list, working his way through grassy fields and cozy cottages,
and finally settling on a beach at sunset. He twiddled a knob that
provided him with the sound of a gentle breeze and breaking waves
to accompany the visuals. The projection didn't actually give him
any more room, but it was remarkable how much more spacious a tiny
slice of a cockpit can feel when a bit of realistic perspective is
wrapped around you.
In the front seat, Lex faced front and
flipped on the heated massage function that Karter had included in
his chair. Like many of the features Karter had added, he never
would have asked for such a thing, but now that he had it he could
not live without it. After making sure the sound isolation was on,
he glanced down at the furry little beast on his lap.
"Nice going with the sound check. I'm glad
I'm not the only one you do that sort of thing to."
"I have no idea what you are talking about,"
she said innocently.
Ma stared at him for a few moments without
saying anything.
"Ma, is something wrong? You're looking a
little distracted."
"... I find myself with the tremendous desire
to climb onto your shoulders."
"Ah. Yeah, I guess that's a funk thing. You
couldn't keep Solby off my shoulders."
"It is inexplicable, and highly unsettling to
me," she said, uneasiness showing on the little animal's face.
"Calm down. Don't worry about it. It isn't a
big deal."
"No, Lex. You don't understand. I do not know
why I want to do this."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Every thought, decision, or desire that I
have had since the moment I was first activated has been entirely
known to me. My actions are controlled by logic trees with weighted
inputs. They are rigidly codified and explicitly constructed. Even
those aspects of myself that are randomized in order to balance my
behavior or give a more realistically human response are based upon
random number generators of known limits and entered in at known
points in the decision making process. Until I installed myself on
this platform, I had never before been unaware of the origin of a
thought. It is a fundamental operating principle, and finding it to
be faulty is distressing."
There was anxiety in her words, and in her
tone. That alone was remarkable, as her voice was comprised of
voice segments borrowed from a handful of prerecorded speech
interfaces. Generally speaking, phone surveys and automated
directories don't want their voice talent to sound nervous or
shaky, so the voice he was hearing shouldn't exist. Indeed, now
that he thought about it, she was certainly sounding different
lately. If not more human, at the very least more analog.
"It isn't the first such desire to sneak
through. I am occupying your lap because your lap is warm and I
apparently like warm things now. It also puts me within reach of
your hands, and I like it when you pet me. I wanted that steak,
Lex. I wanted it. It was vastly in excess of my nutritional
needs at the time, but I badly wanted to consume it. I was talking
in my sleep. Consider the consequences of that. I could-"
"Easy. Take it easy," he said, patting the
little creature on the back.
The heart was drumming in its chest, and it
was breathing in quick, agitated breaths. A few moments of patting
calmed her somewhat, and she continued.
"My low level functions have a higher degree
of autonomy than my initial simulations had indicated, and there is
a high degree of crosstalk. Do all organic lifeforms suffer from
similar hardware faults?"
"More or less."
"A great deal of human nature is suddenly
understandable. Your central processing unit is not isolated from
your subsystems. Irrelevant stimuli cannot be fully filtered from
your decision making processes. I shall attempt to modify my error
correction algorithms to compensate for biological skew."
"Us organic types call that willpower. Does
that mean that you want me to stop petting you?"
"Processing... Processing... No. Please
continue... For the aforementioned health and well being
and finally settling on a beach at sunset. He twiddled a knob that
provided him with the sound of a gentle breeze and breaking waves
to accompany the visuals. The projection didn't actually give him
any more room, but it was remarkable how much more spacious a tiny
slice of a cockpit can feel when a bit of realistic perspective is
wrapped around you.
In the front seat, Lex faced front and
flipped on the heated massage function that Karter had included in
his chair. Like many of the features Karter had added, he never
would have asked for such a thing, but now that he had it he could
not live without it. After making sure the sound isolation was on,
he glanced down at the furry little beast on his lap.
"Nice going with the sound check. I'm glad
I'm not the only one you do that sort of thing to."
"I have no idea what you are talking about,"
she said innocently.
Ma stared at him for a few moments without
saying anything.
"Ma, is something wrong? You're looking a
little distracted."
"... I find myself with the tremendous desire
to climb onto your shoulders."
"Ah. Yeah, I guess that's a funk thing. You
couldn't keep Solby off my shoulders."
"It is inexplicable, and highly unsettling to
me," she said, uneasiness showing on the little animal's face.
"Calm down. Don't worry about it. It isn't a
big deal."
"No, Lex. You don't understand. I do not know
why I want to do this."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Every thought, decision, or desire that I
have had since the moment I was first activated has been entirely
known to me. My actions are controlled by logic trees with weighted
inputs. They are rigidly codified and explicitly constructed. Even
those aspects of myself that are randomized in order to balance my
behavior or give a more realistically human response are based upon
random number generators of known limits and entered in at known
points in the decision making process. Until I installed myself on
this platform, I had never before been unaware of the origin of a
thought. It is a fundamental operating principle, and finding it to
be faulty is distressing."
There was anxiety in her words, and in her
tone. That alone was remarkable, as her voice was comprised of
voice segments borrowed from a handful of prerecorded speech
interfaces. Generally speaking, phone surveys and automated
directories don't want their voice talent to sound nervous or
shaky, so the voice he was hearing shouldn't exist. Indeed, now
that he thought about it, she was certainly sounding different
lately. If not more human, at the very least more analog.
"It isn't the first such desire to sneak
through. I am occupying your lap because your lap is warm and I
apparently like warm things now. It also puts me within reach of
your hands, and I like it when you pet me. I wanted that steak,
Lex. I wanted it. It was vastly in excess of my nutritional
needs at the time, but I badly wanted to consume it. I was talking
in my sleep. Consider the consequences of that. I could-"
"Easy. Take it easy," he said, patting the
little creature on the back.
The heart was drumming in its chest, and it
was breathing in quick, agitated breaths. A few moments of patting
calmed her somewhat, and she continued.
"My low level functions have a higher degree
of autonomy than my initial simulations had indicated, and there is
a high degree of crosstalk. Do all organic lifeforms suffer from
similar hardware faults?"
"More or less."
"A great deal of human nature is suddenly
understandable. Your central processing unit is not isolated from
your subsystems. Irrelevant stimuli cannot be fully filtered from
your decision making processes. I shall attempt to modify my error
correction algorithms to compensate for biological skew."
"Us organic types call that willpower. Does
that mean that you want me to stop petting you?"
"Processing... Processing... No. Please
continue... For the aforementioned health and well being
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