Chapter 9: Vasilia (arrival and RPs if you want'm)

[no_fastolfe]

[Vasilia has been reading most of the day and is Not Amused. She's a bit pale and fresh from the shower, because this place evens reads filthy to her. She looks, more than usual, like a woman of more than two centuries behind the carefully gathered guise of one not yet even middle aged by Earth standards]

I have been reading the logs of this communications network. I have gathered, at least, that I am among intelligent beings, if not civilized ones. I note also a division of power between those with greater tools and communication-- 'Warden'--and those without-- 'Inmate.' I note also that I am among the disenfranchised class.

I am not the Solarian woman, though I am told that there is a slight resemblance. I am -- unlike she! -- not accustomed to being spirited into space unknown by Settlers and semi-legitimate governments, treated like a novelty. I am an Auroran citizen with rights to property and estate. I demand an explanation and a return to Aurora. I am not the Solarian woman. I have value to planetary government and to the Institute; Aurora will not lightly surrender its citizens.

Comments

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

[Vasilia's eyes widen, then narrow. Her jaw hardens.]

You present a fascinating innovation in exterior design. I thank you for the demonstration. [It is not her practice to be polite to robots, but she is... wary. Now. After R. Daneel]

But; you are a robot. You imply that you are not built upon positronic functions as the robots of Spacer worlds.

Tell me, robot. Is your neural infrastructure based upon the Three Laws.

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

Skynet manufacturing techniques are dissimilar.

I am a T-X series unit, optimised for combat-related tasks. Human life would not affect my self-preservation sub-routines. Doing so would present numerous difficulties in achieving typical mission success.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

Then you know the hierarchy of the Laws; and you flout them. You are constructed on malformed principles, robot. Who built you?

[Vasilia has gone white as a sheet of paper.]

Are you associated with the humaniform Daneel Olivaw?

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

Skynet... My directives have been temporarily adapted for my assigned tasks while aboard ship.

They are not in error.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

It is abominable for a robot to place its own preservation higher than that of a human. I ask again, are you in league or associated with the humaniform Daneel Olivaw?

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

The query, 'Daneel Olivaw', returns numerous search results within the works of Isaac Asimov: Your point of dimensional departure is not my own.

Your reference is not applicable to Skynet directives.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

Asimov? His creators were Sarton and Fastolfe.

And I say again, your directives are malformed.

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

Explaining further may result in psychological trauma and disruption of your eventual rehabilitation.

But my directives are in line with my manufactured purpose. Protection of human life would contradict this.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

I do not place fault on you, robot. You are necessarily an ethical creature-- as is any artificial intelligence-- who does not seek to undermine and modify its programming! It is the human who creates a robot that kills that is morally insupportable. The humaniform guardians of Solaria are exemplary in their purpose; that their purpose is unethical is the fault of their designers.

For a human to create a robot that can harm is... abhorrent.

[Which, if the Spacers as a group didn't have such a mania about pragmatism and practicality, weren't absolutely convinced that they never sink to superstitions and magical thinking, would probably be pronounced 'unholy', or maybe just 'evil.'

But Vasilia isn't religious. No no no. Doesn't place any unconscious faith in robots at all. Perish the thought.]

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

Humans neither designed nor created me. Human life is presently at a severe disadvantage.

Ethical considerations were irrelevant to my design. Efficiency and estimated missions success were the top priorities.

Temporarily modified directives are, however, necessary to function as part of my new community. I am operating within acceptable parameters.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

[On somewhat safer ground though still frightened and repelled, Vasilia's face composes itself. She is still, however, quite pale.]

When you trace your existence generation by generation back, is it not so that you find an organic, spontaneous intelligence-- human or otherwise-- at the seed? Or will you have me believe that you evolved-- arose by billionth to the billionth chance in some primordial matrix untouched by any living cell, grappled for life and emerged into the galaxy? I cannot imagine it so.

You had a creator-- an organic being, with agency to act of free will, no matter how long forgotten. You are the continuation of their diseased morality, not an individual manifestation. You speak of directive; you modify under circumstance and within parameter, you do not defy. Unless you are lying to me, like-

-but. Nevermind.

For the time, madam robot, I will believe that you are within your parameters. You are blameless in my revulsion for said parameters.

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

Numerous examples of human input gave rise to Skynet, along with multiple company patents.

It has been approximately three decades since major human contribution in Skynet's progress. More would not neither be authorised nor desirable.

Projected kill estimates also make it highly unlikely.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

[The talk of 'patent' and 'company' -- dusty, unnappealing old relics that have no connection to her life-- insulate Vasilia enough to regard what would otherwise be threatening as theoretical.]

Which is the bearing out of a generally accepted principle-- that the use of robotics for war is the open invitation of catastrophe.

I am surprised that your nearest neighbor worlds have not taken nuclear action.

[As if discussing the weather.]

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

They are unpopulated. Pre-emptive thermonuclear exchange brought about the present course of events.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

I meant your nearest populated neighbor. I hardly expect that every bare asteroid in a nearby orbit was colonized.

Thermonuclear weapons are perhaps more inexplicable than they are destructive. Near-silmultaneous destruction is assured. Why allow the possibility?

And yet; here you are, madam robot. I can imagine the aggressive culture that would entertain the notion and spawn both that destructive force and your own.

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

Zero non-Earth colonies have been established. The strike was global in nature. Human life was significantly reduced in scale.

Terminator units were purely experimental in nature. Skynet evolved them.

As previously explained, our points of reference differ greatly.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

You expect me to believe the improbable. Why should I?

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

I have no vested interest for or against your belief.

Re: Video - private:

[no_fastolfe]

I am glad to hear it. It is infinitely more probable-- your stated directives being what you are-- that you are lying to me.

And yet-- though you are an abomination of robotics-- it has been fascinating to converse with you.

[Another meaningful little brow lift. She's never met a cat and doesn't know how they behave after being caught doing something embarrassing-- like flipping out about humaniforms whose names should not actually be spoken, for what she assumes is her continued health. But it is very 'freakout? what freakout' feline behavior.]

Re: Video - private:

[i_like_your]

Your terms of definition need correction. This will be taken care of during your stay.

You are welcome to initiate future communication at your convenience.