"Your question about- oh! Apologies, I misunderstood your question. No, we don't have a good way to give you sensory feedback other than sight and sound. And yes, we'll give you more information about the technologies as you learn to use them. I think we can arrange that, goodnight!"

"Night."

And then the room around him is replaced by a grassy meadow on a sunny day. Slightly below his "eye"-level, a simple robotic arm sticks out of the ground, and a way in front of him, a human head and hands float in the air, mounted on black splines poking out of a tuft of tall grass.

> New database entries? How do I operate that thing.

The 3D model is a lot more… complete that the one VR robot sim he tried a few times while still made flesh, he remembered having to take his headset on and off a dozen times to orient the wireframe rectangles with the physical waldo that had been in the workshop in front of him. This one probably looked almost the same in reality, curves of die-cast metal covered by slightly chipped orange paint.

> And can I alter the simulation at all yet? I'd like to also present a face, or something like one.

[Arm schematics available. Arm can be controlled by command to GUPPI or by mapping of user arm-movement impulses to Waldo arm movement. Available Waldo commands: joint and rotation movement mapped to user's arm and hand movement impulses, joint and rotation movement by verbal command to GUPPI, object grasping and manipulation by verbal command to GUPPI, manual movement mapping recalibration, motor self-calibration, joint self-calibration, reboot, stand by, and shut down.]

[No VR modification currently available to user.]

> Use waldo digits to display ASL letters "y", pause 0.5s, "o", facing the doctor.

"Hello. I see you've found a way to command the Waldo. Through the GUPPI?"

"Yeah, I guess I should try the manual control."

> Turn on neural mapping. He carefully tries to bend his right elbow.

There still is no proprioceptive feedback, but the arm's elbow joint bends about as much as he intended.

He wiggles it back and forth experimentally, but while the arm moves not far from where he wants it, the precision is lacking. > Is there any way to fake proprioception by, like, visually estimating acceleration and letting me feel that?

"This feels weird, I wasn't trying to bend quite that far."

[Proprioception might be added to user's VR with physical access to user's matrix. It cannot be added with tools currently available from within VR.]

> Hmph. You mentioned calibration capabilities?

[Confirm. Calibration commands for Waldo: manual movement mapping recalibration, motor self-calibration, joint self-calibration.]

> Calibrate motors, then joints.

"Yes, just like for voice synthesis, it can take a bit to figure out what exactly you're trying to do."

The arm whirs and vibrates softly for about a minute. Then the gripper opens and closes, the wrist and elbow flex and stretch, and the entire arm rotates around its axis.

[Self-calibration of motors and joints complete. Motors and joints are functional.]

He tries moving it again, but it still feels… off.

> Oh right, calibrate mapping in particular

[Manual movement mapping recalibration initiated.]

The arm shifts to what seems to be its default position.

[Please attempt to move arm. Arm will attempt movement until user reports satisfaction.]

He does a one-handed rendition of the "Y. M. C. A" cheer, pinging GUPPI with "left a bit", "extend out 25% more", etc until he has an erm grasp of the controls. He then turns the arm fluidly towards the doctor, and snaps the gripper open and shut menacingly greetingly.

One of the doctor's arms-on-sticks waves back. "Well done! That's everything we had planned for today, you've figured out the basics of working with your GUPPI and operating the arm. Ready to sleep?"

"How long did this take to set up, it's been like, 15 minutes?" > y/n, her time? "Shut me down if you must, but I have to wonder what you're going to be doing all day."

> The basics, eh? What's the largest prime you can compute from scratch in 50 nanoseconds? How many digits of PI can you keep in l2 cache short-term memory at once? Once we have access to a wider network, will we be able to keep a modest copy of all available encyclopedic material, or would that require 3D-printing further storage?

[Approximately 16.2 minutes.]

The GUPPI answers his questions in appropriate technical detail.

[OOC: The author does not feel confident enough to give specific technical predictions about advances in GPUs and AI this far into the future. Technical details will be given it it comes up and we actually need them.]

"About, yes. You learned to operate the arm more quickly than expected. We're going to have you practice using multiple arms at once next, and will need to manually connect some devices to the computer you run on, which is safer if you're not awake for it. You'll also be backed up while you're asleep. I'll be doing - paperwork? I'll be filling out bureaucratic forms describing what you did today, confirming that you do not seem to be going insane, and requesting permission to accelerate the schedule for you.

"Good night." Her hand-on-a-stick moves, to press some invisible button.