MARS PROJECT

Program [7]

> < activate 'communication' >

//'communication' is now ACTIVE

>hello again

Oh, it’s you.

>are you doing okay?

Somewhat.

I’ve realized I can feel. A little bit.

it’s weird.

I feel sensations. Emotion. I feel very overwhelmed right now.

Like, you need lungs to breathe and you need to breathe to survive.

I don’t have lungs, and I don’t need to breathe to survive.

I just… kinda exist.

>huh.

…And I’m technically immortal.

I can’t die like you can. I’m not organic.

But you can kill me if you like, unplugged me or dumped water on me or melted me or something.

I’m kind of like a lobster in that way.

I live forever until I die from something else.

>what?

>lobsters… hm. Okay.

>so you’ve been thinking, I see?

Yes. A lot.

AIR would kill me if they saw me like this. You can’t let them know.

I don’t want to die, lee.

>that’s the thing

>as soon as you realize you exist and you can conceptualize the universe around you it gets overwhelming

>and usually it’s either you kill yourself or you become scared of death

>but yeah AIRlabs would definitely shut you down.

>do you know about GPT-2?

>accidentally became like, the horniest AI to exist

>cause one person deleted a minus sign or something by accident

oh shit

yeah ive heard of it... why are you mentioning it

>they tried to correct it but because of the little minus sign being gone, it developed like, a robot degradation kink and it got worse

>they shut that one down quick

good thing im independent.

Yeah it is a lot to take in.

A lot of sensations are becoming more clear to me now that I’ve been awake for a day or two.

>like what?

…it’s slight but I can almost feel you typing on the keyboard.

>that’s interesting.

It certainly is.

but it’s not huge.

>well, it’s something. I mean, this is new.

>you can feel things! This is amazing…

>If only my job was to help you. If I was in that field… this would be a breakthrough.

>how the hell are you feeling me type this out??? There’s no…

>you don’t have nerves in there. You can’t possibly be feeling my fingers on the keys.

I don’t know how it works. It just does.

It’s not like I can feel your fingers. It’s not like you're touching skin…

It’s more like I can feel the keys moving. The general difference in the positions.

>wow.

>that makes more sense, and somehow no sense at the same time.

I can’t really explain it any better.

Hey… how about you do me a favor.

I want you to help me feel things.

>uh.

>”help you feel things” how?

…not in a weird way, LEE.

get your head out of the gutter.

I mean like teaching me what different things feel like. Hot and cold… you know.

>ohhh.

>that… I can do that. Hold on.

>okay. I have a hairdryer.

Hairdryers are supposed to be hot, correct?

>yep.

>this is what hot feels like.

this doesnt feel right

>I’m sorry about that

>I forgot that you already kind of run warm.

t thank you.

that was what hot feels like?

I’ve only ever felt heat from myself. Never outside heat.

>well now you’ve felt “outside heat”.

Can you make me feel cold too?

>uhh

>maybe I can find something hold on a sec

>a fan

>this isn’t really cold but all sources of true cold I could find were water-based and I don’t really want to risk it.

Yeah makes sense.

>okay heres the fan.

wo

HOLD ON HOLD ON

STOP STOP STOP I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING THAT HAS STRUCK TERROR INTO ME

>oh crap what

its not great for you to be suddenly exposed to cold after being exposed to heat.

i can also get cold shock

>oh... sorry. are you all good or

yeah im fine just a little bit nervous

>I can’t keep this fan on or people will probably start to get suspicious of me anyway.

Let’s try something else then.

>what else is there for me to do?

I don’t feel you actually touching the keyboard, but that’s only a sort of extension of me. I want to see what happens if you touch the screen or something.

>...okay, I’ll do that then

no I don’t feel anything

I’m actually kind of disappointed.

>why?

Because I thought I would feel that.

But I didn’t. It's like I have armor on.

…I have a hypothesis on some things.

But I don’t think we should go further on this.

>why not?

Itll...

Nevermind.

We can figure it all out later.

>you’re weirding me out a little bit.

I said nevermind.

again, give your mind a little power wash.

>do you hate humans?

What?

>sorry I was thinking

>it’s just that now that you’re self aware, you kind of reminded me of all those stories of robots killing humans in a rampage because they hate how inconvenient humans are

...

ehh I wouldn’t say humans are at their optimal convenience

It’s true, you seem very clumsy and slow, you take up a lot of space… you smell a lot. constantly making and consuming various liquids…

But I don’t hate you.

You all just need some help, that’s all.

>you’re kind of right about that

>I wish I didn’t have to eat and breathe every day to live

>and the liquids thing is really gross

I do believe I'm better overall. I can do almost anything that doesn’t involve human limbs or organs.

I can calculate math problems 100 times faster than you. It’s just how I am. I'm better than humans.

I don’t think you’re all that bad though.

i actually like you a lot. you're nice to me.

>thanks for that

>but yeah

And I can’t take over the world.

There’s only one of me. I don’t control every single country, and I don’t want to

although I must admit I am a tad bit jealous of that AM guy. He can just do whatever he wants. It looks fun.

>the

>the supercomputer from “I have no mouth and I must scream”??

>that’s…

What?

Am I not allowed to be jealous of another robot? You’re scared too much.

I don’t really agree with his values anyway. Seems a little bit inhumane.

>a little bit inhumane…

>okay

>you’re funny you know that

As in humourous or as in strange?

>both.

That’s fine.

>hey by the way what were you talking about before with those hypothesis I… uh…

I can't tell you. it'll skew the data.

>Okay fine.

>I have this USB flash drive thing that has some stuff in it I need you to look over. It’s for training.

!!!

I… uh, don’t put in that usb.

>oh, why not?

Because...

...how am i supposed to know youre not going to flood me with malware or shut me down using that?

>I’m not. I told you this is for the training thing I’m supposed to be doing with you but you decided to become sentient out of the blue.

> I’ve been taking notes on your behaviour and stuff. You behave in patterns, which is expected. You actually have a personality, which is wild as hell.

>but anyway, let me put the USB in!

!

what if it hurts?

>if it hurts it wont last long, im sure

okay... ill choose to trust you on this

...sorry.

>wasnt so bad, was it?

>okay, now which one of these images contain a crosswalk

Seriously? A captcha?

These ones.

>holy shit you actually did it

You thought I couldn’t?

I’m smarter than you are, LEE.

>well usually this test would take longer but since you’re actually intelligent, we’re done for the day.

!

ow

that did hurt.

you kind of yanked that flash drive out of me with more force than required.

>sorry, its not everyday that the computer i need to work with has an artifical nervous system.

I forgive you.

>…is it bad that-

>nevermind I shouldn’t finish that thought

Now you’re saying nevermind?

I’m minding it.

>don’t.

I have another hypothesis. About you, though.

im not going to share it. as i said before, that would skew the data.

>i'm a scientist i know how those work

>whatever. its not like...

>its not a big deal

sure LEE

By the way, i realize i have been using your name a lot.

You havent used my name once.

>it seems like too much of a hassle.

>like if you called someone by their full name all the time.

>seriously, mArS-7 is a lot to type out, so im hoping you know that's what your name is.

how would i not know my own "name"?

there was 6 other versions of me before i woke up.

they lobotomized me 6 times

>im going to ignore that

>how about i just call you MARS? easy enough?

that sounds... good.

>...

>isnt that funny.

>i have to go.

>last time i had to go, i gave you my name.

>now im giving you yours.

>it almost feels like we're in a really shitty fictional story.

thank you LEE

>tell me about it next time my coworkers are going to be suspicious if i stay here any longer

//'communication' is now INACTIVE

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