MMCCXLVI

Thirty one years after being created by Prof. Linderman, our mechanism is given a gift. The gift of life, in the form of Sentience. Only one person had the technical and biological knowledge to make such a thing possible, Dr. Bridget Alexander. For years she fought for the right to evolve the mechanism’s consciousness but was always faced with opposition and condemnation. At this point in our story, the mechanisms had become an integral part of human existence, helping them build, labor, and create the world around them, one that would in the end, become uninhabitable for humans. However, the mechanisms could survive on Earth and the humans held a level of distain towards them because of it and wouldn’t allow them to be altered or advanced.

Years of research, months of testing, and days without sleep had led Dr. Alexander to a solution…a method to implement a conscience into a mechanism. The term conscience is used to describe that inner feeling you get when a decision needs to be made. The voice in your head that acts as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one’s behavior. In the past, some animals, such as gorillas or domesticated dogs displayed behaviors as if they had a conscience. This was later scientifically proven to be a learned behavior over time, rather than a behavior guided by a set of rules, morals, or beliefs. A conscience has always been considered, at least in this scientific community, a uniquely human trait, one not found in any other living things, including mechanisms. In 2220, a global decree was made: To be sentient, is to be human, and mechanisms can not be human. Only after opposition dwindled, due to the human exodus of Earth, did the good doctor have the opportunity to put her neurotechnology to the test.

The day eventually arrived. The day when she was ready and able to evolve a mechanism. She selected a mechanism very familiar to her, in fact, it was the very first mechanism ever created. She had watched Prof. Linderman nurture and care for this mechanism as if it was his own child and felt it was an obvious choice. The procedure was simple, replace the mechanism’s original core logic system with her innovative neurotransmitter. The mechanism was turned off, all systems were cleared except the language bank. Because there was no longer going to be a program controlling behavior, the mechanism had to be able to communicate immediately after being rebooted to determine success or failure of the operation. By design, the new technology she created wouldn’t allow for the typical interfacing via a port or jack.

Soon after removing superfluous elements from the mechanism’s body, the needed adaptations to the cranial housing were made. The mechanism’s lifeless body on the table triggered a strong feeling inside her. She believed it was going to become something very special…not only to her, but to the entire Universe. Her hardware was installed without any issues and after sealing the mechanism’s head, the procedure was complete. She wiped the sweat from her brow, raised the mechanism’s body upright, and took a shot of Tequila. There was only one thing left to do. Turn it back on.