hairlocked | IC Contact

Hello, this is Leoben Conoy. I'll be happy to return your call at my earliest convenience, otherwise please leave a message or text after the beep.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

hairlocked

No, not always, and sometimes the healing itself causes the harm. But even the human body has some natural regenerative ability; that can be harnessed, manipulated to regrow what might be otherwise entirely lost. You just need to know where to look for the source of those mutagens.

I didn't introduce myself thoroughly, last time we spoke. My name is Leoben Conoy, and I'm a Cylon - a living machine - myself. There are twelve models. I'm Two, and my brother, Simon, is Four.

[ Not to be confused with other doctors called Simon, oops. ]

From:

technologist

[ Yes, oops.

Predictably, the Cylon thing does a good job of derailing his focus. ]

Sorry. The thing I said before, about tech. Have you always known? I mean have you always been self-aware.

From:

hairlocked

I've always known, but the same isn't true of all of us. Some of us were raised to believe we were human.

As for the apology--would it surprise you to know that you're the first human who's ever apologized to me for that kind of preconception? I'm grateful for it, but you shouldn't be concerned.

From:

technologist

By humans?

And no. I mean, yes, maybe. But I know plenty of people who wouldn't apologise to another human, either.

From:

hairlocked

No, not by humans. It was a strategic placement.

[ Which says something about his world, if what he's about to say doesn't: ]

There's all kinds of reasons why people don't apologize. Pride is one. Not understanding that there's anything inherently wrong is another. But in our case it's understandable. There was a war, before my time, between humanity and its creations.

To the humans of my world a machine is just a machine. Artificial intelligence or not, ultimately it's just technology, and technology that is malfunctioning is deactivated and decommissioned.

From:

technologist

Strategic.

[ That's it. No question mark necessary, probably. The argument that follows is uncomfortably close to the one he'd used, before, and it takes a second to get up the nerve to pry. ]

But you're still technology, yeah? Not that it means you should be "deactivated", but there's still a distinction, isn't there? Between humans and Cylons.

[ Possibly still too direct, but it seems less rude than "do you have feelings". ]

From:

hairlocked

Is there? I can't know exactly what it is to be human; I have no basis for comparison. We learn. We grow. We have feeling and desire and faith. We may be different to them, but no more different than a human from one colony might be to another. Even so, it is those differences that make us unique--isn't that a human belief too?

The distinction is reproduction. There are only twelve of us, and there always will be, unless we find a safe, dependable way to reproduce as humans do.

From:

technologist

[ Creepy or fascinating, difficult to say. Both, maybe. ]

Yeah. I suppose so.

Wouldn't it be building? Instead of reproduction. You could build new versions, or get the humans to, though I guess maybe that'd be difficult to sell. Besides, humans reproduce because they've got a set

[ Text makes it easier to take his time and get the right words, but there's still a definite pause here, like he's hoping maybe someone will fill in the gaps. A few seconds later: ]

They die. [ Way more blunt than he was going for, but oh well. Gets the point across. ] But you don't, do you? Unless it's built in.

From:

hairlocked

We've lost that ability; the ability to build. Maintain, yes, but not build. We reproduce the same way that humans do, can reproduce with them, but carrying a foetus to full term has proven to be the greatest problem we've faced. Trust me, we have the set. We're fully functional, as it were.

And yes, we grow, and age, in a manner of speaking. We're made of biological material, our cells are identical to a human's, and can be damaged over time. But there are many copies. When we die, we're downloaded into new bodies.

That makes us different enough, I suppose?

From:

technologist

[ Ah. Sort of getting why humans had a problem with their own creations, then. As for being downloaded into new bodies, it makes him think of something else; except he can't remember the right word for that, either, so: ]

Like being reborn? Except with tech. Downloaded. But your consciousness doesn't die, so that's basically immortality anyway, isn't it?

From:

hairlocked

We call it resurrection.

I suppose so. But... Well, who wants to live forever, anyway? It isn't very human.

From:

technologist

Reincarnation.

[ That's the word, thanks for the reminder. ]

Most humans do, I think. Want to live forever. So maybe just wanting what you can't have is the trick.

From:

hairlocked

Maybe. Dying is easy. The staying dead, if that's what we chose...

But here, on this ship, there's no resurrection; no eternal life. It ends when it ends.