Jack of Harts

I really did grow up with the same technology most of you did in International Falls. I wore the same concealed earbuds and contact displays that most people do, and I had a personal assistant that helped me with all kinds of homework. But we never brought our AIs out on the town with us. That would have broken the illusion of wilderness we cultivated for all the city folk. And cybernetic intelligences didn’t really come our way for the same reason. I knew about them, but not many cybers want to get back to a nature they didn’t grow up with. So other than some trips to the big cities, I didn’t have much occasion to know cybers until I signed up to serve during The War. That’s when I met Dixie and Twilight the first time, but I knew they were old school AIs from before Contact. I guess that colored my opinion more than I should have let it. I just thought they were smart programs. Good AIs of the modern sense. It took Betty to change my mind, and that took a while. Probably longer than it should have, but I’ve never claimed to be a genius or anything. And some people have had occasion to call me stubborn. Now I can’t imagine my life without Betty or any of the other cybers I’ve met along the way. That’s a real mindjob, let me tell you.