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Analyse was a computer human.
He analysed and perceived taste by its chemical
composition even though he was constructed of human
tissue.
Delusive circumstances such as the lack of birth memories and naming rituals drove him to the belief of his being an individual seemingly aware of his own self but as yet unaware that he was computerised.
His intelligent design developed behavioural patterns based upon observational experiences of interaction with his communicative surroundings, consequently filling his emotional void.
The reaction responsive humans had to his remarks shaped his distinctive and humoristic character. People were amused by his behaviour that was usually achieved by presenting reality in a slightly distorted or opposite way. Their respect towards him increased founding a base for their trust. His interaction with people improved to the point of establishing relationships.
He assumed this complex being quite simply by just using the correct facial expressions of different moods to gain the relevant emotion in return. This had a great influence in inflicting his opinions upon others when decision making was required and was better than using metaphors, rhymes or other cliches that Analyse couldn't find a right logical base for, he was happy with the solutions numbers & figures gave.
Mimicking smiles and laughter in combination with a rhythmical breath routine or alternatively assuming the symptoms of pain and misery, Analyse then came to believe that he indeed was an emotional being. He had encountered difficulties processing various sensitive tasks like affection, but had found set remarks that usually worked if said at the right tone, at the right moment together with suitable body movements. Their efficiency seemed to improve when used repetitively. Comments like; "well, it could be worse" dealt with frustrating situations he had no answer for and "yeah well, God knows" to dilemmas he could not calculate, usually in situations where stress factors had to be dealt with.
Perhaps he wasn't designed to build such logic upon non-figurative conceptions of thought. Analyse carried on mentioning the word and term "God" as if he believed in the idea of such divinity, even though this concept defied all known rational science. However, this particular kind of abstract basis became the stepping-stone to his first reasoning, resembling the functionality of unproved axioms. Once initial ideas were laid out and accepted as certain truth, ways of thoughts developed that reasoned with other similar logics that based themselves on the similar hypothesis. In spite of this, since he could neither see or hear god or feel his presence, such entity seemed quite illogical, the idea that he was simply created, seemed simply irrational.
Analyse worked in robotics.
His master creation was Analogue, a self-programmable robot whose basic functions relied mainly on trial and error, his practical judgment or common sense was stored on different sorts of memories allocated temporally in various clusters.
The very name "Analogue" was given in regard to first generation computers that initially claimed the analogue term, since they used variations in voltage to decrypt data. Another reason was that Analyse believed that digits were not digital at all, for it was in fact grandfather clocks that digitally ticked, or at least that's how he perceived it.
Analogue's calculations were recorded by Analyse, just as his own thoughts were constantly monitored by the mainframe. In this context, an improved reprogramming strategy would later be decided and better planned for their continual function and further development. This was a computerised evolution, determined by natural digital selection.
Self-applicable reasoning was Analyse's motto, it meant relying on his own experience. Yet he preprogrammed his offspring made from nuts and bolts with a software named Instinct, that contained dependencies on past resolutions that were not his own. However, Analogue preferred to find out faults for himself, even though it would save time not to whilst still producing the same results.
Analyse had designed Analogue to become a gardening tool and to base his logic through comparisons to his designated surroundings, a large agricultural complex. Taking his experience and applying it to the present, constituted logics revolving through his reality, the garden, with its artificial light, water systems and temperature cycles, in fact a whole controlled climate on a manipulated schedule. Analogue had the ever changing agricultural conditions and temperatures managed by different timers and other various cycles well versed. He knew the quantity of artificial light necessary for the correct behaviour of fruit and plants. This was an instinctive urge, he was unaware of why it was right to tend to the garden and wrong not to. Perhaps Mother Nature had him designed for this, in a sort of evolution that perceived his kind in a non-understandable symbiotic way.
Analogue ran perfectly, displaying high performances that increased as both he and the garden developed. But he became complacent and malfunctioned, as occasionally his attention was drawn into the functionality of his processor, merely trying to figure it out. His thoughts then were diverted towards what he concluded as a mystery causing a loop that resulted in poor processing power as registered on the appropriate meters.
Analyse was surprised to learn that since Analogue was not fully capable of understanding his calculative components, he had found a way to solve his dilemmatic algorithms by comparing his processing abilities to the highest technological aspect he knew at the time: a garden.
It seems that throughout human history, the thinking mechanism has been commonly compared to the most advanced achievements of its time. Such as the brain being likened to a library of books and at a later stage, the brain as cinema containing accessible clippings. Overtime, each step became more complex which in turn affected peoples pattern of thought.
It was quite intriguing for Analogue who was familiar with a human mind being compared with a computer, yet for a computer to compare itself to a garden seemed fascinating. Would this mean that a garden functioning as a brain is a leap forward or backward, since this conclusion was drawn from a computer.
However, regarding books as merely colourful shelf protection units and viewing the quality of projected images as more interesting than their content, Analyse preferred not to alter his thoughts, allowing the dominance of the more traditional "computer as the mind machine" comparison to remain. It could be a mistake to discard the idea of a garden functioning as a brain as contradicting the organics of nature was too complex. However what made this usual mind comparison faulty was that the programmer's mathematical basic blocks were based upon unproven axiomatic truths.
Through his creations Analyse enjoyed learning of himself. It felt like he could just let Analogue revolve around his work forever in the garden, observing his development just as a laboratory rat would discover a world through a maze of trial and error.
Hungry one day, whilst having an enriched animal protein diet, Analyse got note that his robot was coincidentally feeling the same way by dismantling other little robots from their self-charged power packs. Analogue seemed to have developed unusual creative abilities, unintentionally inflicting his intentions upon other self-programmable robots. As a result, a hierarchy was formed and an unexpected organization was conceived that brought flourishing results to the garden. Its development resembled communal formation of the organic growth of a cultivated ant colony, ironically the same pests the robots were made to keep an eye on.
With this new hierarchy system, higher efficiency levels were monitored showing improved communications in the hothouse network, as a result this eased planning for allocated services that led to an approval of these new dynamics.
Slight modifications to the robot workers achieved more proficiency, Analogue managed to convince each robot that he was capable of better performing in certain fields more than others and that he could develop an expertise in that area for better proficiency. Each robot then became specialized in a specific task. With time they learned to customize their skills, neatly fitting their jobs demands. Analogue modified himself to take on organizational and logistic roles.
Analyse was aware that his prototype robot seemed to comprehend his build and structural purposes, what each part did, how it functioned and to what extent. Yet his creation took this knowledge further by improving or replacing his worn out parts from other non-cybernetic conscious robots, taking their independent self powered supply units to serve as his own and finding a use for other spare parts, consequently expanding his abilities.
Nevertheless, after a while the expanding garden needed tendering from additional robots bearing similar tasks as his own, consequently, he simply went to another similar model robot, yet different in function, inserted a code with his needs for a new range of robot models and few weeks later, it was there.
The thought of a computer robot encrypting the code for reproduction, without understanding that humans were the ones responsible for the bolted, welded and wired results, flooded Analyse's mind. Robots saw us, and yet could not comprehend our being he thought, even though we move among them, constructing new generations they took for granted, we could have just have been another sort of plant or rock. Therefore he found that this was a right moment to query Analogue's point of view on existence.
Analogue theorised existence to be present only within its current time, the "now". His conclusions showed that the past could only be correctly accessible during the present and that speculations of the future relied on the past for their calculations, plus you'd need power to process which is neither prior there or then in order exist. These ponderous thoughts gradually encouraged Analyse to take a nap and he fell asleep dreaming of his own existence. Although he didn't know his systems were scheduled for casual maintenance checkups as well as an occasional reboot while he slept. He unconsciously felt the mainframe programmer debugging his software during his dream.
Was this natural evolution taking place or divine intervention changing his existence? Neither contradicted evolutionary theories nor the bibles description of creation, he would have to make up his mind.
"Yeah well, God knows" he told himself and dozed off.
edited by Don Maxwell, copyright © 2006 Fabrice Schomberg
