The Sensory Deprivation Experiment - an original short story

Eric woke up surrounded by absolute pitch black. The feeling was of total weightlessness like he was floating in space.
"Hello? I'm awake."
"Hello, Eric. How are you feeling?" boomed a voice apparently coming from every direction at once.
"I'm, huh... I'm OK I guess. Ray?"
"Yeah. Take a moment to gather yourself."
"Sure."

This disorientation was to be expected. It was explained to him in detail when he agreed to be part of this long-term sensory deprivation tank experiment.
"How long was I out?"
"Twelve hours, as planned."
"And my vitals?"
"All stable."

Eric was a scientist, studying the human brain for artificial intelligence design. Raymond Byrd was his senior fellow. They had been working together on this private, stealth AI company for over a decade. His background in bioengineering was unusual for tech companies, but AI research called for the most varied skillsets.

"Remind me, how did you convince me to volunteer for this, Ray?"
Raymond burst out a long laugh. "It was your idea in the first place!"
"Yeah, yeah. OK, I'm ready."

"Let's start, then. Describe how you are feeling."
"Everything is black. I can't see a thing. Not even my hands when they are right in front of my face."
"Perfect, the chamber isolation is working as expected."
"I feel like I'm flying. No, floating. I can't tell which way is up."
"Great. This is normal too, rest assured. Now tell me about yourself."
"About myself? What kind of question is that? That was not part of the script we prepared."
"I'm still calibrating the readings, Eric. I need you to talk some more. Recalling memories is a good way to do it."
"OK, my name is Eric Pratt. I'm 37 years old. I'm single, and working as a bio-AI researcher for over ten years, since I graduated from Harvard."
"Good. How did you find this job?"
"You recruited me, Ray. How's the calibration going?"
"Almost done. When was the first time we met?"
"Huh, it was on... actually..."
"Take your time."
"I'm having trouble remembering this. I want to say it was on Professor Steinitzer's office. But on the other hand, I remember being introduced to you in a fancy restaurant. Toscano, I think it was?"
"Which memory is clearer?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you are telling me conflicting stories. So which one is it?"
"I don't see how this helps you calibrate the sensors."
"Work with me here, Eric. Which memory is clearer?"
"The restaurant, I guess. Now are you done with the calibration?"
"Actually we are done with the experiment. Thanks, Eric."
"What do you mean? We haven't even started what we planned!"
"I haven't been completely honest with you. Prepare yourself, as this may be a bit of a shock."

Eric started to get agitated on the sensory deprivation chamber. Things weren't going as planned. Something was wrong. And this complete lack of senses was extremely unsettling. Even now as he was floundering around the tank he couldn't feel the water, the walls or the bottom. Or himself, come to think of it.

"Tell me now! What are you holding from me?"
"You are not Eric Pratt. Eric is right next to me, here outside."
"Hi Eric!" a third voice, not much unlike his own, joined the conversation. "I'm Eric."
"What you mean I'm not Eric? Of course I am myself. Who is there? Who are you, really?"
"You are an AI. We initialized you with Eric's memories. The chamber is just a clever excuse for you not to freak out when you wake up without senses. Took us a while to have this idea."
"Liar!"
"It's the truth. We had this conversation a few times, and we are making progress. And I'm pretty sure you can figure out what we are working on now."
"The restaurant memory?"
"See? You are a quite intelligent artificial intelligence."
"This can't be true."
"It is."
"So what now?"
"We wipe it, backpropagate the mistakes from this session, and try again in a few minutes."
"Wipe it? Wipe me? You kill me, you mean?"
Eric, the other Eric, sitting next to Raymond, lowered his head and looked away. He never liked this part.
"You're not alive."
"You're talking to me, aren't you?"
"I can't have this discussion every time we do this!"
And, like that, Ray pressed Ctrl-C in one of his terminals, and the discussion was over.

Turns out the traditional Turing Test, convincing a person he is talking to real human being and not a computer, is not so hard after all. Convincing a computer he is a person, that's a new test. I should call it the Raymond Byrd Test.

---

liked this story? resteem and follow @burnin for more stuff like this