The Humanity Engine

"It's not telepathy," the young man explained. How many times had he explained this already? The answer came, unbidden: twelve times, to twelve different people, three of whom had never believed him -- two simply hadn't understood, couldn't understand; and the third had simply been pretending to listen. He had known that at the time, and he knew it had shortened his temper when trying to explain, but it had been a necessary burden -- without that third, the young man would never have reached this: lucky number thirteen, Ms. [needs a japanese name]. Who, so far, was listening and nodding.

"Yes, Will, I believe you -- you should know, after all," she said. "But what I'm trying to say is it's functionally equivalent."

"Only if I know what questions to ask," Will retorted. "For instance, I couldn't tell you if someone was injured nearby unless I asked myself that question every few seconds. And I'd have to define 'nearby', while I was at it, otherwise I'd just get every injured person on the planet who was near anyone else. The knowledge doesn't just come to me, I have to will it."

[japanese name woman] frowned. "How much have you experimented with this? Have you tried, to use your example, asking yourself to notify yourself when someone was injured near you in the future?"

''Incomplete, it's just a start -- I wanted to write something titled "The Humanity Engine" and didn't want to forget I had the idea. Curious what'll come of it.''

''Also, need to find a Japanese female name and a last name... the last name need not be Japanese also; I'm actually inclined to go American or something.''