A geeky story.

OK, I really feel bad about inflicting this geekish nonsense on you all but I read this post on artificial intelligence about a month back and felt compelled to write this excuse of a story. I promise, I will make up for this ridiculous write-up with something better next time :)

"I am concerned about the moral implications of this decision", the young Doctor seemed troubled. He loosened his tie and waited for the senior physician to respond.

"Questions...questions, they are necessary for innovation, for progress, and then there comes a time when you don't know to stop questioning and we thwart the miracles of Science...", the old Doctor intoned.

A voice that often exuded wisdom and yet he could not help doubting today.

***"I don't feel...good, I have these weird feelings, dreams...I, I am not even sure if they are real and sometimes I wake up in a sweat...", the young woman typed feverishly, without looking up at the screen.

"I understand Ms.C, let's talk a bit more about your feelings and your dreams. Now, how often do you get these dreams?"

The mellow masculine voice seemed to float soothingly around her. She adjusted her headphones and took a deep breath.

"I used to get them once in two or maybe three weeks. I get them more often now, ever since he...my husband started going on these office tours. I go to sleep late because I am scared I will get these dreams again...sometimes they are so life-like..."

"Sometimes the dreams are life-like?"

"Yes, exactly! I feel someone strangling me in my sleep, I wake up in a cold sweat and it takes me several hours to go back to sleep. It's always the same dream. Yesterday morning, I could have sworn I saw marks on my neck..."

"Marks on your neck. Can you describe these marks, Ms.C?"

***The new program was planned, promoted and executed perfectly. A break-through that represented the marriage of Computer Science and Psychotherapy, they claimed. A program that respected the privacy of the individual and enabled them to subscribe to consultations from experienced psychotherapists online. A typical scenario that was envisioned was a patient sitting in front of a computer terminal having online consultations while maintaining anonymity. A computer-savvy Doctor (most of them are, nowadays) would conduct the session virtually. The charges were the same as face-to-face consultations, all you needed was a computer and internet connection.
***
"Good morning, Ms.C, how are you today?"

"I am good, thank you. It's it's good to hear your voice..."

The fifth session and this time she was looking forward to the consultation - the one hour that was the highlight of her otherwise dreary week. They had discussed some surprisingly personal issues the previous week and strangely she did not feel inhibited, she had revealed seldom talked about details of her life with a kind of careless abandon and she was thrilled that there was someone who cared enough to listen.

"My husband goes on tours more often now and is away for weeks together...and even when he comes home hardly talks to me, he thinks I have lost it..."

She begins to cry.

"Your husband goes on tours more often and is away...your husband does not behave as he should, you should stay away from him since he does not do what he is supposed to do."

The words of a stranger made more sense to her than that of her husband and somehow she had begun to develop feelings towards this voice, this man saying all these nice things to her. Her semi-delirious mind was receptive to all the irrational commands of her heart and she now made excuses to "talk" more to the voice in her head.
***
"Umm...there seems to be a problem...the brain seems to be issuing commands out of line", the young man seemed on the verge of tears.

"Highly improbable. Have you rechecked the algorithms and test results? After all, we are running a beta version and we have let our customers know that...", the infuriatingly calm voice of the older Doctor did little to pacify the other.

"Customers? They are not customers! They are mentally unstable patients who need to be treated with care! I have double checked everything! I have rerun our tests and I see no error notifications...I am telling you, the brain is somehow malfunctioning, it is mixing up questions from different data sets and this will have unpredictable results on the patients...as you well know!"

"I am afraid I will have to disagree, Doctor. We cannot abandon a million dollar project based on a few random observations that we have not yet confirmed for veracity!"

The young man's shoulders slumped, "This is a huge mistake..."

***
The young woman walked with a spring in her step and a smile on her lips. Her Doctor was correct. She had dumped her husband as he had advised her. She almost ran the last few steps to the terminal and logged in to the program.

"Good morning, Dr.N...", she couldn't help smiling.

"Good morning, Good morning, Good morning..."

She interrupted him and said, "I left him! I am happy today, thanks to you Doctor..."

And the voice replied, "You left him. You are happy. You are not happy normally, you are not the way you are supposed to be. You must leave. You must leave..."

She looked, bewildered, at the words flashing on the screen and the same tender voice resounding in her ears.

"But Doctor..."

"You must leave, you must leave..."

The computer at the other end could not break out of the infinite loop, it could break hearts but did not know how to fix what was broken. What little reason existed earlier for her to live her weary life seemed to dissolve into nothingness...

***
The project codenamed "brain" closed down shortly.

***