Alice Ames had begun writing in the school paper about the available social technology systems to help her cohorts enjoy the kind of life she was now leading, which included a satisfying sexual relationship. The information she provided was often about how to get around the limitations imposed on the systems from outside. Having made an impact with these articles, Alice continued to write about using those systems in ways not intended by their authors.
These newspaper articles were available online, as were the newspapers themselves. That was the preferred delivery methods, actually, though for school use some were printed up on paper. Many people who used the Internet picked up on Alice’s articles, which were linked to over and over again. They became very popular.
It was in response to this that Alice was invited to an in-person meeting of the people who had created the big social software systems.
This time the meeting was held in New York, at the huge apartment of Sarah Rivers. Beth Green attended, as expected, but so was her father, Ken, who had received an invitation, but had not been expected to come.
Ann Kelly, Sally Aston and Drake Phillips were there. Don and Helen Walker from Project Match had flown in to attend.
Alice felt like she was being called on the carpet for her naughty behaviour, but this was not exactly the case.
“You’ve served us well, young lady”, Ken Green said, taking control of the meeting. “We could never act in a subversive way. Our software has always had a subversive potential, but we could never have drawn that to people’s attention the way you have. I appreciate it.”
Alice was surprised. “But won’t there be a reaction, pressure to change the software?”
“There has already been, as you probably know. But we are too firmly entrenched. What we offer is used in every country around the globe. No one government could get away with forbidding the use of capabilities available to people around the world.”
Don Walker added a comment. “For years we have had individual users who have made use of the systems without fully exploiting them. I suppose they are a bit intimidating. Now you have been teaching the world how to use them in new ways. Even better, you have spurred imitators around the world to do the same.”
Proud of Alice, Sally Aston said, “I believe this girl of ours has become an expert on social technology. She understands the school software better than I do. She’s talked me into letting her make some changes to it.”
“Alice has been my friend since the school first linked us together”, Ann Kelly said. “I often consult with her on things. More and more I consult with her about our software and its use. We have a large staff, you know, many of whom work on our software, but I have learned more from my conversations with Alice than from talking to any of them.”
“In short”, Ken said, “I think you are one of us now. Does anyone disagree?” Nobody did.
“What does that mean?”, Alice asked.
“Somebody has to anchor things down”, Don Walker said. “We all have developers. But we cannot let things drift too far. Years ago we came together and discussed ways to merge our databases. Later we discussed ways to unify our software. We’ve divided the work between us. When problems arise, we work on them together. In the long run it is this group of people who set policy.”
“I get the feeling you might be trying to co-opt me. I have served as a critic and helped people get around the limitations of your systems. Now it seems that you want to bring me into your policy making group so that I will no longer be in a position to criticize.”
“But you are more than a newspaper reporter, Alice, much more”, Ann said. “I think what we are seeking is a two-way flow of information. We want to tell you the direction we are heading first, before anyone else gets it. You will be free to report and exploit what we tell you. In return, we’d like suggestions from you about how to improve the software. And when we get together to make decisions, we’d like you to be here with us.”
“As long as that is entirely unofficial and nobody even knows about it, then OK. I have to be free to write about what users can do with the system, even if none of you want that.”
“I think we do want it”, Ken said. “I think we want the subversive potential of the systems to be open knowledge. As I said, we cannot do it. Beth and I are Green family members, and her system is legally owned and operated by my corporation. The Tech Fantasies software is legally their property, though in fact theirs and ours are now based on much the same code.”
“I rewrote much of my system’s code using their software libraries”, Beth said. “And their software is now based on the result. But from a legal point of view they are distinct systems. Project Match is more concerned with human interaction, and especially in constructing the largest and best collection of questionnaire questions. Legally they services they offer are provided by their non-profit organization, though they use our software now.”
“So we are all one big project in one sense”, her father said. “Legal responsibility is another matter. We are each liable in different ways for the different services we supply. We cannot tell people how to use them to get around the legal systems of any country. But you are an outsider. You own no service, offer nothing except user advice. That gives you complete independence. You are free to say what you want.”
“Including what you want me to say.”
“We could tell you what we want, but it would be up to you whether to write about it or not. You could help us implement social policies which none of us could do alone, because of our legal responsibilities as service providers. For example, suppose we felt that challenging the structure of US government and the legal system was important. Furthermore, suppose that the system included support for that. For example, suppose it could produce effective organizations of activists. Suppose it suddenly became easy to get proposals put forth as questions for a public referendum. I don’t think we could advertise these capabilities. You could.”
Sally went on to explain further. “By showing kids how to get around the limitations against underage sex, for example, you have taken the pressure off not only the school but our services as well. We cannot be held responsible for devious methods some people use to get around our safeguards. You can help use take get around other problems as well, in similar ways.”
“I don’t know, Dr. Aston. I just don’t know. You are not being specific enough, probably with a good reason. Let me put it this way. If any of you wants to communicate with me, I will listen. If you hold a meeting like this, I will attend. I not reveal my sources for anything I might write. If I do tell people about getting around the system, however, that might be something you don’t want. I won’t listen to attempts to shut me up. Not even from you, Dr. Aston.”
This satisfied everybody. The meeting dissolved. Alice went home, puzzled. What had that all been about, really?
Something did change, however. Usually it was Ann Kelly who hinted, during one of their regular contacts. Here was a topic Alice might want to write about. Nothing more than that. Just a hint. Nothing about what to write, just a suggested topic. Useful, really, for someone who liked to put out interesting content on a regular basis.
There were always things that the providers of big social software systems apparently did not want you to do. For example, they apparently did not want their systems to be used for political purposes. The systems did not seem to support searches for ways to attack political figures. But they could.
So over time Alice reinvented herself. She was still a person who worked on projects developing software. Now she added the role of user adviser. Usually she decided what to write herself, figuring out something that a user might want to do, something the systems apparently didn’t support, then saying how to do it. But sometimes she did accept suggestions from Ann, suggestions probably originating with the informal group of project leaders.
This continued throughout the fall. Her articles were linked to by people all over the Internet and as they became popular, Alice became somewhat famous in some circles. It would not continue into the summer, when the school paper was replaced with whatever the summer school students chose to publish, but would resume in the fall.
This year passed even more quickly than usual, since Alice’s life was now full. She attended school full time, still did homework in the evenings, and now wrote a weekly newspaper column advising users how to use – and get around – the social software system. She still did volunteer work on weekends, physical work, a great relief from the intellectual activity of weekdays. And this year she also had a steady boyfriend.
Alice and Albert were only of Level Four on the logarithmic compatibility scale, because she had used so many constraints when finding him. But that was more than compatible enough for a good relationship.
They enjoyed each others company all the time, never fighting at all. Even when she dragged him along to do volunteer work on the weekends he did not complain. And the sex was great.
They were too close to separate before it was really necessary, so Albert did not leave for England until near the end of summer. He spent time at the summer school and did more volunteer work with her, having few activities of his own to take precedence.
As the end of summer neared, they made a clean break, not being too sentimental about it. They swore to be friends, but wisely said nothing about being more than friends in the future. One day she just drove him to the airport, stayed long enough to see him off, all very calm, then sat down and cried for an hour.
In the fall Alice Ames started Grade 12, her senior year. Next year she would be at university. One hour a week she went to the course designed for graduating students, to help them prepare for the years beyond high school. Alice was sure she didn’t need that course, but found herself enjoying it anyway. It was in the usual format of a discussion class, which gave her lots of chances to make suggestions to other people.
The school now had roughly 4,000 students, evenly distributed over the six grades. Almost seven hundred students were expected to graduate the following June. Almost all took the special course for future graduates. That meant there were almost a hundred different classes of eight students for the one hour a week classes. Dividing the graduating class of seven thousand into that many smaller classes was a non-trivial problem, but allowed for very compatible classes. The students in any one class had a lot of fun. Alice’s class was filled with students wanting a technical education. Yes, there was more for Alice to learn. Rumours to the contrary, she didn’t know it all. Not yet.
For the duration of this course discussion about university life in general would predominate, but students would also study such things as the syllabus for each technical subject in each of many possible future university. They would compare in detail the course offerings at schools like Princeton, Stanford and MIT, all of which had excellent reputations in the fields which interested Alice the most.
There was another issue this year. The boy problem. Alice had stayed celibate for almost a month after Albert left, but finally weakened and used the Tech Fantasies software to get herself another boyfriend. This time she had no hesitations or fears, so she put on few restrictions. She found herself a serious boyfriend, not just a temporary one, like last year.
Like her, he was interested in technical subjects, though mostly in mechanical and construction engineering. Like her, a senior, he would be going to university the following year. Unlike her previous relationship, this one was with a very compatible boy, a boy who would not just be leaving her behind when he graduated, as last years boyfriend had done. She missed Albert, who had gotten into Oxford and left her with more heartbreak than she had expected.
Alice had planned on him leaving, even wanted him to leave, but was shockingly overwhelmed by emotion when he actually left. Having someone new in her life helped. More than helped.
Actually being a senior was different than Alice had imagined. She did mostly individual study projects, but she was still in several classes with other seniors, for subjects other than her specialities. The students in those senior classes were somehow different from those in previous years. They knew graduation and college were on the horizon, so they applied themselves harder.
The school still sent out homework, to supplement the classes, which were still mostly discussions. The quality of this homework changed, being more of a preparation for standardized tests at the end of the year.
As always, homework was actually mostly in the form of tests, open-book tests, designed to guide the selection of further work. Usually homework was suggested by the school software, subject to revision by the teacher. Alice was used to this by now, though finding it a surprise in her Grade Seven year. She now knew exactly how it worked, being impressed with those who had thought up the system.
It had been Sally Aston herself who had realized that a steady flow information from the students, in the from of answers to such open-book homework tests would be so beneficial. It would help by suggesting careful swaps of students between classes, to better match them with their classmates. It would help the software suggest further homework assignments, and thereby guide the course, and it would reduce the load on teachers.
Since Sally had first put together this system, many teachers had added their suggestions, which had eventually been incorporated into the software. Even Alice had made suggestions, such as having math students write down steps in solving a problem on different lines and feeding the transformations to a symbolic math package. That way a student could not only indicate the answer to a problem, but indicate what steps had been taken to arrive at it. Alice had been in Grade Seven when she proposed this software change, now in use by all school math classes.
As well as the open-book tests which formed most of their homework, students in their senior year had more closed-book tests in class. This would get more information about their actual level of knowledge and help prepare them for standardized tests at the end of the year. After such in-class tests each student’s homework was often adjusted on an individual basis, more often than already done.
This senior year was more intense in many ways, including social functions, which were more common. Dances for the senior class with all external friends of the opposite sex invited were more common.
Alice brought Jason Talbot as her her date to those dances. Her new boyfriend was a senior at the Brooklyn Technical High School, which specialized in preparing students for college level science and engineering. He took the subway to meet her, spending most of their time together in Manhattan. As well as evenings out together, she often entertained him in intimate ways at her house.
Her indulgent mother ignored this activity though secretly envying her daughter’s happiness. Since her husband’s death, 15 years earlier, Sybil Ames had not been able to give herself to any other man.
Alice and Jason both talked about going to MIT after graduation. Preliminary estimates from the Tech Fantasies software indicated this as the most likely recommendation to be made later, when they graduated. This was true both of them, which was both a great relief and a worry to Alice. Selected carefully, Jason was nevertheless not the ideal man for her. She could do better. Loving him, she knew she would not marry him.
During the fall and into the spring, Alice’s famous social software user’s guide helped put the school on the map, but in truth it was already on the map, very much so. Applications for it still continued to pour in, from every part of the globe. It seemed that everybody wanted to study at the school, and those who had were welcome anywhere. Universities around the world sought out Social Tech High graduates.
Universities were now graduating people who had studied at Social Tech. Confident, wise, well educated when they had entered, they left university even more so. Those graduates would have a great influence on the world. They would always look back on their old high school with affection.