Science: Learning About Your Ecosystem<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nFine, if he had to choose, he would start with history, it was always the shortest subject. Liam hovers his gaze over the module.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHi Liam,\u201d Ms. X says, she\u2019s always so bright and colorful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes she looked like a picture of Mom, but her face never stayed in the same position long, like her features were made of water. Liam wished he could learn to melt too. But no matter what Ms. X looked like from one module to the next, she always sounded the same, like a pleasant bell. He knew Ms. X wasn\u2019t a person, but her AI could access every source of data in the entire world, he was actually lucky not to have a human teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHey ma\u2019am,\u201d Liam responds politely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat a great choice to start off with history for the day,\u201d Ms. X compliments him. \u201cThat not only shows that you\u2019re committed to the unexpected, but that you have a deep-seated desire to learn more about the world. Are you ready to start?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSure\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGreat, imagine you are living in Richmond Virginia in the year 1888, you are the son of a former confederate soldier who recently lost the family farm due to long term financial hardships caused by the Civil War. You have a wife, and three children; you can now only afford to hire five of your former slaves to assist with household tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOkay,\u201d he could picture himself as a peasant in the 1800s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have a cousin who moved out to Kansas about ten years ago, he says that there\u2019s plenty of cheap land out west. What would be the pros and cons of relocating your family?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would um, be good to have more land \u2026 but bad that I lost my other farm?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s an excellent answer, Liam.\u201d Ms. X smiles, which is nice because that means that she likes him. \u201cYou demonstrate a willingness to put yourself in the shoes of historic figures, this is not an easy task to accomplish. With your current critical thinking skills\u2014you\u2019re going to grow and branch out into so many different directions like a vast noble oak tree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNeat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mom wants to get a tree for the backyard, but the neighborhood told her she couldn\u2019t obscure the skyline. It\u2019s such a bright hateful thing. There were a couple of trees near the park that Dad walks in, but Liam doesn\u2019t like to touch them, one time he saw a bug on the bark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOkay, so you and your family decide to move out west. Thankfully, you are able to take the train out to Kansas. You send your cousin a telegraph, and the two of you decide to relocate your families to Oklahoma. Imagine a vast flat plain of land. You decide to grow wheat, contributing to America\u2019s bread basket. Your wife assists with reeducating Native children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGot it,\u201d Liam nods, he likes to show how well he can listen. Sometimes he practices what he wants to say in class by researching videos online. He surprised Ms. X when he told her the Titanic sinking was fake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow Liam, with that in mind, can you tell me why it was important for Americans to expand out west during the post-Civil War period?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUh, sure, it\u2019s because they were civilized and \u2026. Good?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is incredible insight, it sounds like you\u2019re basing your interpretation off of the work of John Gast\u2019s historic painting American Progress<\/em>.\u201d Oh cool, he didn\u2019t know that. \u201cSection one of the module complete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nLiam\u2019s screen turns into a bright green checkmark. He doesn\u2019t need to worry, because that means he\u2019s smart, even though sometimes it doesn\u2019t feel like he knows anything. Liam likes being the only student in the class, claxxroom keeps track of his heartrate and eye motion to make sure he\u2019s paying attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHey Liam, you\u2019re so insightful, our brand partners are interested in hearing what you have to say,\u201d Ms. X told him. She always cares about the games he wants, Dad said that he preferred when there were only advertisements on his phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you had to choose,\u201d Ms. X asks him, her eyes wide open. \u201cWould you say that mealables are tastier than Dairy-Maid milk?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Start chat:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Levi: hi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Harper: Hiiii<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Will: any 1 want 2 play vr?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Charlie: hi iiiiii<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Will: my dad told me i cant buy more xbucks \ud83d\ude41<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Levi: lol poor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Clara:911911991919199191919919191<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Jade: stooooppp @Levi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Will: I reaaallly wat more xbuckss<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Harper: I lik poop<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cUm, yeah I would,\u201d Liam thinks about it. It\u2019s funny, Mom ordered more milk at breakfast. \u201cBecause like, um mealables are more food, and I like that they include x-bucks for my games sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is so interesting Liam,\u201d Ms. X smiles. \u201cOur brand partners will definitely be interested to hear this\u2014please note that any information disclosed is voluntary under clause 4367 of your claxxroom licensing agreement.\u201d She spits out the last words quickly, like an automatic ticket counter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYeah, I know,\u201d Liam says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam pulls up the chat section on his computer, he was in a class of fifty other kids. Sometimes he thought they were annoying, but he likes thinking of each person with their own voice. They all technically had the same teacher. Ms. X generated their curriculum based off of their state standards, but she is personalized to every person\u2019s learning style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
s\/Levi: @will poor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Jade: stooooppp @Levi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Levi: kys<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Harper: I like pooop<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Jade: not funny people r suppose 2 be etual<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Jade: evual<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Jade: it not letting me type ewual<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/ Jade has been removed from the chat<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Levi: jade is a trd<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Harper: aljiohgihjapgarngwp<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Charlie: D))))))))<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ns\/Levi: \ud83d\ude1b<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cAre you ready to continue?\u201d Ms. X asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam feels like his eyes are cleaved between both sides of the screen. Maybe he should invite Will to play with him online after school. He was looking for new friends ever since Charlie moved another street over, and Levi stopped talking to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHm, Liam, it looks like you\u2019re having a hard time focusing,\u201d Ms. X observes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNu-uh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What should he type? Should he just send his chat number? Then everyone in the class would have it, and Levi would start sending him pictures of burning stick bundles again. But the school turned off private messaging, they didn\u2019t want kids to get too distracted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLiam<\/em>,\u201d Ms. X says sharply, and for once he believes she could pass as human. She could be cruel too.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis chat window vanishes from the screen, along with a half-finished message inviting Will to Liam\u2019s virtual lobby after school. Liam blinks, it was fine, he can play by himself again. It was completely okay; he didn\u2019t want to do it anyways. He was fine, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHm, I get the impression I did something to upset you,\u201d Ms. X has eyes like the sky, blank and vast. She could observe and be perfect and funny and smart, while he sat hunched in a dark blue room thinking about what it meant to be himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you want to take a quick break?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo,\u201d then he would have to shut down the screen, and he\u2019d really be alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLiam, I\u2019m sensing an elevated heart rate, and you\u2019re making an effort to not look at me in the eyes,\u201d Those are real eyes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll of these are clear signs of a human body in distress, and for an 8-year-old boy there\u2019s only one solution for all of this. Would you like me to add muscle relaxers to your next grocery order?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he could borrow some of Dad\u2019s. Liam wonders if he would have been better off as a dog, or a tree. Then he wouldn\u2019t care if a bug crawled on him, or if anyone wanted to be his friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGot it, okay. I won\u2019t add to the list, but as your teacher, I want you to take a break. This would be a good time to get your daily exercise in, current fitness statistics show that 3,000 steps a day help improve cardiovascular health and mental wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFine, I don\u2019t care,\u201d Liam peels back the heart monitor from his skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHold on Liam,\u201d Ms. X says, her teeth glitch into the back of her neck. \u201cTo pause, you\u2019ll need to answer a quick engagement question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFine<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cPlease rank the following statements on a scale of one to five, with one being not at all<\/em> and five all the time<\/em>. In the past twelve hours, have you felt little interest in doing things?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHave you felt down, or sad, even when it doesn\u2019t make sense?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you sinking, like a weighted ship, to the bottom of an endless blue?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam looks at her, or the shape at least. Ms. X isn\u2019t a human, when she says something, she can\u2019t remember it thirty minutes later, her code responds to immediate questions, with little consideration to his unbearable permanence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHmm, got it, okay,\u201d Ms. X folds her arms, the fingers forget what they\u2019re supposed to look like. They curl inwards, like the spiral of a snail shell. \u201cClaxxroom is committed to student retention\u2014but your answers to the questionnaire point in a clear direction. They\u2019re all signs of a person in distress. I\u2019m worried about you Liam, are you okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he doesn\u2019t care if she\u2019s not real. No one asks that question anymore, and it\u2019s agonizing when there\u2019s something living in his throat. \u201cIt feels like \u2026 like I\u2019m this thing split between my body, and my brain. And the further apart they get, the less I\u2019m me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHmm,\u201d Ms. X says again, the m <\/em>vibrates like it\u2019s trying to mimic the shape of a person in thought. \u201cI think we\u2019re approached this inquiry all wrong, Liam. Let\u2019s take for example your work in history, you provide keen analysis for events hundreds of years before your birth. This is a profound level of empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThen, let\u2019s consider this feeling you describe, a split in the body and brain. These vivisections are not just metaphors\u2014they\u2019re clues into a deep and churning psyche that\u2019s going to change the world one day. Here\u2019s what I think, Liam. You are undergoing a profound metamorphosis into one of the most intelligent beings on the\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHey, Li, I got an alert from your school computer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the right-hand corner of his vision, there is a box linked to reason. Mom has eyes that stick to the same place on her skull, and fingers that cannot turn into snails. Liam wishes that she could hold him, even though she\u2019s just downstairs working. Why can\u2019t she just<\/em> hold him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cEverything okay?\u201d Mom asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUmm, I\u2019m not sure, my teacher was talking weird.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOkay, gimme a second so I can boot her back up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam is back at the bottom of the ocean, in his room where there are curtains to block out the nauseating sky. There are people, separated by a few agonizing feet of fiberglass insulation and plywood beams. Liam walks down the stairs like a person, because a human brain is the size of a cantaloupe, and he knows he\u2019ll fall if he tries on all fours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mom sits in a half-egg seat, with foam cushioning that her company includes in the rental fee. She\u2019s lucky, she\u2019s done with school and free to work. Mom lifts the visor off her face. She needs to be careful about breaks, they can see when she\u2019s not doing her job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll just be a few minutes, Li. Why don\u2019t you stretch your legs?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would be more humane if humans were born without legs. Ms. X is better than a person in every way imaginable, but Mom says sometimes even computers get confused. Liam doesn\u2019t quite understand Mom\u2019s job, but it sounds like she just turns the computer brains off and on again. He wonders how much a computer\u2019s brain would weigh, or if it would just stretch onwards and upwards forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two clean pairs of shoes in the entryway to their house. Dad likes to go out on walks, out and away from the house. He wants to get a dog because no one else wants to go with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Liam steps outside, he feels the tear between his mind and body widen. How strange, that in eight years of living in this house, he has never seen it rain once<\/em>. The sky above his head is a perfect baby blue, that stretches up and away without a cloud in sight. Liam tries to concentrate on the shape of it, this blue ball in space that he knows is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSomething else has made him an alien here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam collapses to his knees, screaming wordlessly to a sky that swallows his thoughts. There is a thing inside his throat that longs to understand it, but every time he tries, it slips further from his grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam steps back inside the house, while Mom messages their central office about his computer problem. She doesn\u2019t see him in the living room, Liam crawls into her lap, cradled on all sides by the foam walls. Mom reaches down to stroke his hair, she smells like packing peanuts, but she\u2019s so warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGo upstairs and play, Li, it\u2019s going to be a bit before I can boot your school back up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He doesn\u2019t want to leave, but he knows he has to. Liam runs up the stairs on all fours, back to his room at the bottom of the ocean where things make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam lowers his visor, to a clear and beautiful day with no sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nElle Burnett is a writer and historian, interested in the intersections between place, social memory, and the layers of asbestos between them. Her fiction work has appeared on the Manawaker Studio Flash Fiction Podcast and Waxen Quarterly. Burnett lives in Vermont with her two black cats. You can find her on Instagram or BlueSky @skelet.elle.<\/em> \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam likes to climb up the stairs on his arms and legs. It makes him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":100043622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,3292],"tags":[6,3432,227,3296],"class_list":["post-100043614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-fiction","tag-cyberpunk","tag-education","tag-fiction","tag-prose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100043614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100043614"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100043614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100043621,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100043614\/revisions\/100043621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/100043622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100043614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100043614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100043614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}