un: c a t o , video

[unpurposed]

[It took Cato far too long to interface with what he was internally designating the 'network', though the term was a loose metaphor considering that he could not figure out any of it connected. Assuming, for a long time, that there must be a technological basis to it, he had spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to hack into something that instead seemed to simply work on command. It defied logic, but then, so many things about this place did.

When the image of cato finally appeared, at first it simply looked black. But upon closer inspection, the blackness was reflective, and as he pulled the strange device further from himself, his form became clearer. A robot, of some kind, comprised mainly of haphazardly repaired white panels (tarnished with age) and a very large red cross painted over his chest.

He made a sound distinctly like someone clearing their throat, before continue. ]

Hello.

[ His voice was surprisingly smooth, gentle, calm. Despite his appearance, his voice sounded like it belonged to a soft-spoken young human man. ]

Please accept my apologies for the direct address. I have recently been granted my personhood and have been assigned to a - [ He paused for a brief second ] - family. I am looking for the individuals named Sansa, Wrath, Alina Starkov, and Lan Sizhui. I will serve diligently.

If anyone is in need of medical assistance, please be informed that I am a fully licensed medical unit. [ Well. No one had taken his license away, so that was technically still true. ]

Thank you.

Comments

[unpurposed]

Ah, no.

I am not human, Wangji of the Lan clan. I was created by humans to serve humans, as all of my kind are.

I am an artificial intelligence.

[downswing]

( KEEPS TRYING. )


A golem.

[unpurposed]

Ah - in a way, yes. That is a close approximation.

I am a machine. An Automaton. A robot.

I am not something that exists in this world, as far as I have come to understand it.

[downswing]

You owe no servitude here.

[unpurposed]

Perhaps not.

But serving is my purpose. When you take that away, what is left?

[downswing]

Learning. Enjoyment. Care.

[unpurposed]

There are those that would claim my kind are incapable of all those things.

But I did learn. For a time. And I miss it.

[ there is a longer pause, this time, before he continues: ]

Caring is service. And I am happy to serve.

[downswing]

Care is sentiment, as much as deed.

[unpurposed]

[ He doesn’t reply for a time, keeping his thoughts his own, but after a while: ]

It is also not a sentiment born of decision, as far as I can ascertain from humans.

You love because you love, not because you decided it was best to.

Is this not true?

[downswing]

Often, you love that which aligns with your righteousness.

To love them is best, for they are best.



( ...why does this feel like explaining the basics to infant disciples -- )

[unpurposed]

Often I have failed to see the link between human love and any sort of righteousness.



But it is a beautiful ideal. And I would like to believe it to be true. So perhaps I have simply been tarnished by my experiences.

What happens when you find the best, when you love them, and then you have them no longer?

[ It is almost rhetorical question. He knew the general answer: you break. You break so completely that you no longer recognize yourself and have to cut away pieces of yourself to start fresh. But maybe humans handled grief better. Maybe the soothing words he learnt actually worked on them. ]

[downswing]

You grieve.

[unpurposed]

Yes.


Most would assume I could not grieve even if I wished too, Wangji of the Lan Clan.

But if the choice is grief or servitude, I will serve.

[downswing]

You cannot withstand the burden of mourning?

[unpurposed]

Mourning is a complicated and often social process that humans engage in to express, work through and eventually come to terms with your loss.

My kind are not built to feel loss, so we are not built to mourn. We aren’t built to feel at all.

When one is an object, and should not feel grief let alone mourn - when we are designed to immediately be reassigned and instead help humans work through their grief - there is no space left for such things.

Feelings, in me, would be seen as a fault and a sign that I would need to be reprogrammed.


I suppose that is partly what you meant when you said I could have more than servitude, here.

It is… a strange freedom to be offered.

[downswing]

What crafted you in this image?

[unpurposed]

Mankind did.

Humans are ever looking for unconditional service.

[downswing]

You speak of enslavement.

[unpurposed]

Yes.

Though no human from my world would call it so. The same way you would not call a knife enslaved.

A tool is made for a purpose - to be used by humans in the way it was crafted.

So was I.

Had my administrator not given me the means to think about it, I would not be able to have this conversation at all. The comparison would never occur to me.

[downswing]

Creatures of care are not instruments.

[unpurposed]

You are very kind to say so.

I look forward to meeting both you and your son, I am sure you have raised him with similar sensibilities.

[downswing]

He is of kindness.

[unpurposed]

Then I was correct in my conjecture.

Thank you, Wangji of the Lan Clan. Please seek me out if you are in any need of assistance.