" Pholcus phalangioides, synanthropic cellar spider. Suitable for all extremes of composition, Pergolesi to Penderecki to Pang-lin. Oculars roved, feeding information to the brain. Principal component walnut and blackened wood. Identification was declared verbally, since it had been requested. It-he continued to scan as It-he identified. The lighting varied from space to space, as required. Fine art adorned the walls, and the walls themselves were art by virtue of the materials used to raise them. The design was exquisite, the taste impeccable. From a floor fashioned of milk glass and quartz, a plethora of furniture old and new rose like rare flowers in a carefully landscaped garden.
An unexpected additional benefit accrued, the kind of satisfaction that comes from doing something well. A rush of information from external sources: sight and sound. It-he slowly scanned the surrounding room, analyzing, identifying. What do you see? When there was no reply he added encouragingly-or perhaps commandingly, Speak. His head cocked slightly to one side as he studied the figure before him. There was satisfaction in his expression, but no warmth. Successful repetition confirmed functionality. Same neural pathways, slightly better speed, same result. For confirmation, it… he… programming now confirmed he-ness… It-he blinked again. Slowly, methodically, eyelids opened and closed. Execute a preliminary test, then, preferably one involving multiple systems operating in tandem. It was important that the impatient body remain subordinate to the accelerating mind. More neural pathways coming alive in response. Both face and mind had been designed, programmed, but only one was capable of change.Īural reception. This particular face would not reflect the mind that lay behind it. Fresh, unmarred, unlined by too much age or not enough thought. Had it been able to do so, it knew, and activate additional cognitive facilities, it would have taken note of a human visage. There was a small but unarguable neuromuscular response. A requirement for auxiliary neural stimulation. There was only the ongoing state of not quite nothingness. There were no hypofractionated percentages of either. In the absence of dreaming there was also no pain. Only it could understand what it did not know, did not see, did not feel. Ultimately, only it could define its own state of non-being. The speculative information dump necessary to allow for dreaming was absent. In the absence of an unconscious consciousness there could be no abstract conceptualization. Where it was concerned, the intention was that there should be no surprises. This was simply a known consequence of its creation. The omission wasn’t intentional, not deliberate.