They were walking somewhat quickly through a slightly wooded area, heading for the swing by the pond. Was a favorite area for JC, even though he was only four. Earlier playing with the other kids he'd been enjoying himself. But his guardian realized he had become distant, when a little dance had gone unnoticed by his peers.
She had quickly moved towards him, glancing knowingly at the other guardians. And asked, "Want to go to the pond JC? How about we take a little walk?" He had perked up immediately. Hopping and grabbing her hand. He didn't look to see if he was being watched by the others, as they began to move from the group in the playground.
Was barely mid-day and a sun moved upwards in the sky languidly. The stillness was broken here and there by light breezes which ruffled their clothes. After a while walking, JC looked at the hand holding his with sudden curiosity, looked up quickly and asked, "Why is your hand blue?"
His guardian smiled. She said, "Because I was made that way."
"By whom?" he asked. "Excellent JC, perfect English. And by the beings you call the blurs."
"The blurs made you? Did the blurs make me?" "No. You were born."
"Oh." He looked away as they continued walking. His guardian was somewhat relieved the questioning had stopped so quickly. They had been briefed that the human children would go through such a phase. Answers had been prepped but still, she felt uncomfortable.
They found his favorite swing. And began to rock, and as the swing began to sway back and forth, she got the question she had dreaded. He looked steadily at her, "But aren't you my mommy?"
---------------------------------------------------------
The children were all exactly the same age. And was a way clearly to consider differential rates of development. The counsel for the children met regularly though was no rush. Often they would look at live video of the children within their space. And always they were simply still. Their movement too slow for the beings dedicated to their care to bother to recognize.
The children lived lives in seconds. The counsel members lived lives in milliseconds.
They were tasked with growing the children as best they could, which was not always easy.
The council president brought the meeting to order. "These notes are to be transcribed for their records." He intoned. Noting that the proceedings were to be recorded and put into English, with things brought to human reference to be understandable to those now growing, so distant in the future when would be adults, able to better understand.
"It is now clear that at this current age, many of the children are beginning to question. And some believe the guardians who have taken care of them to this point, are their parents."
"Yes, and is a concern, sir." Chief psychologist current order, spoke. "Eventually they will know the bots were built merely to take care of them. They are not even fully sentient! And are definitely not their parents."
"Certainly in time, but for now, isn't it healthy? And these children are barely sentient. At age four they are just gaining certain awareness. How harmful can it be?" Second officer defense said.
"Well truth is the concern. We must always be honest with them, and why not? And what developmental disorders might occur if they felt we lied about something so important." Daily activities planner put forth.
"Yes, the truth is important." Finally intoned the council president. "We must stick to precedent with the children, and continue when fully formed adults. It is our way."
"But with what harm?" Second officer asked quietly. "How do we tell these children the truth about their parents now?"
"We do NOT at this time." Chief psychologist would be the accepted authority and knew it. "We must separate them. And create new guardians closer to their form. These will grow with them? Possibly? Can research team advise...."
"Sure. Can make new bots, which can in some sense grow as needed. But how do we program?" Chief research scientist and engineer finally spoke.
"Mirror the children. They are showing distinctive characteristics. But not completely. Their blue companions will be much like them, but also more mature as we see fit. They will replace the full-sized guardians."
"As the chief psychologists has directed. Remove the guardian bots, while the children sleep. And design and replace with new blue bots. Complete design by next one hundred cycles which should be plenty of time. My successor will handle build and replacement, as so far into distant future." The council president when finished that statement ended the record for humans.
----------------------------------------------------------
Well that's a good start as consider whether can write this world. Am STILL pondering doing a Kickstarter and yeah, is a question if can handle the fiction and whether people would want to know that story. Now feel like early short stories would elaborate that world.
Will put up a rough, and ponder. First isn't even a full short story. But maybe the outlines for the first one. Obviously would be traumatic for the children to lose their guardians. And an adjustment with the new bots, designed to mirror them. And why really did the AI's go that route? I DO wonder.
Writing these things is not really about deciding. You have to go with the flow of the story. Which keeps it exciting as well. The AI's are somewhat mysterious to me. They are doing things where am not sure why.
Update March 4: Decided to go forward with Kickstarter! Click here to consider.
Update August 1: Kickstarter failed but that may be for the best. Now in incubation mode.
No comments:
Post a Comment