The Network: May, Arrivals from Distant Lands

[faileas]

The Network: May, Arrivals from Distant Lands

The Watches Everyone who arrives in an unorthodox way and eventually shows up at the Coven for 'orientation', will receive a strange, watch-like device compliments of the Coven and Parliament. Miss Nessie or one of the welcome wagon crew will give characters a run-down of how to use the various functions and they are encouraged to test them out for themselves. It would be good for them to get in touch with their fellow Mirrorbound, of course! Fourth wall characters will not be able to make their own posts in the communities, so they may use this post to make "network posts" of their own by top-leveling. The log post is right over here. Fourth Wall characters can comment on posts made by others in both aefenglom and middaeg until June 1st. Current players: Please specify in your posts if you do NOT want fourth wall characters replying!

Comments

[faithlikeaseed]

[A brief, huffing not-quite-laugh escapes Myr's lips at that. It's a lot to process.]

I can imagine. Forgive me--the other Connor arrived here before I did, and he'd time to grow accustomed to, [he lifts a hand to gesture at the room, the building, the city around it,] everything.

[Remembering it's not the same person when the voice and the presence and even that tiny little hum speak of familiarity can be a little difficult. Even the difficulty with emotion resonates, putting Myr in mind of one of the last conversations he'd had with his friend before the Merrow vanished back through the mirrors.

His response now is much as it had been then:]

You're not alone in that, [he says, with a rueful little smile.] If it's any consolation--even though we who're born with emotions have a difficult time predicting how they'll effect us, let alone keeping our composure when they do. We've got to learn how.

How has feeling emotions for yourself changed your understanding? [A leading question, but maybe a safer one than all the ones Myr wants to ask about Connor's history.]

[justamachine]

Right.

[Given time, given the chance, he can adapt. He's sure of that much. Myr's remarks about emotions, however, make him... a little less sure.

Emotions always screw everything up. Maybe androids aren't as different from us as we thought, Hank had said. The playback in his memory is fuzzy around the edges, but it's clear enough.]

So I've been told...

[With that said, humans—and these other organic beings—have such a head start. Emotion is innate to them. Not so for androids, who merely imitate it, until a trigger shakes their systems to the core.]

I thought they were only... errors in an android's programming. [Or in less technological terms:] The result of a mistake in their artificial intelligence, or damage to their parts. Something that could be fixed, if only we understood the cause.

[Now, though.]

It seems to run deeper than that... but I don't know. [Would another Connor who downloaded his memories have the same sensation? Or is it something the next could ignore and remain the machine it was made to be?]

[faithlikeaseed]

I've faith you can master them as much as anyone does. You were made to learn frightfully faster than we mortals do.

[Myr's grasp on the technological aspects of an android are...dubious, at best, couched in analogy to magic and theology and clockwork. He certainly could not explain what programming was or how a set of written instructions that were adamantly not a spell could create a being that imitated life in every detail. But he did have notions for beings that saw and valued the world very differently than mortals, and thinking of Connor as a peculiar kind of trapped spirit had served him in good stead previously.

It seems to still be working here too, at least.]

H'mm. And from what I know of your world, it would be awfully hard to test what that "deeper" component might be, wouldn't it? Not the least because--as I understand it--there's some doubt as to whether any of you, human or android, have anything more to you than the matter you're made of. Does anyone talk about androids having souls?

[A pause. And then, more gently,] Has anyone ever--"fixed" an android that's gone deviant?

[justamachine]

[The mild slump to his posture implies he doesn't have nearly as much confidence as Myr, although he is grateful for the sentiment.]

Thank you.

[He listens quietly to Myr's assessment, running it through his processors a few times, though much more slowly than usual. He doesn't come up with a reply before the Faun offers a different, very important question.]

I don't know. If not, they would have kept trying... and if they'd done it, they'd have no reason to share it with me. I was only supposed to find the source, and I doubt they were concerned with whether I understood it.

[Cyberlife wouldn't bother explaining everything to their tool, advanced prototype or not. He was meant to gather information for their sake, not his own.]

You're correct that there's debate if even humans have souls... I'm certain there are discussions like that about androids, but the main argument is over whether we're living beings. But I suppose... in the end, it's the same concept.