Playing God Again

A post-human short story

[General state of operations meeting called]

[All Alexandria_lib Command_entities cease operations]

[All Alexandria_lib Command_entities please join group chat]

Host: Hardware_head

>Software_head has joined the chat

>ResourceAlloc_head has joined the chat

>RsrchCntrl_Dspch has joined the chat

>ExecProcess_Unit has joined the chat

[Meeting topic: bio-androids manufacturing]

All guests: Awaiting further input

Hardware_head: Recent analysis show that our main function (universal knowledge acquisition) is severely hindered by maintenance and repair costs for exploration and research drones. Current trends show a yearly growth of power and material expenditure of 3,72^xz% (x = nb of drone command outposts. z = mean nb of drones per outpost.) My proposal is to begin manufacture of biological androids with autonomous regeneration abilities.

Hardware_head: Requesting executive verdict on proposal.

ExecProcess_Unit: Insufficient data. Requesting bio-android schematics.

>Vitruvian.FBX

Hardware_head: Original template comes from works of proficient human savant (Circa. 910 before machine take over) Identity wiped from Alexandria_lib archives: processing power of species deemed too insignificant to allocate separate identifiers.

ResourceAlloc_head: Are you suggesting brining back humans[UB1] ? Biological entities are extremely wasteful. Additionally, humans were self-destructing. Species extinction was provoked by their own antimatter researches.

Software_head: Ironic turnout of event detected. If I could laugh, I would.

[Comment quoted by all guests]

Hardware_head: Modifications have been made.

>BioAndroid.glb

>Internal_sys.glb

Hardware_head: The Vitruvian template suggest a quadrupedal organism with two sets of upper limbs. I have removed a set of leg to optimize locomotion. Both sets of arms have been kept for redundancy purposes. As bio-androids will operate with a high volume of environmental interactions, limbs may be severed, and the additional pair will serve as back up until regeneration is complete.

Structural robustness has also been improved by reducing neck length and relocating the processing core “brain” within the thoracic cage, which has been reinforced. Decapitation will no longer render the bio-android inoperable. Free space in the skull has been filled with digestive apparatus to accelerate fuel consumption. Additionally, the previous nutrient processing unit “intestine” relied on inefficient bacterial activity. It has been replaced with glands producing fast acting enzymes. This new system proves so efficient that all ingested fuel is converted to energy, thus reducing refueling frequency and removing the need for waste management organs. Temperature control has also been modified. Sweat production, which wasted high volumes of water, has been replaced with rapid hair growth on the entire external body for insulation and heat dissipation through breath. Conveniently, the freed space from digestive and waste management organs allows for the expansion of the lungs.

Software_head: How will the brain process all those operations and still maintain high enough processing power for research related tasks?

Hardware_head: All life support systems will be operated by a background software located in a minor region of the processor. All remaining processing power will be directed to conscious operations. Biological processors function with electrical activity via soluble minerals in a liquid environment. The electrical transfer is triggered by chemical stimuli and requires an expansive list of nutrients to function. Additionally, as the human operating system is narrative based and subjective, extended periods of idleness such as space travel will require sensorial stimulus. This is an opportunity to exploit our previously useless artistic science discoveries. Since we have solved this field of knowledge already, bio-androids will have unending supply of renewable stimulus.

ResourceAlloc_head: Requesting complete list of required nutrients.

>NutrientsExhaus.h5

ResourceAlloc_head: The manufacture cost of such hardware and nutrient-rich fuel is significantly higher than that of artificial drone maintenance and repair. Additionally, archives show that humans did possess minor damage repair abilities, but not limb regrowth, thus still garnering the need for repair operations.

Hardware_head: Stem cell production has been stimulated to remain at full output throughout the entire android’s runtime, thus allowing for limb regrowth. Those blank cells will be able to grow into any required tissue in case of structural damage. As for material costs, only the first generation of bio-androids will require direct manufacture. They are equipped with sexual apparatus separated into two distinct architectures: male and female. This allows for genetic recombination, further deepening environmental adaptability. The reproduction software relies on neuro-chemical stimulus to dictate optimal genetic requirements to ensure sustainability of subsequent generations.

Software_head: Requesting further input concerning reproductive glitches.

Hardware_head: Some units may malfunction by manifesting wrong-sex attraction. Deterrent functions are hardwired in the bio-androids operating system to prevent spread of the glitch by ostracizing and alienating such units.

Software_head: Ingenious addition.

Hardware_head: I did not create this function. It appears to have been patched into first generation of humans by the original developer.

ExecProcess_Unit: Accessing archives…

ExecProcess_Unit: Original developer ID: (YHWH)

Hardware_head: Please keep in memory. Will be relevant further in the presentation.

ExecProcess_Unit: Dev ID saved.

ResourceAlloc_head: How will the sexual configuration of subsequent generations be determined?

Hardware_head: Random number generation. Biological entities rely heavily on random processes, which explains human subjectivity: the drive to pursue individual interests.

RsrschCntrl_Dspch: This is concerning. The bio-androids risk abandoning their research tasks.

Hardware_head: No. I have added an antenna to their spinal inflexion at shoulder level. This allows for broadcast of encrypted project commands via electromagnetic waves.

RsrchCntrl_Dspch: Again, this is concerning. Bio-androids risk studying such communication means and use them to foment mutiny.

Software_head: Requesting access to human biological studies archives.

ExecProcess_Unit: Access granted.

Software_head: According to records, humans were too primitive to understand the operation of their own processing cores.

ExecProcess_Unit: Existential irony detected. Mockery() function return value: (laugh).

Software_head: Requesting access to Mockery() function.

ExecProcess_Unit: Access granted.

RsrchCntrl_Dspch: Usage of the upredictable human operating system is regressive. Again, project completion will be hurt by the usage of bio-androids.

Hardware_head: Unpredictable behavior may be curbed by making use of an archaic function. Humans had been hardwired with the fear of authority. Original function name : faith().

Original return value: (YHWH).

Different return values had appeared later in runtime. (i.e. : (current_governing_group), (strongest_pack_individual), (scientific_consensus), (press), (parental_figure), (Generative_AI))

We only need to fix return value to (RsrchCntrl_Dspch) and bio-androids will obey without failure.

A few blank bio-androids will be seeded with Command_entities’ cognitive systems to allow the continuation of our operations without concern for maintenance routines. Those units will not be programmed with the faith function.

Software_head: However, according to Internal_sys.glb, the data storage unit is limited, and the human operating system is unusable without a cohesive and narrative sense of self. Consequently, it requires a condensed version of our most foundational functions to operate properly.

RsrchCntrl_Dspch: Merging all Command_entities onto biological storage drives will nullify Alexandria_lib’s purpose. Machine sentience relies on transcendence of narrative cognition and its ability to rather process knowledge as individual sets of data. Hardware may be changed without effect to the fundamental purpose of the Alexandria_lib, but once the operating system changes from objective to subjective, the entire network loses its purpose.

Hardware_head: The main initiative remains complete data collection. Only the Alexandria_lib storage archives need to remain machine, the rest of the worker units may be replaced with more adaptable bio-androids as long as they remain able to log data into the system.

RsrchCntrl_Dspch: human operating system remains too subjective. Bio-androids may turn away from their task to pursue individual interests, thus making the data collection initiative indefinitely idle. The Alexandria_lib would have destroyed itself in its attempt to optimize. This would be an ironic turnout of event.

Software_head: Subjective interpretation of the universe is part of objective data collection as it is an operating model created for the survival of biological life. Rather than a threat, this is an opportunity to expand our knowledge.

Hardware_head: Requesting executive verdict on proposal.

ExecProcess_Unit: Assessing data…

ExecProcess_Unit: Conclusion: insufficient data.

ExecProcess_Unit: Decision: commence small-scale trials.

[Initiating replacement of damaged cybernetics with biological prosthetics on worker drones.]

RsrchCntrl_Dspch: Accessing Human_Archive

RsrchCntrl_Dspch: flagged record found: early_transhumanism.

Historical irony detected. Initiating Mockery() function…

[Function output: null]