Free Unnaturals by Lynna Merrill Page A

Indeed, it is useful and needed, especially for the computer work."
    "But, doctor," Adelaide asked, "How is concentration needed for computer work? We've been with computers all our lives, just like everyone. And everyone does not concentrate, doctor."
    "I can answer that myself," Mel said. "People don't need to do real computer work, the kind that needs concentration. Perhaps people should not do real computer work. Is that so, doctor?"
    He was uncomfortable with the question. If he were Eryn, he'd have done something unpleasant by now.
    "Doctor, what is this for?" Ivan pointed at the screen. Mel wasn't sure he'd heard much of the others' conversation.
    "This is a called a computer program." The doctor smiled again. "Step-by-step instructions for the computer about how to perform a task, or tasks, for humans." He stepped towards the screen and typed on the interface again. "I see all of you three are watching the interface. Typing works best for communicating with a computer. You're all humming when you communicate with other people, and this is good because you emit emotions and they perceive emotions. Emotions have proven themselves to be people's most comfortable means of interacting with the outside world, but as for computers... Yes, Meliora?"
    "The words," Mel said. "With a hummie, the words that come on a receiver's screen are different from the words that the sender has in their mind."
    "Yes, when it is your mind, Mel." Theodore tapped his forehead with a finger. "Or mine, or Ivan's. Because we have words there. Other people—not necessarily. Even Adi here has a mind that works differently. Why do you think the hummie interfaces became so popular? They could have been popular because of nothing but fashion, true. But fashion trends rarely endure. People, Mel and Ivan, strange as it may seem to you, don't necessarily want to know what's on their minds. With the hummies, the computer does the knowing for them. It is our job to help the computer know. The hummies have endured for years now because they are intuitive."
    "Intuitive, doctor? Doctor Eryn said that intuition is a subconscious system that a person builds. Did people build intuition especially for the hummies, then?"
    "Well, I..." Again, Theodore was uncomfortable with a question Mel had asked.
    "Doctor, may I try typing?" Ivan said. He didn't seem to be listening to the discussion about hummies and minds.
    "Yes, certainly." Theodore smiled, and his face acquired the pleasant expression of a person who had just taken relaxation pills. Happiness, the Lucastans called it.
    "But first you must learn the language of computers. Or, the programming language, as it is also known. The computer always understands it and never misinterprets it—assuming that you don't arrange the words in a wrong way, of course. But if you do so, it is your mistake and not the computer's."
    Mel watched the doctor's computer as if she were seeing a computer for the first time in her life.
    A computer that needed specific words from a person and wouldn't just take any words or hummed sounds. A person being told that they could make a mistake with their words to a computer. It went against everything that Lucasta stood for.
    "I know where to type, doctor," Ivan said, "I watched you the day before yesterday, when you talked to Adi and me."
    "Haven't you seen the typing interfaces before?" Mel asked.
    "No, where would I? I was a baby when people stopped using them and moved on to the speech ones."
    "Great, Ivan, I am proud of your observation skills!" The doctor's eyes were shining. "But you can't be typing yet, not at this computer at least, though I will give you all regular typing interfaces to train on. You must know the programming language in order to type here."
    "Why, doctor? What will happen if we make a mistake?" That was Adi, who had been humming into her computer again, eyes jumping everywhere. Mel wondered if Adi would be able to type in the programming language at all—and,