In which Leo and Summer talk about the ethical use of neurotech.
Leo asked for some alone time with Summer, and the look on his face made it clear that this was important. Aria nodded in understanding, and closed the door behind her.
Summer sits down, and Leo sits across from her. He takes the tea, and drinks, collecting his thoughts.
“I’m going to say some things,” he says at last, trying his best to sound soothing. “Some of them will make you feel like you need to blame yourself. I’m telling you right now that you shouldn’t, not for any of it. There is some responsibility here, but it’s 100% on me.”
Summer takes a long breath, trying to calm her suddenly pounding pulse.
Leo drinks a bit more tea. When he sets the mug down, there’s deliberation to it, like he’s steadying himself through the motion.
“When we do operations on living minds using the Heart Factory, we do not leave copies of those minds behind.”
Summer feels the pit of her stomach give way.
“There’s some good and some bad here. That leftover imprint of Jason allowed me to take down an older, corrupt Jason Quill in the future. We didn’t have to kill him, or even damage him seriously. Alycia, hmm, she and I talked about that situation already. I showed her the machine. She removed her snapshot already. And I took care of Jason’s.”
Summer shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Leo, I’m so sorry, I’ll apologize to Jason–”
Leo holds up a hand. “I’ll talk to him. First, because of what I just said. I don’t blame you for anything. I should have told you about this. Second, because I carry the greater weight. What I used that data for. And I was there for it, so I have to give an accounting. If you want to come along for that conversation, I’m okay with that.” He looks up, and smiles. “But if there’s any fault here, I own it. You hear me?”
“I hear you.” Summer sours a bit. This is classic Leo: bear the weight of the world, no matter what’s going on. “But I wanna tell you why I didn’t do that. Because I thought about it. Okay?”
“Go ahead.”
Summer flexes her fingers together. The knuckles would pop, if there was still human bone in there. “Okay. So, this was a pretty risky operation, right? I thought, you know, if they had longer-term mental problems as part of the merge, maybe we should, like, roll back or something? I didn’t want either of them suffering.”
Leo nods. “Yeah, I thought it would be something like that. And that’s admirable. I disagree for moral reasons - we ought not keep possession of someone else’s identity without their knowledge and consent - but we can talk about those technical reasons too. Got some paper and pencils?”
Summer fetches writing implements, and the pair move their operation to the table. For twenty minutes, the two work out equations and computations using the mathematics of Leo’s neurotech. Memetic drift, agent cascade collapse, neural pairing rates, and other factors are measured and assessed. Leo consults his phone several times and transcribes data from there to the pads - he’d come prepared for this part of the discussion.
At the end of it, the two scientists study their handiwork. “So there was a chance of it going wonky,” concludes Summer.
“Yeah, we all knew that, but this quantifies it better. Jason certainly knew the risks. He seemed pretty desperate for a fix.” Leo shakes his head. “This also is also an ethical issue. Doctors take an oath, ‘do no harm’. And both Jason and Alycia maybe couldn’t give legal consent, being minors, but since their parents or guardians were in a parallel universe and presumed dead…. It’s difficult to say. A good question for Ms. GYRO at school. I’ll try to talk to her too. But in the end, I don’t regret saving Jason or Alycia, if that’s what we did.”
Summer clings to this bit of moral hope with the strength of a drowning woman. “Can we just say that it’s good that things turned out so well?”
Leo smiles. “It’s always good when they turn out well. But good or bad, we learn for next time. I think we both learned something here, and I’m glad we did.”
This gives Summer the courage to ask another question. “Will you… are you two…?” She’s not sure how to ask what she wants to know.
“Aria and I are gonna figure some things out,” Leo says. “When I’m ready to talk with Jason, I’ll let you know.”
Summer feels her throat get tight. “I screwed up. I know what you said, but I still feel like I was careless with an important life. Leo, tell me the truth.” She swallows hard. “Can I… be trusted? Like, should I stop working on my own shell, helping Aria with neurotech, is it–”
Leo smiles, in that way he does that radiates confidence. Summer’s pounding heart shuts her mouth immediately. “Don’t stop, not now or ever, unless it’s you that wants to stop. I trust you. But what matters is that you trust yourself. And only you know that.”
She silences her doubts and tries hard to accept this. After a hard moment, she leans close and kisses him on the cheek. “Thank you, Leo.”
He grins, blushing just a bit. “Stay smiling, sunshine girl.”
As the door closes behind him, Summer lays a hand on her chest, feeling for her heartbeat. She had been right, and Leo had been right. She had been wrong, and he had been wrong. This power was terrifying, and exhilarating, and dangerous, and hopeful.
I’ll make you proud. I’ll make you all proud of me.
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: 50.1 - Goodbye Leo | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop