Well today I
changed up the blog format a little to incorporate hashtags “#s”
into the title of my posts so people on twitter can search my posts
more easily. (Hashtags allow people to search on twitter for those
people who don't know about twitter.) Oh, seizures were up today so
that's bad but I really like today's flash fiction and I think you
will too. Anyway, have fun reading it!
Derived
Sensations
“So how's the
food Samantha?” my Derived said to me with her kind, yellow
mechanical eyes looking straight into mine. She smiled. Her eyes
served a function, though her teeth were mostly for show to cover up
to speaker in the back of her mouth.
Oh, I suppose I
should slow down for a minute and explain to you what a Derived is
before continuing. Alright, so yeah, that thinking Artificial
Intelligence you guys are working towards? It won't work in the way
you think its going to. You can't code it with a team of genius
programmers and its not going to be a massive string of self
rewriting code, at least in the way that many of you are thinking of
it. Now don't stop trying, you're going to come up with some nifty
stuff along the way, but you ain't going to make it that way. What
actually happens in my time is some scientists came up with the
Derived.
These
scientists realized that since they couldn't just code a thinking
artificial intelligence they took data from a human brain and put it
into a machine. And it worked. I don't understand much of it
myself(I'm only in grade school, though an honor student! Top of my
class too! Sorry am I bragging too much?) but I do that they managed
to make a thinking feeling machine by taking the data from a human
brain. That's where the word Derived comes from, its because Deriveds
are machines who's robotic brains are created from data derived from
human brains. And each person's individual Derived has data taken
from their brain. My Derived has taken from my brain. My Mom's
Derived has taken from her brain, etc. Originally Derived were used
like every other machine as slave labor but they had their own civil
rights movement though it was legally mandated that there be one
Derived for each human to avoid any population explosions. Some
groups against Deriveds being viewed the same a humans have mandated
that although they may be allowed to have humanoid forms they must
have bodies with roughly the same amount of strength and must be
visually different so that no one would mistake one for a human. They
don't have the right the vote, but they have the right to trial. So
there's still a lot of progress to be made.
My mother
laughed, “Wow Sundown you must be looking forward to that taste
sensor project. You've been asking us about food ever since it's
been announced. You're practically torturing yourself. It's like a
kid shaking an unopened Christmas present.” Sundown was the name of
my Derived. The same groups that forced Derived to be unhumanlike
also passed laws that mandated to not have human names. (If there was
a human named Sundown in the past it wasn't considered a traditional
human name so she could legally have it) Scientists were developing a
taste sensor for the Derived and most Derived on the planet were
looking forward to its release and pouring into its development as
the only senses they have now are sight and sound and their only
experiences with tastes could be through memories they got when first
created when their Derived from memories when derived from a human
brain. “Though you know we don't have the money for it.”
Sundown frowned
with her artificial mouth, “Yeah I know. I'll probably have to wait
a year until we can get it.” She also twiddled her steel thumbs.
“Besides Dad's Derived should get it first.” though not
biologically part of our family she considered her self part of it.
This was not unusual for Deriveds to consider themselves part of the
families they were in.
Dad's Derived
shook his head, “No you should get it first.” Just like me Dad
had a Derived. His name was Eastwind.(Oh, and if you noticed Eastwind
and Sundown are kinda nature-like names. That's because Derived want to have
a relation to nature to feel less like machines.) As I said before,
one Derived to a person. However Mom's Derived had died. It was a car
accident, nothing more complicated than that though it was probably
the saddest moment of my life. By law a person could not get a second
Derived created. Though Mom would never want to replace her. I keep
calling Derived hims and hers though they don't actually have
genders. This is usually because Deriveds take on the gender identity
of the person they are derived from. “Besides even if it takes
three years to get it you can get a few more memories of taste from
the next derivation.”
Deriveds are
not just derived once in their lives. Each year they are derived
again in a sort of update. But not completely, keeping the memories
they have acquired themselves. Though they never get all of our data,
only fragments. And memories are never clean or perfect, which is why
the Deriveds want the taste sensors so much they want to experience
it for themselves instead of hollow, vague memories.
Also updating is a necessity. A
Derived mind decays unless it is updated. It seems without additional
data from a human brain the robot brain wears itself out, even if it
gets information on its own.
Dad's Derived
update was coming up soon and this gave me an idea. I asked my
Derived to come to school one day. I told her it was to help me
study. But truthfully it was for an entirely different reason. I
looked up the price for the taste sensor and how difficult it was for
the scientists it was for them to make. I knew it would be years
before we could get one. But I wanted Sundown to experience it. I
didn't want my Derived to go without it. I don't think you could
understand it, but a Derived is someone you literally pour your heart
and soul into and spend your whole life with. I couldn't let her wait
so long for something she desired so much. My school was a massive
campus comprised of classes for grade school to high school and I
knew that high school lab had just gotten something special.
An upgrade
machine.
If you remember
said I was grade school honor student. I also have an advance
placement course in a high school science class. One talent I have is
becoming a teacher's pet because I study so hard and get such high
grades. I run errands too for the teachers so I got an access card to
some of the classrooms, one being the advanced placement high school
lab class I have. And this would be the first time I would ever abuse
it.
My Derived
looked around the lab, “I can't believe you forgot your book in
here. Don't you not even use a book in your advanced placement lab
class?”
“I'm sorry.”
I said to Sundown with a frown. “I lied. We're not actually here to
get a book or study.”
She then looked
at me puzzled. At least her expression looked as puzzled as it could
for a machine such as herself. The laws that prevented her from
looking human gave her far less facial expressions. “Than what are
we here to do?”
I pointed at a
machine in the lab. “See that update machine?”
“Yes.” she
responded. “But I'm not due for update for several months.”
I then told
her, “We're her to that. I had an idea. For you to experience
taste, I know we'll probably never be able to afford that taste
sensor at least not for several years, but if we use that machine we
can.”
“How?” she
asked me.
I then pulled
out a chocolate candy bar, “We turn it on while I'm awake and
eating then you'll update taking my immediate short term memory and
experience taste. Then we turn it off as soon as I'm done eating the
bar. I read about it on the Internet. A scientist wrote a paper on
how to do it and everything! He did it with his own Derived!”
Sundown went
silent for a moment, “Do you realize how dangerous that sounds?
Even if that scientist is right are you sure you would what you're
doing?”
I then sternly
responded, “But you could taste Sundown. I've been thinking
recently about what it would be like to not taste and I really want
you to be able to.”
She then
glanced at her bare, robotic feet. By the laws that didn't allow them
to like humans they weren't allowed to wear clothes either. So the
Derived robots could actually get memories of being shamefully naked
at school or work from the people their Derived from and then still
be forced to walk around naked all their life. Sundown always looked
down on her feet like whenever she was nervous. I really think she
got that dream from me. She never said if she did and I don't know
for sure because Deriveds don't get all memories from the people
they're derived from.
She looked up
at me, “Alright let's do it.”
I then hooked
us up to the machine. I ignored the part that was supposed to put
anesthesia to knock me out. I was smart enough to bring the actual
paper written by the scientist on the Internet on how to run the
machine while you were awake. I had read it practically hundreds of
times before coming here and memorized but still looked at everything
on it anyways.
An update
machine does look that impressive. Pretty much its just an anesthesia
device for me, two boxes with tons of wires to read my brain then a
ton of wires to plug into her brain. The boxes hooked up to monitors
that had keyboards and mice. The anesthesia was actually not to keep
from getting hurt but just to make sure it read my brain while I'm
asleep, a conscious mind would be read differently than a conscious
mind. Of course that's the entire idea here.
I set up the
device completely both of us plugged in. I don't know how long it
took, but it felt like forever. When the device turned on I felt
shivers down my spine. The wires on my head had devices on them that
while scanning sent pulses at a few nerves they were hooked up to
stimulate what they thought would be my unconscious mind. That must
have been what caused my shivers. I then heard Sundown yell.
“What's
happening to me?” her eyes looked at me. “Am I dying?”
I almost turned
off the machine then I thought for a moment and laughed, “Sundown,
I think your feeling your first sensation besides sight and sound.
It's shivers down your spine.” It had work liked the scientist
said. The updater was reading my short term memory a few moments
after I experienced the shivers down my spine she did.
She froze in
place, “That's what this is? So strange.”
I then smiled,
“Alright next comes the candy bar.”
I unwrapped the
candybar. It was pure chocolate. I began to eat it. She sat their
silent for a moment. Then she spoke.
“This is
beautiful. So this is what it's like to have another sense. Memories
are so hollow compared to this. Don't stop.” I kept eating the bar.
I finished it. “Thank you that was so amazing. Though while you
were eating. I was thinking. Could you just sniff the air for a
moment?” I found this request a little odd. Sundown looked like she
was in some sort of trance. The chemicals in the lab were a little
obnoxious but I didn't notice them until after I had finished the
chocolate bar. “So that's smell without taste. Thanks” she paused
for a moment. “There's another sense. Could you touch something? My
hands don't have nerves like yours. I don't know touch either.” I
looked around. Everything on the machine was so blunt and edged so I
just grabbed my hair. “So that's touch.”
I looked at the
time and realized that soon the janitors would be coming to clean up
the labs so I told her we had to leave the machine. She still looked
like she was in a trance even after I took her and myself out of the
machine. She thanked me over and over for showing her sensations.
After wards we discussed it all and she begged to go back. I decided
we should and we continued going, mastering sneaking in and out of
the lab. I brought in different foods and things for her to feel and
experience. I brought in a tuft of fur for example. I even brought in
a wet noodle (She thought it was so odd looking she just had to know
what it felt like) for her. We continued our scheme week after week.
Eventually when
the price dropped down so it was affordable for nearly everyone to
get it(as with nearly every tech the price drops over time) my Mom
and Dad eventually got the taste sensor made by the scientists for
Sundown. Sundown told me when Mom and Dad weren't listening,
“The taste
sensor is impressive but it's nothing like the real deal.”
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