“Nobody had told me the name of the school where I would be going. Perhaps they were all keeping it a secret, to surprise me. I don't know. But when I saw the name on the building my head spun with delight. The Social Technology High School. I am so happy now.”