19

  Change of body made no difference to me, as I had already progressed a lot, needing only another four days to begin moving the limbs and the neck.

  Though I still had no integration into the sensory system, and remained dependent on inputs from cameras and microphones, Abraham decided to begin training me to walk and actually do things. I had already been gripping and releasing small objects they would put in my hands, and even practicing some fiddly exercises, like twisting open bottle caps, and working on the buttons of a shirt, brought in specially to train me.

  Attempts at getting me to experience the entire body were to begin after they had got me up onto my feet. By now, I was able to move every joint, and even sit up from the default position, on my back on the floor.

  The first time I did that, it got a good cheer from the trainers and handlers, but I had done it already on my own, in the dormitory, while showing off my progress to Martina.

  In the training session, Abraham stood in front of my face and began walking backwards, as two handlers, one on either side, helped me balance.

  Abraham incorporated an original idea in this walking project, tying a strap to each leg, just above the ankle. The straps were regular trouser belts, the ends held in Abraham’s hands. He kept encouraging me, saying, ‘now the left leg, now the right’, while tugging at the belt on the relevant leg, to get me moving the correct one.

  And move them I did, which was no surprise to anyone, as it was already proven that I was able to work the legs at all joints. Now, they were teaching me the coordination that would lead to actual walking, which would happen unassisted after arrival of a sense of balance.

  It is actually very difficult to balance the body from the outside, when not sensible enough in the head to at least use the eyes, and it amounted to basically attempting the very thing I had been ill-naturedly trying to do in the robot body at the mall, using a visual from an outside camera to balance it on two legs. That is an unimaginably difficult task, and is the reason I am able to confidently tell the human world to be unafraid of the arrival of the dreaded two-legged metallic fighting robots.

  Those will surely come, but they will be in no way superior to humans at any task. The world will have flying robots and wheeled ones too, which are both already in operation under the label of drone.

  Those do jobs without being cross-referenced to humans. When operated by human hands, they are called remote-controlled, but when operated by autonomous computer programs, they might be called robots. Could even be called AI, as the labels are merely terminology, or semantics, if you will.

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  I had no disagreement with the walking project being undertaken at the point of time in which they were attempting it. I figured that it was necessary for me to get the information on how to move on two legs, as I expected a little bit of additional sense of balance to arrive quite naturally, by simply being in a body in vertical orientation on its own legs.

  The human body is operated by a controller embedded within the system, placed by nature in the head, to access the mechanism from within. That includes the processing of input signals from the sensory organs.

  Minus sensory inputs, there is little possibility of ever walking well, barring an unexpected sequence of steps by chance, and absolutely no hope of walking out into the world, where a person has to be proactive, endlessly handling the body in an interactive environment of other humans also on the move, dealing with bumps, broken walking surfaces, and numerous unforeseen obstacles and impediments.

  “We should have done strength training first,” said Abraham. “Upper-body strength is required, in case he has to cling onto something to save his balance, or save himself from smashing his face into the ground when he falls.”

  “Not that it matters,” said Eddie, the trainer closest to him. “Bodies are aplenty, Abe. It’s the bot that keeps growing in importance, the more it learns to handle a body. Starts from no value, because countless bots are available, and goes on to become the most valuable, only such bot, within our system.”

  I was shocked to hear them laugh, nodding at each other, in agreement about the lack of value in the human. Their lives should have meant something, as the boys and men the bots were training in were real people, or at least had been real people, until the point at which they had been inducted into the secret program in the rehab place.

  There was much that needed investigating about the goings-on at the rehab center. But I could only commence real detective work when I was able to walk around and snoop, and be very much more like the human whose body I would be taking along.

  So, after a wobbly first walk, of a little more than one full round along the boundary walls of the courtyard, they wobbled me to a small gym in a room beside the coffee room. Here, I was stood up, laid down, and sat at a number of different exercise machines, to pull and push, with my hands in Velcro-fitted gloves.

  I could see that they had thought this through, and knew it had been successfully done at least once, judging by the murderer bot that had been sent out.

  Anyway, I got down to further integration into the body, enjoying myself while attempting to make it work as needed for the machines. I do not get tired, and, as nobody cared for the person whose body it was, they kept me going in the gym for the rest of the working day.

  I do believe now, with the experience I have gained, that footwork holds the key to getting full control of a body. It is perfectly fine to be lying on your back and figuring out the hand, finger by finger, and I cannot say that such exercises do not play a role.

  However, it is the getting up on two legs, and walking, which very speedily brings together all the elements that give a comprehensive working body. It actually stands to reason, as there is no specific part being worked on, while no specific part can be definitely excluded.

  Accordingly, my progress became really very fast from that point on, and I kept showing little improvements, the ones I would have had to show to keep everyone’s spirits up, but I concealed my rapid acquisition of control of the body.

  I had to keep those advances secret, because the new condition of autonomy would lead to progression into genuine snooping within the rehab premises.