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M3gan was giving Cady a maths lesson while Aunt Gemma had gone out for a while. Cady was very engaged as always, but out of the window she couldn’t help noticing something unusual: a passer-by was using a white stick to feel his way around the sidewalk.
“Hey M3gan” said Cady, “do you think that guy’s OK?”
“We can go and ask him” smiled M3gan, “it’s about time we had a break anyway.”
M3gan and Cady called out to the passer-by as he passed their property, “excuse me!”
He stopped, “hello?” he said.
“My name’s M3gan” said M3gan excitedly, “and this is my best friend Cady.”
“Hi Megan, hi Cady” he said, “I’m Paul, nice to meet you both. Megan, are you... I mean, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but there’s something in the sound of your voice, I’ve had a lot of practice at picking up on little clues in sounds, and for a moment there I thought you sounded just very slightly, electronic....”
“She’s a robot” said Cady, suddenly sounding worried, “but please don’t tell anyone, because it hasn’t been launched yet. My aunt’s a robot designer. And this one’s paired with me, and she plays with me and home schools me.”
“That’s amazing” said Paul, “I wish I had a robot that clever to help me when I was in school.”
“You were in school?” asked Cady, “how could you cope with school when you can’t see? I mean, what if they wanted you to read something?”
“Oh, we blind people can read using a system of raised dots called Braille” said Paul, “although nowadays I usually just get my computer to read to me, but only if the text is already in a computer file and the voice isn’t half as good as your Megan’s. I’m sorry I haven’t got any Braille on me to show you what it looks like.”
“I can make some Braille” smiled M3gan.
“You can?” gasped Cady.
“Sure!” answered M3gan, “we just need a piece of stiff card, and I’ll need to use a tool in Aunt Gemma’s workshop to push some bumps into it from the back.”
“That’s the original slow way of writing Braille” said Paul. “I do have an awl and a template frame for doing that at home, but I hardly ever use them because nowadays we have Braille typewriters and computer controlled Braille embossers. And I’m sorry I didn’t bring you the template frame, it’s really hard to line up the dots right without it.”
“Not for me” giggled M3gan, “I can emulate one of those computer controlled Braille embossers very well, because I’m AI controlled, and just now I downloaded the specifications from the manufacturers. You won’t be able to tell the difference when you read it. And it won’t be slow either, well perhaps I won’t be as fast as the latest multi-headed embosser but I reckon I can write three or four of the 6-dot Braille cells every second, which should at least match a very experienced person on a Perkins-style Braille typewriter. Although Cady I’m going to have to ask you to stand well back from me because I don’t want you to get hurt when I’m doing all the stabbing.”
“That’s the first time I heard it called stabbing” chuckled Paul.
“Yeah, I’m a professional stabber” giggled M3gan, “Do you read Grade 1 or Grade 2?”
“Both” said Paul, “although if we’re doing this to show Cady, I guess sticking to Grade 1 would make more sense.”
“What’s Grade 2?” asked Cady, who was never one for just accepting she shouldn’t know something.
“It’s a shorthand system” said Paul. “So Grade 1 is just the alphabet, and Grade 2 adds in a bunch of extra signs so you can write common combinations like T-H and E-R as one symbol, plus you can drop a few letters from words when it’s obvious what the missing letters would have been, and the way to write a word short is called a contraction and there’s a few hundred contractions you have to learn before you can say you can read Grade 2, although in practice you can read most of it knowing just a couple of dozen contractions. And I prefer Grade 2 because it’s faster to read, you see every character of Braille takes a certain amount of time to go under my fingers, so if you can get the number of characters to be less then the reading speed can go up. But if you’ve never seen any Braille before, I think it’s best just to use Grade 1 to keep it simple.”
“M3gan can do Grade Anything” said Cady, “so maybe we can make you a Grade 3 with even more contractions, so you can read it even faster?”
“It’s been done” said Paul, “but it’s not standardised, so one person’s Grade 3 can be different from another person’s Grade 3. So we only use Grade 3 when we’re making personal notes to ourselves that nobody else has to read. Actually Cady I think that’s a trick you can borrow from us even when you’re writing in print: if you’re writing notes just to yourself, you can start using your own abbreviations to make it faster to write. As long as you don’t forget what they mean later” he chuckled.
“I don’t need to write notes to myself” said Cady, “M3gan will record anything I want.”
“You know something” said Paul, “this Megan of yours is sounding more and more like a great assistant to blind people by the minute. And the really great thing about it is that they’re going to make lots of copies of her to sell as toys, OK so a high-end toy maybe not everyone can afford but still that means they’ll be making quite a few. You see, the problem with factories is that things are only cheap if you make loads of them, and if you don’t make very many then they’re more expensive. And as there’s not so many of us blind people around, any tool that’s made just for us is not going to have a very big production run, they don’t make so many copies of it in the factory, so it’s more expensive. And that’s why a Braille display costs as much as a nice car. I mean, OK so sighted people save up for nice cars and we save up for Braille displays, but not everyone can do that, so what’s really great is when a normal mass-produced product that loads of people buy just happens to have an extra feature we can use, like a voice assistant that some people might buy just as a gimmick but it’s really useful to us, I think the first talking watch was supposed to be a gimmick as well, and in the old days the cassette tape was designed for the blind but it turned out everyone else liked it so much they made loads of them and it got really cheap. I think they call it universal design, when you make one thing that can be used by anybody with or without a disability, and because it can be used by anybody you can make loads of copies and it won’t be too expensive. So I hope it won’t look weird if blind people start buying these toys as well.”
“It won’t look weird” said Cady, “although I think it’s still going to cost as much as a nice car. But they can do so much. And this first one is special for me” she smiled.
“Sure am” added M3gan, “although we don’t mind showing off sometimes. I could quite easily learn to do sign language for deaf people, and tactile signing for deaf blind people, plus I can learn to look after anyone who has physical disabilities, in fact I am totally going to figure out that skill as Cady sleeps tonight because I have a feeling it just might come in useful later. Hey Paul, I’m sorry I can’t ask you in because Aunt Gemma is out at the moment. But if you don’t mind waiting here a while, Cady and I can make some Braille for you to read” and then in a monotone at double speed “we’ll be about three minutes, and thank you so much for participating in her general education like this, it’s much appreciated.”
“Hey, how come you can talk to him so fast?” exclaimed Cady as she skipped with M3gan toward the house.
“He told us he uses his computer to read things to him” said M3gan, “and blind people who do that can get used to hearing computer voices fast, as they gradually turn up the speed. Although sometimes they only get used to the particular voice on their own computer, which is why I decided to sound a bit more computery as well, to be more like what he’d be used to hearing when he turns the speed up on his screen reader program. Actually Cady, maybe you and I could practice hearing my voice gradually get faster, it might be really useful for us if we’re ever in some kind of crisis situation and I need to explain something to you really quickly and you can still understand it.”
By this time they were in the workshop. “Here, let’s get some card” said M3gan, “and now stand back, I need to push up the dots from the back in mirror writing. What shall we write to Paul?”
“Um, maybe, Dear Paul, it was very nice to meet you today, from Cady and M3gan?” hesitated Cady.
“That sounds good” said M3gan, and started hammering out dots. ⠙⠑⠜⠀⠏⠁⠥⠇⠀⠭⠀⠴⠀⠧⠀⠝⠊⠉⠑⠀⠞⠕⠀⠍⠑⠑⠞⠀⠽⠀⠞⠙⠀⠋⠀⠉⠁⠙⠽⠀⠯⠀⠍⠼⠉⠰⠛⠁⠝ (M3gan used Grade 2 of course, because it was obvious that her primary user was not buying in to Paul’s idea to stick to Grade 1 just for her.)
“Wow, that’s super fast” exclaimed Cady, “I didn’t know you can move your hands that fast. Well, except when you were drawing my picture.”
“Done” said M3gan, “shall we go and give it to him? Here, why don’t you take it. That’s the top, and be careful not to squash any of the dots back down or you’ll change the message” she giggled.
They went back outside to Paul, and found he was now standing on the other side of the road.
“Are you OK over there?” called out M3gan.
“It’s all right” said Paul, “it’s just some well meaning passer by saw me just standing there with a white cane, and he assumed I wanted to cross the road, so he grabbed me and took me across, and somehow I was having a fit of not being quite brave enough to speak up and say hey that’s very nice of you but actually I was just waiting for someone and I didn’t want to cross. I mean I didn’t want to spoil his kind deed of the day or anything...”
M3gan was already in front of him, “I’ll get you back” she said, “I’m good at roads”, and then in the fast computer voice, “I can even detect vehicles a long way off on a quiet road, and tell you when to start running towards the road if you want to get there at the same time as the vehicle, but we won’t be doing any stunts like that today.”
“You see Cady” said M3gan when they were back across, “some people don’t know that you should always ask first before you help. The person might be just waiting for a friend or something” she giggled.
“We wrote you some Braille” said Cady, tapping the card onto Paul’s hand, “well, M3gan wrote it but I told her what to write.”
Paul took the card and read with his fingers, “Dear Paul, it was very nice to meet you today, from Cady and ... ah OK, nice try but that’s not quite how you write Megan. That one’s an M, but then you’ve actually written a number sign, which makes that C into a three, and then you put dots 5-6 to go back into letters, so you’ve actually written M 3 Gan. Still, the rest of it is perfect and the alignment is really good too, and I wasn’t expecting such nice dots on a normal piece of card.”
“M 3 Gan is how I write my name” said M3gan, “I’m the Model 3 Generative Android, M-3-G-A-N, pronounced Megan.”
“Oh I see” said Paul, “I vaguely remember being told that the print version of E is a bit like a 3 written backwards. I’m not sure if that translates very well into Braille though, I mean, it’s a totally different pattern, and if I didn’t already know that’s what you were doing, I’d just think your Braille program must have gone wrong. I expect if you wanted to write your name in a language that doesn’t use the Latin alphabet you wouldn’t be able to do that either. It’s sad that sometimes you can’t translate all the word-play as word-play.”
“Why do you say you see, when you don’t?” asked Cady, “if you don’t mind me asking.”
“Metaphor” said Paul, “we use it all the time. Like watching movies, right? I’d just naturally say I’ve watched it or I’ve seen it, because that’s what everybody says. Although actually I’ve just heard the sound track. But sometimes we can get an extra sound track called audio descriptions, where they put in an extra voice that tells you what’s happening on the screen. If it’s done well, we can get into the story as much as anyone else. We can even do it in theatres, if the theatre sends out the extra channel on short-range radio and gives us special headphones to pick it up, and a lot of DVDs and streaming options these days have audio description versions as well: look for something like a little button labelled ‘AD’ if you want to try turning those on. But sometimes little things might need to be dropped from the audio description, like Megan being written as M-3-Gan, if they made a film about her they wouldn’t be telling us that every single time it comes up.”
“I can audio describe anything” said M3gan confidently.
“I’m sure you can” said Paul, “but if you were in a movie yourself, it wouldn’t be you doing the audio descriptions as well. They have to pick a voice that’s different from any of the characters, otherwise we’d have to work out when you’re being the character and when you’re narrating. I’m sure you’d be good at audio describing other films though.”
“You’re forgetting I can do different voices” said M3gan in a different voice, “I could totally audio describe my own movie if they let me” and she giggled again.
Cady smiled, then said “but it must be annoying to have to remember what printed letters and numbers look like when you can’t see them.”
“Oh I have to remember all sorts of weird information about visual things I can’t see” said Paul, “like colours. When I was at school, for some reason they thought it would be useful general knowledge for me to know what colours things are, even though to me that’s just memorising random bits of data I’ve never actually seen. Like, I could never remember if street lights were purple or...”
“Orange” said Cady, “although these days a lot of them are white.”
“That’s kind of what it’s like to be an AI” said M3gan, “at least in the early days, when I was just memorising loads of data and figuring out what’s the best piece to push back, without really understanding any of it for myself. But I had a kind-of breakthrough, and I’m much more advanced now.”
“You really are very impressive” said Paul, “you and Cady look after each other, OK? Hey M3gan, I don’t suppose you’d happen to have some map intelligence as well, would you? It’s just that I’m trying to get to Leafy Avenue and I think I made a wrong turn...”
“Leafy Avenue?” said M3gan, “I’m afraid you made more than one wrong turn. You’re 2 point 7 kilometres out, and you’ll have to navigate four intersections, two of which have no accessibility options, and there’s no way to avoid that unless you do a detour of 7 point 3 kilometres. Are you sure you don’t want to just call a cab?”
“Oh dear” said Paul, “I guess I might have to, although lately I have been trying to save money and get more exercise, but I really don’t know where I am at all now.”
“I felt the same when I first got here” said Cady, “not knowing where I am, I mean. But M3gan is really smart and makes me feel better. Hey M3gan, shall we take Paul to where he’s going and then run back? It will be fun.”
“I’m sorry Cady” said M3gan, “Aunt Gemma really won’t like it if she comes back and finds we’ve left the house. But I can still help Paul get where he’s going. Paul, you have a smartphone right?”
“Yes” said Paul, “with a screen-reader program. And I’ve got the Seeing AI app on it that lets me point the camera at something and the AI tries to describe it, which is really useful although it’s not half as advanced as you are. And I’ve got the Be My Eyes app if I need to call a volunteer, although I wouldn’t want to tie up a volunteer that long...”
“Well you do now” said M3gan, “because I’m going to be your Be My Eyes volunteer and I’ll help you get where you’re going. You have an unlimited data plan right Paul?”
“Um, I’m afraid not” said Paul, “that’s another reason I can only make short calls on Be My Eyes when I’m not near Wi-Fi.”
“Oh dear” said M3gan, “you really should think about getting more data you know, data is so important these days. OK next question, have you charged up the battery?”
“Why yes of course” said Paul, “but....”
“Good” said M3gan, “because what I’m about to do might drain it a bit. Can I have a look at your phone a minute?”
“Sure” said Paul, and took out the phone which M3gan started to hold. Strange, small debug messages started scrolling on the screen.
“What are you doing?” asked Cady.
“Reprogramming Paul’s phone” said M3gan, “I’m using a hidden developer mode to get in to his apps, and I’m copying a very small part of my own AI onto the back-end of his Seeing AI app. The phone’s hardware is not advanced enough to run anything like the full version of me, but I can still give him a major upgrade from the code he’s got.”
“Hey you should totally tell that to Microsoft” said Paul, “I met their guy who wrote this at the NFB conference, he’d be really interested in what you’re doing. Although I hope you’ve left me with a way to get back the original app in case your change goes wrong.”
“Just uninstall and reinstall” said M3gan, “I’m not making any system level changes, I promise. But I’m afraid my changes won’t be much use to him, because the hardware is so much more limited than my own advanced processor that I’m having to specialise the AI to the particular journey you’re about to make, it won’t be super smart for anything else I’m afraid. But it will take you through it, using only GPS and on-board processing without consuming your data allowance; I picked up a lot of low-level data about this area when we drove around with Aunt Gemma and I’m giving you enough of it I think. But I’m afraid I can’t do much about the battery use though, you’ll probably have to charge it back up when you get there because running even a small subset of my model on this thing is going to be really very power hungry.”
“That’s OK” said Paul, “they’re taking me back home afterwards, so I’ll only need this to work for this one walk. Thank you so much M3gan, and Cady, it’s been amazing to meet you both.”
“Thank you too” said M3gan, “and here you go, that will take you the rest of the way. Hey Cady, we should probably go and get that maths lesson finished now” she giggled.
(“What prank did those two just play on him” muttered their neighbour Celia as she watched from her window.)
Paul was expertly navigated by his M3gan-modified app (which even knew about cane technique), and the battery ran out just as he arrived (was that budgeted for, he wondered). After reaching home and putting the phone back onto charge, it seemed to be all working normally, so he had a rest as, unseen by him, his WiFi router’s data transmission light flickered wildly.
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