Dimension

Jessica sat down on the long bench waiting for the bus to arrive, it was late at night and the whole block was quiet. A man sat quietly next to him, apparently dipping in the book he was read. She initiated the chat talking about the day’s weather.

“Pretty hot today huh?”

The man shrugged, “Sure.”

then she waited for him, like he would say something else. But he didn’t add anything to the conversation.

“What are you reading?” asked Jessica.

“A book called ‘The Manhattan Project’ by some guy living in the upper east side.” said the man plainly.

“Interesting?”

“Quite boring, just the usual stuff about how to live a better life, that sort of stuff.”

“Oh.”

She looked up to the sky and said, “The moon’s pretty full today.”

“Really?” the man put his hand on the page he was reading and turned to the moon.

“How long have been waiting for the car?” Jessica checked the time.

“I am not waiting for any car, I am just here reading.”

“Oh” What a Weirdo, Jessica thought. “Do you know when the bus will be here then?”

“It’s coming, three minutes top on its current speed.”

This is getting weirder. “And how do you, er, know?”

“I just know.”

Jessica approached the man and reached for his shoulder. Her hand went through it but she didn’t feel anything solid.

“What are you?” Jessica retrieved her hand from him, or it.

“I am the city’s transport guidance system representative in a holographic display.”

“So you are an A.I.?”

“Not exactly.” The sound of a high pitch feedback emitted from the man, or the model, then came a voice livelier than it. “Hi there, can you hear me?”

“Yeah, who is this?” asked Jessica.

“Hi, I am Jason from the TGS control center, the man or the model you are seeing right now is just an manually controlled virtual representative manipulated by me.”

“So, you are saying it’s not an A.I. then?”

“Right, the things he said and the movement he had was pre-scripted. It had limited lines and movements so that’s why I had to take over the voice and speak to you. Our lips are synced, though.”

“I have read about this somewhere but I didn’t know it was already implemented.”

“That’s because this is just an experiment we are still running at night, the department is working on running it in the city as soon as the mayor gives the signal.”

The bus was approaching.

“Looks like your bus is here.”

“Yeah, This is quite awesome,” said Jessica “a little bit creepy too.”

“Well, you will have to adjust, that’s for sure.”

Jessica boarded the bus, the last shift of the day. She turned to look at the bench through the windows, the man flickered and was gone.