Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #13 April 2015 | Page 157

transfer it into the code - which emulates the functioning of a human brain - for a little while. The computer filters out the bodily functions like breathing and
digesting, and manipulates the functioning of the rest
of the brain to think it’s in a different place. That’s
projecting.”
“And there you have the risks.” Joran was serious. “If
not done properly, manipulating thoughts in people’s
brains can cause disruption in those thoughts, and then
when they are released, they are then incompatible
with that brain, and serious mental illnesses can occur,
including, Jath?”
“Oh, er, behavioural malfunction, such as Acquired
Violent Tendency.”
“Yes, very nasty, and tragic for the individual and their
family. How do we avoid that in modern coding?”
“By precise and detailed coding, and environments
that imitate the physical world as closely as possible.”
Surunel offered.
“Good. Tell me about environments, Keeter.”
“They’re where the person is projected to. It’s another
type of code. It emulates somewhere, anywhere really.
It acts just like what it looks like, so you can hear
things, and feel things if they touch you, but you can’t
change anything, like picking things up, or anything.
Oh dear, I’m not explaining this very well.” Keeter
frowned as she tried to marshal her thoughts. Joran
shook his head,
“You were doing fine, Keeter, it’s a difficult concept
to explain in words.” He turned to the side, “Avatars,
Surunel.”
“Erm, coded bodies for the projected person. They
look how you code them, but also act as if they were
real, I mean physical, bodies. They are receptive, but
not effective, so you can’t do anything, like Keeter
said.”
Jath butted in, “But we’re only going to do the first
part of that; just skimming the surface thoughts. That’s
only copying, so we wouldn’t put them back afterwards. Projecting is different; then you actually have

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to scan and code the whole brain’s activity, and all of
the physical connections, even though you’re not actually removing anything, just holding it.” There was a
wave of n