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[hallaifyouherd]

I greet you, my fellow Legionnaires.

[ The image accompanying said greeting is that of a young woman with pointed ears and tattoos across the upper part of her face, peering inquisitively into the camera. She thinks she's got this broadcast option thing down. ]

In case we haven't met? My name is Marjara.

[ Her lips quirk upwards, before her expression grows a little more somber. ]

I've been thinking something through. And I think I know what I want to do. But a little experience from other people who might have gone through similar circumstances would help. I think.

[ She's not going to ask them to choose for her. Gods knew she'd never let someone make her mind up for her before now, and she wasn't about to start...but learning about the shift? The consequences? The little things that came along with it that you might not initially think about? Might be worth the time to ask. ]

Have any of you lost a part of you, a limb or...something else of similar importance, and chose to have it replaced? Would you be willing to speak of what it was like for you?

If not, I still thank you for your time.

Comments

[hallaifyouherd]

[ That just earns her a slightly confused look. She appears to puzzle this over for a moment. ]

So robots can be sentient. But not always. And at some point having enough robot parts attached to you makes you something other than human?

[ She's just trying to make sure she understands this. ]

[whyarewehere]

Yeah. You start off with a metal leg and a cyber eyeball and then if you keep going, bam. One day you're RoboCop.

[ He lays all the wisdom of the cyberpunk genre at her feet. ]

[hallaifyouherd]

At what point do the robots become sentient? Could a man with enough robot also gain that awareness as well? How does he decide which race he belongs to?

[ The can of worms you have opened, Grif. ]

[steelandtemper]

Ignore Grif. He's an idiot.

[Hi, this is Cortana's version of an introduction.

She's using her hologram rather than her robot body right now.]

[hallaifyouherd]

I wish I could say I was surprised.

[ Though now she's taking the time to take her in, shimmering blue and all. ]

You are...beautiful. May I ask your name?

[steelandtemper]

[Flattery will get you...well, much farther than Cortana will admit, and she smiles.]

I'm Cortana.

[hallaifyouherd]

It's very nice to meet you.

You were talking to him about robots and computers. Are you...I mean, I don't want to assume. I've never seen anything quite like you before.

[steelandtemper]

Nice to meet you, too. I'm an artificial intelligence...a self-aware computer.

[Not quite, but it's close enough for a 101 talk with a fantasy elf.]

[hallaifyouherd]

And a computer is different from a robot? Or part of one?

[steelandtemper]

All robots contain computers, but not all computers are in robots. Explaining computers requires concepts I'm not sure you've been exposed to.

[If she knew spirits were a thing where Marjara's from, this would be a much easier conversation to have. And of course, huge materialist that she is, it doesn't occur to Cortana to relate things to the concept of a soul.]

[hallaifyouherd]

Is a computer what gives robots sentience, then?

[steelandtemper]

Not all robots--or computers--are sentient. It requires a certain degree of complexity to support consciousness.

[hallaifyouherd]

You say that, but I've met remarkably simple people.

[steelandtemper]

[Ha. Cortana snorts, amused.]

I mean physical complexity, not a rich inner life.

[She holds up her hand, and above it appears a ball of tightly interconnected branching lines, fractal and immensely intricate, looking more organic than machine--resembling Marjara's vallaslin, in fact.]

This is a visual representation of my neural map, the particular pattern that makes me. Yours, or anyone's, would look similar. Each of those lines branches again and again, until there are on the order of a quadrillion of them.

[Cortana cocks her head, realizing Marjara might not know what a quadrillion is. She sorts through analogies for large numbers, repeatedly drawing up short against the fact that most pre-industrial societies have little use for numbers that big.]

...More than a thousand thousand thousand times as many stars as you can see in the night sky.

[She's not stuttering. A quadrillion is a lot.]

[hallaifyouherd]

[ She watches the display with fascinated eyes, trying to envision the enormity of what is being presented to her. It's beyond imagining. Even the new view she has of the stars has required some time to take in. ]

And what are those lines made of, exactly?

[steelandtemper]

Crystal and lightning.

[Cortana's not trying to be poetic, but she doesn't think "electricity" would mean anything to Marjara.]

[hallaifyouherd]

That's incredible. And these complex lines of crystal and lightning are what give creatures thought, and presence of mind?

[steelandtemper]

The AI kind, at least. Yours are flesh and lightning.

[Flesh, nerve tissue, whatever.]

[hallaifyouherd]

AI...you said before you were an 'artificial' intelligence?

[whyarewehere]

Rude.

[steelandtemper]

Accurate.

[Mature Legionnaires behaving maturely.]

[whyarewehere]

Apology accepted.

[ Grif, she wasn't agreeing with you. ]

[steelandtemper]

[She's just going to leave that own goal right there where everyone can see it.]

[whyarewehere]

Those are kinda personal questions, I think.

Tell you what, I'll ask my cyborg buddy next time I see him.

[hallaifyouherd]

Very well.