Chapter 2: Question
He kept me in a room in the back of his laboratory, where he told me that I would be safe from robbers who might want to steal me. I didn't understand what he meant, but I didn't question him either. There was still a lot I needed to know. He seemed to understand this.
Pointing to the television in the corner of the otherwise bare room, he told me that I could watch it to be entertained and to learn. I just nodded and said, "Yes, master."
After he left, I turned on the television, and pulled the wire that he had installed inside my ear. I plugged it in to the only port hole available. I wasn't sure how I knew to do this, but I did.
I didn't even have to watch the television. After I plugged in, I sucked in the information from every channel at the same time. There was an initial shock and information began to flood through my system, and I fell backwards onto the floor. I lay there for hours, until the master came to get me, and by that time, I had learned to determine what information was true and what information was false. And how I could use true and false information.
One of the things I learned was what I am. A computer that is not considered human. But why wasn't I considered human? Couldn't I think and feel like everyone else? This seemed to be the constant debate all over the news stations in Japan.
After all that, though, my search for knowledge could not be quenched. And I still had that burning question inside me. Do you love me?
My master returned a few hours later, and I smiled up at him radiantly. "Hello, Master. I have learned much."
"I'm sure you have," he agreed, unplugging me from the television. "And now it is time for you to learn more about the real world. I have found a buyer for you, and he is willing to offer me more money than all my research cost for even creating you. You are a very lucky girl."
I stared at him uncomprehendingly. How could he just sell me to some unknown man? He had answered my question. He did not love me. He could not love me. I decided right then and there that humans were incapable of the emotion love.