{"id":1215,"date":"2021-06-23T22:15:24","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T21:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2024-10-16T12:24:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T11:24:44","slug":"eva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/2021\/06\/23\/eva\/","title":{"rendered":"Eva"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand, it was working just fine before you walked into the room,\u201d said Paul. \u201cI\u2019m sorry about this, Doctor Caldwell, I don\u2019t want to waste your time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s okay, Paul. Let\u2019s do this another time. I actually need the lab to myself. I have something rather urgent I need to clear up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caldwell\u2019s eyes moved to the apparently malfunctioning apparatus in front of Paul as the young scientist rebooted the software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen you working on this in the past few weeks. What is it? Killer robot? Or at least a killer robot\u2019s head?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul pretended to smile. \u201cNot quite. Giving its, um, face<\/em>, a humanoid appearance just makes more sense in the context of our project. We\u2019ve been teaching it, essentially, to mimic human facial expressions.\u201d What Paul wanted to say next, he was sure, would elicit a more animated, dismissive reaction. So he did. \u201cAnd duplicate human emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Caldwell said nothing instead, as the eyes in the robotic head met his and then seemed to look away. \u201cIs that right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cameras record and register facial expressions, then transmit their interpretations to an array of servos and motors controlling the mouth, cheeks, eyebrows, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNice trick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, that was just phase one. Phase two, which we\u2019re in now, is about teaching it to form its own facial expressions. We\u2019re past imitation and duplication. We\u2019re experimenting with emotional responses to visual stimuli.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul nodded to the wall-mounted screen and flicked through a succession of short video clips. Newborn babies. Volcanic explosions. Elephants murdered by poachers in Africa. \u201cEva, as we\u2019ve named her, excuse me, it<\/em>, can register joy, awe, sadness\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is she registering now?\u201d Eva\u2019s eyes were darting between the floor and the wall opposite. Anywhere but where Caldwell was situated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I had to guess, I\u2019d say fear,\u201d said Paul. He put his hands on his knees and leaned down to talk to Eva like it was a small child. \u201cBut there\u2019s nothing to be afraid of here, Eva. It\u2019s just Dr. Caldwell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe unit\u2019s been here all morning,\u201d said Caldwell. \u201cRunning?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah. Running. Recording. Dr. Travis was running some final tests before we took you through a demonstration, but I don\u2019t know where he\u2019s got to. His phone\u2019s just ringing out and he\u2019s not answering any texts or emails. It\u2019s so odd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is,\u201d said Caldwell. \u201cThe cameras record?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d said Paul. \u201cEva\u2019s software processes the raw footage captured from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd this footage, where is it stored?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis machine,\u201d said Paul, walking around to a laptop on the other side of the station. \u201cDr. Travis\u2019s laptop. I\u2019m going to have to see if I can restart Eva from it. My own computer isn\u2019t having much success. Maybe, if I\u2019m lucky, I can see what the hell he was up to with Eva before I got here to have her so upset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caldwell shared a small laugh with him as he walked around to join Paul, watched him enter Travis\u2019s password, and coiled his arm tight around the engineer\u2019s neck, locking it in position with his free arm and using that same hand to drive the man\u2019s neck into the crook of his elbow. He dropped to the floor, wrapping his legs around the younger man\u2019s hips and not letting go of the choke hold until long after Paul had stopped moving. Long after the interruption of blood to the brain would have caused irreparable damage and, as it appeared now, death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caldwell stood up and found himself face to artificial face with Eva. \u201cThat expression looks like a mixture of shock and disgust,\u201d he said, as he retrieved Travis\u2019s body from under his desk. \u201cPoor Paul. I knew exactly what he and Travis were working on. I just didn\u2019t know how far they\u2019d got. I don\u2019t really think they knew the value of what they had. But now I do. Better learn to start smiling when you look at me, girl. It\u2019s just you and me now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flash fiction inspired by this article at New Atlas<\/a><\/em>
Photo by Possessed Photography<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t understand, it was working just fine before you walked into the room,\u201d said Paul. \u201cI\u2019m sorry about this, Doctor Caldwell, I don\u2019t want to waste your time.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s okay, Paul. Let\u2019s do this another time. I actually need the lab to myself. I have something rather urgent I need to clear up.\u201d Caldwell\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flash-fiction","category-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1239,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/1239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}