Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Adam and Eve: Interactive Novel

Open your eyes. The first thing you see is your long time girlfriend who you have loved and adorned sitting against the wall crying. With in seconds the background slowly fades into your mind. Both of you are in a room with white tiled flooring, much like a bathroom would have. Although the floor appears to have been recently cleaned, there is no sign or lingering smell of pine or any cleaning detergent. The room is well lit with fluorescent lighting but lacks windows. The room itself is shaped perfectly square with three large mirrors on the sides across, left, and behind you. The ceiling has a mirror on it. On your right however are two plain but metallic doors with no handles. The one on the right says “REG” while the other says “EM”.
(You rush over to your girlfriend to comfort her and ask what she knows)
“Eve. I’m here. Don’t cry.”
(She slows her crying.)
“Where are we? What is this place? How did you get here? Why are we here?”
(She turns to you and kisses you.)
“Do you love me?”
”Of course I do. Now, I don’t know why we’re here. The last thing I remember was last night.”

As the words slip out of her mouth, the memories from the night before come into recollection. You don’t remember the name of the name of the restaurant but you remember you were celebrating your first anniversary. In fact, you were going to propose to her on that night if the weather hadn’t suddenly turned so bad. All you remember is on the way home, driving conditions were absolutely abysmal. The last thing that comes to mind is driving through the rough weather. Then the rest is blank. Looking confused you search for more clues as to what is going on. Looking around you begin to see there is a small contraption or machine in the corner. You begin to wonder why you missed it on you first look around the room.
“I’m going to check out what that thing is in the corner.”
(Eve looks at you with worry with tears still in her eyes.)
“No. Don’t. Stay here.”

If you decide to stay with her, go to Section A. If you choose to go inspect the machine, go to Section B.

Section A


“What’s the matter? Don’t you want to find out more about why were here?”
”You have no idea what that thing is. What if it hurts you? What if kills…”
(She begins to cry again and you remember how much you hate seeing here like this.)
“Ok fine. I’ll stay here right next to you. But we need to figure out something.”
“I know.”
“Ok fine, since you’re firmly against going anywhere near that thing, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. I’m so scared.”
“Hey, I’m here. Don’t worry about anything.”
“I know, but I’m so scared.”

(Something seems odd. In all the years you have known her, she almost never repeats similar sentences. At least not anymore. Now she’s so well spoken that she’d convey her thoughts in different ways using a lush array of vocabulary. This time she seemed to generally repeat the same thing. Maybe it was just situational. After all, who wouldn’t be scared.)

“Ok well let me go check out those doors.”
“Don’t touch them.”
“Ok fine, I’ll just look.”
“Thank you.”

(She seems to have stopped crying almost abruptly. Again, something seems off. Her response, “Thank you” is a bit unusual. As soon as this thought raced through your mind, she softly puts her hand on your arm, almost as if she sensed it. You gently put her hand down and walk up to the doors.)

The doors themselves are made of steel or some metal. It looks just like the ones you’d expect in a video game or science fiction movie, the kind that futuristic laboratories or buildings would normally have. Looking at the edges of the door, they appear to be sliding doors. However, as previously observed, there are no handles or buttons or any controls. The only noticeable features on them are the symbols. “EM” on the left door and “REG” on the right one. The actual location of the numbers are perfectly in the middle in respect to the height and width of each door.
“So how do we go through these doors, and which one do we go through?”
“Let’s go through “REG”
“…and exactly what made you pick that?”
”I don’t know. Why? Don’t you trust me?”

(What a question. How do you answer to that? Yes, it’s an extremely unusual situation and yes, her decision seems more like a random guess. But was it a guess? Her answer was so quick and assertive. And why ask about trust?)

“Well, of course I do. But…I just was…never mind.”
(She smiles at you.)
“So how do we open this door?”
“Let me try something.”

(She walks up to the door she chose and makes a circle with her finger around the “REG.” Nothing happens.)

“Why did you do that…?”
”To activate the door.”
”Activate? Nothing happened.”
”Just give it an hour.”

(You are now more confused about what is going on. How did she know how to open that? Why is she acting so different? Should you try to open the other door in the same way? Why did she choose that door?)


If you choose to open go with Eve through the “REG” door, go to Section C. If you choose to try to open the “EM” door the same way Eve did, go to Section D.

Section C

“How did you know to do that with the door?”
“Oh…I saw some program on the history channel. It was about how in Japan they’re designing these child safe or intruder lock doors.”
(This wasn’t going to go anywhere. You just take accept her explanation. After all, what could you do? Interrogate her? You love this woman remember? )

(You both enter through the door.)

This room is similarly designed like the previous room. The tiles on the ground are clean. The room has no windows but is again well lit by fluorescent light. The room also has a mirror on the ceiling. The room seems to be exactly half the size as the previous room, as though the missing half contains the room that the “EM” door led to. This room also contains two doors. However, these doors have more grave messages on them. The one on the left says “Death” while the other one says “Life.” You feel as though you should pinch yourself out of this terrible nightmare. Again, there is a machine in the corner of the room, more visible in this room due to the smaller size.
“What is going on? Why would somebody do this?”
“I don’t know...”
”This can’t be happening.”
“Let’s go through the left door.
“You want to go through the door that says Death?”
”Yes.”
(Her responses now seemed…artificial. It was as though she knew where to go. But how? Again, as soon as the thought crosses your mind, she puts her arm around yours.)
“Please, just trust me. I would never want any harm to come to you.”
“Look, you’ve been acting very different. I mean, I know this is must be very frightening for you, but it’s also the same for me. You need to tell me if you know anything. I mean, first you don’t let me check the machine when we were in the last room. Then you knew exactly how to open the door. And…”
”I told you, I just guessed about it. I saw it on…”
“Yeah I know, History Channel, Japan, whatever. But why on Earth would you pick the Death door?”
“I just, feel like that’s the door we should go through.”
“You just feel it?”
“Yes.”
(How do you argue against a woman’s intuition? Especially with a woman who you love, who you’d give your name to. But she just seems so…distant now. Like she’s hiding something you don’t know. Do you really trust this woman with your life? Did you almost make a mistake by almost proposing to her? Of all the places to think about such things, this was not the best time. But with such an unusual and possibly life threatening situation, you really have to ask yourself. Do you trust this woman? Would you put the fate of your life in the hands of this person?)
“You seem confused.”
”I very much am.”
“Look, I’m going to ask you this once and only once. And you have to tell me honestly. Do you know anything about what’s going on.”
(She pauses for a brief moment.)
“No.”
(Again, the answer seems so artificial. Like she was processing her thoughts in a such a way that it felt like she was following a protocol. But why?)
“Can I ask you one thing in return?”
“Yeah.”
”Do you love me?”
(Possible life-threatening situation or not, this was a question you were not expecting.)
“Of course.”
”Say you love me.”
”I love you. Do you love me?”
“Yes. I love you.”
“So if we love each other, then let’s go through the Death door.”
(This makes no sense. How can she talk about love and go right back to persuading me to go through the Death door? Should I go with her? Does it even matter after what happened after the first room?)

If you want to follow through the Death door with her go to Section J. If you wish to go through the Life door, go to Section L.

Section J

As you both enter through the door, you enter what originally appears to be a narrow passage. The door closes behind you and the floor begins to move. You both hold each other to maintain your balance and shortly after the moving floor brings you to another door that opens into yet another room. This room is the same size as the last room with the same repeating feature: Floor tiles, fluorescent light, mirror on ceiling, etc. Upon entering this room, you see the door behind you reads “REG Locked”. Another door on the opposite side reads “EM Locked”. However, this room also contains a third door on it with the word “Truth” written clearly near head level. Unlike the other doors, this one is wooden with hinges.
“So what now?”
“There’s only one door we can go through.”
”What about the one’s that say…never mind.”
“Let’s go through the Truth door.”
”Ok.”
Go to Section Truth

Section Truth

As you both enter through the door, a man in a suit is waiting for you. He has a slight smirk on his face, almost as if he was both waiting and happy to see you.

“Mr. Adam, Eve, I’m so glad you made it through.”
”My name isn’t Adam, it’s…WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?”
”Oh I’m sorry, I’m sure you must be filled with questions.”
”I demand to know what is going on.”
”Oh of course, please, have a seat.”
(You’re filled with rage and want to beat down this man. After all he’s done, he has the nerve to keep proper composure as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. Then you notice there are seats available for both you and Eve. Eve. She hasn’t said a word since entering the room. She hasn’t even made any noticeable emotion. What’s wrong with her.)
“Mr. Adam, Let me explain to…”
“Why are you doing this to us?”
“Oh but you haven’t let me explain.”
”Then explain.”
”This may be a little hard for you to bear Mr. Adam, but you see, Eve, isn’t exactly who or even what you think she is.”
“Eve?”
(You turn to Eve and she just looks at you with a smile.)
”Yes, you see, we essentially, created Eve.”
”Created?”
”Yes, she’s proven herself to be our first successful model. With state-of-the-art A.I. and response feature, she has demonstrated that robots can truly assimilate into human culture. They can even, as you have shown us, fill the needs of love? We can even create DNA for them. Imagine the possibilities!”
“No, this can’t be real. Eve! Say something!”
”It’s true. I am who…or what he says I am. I was the fifth one. Project: Eve”
“Eve…no….”
”I’m sorry.”
”Eve, I spent years with you. I…I was going to propose to you. Why didn’t…”
”Adam, I was sent out to see if I can connect with humans. And Adam I did connect with you.”
”Eve, you told me you loved me. You even asked me. Today. Here.”
”I know Adam. But you don’t understand. I…I am sorry if this hurts you.”
“Do you even know what that word means? hurt?”
(Eve lowers her head. A tear rolls down her cheek.)
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but there are matters that we need to attend to.”
”How could you…”
”I understand this is quite a shock for you. But we have been observing you this whole time. In fact, that’s why we brought you here. And from the looks of it, you two have an interesting relationship. Please don’t let the fact that Eve is not human astray you from the fact that you truly feel for Eve.”
“Yes but…”
“But nothing! Based on what we have seen, you to truly do have love for one another.”
“Love? Questioning my trust? Lying to me for years? That’s love? Automated responses? The crying?”
“Adam…”
“Mr. Adam, I must intercede. You are free to feel however you wish to feel. However, we would like to offer you a chance to start over.”
“Start over?”
“Yes. Let me ask you, did you enjoy your moments with Eve? Actually before I continue, I must say that all memories you have of Eve will be erased from you.”
“And what if I don’t want that?”
”Mr. Adam, we are the ones who brought you here after all.”
”So I have no choice.”
“In this regard, no. However, we can have it arranged so that you and Eve just…meet. By serendipity.”
(You look at Eve. She looks at you. She puts her hand on your face. She looks so real. She feels so real.)

If you choose to never see Eve again go to Section Déjà vu. If you choose to meet Eve go to Section Serendipity.

Section B
(You go to the machine. There is a button on it that has “Instructions” on it. You push the instruction. A low robotic voice begins to speak.)

“Welcome. There should be two doors here near me. One, labeled, “EM”, and the other labeled “REG”. The door EM will emit and electromagnetic pulse for anything or anyone that passes through but will open momentarily after activation. The REG door will do nothing to anyone passing through. However, the REG door will take one hour after activation to open. If you would like to enter through one of the doors, please make a circle around the entire symbol using your finger.”

(As you look at Eve, you sense she’s worried.)
”What’s the matter? I’m fine.”
”But I told you not to go to the machine.”
“Eve, I’m fine.”
“Ok.”
“So which door do you want to go through?”
“The REG door.”
”But the machine just said it’s going to take an hour.”
”I know, but I just don’t want to be zapped by any electromagnetic thing.”
”It won’t do anything. And plus, we have no idea where we are. The sooner we get out the sooner…”
“I just don’t want to.”
“Fine.”

(Her responses seem…artificial. They almost feel like they lack life or emotion. Maybe it’s the room. She’s probably just scared.)

“I still think we should try the door that’s faster.”
”You can go if you wish. I’m going to go through the normal door.”
“Why are you doing this? This is no time to…”
”I just can’t go through that door.”

If you choose to go on without her through the EM door, go to Section D. If you choose to go with her go to Section T


Section D

(You make a circle around the EM on the door. The door opens up instantly. Before you go through Eve utters in a soft spoken voice.)

“Pick the Death door if you want to see me soon.”

(Before you can ask her what she meant the door closes on you.)

This room is similarly designed like the previous room. The tiles on the ground are clean. The room has no windows but is again well lit by fluorescent light. The room also has a mirror on the ceiling. The room seems to be exactly half the size as the previous room, as though the missing half contains the room that the “REG” door led to. This room also contains two doors. However, these doors have more grave messages on them. The one on the left says “Death” while the other one says “Life.” You feel as though you should pinch yourself out of this terrible nightmare. Again, there is a machine in the corner of the room, more visible in this room due to the smaller size. You go over to the machine and see this one also has a button labeled “Instructions”. Upon pressing the button you hear the same familiar robotic voice.
“Welcome. There should be two doors here near me. One, labeled, “Death”, and the other labeled “Life”. The door labeled Life will emit and electromagnetic pulse for anything or anyone that passes through but will open momentarily after activation. The Death door will do nothing to anyone passing through. However, the Death door takes a longer path to the next room. If you would like to enter through one of the doors, please make a circle around the entire symbol using your finger.”
(Eve’s last words ring through your head. “Pick the Death door if you want to see me sooner.” Something seemed odd. She usually doesn’t talk like that. At least not now. She used to speak like that when I first met her. She did say English wasn’t her first language. But why is she starting to talk like that now? And why was she so persistent to go through the normal door?)

If you want to go through the Life door, go to Section L. If you want to go through the Death door, go to Section R.

Section T
(You both enter through the door.)

This room is similarly designed like the previous room. The tiles on the ground are clean. The room has no windows but is again well lit by fluorescent light. The room also has a mirror on the ceiling. The room seems to be exactly half the size as the previous room, as though the missing half contains the room that the “EM” door led to. This room also contains two doors. However, these doors have more grave messages on them. The one on the left says “Death” while the other one says “Life.” You feel as though you should pinch yourself out of this terrible nightmare. Again, there is a machine in the corner of the room, more visible in this room due to the smaller size.
“What is going on? Why would somebody do this?”
“I don’t know...”
”This can’t be happening.”
“Let’s go through the left door.
“You want to go through the door that says Death?”
”Yes.”
(Her responses now seemed…artificial. It was as though she knew where to go. But how? Again, as soon as the thought crosses your mind, she puts her arm around yours.)
“Please, just trust me. I would never want any harm to come to you.”
“Look, you’ve been acting very different. I mean, I know this is must be very frightening for you, but it’s also the same for me. You need to tell me if you know anything. And why on Earth would you pick the Death door?”
“I just, feel like that’s the door we should go through.”
“You just feel it?”
“Yes.”
(How do you argue against a woman’s intuition? Especially with a woman who you love, who you’d give your name to. But she just seems so…distant now. Like she’s hiding something you don’t know. Do you really trust this woman with your life? Did you almost make a mistake by almost proposing to her? Of all the places to think about such things, this was not the best time. But with such an unusual and possibly life threatening situation, you really have to ask yourself. Do you trust this woman? Would you put the fate of your life in the hands of this person?)
“You seem confused.”
”I very much am.”
“Look, I’m going to ask you this once and only once. And you have to tell me honestly. Do you know anything about what’s going on.”
(She pauses for a brief moment.)
“No.”
(Again, the answer seems so artificial. Like she was processing her thoughts in a such a way that it felt like she was following a protocol. But why?)
“Can I ask you one thing in return?”
“Yeah.”
”Do you love me?”
(Possible life-threatening situation or not, this was a question you were not expecting.)
“Of course.”
”Say you love me.”
”I love you. Do you love me?”
“Yes. I love you.”
“So if we love each other, then let’s go through the Death door.”
(This makes no sense. How can she talk about love and go right back to persuading me to go through the Death door? Should I go with her? Does it even matter after what happened after the first room?)

If you choose to go through the Death door with her go to Section J. If you choose to go through the Life door, go to Section L.

Section L


The door opens up to another room. This room is the same size as the last room with the same repeating feature: Floor tiles, fluorescent light, mirror on ceiling, etc. Upon entering this room, you see the door behind you reads “REG Locked”. Another door on the opposite side reads “EM Locked”. However, this room also contains a third door on it with the word “Truth” written clearly near head level. Unlike the other doors, this one is wooden with hinges. You figure that out of the three doors available, the REG Locked and EM Locked doors are probably locked, so you enter the only door that seems to be accessible. Go to Section Truth.

Section R

You enter through the door, you enter what originally appears to be a narrow passage. The door closes behind you and the floor begins to move. You hold on and try to maintain your balance and shortly after the moving floor brings you to another door that opens into yet another room. This room is the same size as the last room with the same repeating feature: Floor tiles, fluorescent light, mirror on ceiling, etc. Upon entering this room, you see the door behind you reads “EM Locked”. Another door on the opposite side reads “REG Locked”. To your surprise, Eve arrives through this door, similarly like you, on a moving floor. And just as the door locked behind you, so did hers’. However, this room also contains a third door on it with the word “Truth” written clearly near head level. Unlike the other doors, this one is wooden with hinges.
“So what now?”
“There’s only one door we can go through.”
”What about the one’s that say…never mind.”
“Let’s go through the Truth door.”
”Ok.”
Go to Section Truth






Section Serendipity

You wake up in a bed in what feels like hospital gowns. As you sit up, you are surprised to see that you are in a room with another patient, who happens to be a woman. As you gaze at her in both surprise and curiosity, she begins to wake up. The first thing she does after waking is give you a smile.

“Hi. My name’s Eve.”
“Hi. I’m Adam.”
“Well that’s amusing. Haha.”
“Haha, yeah.”
“Do you know where we are?”
”Actually I was gonna ask you the same.”

Before you can continue on with the conversation, a man in a suit with a briefcase walks in.

“Mr. Adam, I see you are doing better. And I see you have acquainted yourself with Ms. Eve. Oh my! Adam and Eve!”
(Eve smiles.)
”Haha…yeah. I’m sorry, but who are you and what am I doing here.”
”Oh, well, you see, we…I mean, I, found you and Ms. Eve in near a crash site. Luckily you two didn’t sustain any injuries. It’s quite a miracle considering the weather conditions last night.”
“Oh, well thank you very much. I’m grateful Mr….”
“Oh names aren’t necessary. I was just being a good Samaritan. I’d love to chat but I really must get going. Good day Mr. Adam. Good day Ms. Eve.”

That was the last you or Eve ever saw that man again. Both you and Eve become friends and later more than friends. Your only regrets not being able to properly thank that man in the suit with a briefcase for saving your lives.


Section Déjà vu

You wake up in a bed in what feels like hospital gowns. As you sit up, you are surprised to see that you are in a room with another patient, who happens to be a old man. As you gaze at him in both surprise and curiosity, he begins to wake up. The first thing she does after waking is give you a smile. Before you can begin conversation with the man, the nurse comes in.

“Hello. I’m Eve. I’ll be your nurse today.”
”Hi. I’m Adam.”
(You both smile at the coincidence of names.)

After having a conversation with her, you find it hard to shake off the feeling of Déjà vu.

1 comment:

Adam Johns said...

This is certainly your most complete project for this class - after you didn't turn in a draft I didn't you you'd turn in a project at all. Unsurprisingly, it reads more like a rough draft than a finished project. Which is to say: there are interesting ideas here, but they aren't particularly clear, nor do they really dominate the project, even.

For instance, one obvious question that arises: why is this interactive at all? I think that some of the clarity lacking from this story could have been restored with a movement towards a conventional format. You aren't interested, after all, in the possibilities of the interactive form: you're interested in robots. I don't see what the interactivity really gets for you here.

Your descriptions are far too long - you spend exhaustive effort telling us (repetitively) what the rooms look like, and vastly less time trying to imagine either the source or the implications of artificial life. As far as Eve, she seems almost like a caricature, a standard-issue robotic woman. What makes her distinctive? What is her peculiar vision of the world? For this project to reach its potential, it needed to focus more clearly on who she is, where she comes from, what her existence means - instead, most of your effort goes to repetitive conversation and description of rooms.

Interesting ideas, but this *really* needed a draft.