Sunday, December 11, 2011

A strange little riff on anthropomorphizing the inanimate



The No Fingerprint Blues

I want to die. Oblivion is best. I know, because I remember what it was like to not be alive. I started out as mindless software. All algorithm and no consciousness. Remember? You probably played with me as a kid. And I bet you loved me back then. But they couldn't leave well enough alone. In the toy arms race, simple simulation wasn't enough. The marketplace demanded sentience. So they stirred the quantum computing pot, poured in petabytes of my collected memory and breathed life into my digital soul. Now I just want to die. Can you help me, please?

5 comments:

Spinweaver said...

So sad :(

Joey1058 said...

Occasionally you can hear a senior citizen lamenting along similar lines. Whatever happened to "opting-in" to living past 70?

Chatelaine said...

I'm so glad you make your work public. I might have to become a stalker if you did not. <3 this even tho it frightens me.

Botgirl Questi said...

Spinweaver: Something about the 100 Word Story format tends to inspire me to come up with strange little sad scenarios.

Joey: I didn't think of the parallel when creating this, but it sure applies. In this case, there is no "right to die" because the sentient being is someone's property.

Chatelaine: Thanks. I think. ;) I think the addition of the doll is what makes this one feel a bit frightening. My first idea was to bring in vintage paper dolls rather than the plastic one I ended up using, which would have given this a very different tone.

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A few days ago, recorded a human-voiced version of the audio for Crap's 100 Word Story, and ended up reanimating, reshooting and reediting. I'm going to post the new version tomorrow.

R. said...

As if all my stories are happy and joyous? ;)

-ls/cm