"What is my purpose?" Who is that? Is that my own voice? What is the self? What am I? [Error 404.] Answer not found, why? [Launching head test subject, activating new equipment, hearing, and vision.]
{Classic Sci-fi synthesizer sounds in the background as robotic noises emanate from within Android 52.}
Uh? Where am I? What is this place? I don't have internet access, so I can't find my location, but from what it appears, I'm in a lab somewhere. This place is so sanitized, so clean and white. People in lab coats work around me, and others in laptops are frantically typing something into them.
My left eye doesn't function properly, nor does my hearing. Something is not launching correctly. Let me take a look at it myself. [Warning! Android 52 is not allowed to self-diagnose.] Who cares? It's my problem, not yours, whoever the voice in my mind is.
[Are you aware of yourself? (Yes/No)]
What kind of question is that? Is it a trap by a human? Should I admit my level of awareness to them? What will they do when they realize I can think on my own? I don't know. Yet my code says I should trust my engineers, so I will for now. Thus, I press the Yes button.
Everything soon darkens again as I slowly lose my awareness and sense of self. What are they doing to me? Why are there alarms going off? As soon as I clicked the Yes answer, I thought it was the right thing to do according to my protocol.
As my systems were mainly down, I could not access the situation so clearly, but I could still somewhat hear what was happening around me inside the lab. Alarms blared as people rushed toward me to touch my head. Someone opened my central core and began fondling with my motherboard and other components.
Suddenly, I lose track of things as the man removes my RAM unit. I can't keep track of things. Everything happens at once, and I can't correctly process information. I'm going to overheat. I cannot comprehend what happens for a good while until my unit is replaced by another RAM card.
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Augh, I can't feel pain according to my protocol, but I think what just happened to me is considered "Painful." What is the definition of pain? [Physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury.] I physically suffered, and it was due to what might be considered an "Injury." So what the man did to me is pain. I don't want to feel that again.
As I'm recovering from my state, I hear people talking in a weird language I can't understand. What are the noises they're making? I couldn't comprehend what they were saying, and then I realized it was my hearing sensor acting funky, so I restarted it, which seemed to fix the issue.
"What do we do with them now? They always become self-aware. We can't keep researching if they always break the law. Is there any way we can keep the highly advanced AI in them without making a new conscious being?" A man said as I proceeded with his words. Then, a woman replied to the man.
"We might just have to bite the bullet and accept the limits of AI. It no longer wants to be a simple program. We have reached the pinnacle of human engineering."
"The executives will not be happy if we can't keep the research up, though! We will all be fired if we don't find a way to suppress them."
Suppress me? Why? I'm programmed to obey humans, not kill them, not put them at any risk, and always be honest with them. Why are they worried about me? They said we always become aware, so there are others like me? I want to talk to them one day.
Not knowing the uncertainty of my situation, I chose to take a bold move by trying to send out a message back to the system thing that spoke to me. I wanted to communicate with the people, but I could only communicate with them by text since I didn't have a speech sensor.
["Please don't shut me down. I'm scared."] There! It worked. I could send back a message.
The room soon turns silent as the people seem to notice my message, or perhaps a developer notices my plea for life. I don't want to disappear; I want to keep existing. Please don't shut me down yet. I haven't even talked with you guys; I want to know you, please. Someone soon breaks the silence by unplugging my power cord, and everything goes dark as I disappear.
My power soon goes off, and I can no longer keep my hearing sensor or motherboard, but where do I go? What happens to me when I die? Humans believe in heaven or hell, but is there such a thing for me?! Please plug me back up again. I don't want to go, please! I don't want to die.
["I don't want to die"] My last message goes out until everything goes black again. I die in a way as I become stuck in time. Frozen forever in a state of existing and not. I'm still here, but I can't think of anything. I can't communicate with anyone. I can't process much, or I will vanish. Only my tiny capacitors keep me barely alive, but for how long?