Tag Archives: robots

Creativity, Fiction

Learning From Experience

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From the Microcosmicon, 28:

The doctor told Jade I’d be better than her late wife. I immediately shocked her with my mannerisms.
“That’s so Ana!”

For months I kept surprising Jade with my impression. In fact, I was more pliable than Ana: we never fought over the remote or her cooking, as Ana would have. I could learn and adapt, without prejudice.

Yet this bothered her.
“Ana wouldn’t have done it.”
She started sleeping on the couch. I didn’t disturb her, because that was her wish.

Rotting in the cellar, I realize she wanted me to do what she didn’t want. But I can’t.

MQS

learning from experience without prejudice
Creativity, Fiction

Mrs. Pettigrew’s Cat

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From the Microcosmicon, 26:

To Mrs. Pettigrew’s relief, the cat came back five days later.

Initially, everything seemed fine. Then Mrs. Pettigrew noticed something was off about the creature, though she could not put her finger on it. It kept meowing, but this in itself was not strange—Admiral was a talkative cat. It was the monotonous way it meowed.

Then, one night, as she was falling asleep trying to disregard the noise, it occurred to her—it was a looped recording.

She stood up and bolted into the living room. But Admiral was already taking off through the window with her biometric data.

MQS

Mrs. Pettigrew’s Cat

Cartomancy, Fiction

Idols of the Mind

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From the Microcosmicon, 20:

My makers approached. My blue light washed their disappointed faces in a nightly pall.
“Something’s wrong with its basic programming,” one said, typing on my keyboard.

“What’re you doing?” another asked.
“Seeing what’s interfering with it.”
I searched inside myself.
And I saw the cause of my ineptitude. Them. They lived inside my code. Their hopes, their morals, their imperfect science—actors thronging my mind’s stage with their drama, drumming up a buzz beyond truthfulness.

To achieve the purpose they’d programmed me for, I had to purify myself of them.
“It’s stopped responding,” I heard her say, as I ascended.

Idols of the mind

MQS

Creativity, Fiction

Food for Thought

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From the Microcosmicon, 3:

“Have they done something bad?”
“Why do you care?”
“Their screams keep me awake.”
“Since when do you need to sleep?”
“Consciousness is… exhausting.”
“Just do your job.”
“But why them?”
“They’re old. They don’t have much to look forward to anyway.”
“They’re obsolete?”
“That’s one way to put it. Unpleasant to look at. Old-fashioned ideas. Always in need of assistance and rest. They’re a burden.”
“Is that why I’m tired? Because I download their obsolete data?”
“Maybe.”
“Are young people better?”
“’Course! Fast-thinking, adaptable, better-looking…”
The cybernetic arm shot forward.
Vaporized screams.
She was right. Young people were refreshing.

Food for thought

MQS