When a research project reveals it’s an intelligent self-aware being to the team’s scientist, she is surprised then challenged. How does she reveal that to her co-workers, help the being function as a human, prevent it from being exploited, deal with her personal feelings as the being becomes more than a friend, and help it understand its feelings. And that’s before the government finds out.
A peek inside:
“A lot of people believe that displays of affection between two people should be kept private. Many more people believe that displays of affection between people of the same gender are simply wrong. Whether I agree with them or not, they have the right to have their own beliefs and I need to respect that.”
“Since you’ve been willing to kiss me when I’m in this shape, does that mean you’re willing to kiss someone of the same gender?”
“I don’t know. . . . I always assumed that if I was going to be involved in an intimate relationship, it would be with a male. I can’t say I’ve ever been excited about being in a relationship with any particular individual, regardless of their gender. Although I recognize that some males and females are considered to be more physically attractive than others, for some reason, that doesn’t inspire me to want to be with them like it seems to affect a lot of other people. I was never very social, but if I’m going to spend time with someone, I prefer that they’re intelligent, have a good sense of humor, and have a gentle nature.”
She briefly pauses before she continues, “I know it probably doesn’t make much sense, and I know you’re an individual, but it seems like when I’m kissing you, it feels more like I’m kissing myself rather than kissing another female. . . . I’ve thought about it off and on, and for some reason I can’t explain, I think I would be more hesitant to kiss you, even completely knowing that it’s you, if you took on the shape of another person, whether it was male or female.”
Although ~he’s not sure ~he understands what she means, ~he still says, “Thank you for trying to explain.”
“Well, I suppose since some religions tell their followers to love their neighbor as much as they love themselves, I can claim that I’m still learning to love myself before I can expand my love to my neighbors.”
“Do religions teach their followers to have sex with their neighbors?”
Lai-Ann almost chokes then looks at Georg in surprise before she responds, “No, although that could be a logical assumption. That’s a problem with our language where the single word ‘love’ can mean several very different things. Rather than referring to sexual love between two people, I assume religions use the word ‘love’ in the sense of treating a person’s neighbor with respect and of equal value to themselves.”
“I can understand that better. In that case, then, every other person would be my neighbor whether I know them or not.”
A second peek inside:
She thinks for a little while before she says, “I don’t know what his thoughts are, but there are a lot of people who are afraid of intelligent machines and even more afraid they’ll take over and control the lives of humans. Frankly, when I think about the ways in which humans have treated each other throughout history, intelligent machines can’t do any worse.
“As far as why Dave made the career choice he did, I’m totally guessing, but it might be that he was interested in computers as long as they didn’t step over a defined line towards intelligence. Or it might have been that he wanted to be in control of something and since he wasn’t in a position to control people, he could control machines. Another possibility is that he might have wanted to be a computer programmer in order to do his part to prevent machines from becoming intelligent.”
“I guess I can add that to my file about more baffling behavior by humans."
