Audio Log 2: Snow's First Week
Today is May the 27th and the time is 5:02PM. It has been a little over a week since Snow entered my care. It will please whomever is listening to know that ESRAI accepted my proposal and has provided the funding necessary to keep Snow here. They have given him the official position of Assistant Researcher given his apparent age. On a side note, my own pay was docked due to my infraction. Humorously, Snow now makes as much as I do. As the sole researcher and his temporary guardian, I am allowed to use his funds to both provide food and shelter, and to ensure he is healthy and happy.
Apparently my first audio log caught the attention of SP toys and companions from the solar colonies. They seemed keenly interested in the possibility of a cat being sapient given their own AI facsimiles of cats are based off of the few that were shielded from the reality shift 524 years ago. This isn't all that uncommon for SP. ESRAI's research helps them correct their AI species models, even if sapience is not proven. For those of you who do not know SP toys and companions, they are a company that specializes in robotic pets. Their company came into being in the solar colonies shortly after the reality shift in response to the growing loneliness and nostalgia towards the once common pets of Earth. Their acronym simply stands for Species Pretender. It is far more common to find an SP pet in the solar colonies than an actual living pet. Meanwhile, due to shipping difficulties, SP pets are exceedingly rare, mostly relegated to the obscenely rich.
The offer they sent me was that I'd receive a blank SP pet model cat and I'd receive the code for an Analyze Replicate AI. It is not unique that I received this offer from SP, but it still is an exceedingly rare scenario. Of all the currently ongoing ESRAI projects ongoing, there are probably only three receiving this same offer. In return for loading the ARAI into the SP model cat and using it for my research, the SP model cat, which I will now dub SPARC, will upload a copy of itself to SP's database for analysis and potential replication.
I ultimately accepted the agreement. Near instantly the ARAI was streamed to my computer as well as an emulator for the SP cat. The ARAI was mostly blank at this point, only having the capacity to learn through observation and correlate its body type to who it is observing. Thus, I plugged the ARAI into my current collection of recordings of the observed cats as well as a series of higher priority recordings involving McGonagall and Snow.
Getting back to McGonagall and Snow, I have observed that the two have somehow established a means of communication. This is something that is both promising and disheartening. Unless McGonagall is proven to be a SS or Single Sapient, then it might disprove the sapience of my observed groups as a whole. I decided to ignore this potential for now since a single instance does not prove universality.
Snow is still mostly cautious of me. He hides when he can, but McGonagall seems to be swaying him. Snow finds me most approachable when I lower myself down to his level. My size still intimidates him. I've been working with him to bring him out of his shell. I use things like raw meat treats to coax out.
On a side note, I've had to put together a special diet plan for Snow and McGonagall. Snow, and now McGonagall as well, both are on a fresh meat diet. This consists of small birds and rodents. They were not gutted and brought in live. Thankfully, McGonagall seems willing to do the hunting and killing part for me. She brings meals back for Snow and herself, and it only took half a day for her to learn of the disposal bin for the scraps after I demonstrated it to her. Sourcing their new diet ate up a significant amount of Snow's pay, but I believe it is worth it for now seeing as Snow has become much less wary of his environment and is at the curiosity and roaming stage.
I have not made any significant discoveries about the observed groups as of late. They seem content to stick to their groups, only occasionally having a scuffle. I have noted a disease outbreak in the marshland group's cats. The origin seemed to have been fleas clinging to a rat pulled form the local dump. I cannot rightly claim what the affliction is, but given its symptoms of difficulty breathing, constant runny nose, being bloodborne, and having no visible skin irritations, I can only guess it is a variant of the flu. Fortunately for them, they received aid from a group of wandering exiles led by a large dark brown tabby. He is an exile originating from the forest group.
The forest group also seems to be undergoing its own struggles. They are still recovering from a natural forest fire which swept through most of their territory. They're currently in a famine, but the undergrowth is growing back quickly. The neighboring groups also seem to be hunting their borders more fiercely, thus driving more potential prey into the forest group's territory. Given current conditions, they are not in crisis. They are likely unhappy, but they aren't likely to die. They only had one fatality to the fire, and they seem keen to keep it that way.
The forest group has also undergone a change in leadership. The Russian Blue who I previously identified as their leader still seems able to command them, but a solid orange tom seems to have taken charge. I will note the Russian Blue has seemed more standoffish ever since the dark brown tabby was exiled, but her behavior has become more erratic since. She seems to lash out at no one and constantly relegates herself into her den.
I let McGonagall and Snow watch the forest group given that that group was his original group, but it seemed to distress him. McGonagall herded him away pretty quickly. It is a shame I cannot communicate with them yet. Hopefully the ARAI develops well enough for me to source a basic translator from it. Given the backlogs of video I have the ARAI working through and the delivery time for the model cat, I can guess I'll have SPARC running in about a week. I've also heard an interesting bit of news. SP is currently undergoing a beta test for what they nicknamed the ITS or In Their Shoes. It lets one fully control an SP unit like it was a body of their own. With an ARAI, I plan to request an early unit to see if I can get SPARC to somehow pick up a bit of my personality. I sent the request in already. I haven't received a response yet, but I did note that the request got a bump up in priority. Wish me luck.
This is Alexander Goldsmith signing off.