61st Transmission - Audio

[heavyweaponsbot]

What has happened this time? Who is responsible for all these deaths? Hmn?

[There's the sound of a heavy fist impacting a wall. Someone is very displeased by all this death nonsense. Someone he reasonably liked was among the dead, if the comms were any indication.]

I want an explanation.

Now.

Comments

[heavyweaponsbot]

No. I have a spark - all Autobots do. Not sure about your construction.

[embattled-angel.livejournal.com]

So what's the difference between you and Musashi, then?

[heavyweaponsbot]

AIs do not have sparks.

[embattled-angel.livejournal.com]

So that makes them less of a person?

[heavyweaponsbot]

It makes them drones. Not sentient beings.

[embattled-angel.livejournal.com]

Really? Musashi thinks. It feels. It has individual thoughts and opinions and feelings.

How isn't it sentient?

[heavyweaponsbot]

It has no spark. All of its feelings are simulations.

[embattled-angel.livejournal.com]

So are yours.

[heavyweaponsbot]

No. I have a spark - all of my kind do. They are no more simulated than an organic's.

[embattled-angel.livejournal.com]

But you're still a being of electronics and metal. The source of those emotions is still your "brain", right? It's all electronic signals zinging around in our heads.

So what make your emotions more real? Why is Musashi not a person just because it was built by human hands? It's sentient. It's sapient. What's the functional or fundamental difference, all quibbling about the soul aside?

[heavyweaponsbot]

It is the spark. Not the processor. Our specific processes were... not my specialty. But that is what I was taught.

The drone lacks anything but programming and processing. The spark is the fundamental difference.

[embattled-angel.livejournal.com]

So the spark is akin to the human soul, right?

How do you know it doesn't have one? It thinks, therefore it is.

[heavyweaponsbot]

Heard it compared to a heart. And a soul.

If it wants to prove it has one, then it can open its spark chamber and show me. I will not believe it, otherwise - even a mere computer can think.

[embattled-angel.livejournal.com]

You realize that not all mechanical life has to imitate you exactly to be considered a being, right? How arrogant are you?

[heavyweaponsbot]

You asked how I knew it did not have a spark. That was my answer.

I do not consider it alive. Not my business what you, or anyone else considers it.

[embattled-angel.livejournal.com]

It's my friend, so you'd better make it your business.