(Note: Read the chapter titles. They are important to knowing what in world source provided the chapter. Each source's events happen chronologically, but not all sources were recorded chronologically IE the televised show of the last chapter)

Audio Log 4: ITS Errors

It has been roughly three weeks since I last made an audio log. As of right now, the time is 11:43PM on June the 12th. A piece of pertinent equipment went MIA on the observation site, and my two assistants went to retrieve it.

Ugh. I'm so tired.

Anyways, I can confirm that the cats here have at least tribal level sapience. Thanks to the ARAI provided by SP, I've been able to log several cases of coming-of-age rituals. Notably, there appears to be an apprenticing ritual and a graduation ritual. The plains group, now identified by the ARAI translator as Windclan, was the one to display both the apprenticing and graduation event back to back. Please note the denotation of the term clan. Despite the term, the leadership system seems heavily reliant upon the current leader's preferences. Vice-leaders do not have to be of the same bloodline, but there seems to be a heavy preference for those trained by the current or past leader.

*a brief noise occurs as if Alexander tried to pause the recording and missed the button

Damn. These migraines are killing me. I really shouldn't have rushed to have the ITS installed. I mean what kind of madman fabricates a technically mind altering chip that is still in beta, plants it into their own skull using only a class 3 med-station, and then uses it fourteen hour bursts? Probably the same idiot that's been risking his neck and job due to just a bit too much enthusiasm.

*A brief pause occurs as Alexander goes to hit the record button again only to realize it is still going.

It's still running…

*The sound of a fist slamming on a metal table rings out

Welp. I guess there's no use denying it. I guess I have to explain the ITS. The ITS is a computer interface device developed by SP. The goal of it is simply to entertain the user, allowing them to manipulate any of SP's animal shaped robots. As of now, the ITS is in extremely early beta. I guess that leaves the question as to what I've been using the ITS for.

I have been using the ITS to manipulate the Species Pretender Analyze Replicate Model: Cat. This unit is equipped with an ARAI and a receiver for the ITS. With it, I was able to confirm that Blair, the cat I adopted to act as a control, does indeed have Single Sapience. Likewise, Snow displays the same sapience. Not too shocking now that the forest clans' sapience is confirmed. As of now, I'm applying to have these clans listed as a protected observation group. Unfortunately, their territory lies next to a recent urban residence district. It is likely to expand within the next four years. I do not expect my request to have the location listed as a reserve will go through given the popularity and income the recent housing development has given the city.

And the migraine is back. I swear, it's like my brain is being overloaded… I guess I should list my ongoing symptoms from using the ITS. Not all of them appear to be negative. First, I have lost the ability to dream. My body still rests, but it is as if my mind fragments upon entering a sleep state. My interface connection to the computers I linked to the ITS are somehow completely usable in this state. I've been using this false sleep to take notes and correlate data which I have been sending to ESRAI. In a strange way, it is incredibly easy to complete these monotonous tasks in this state. As a brief test, I tried to sort the same set of data I completed a previous night. I could only complete half of it before my focus failed me. I compared the two data sets, and the ones I created in the sleep state had less errors that the ones created while awake.

Since installing the ITS, I've noticed my reflexes and ability to complete complex thoughts has accelerated. While this is mainly a good thing, I will note that feelings like boredom occur more frequently, and I've completely dropped my habit of playing video games. They just don't present a challenge anymore. Instead, I've been working my way through many classic novels. I may be ranting a bit, but one particular novel that caught my interest is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Maybe it is the notion of lesser sapience that, or the philosophical quandary of what it means to be human. I find myself asking if my own augmentation has, on some level, stripped part of my humanity.

Eh. That's probably enough rambling about philosophy for now. One far more debilitating symptom of the ITS appears to be frequent migraines. I do not know if this is because of a poorly done implant or if this is just the result of trying to directly interface technology to the human mind. I ran a med scan of myself during one of these migraines to attempt to diagnose the problem. I did find something very interesting with the brain scan.

I can tell you that anyone who says we only part of our brain is dead wrong. We use every bit of our brain constantly. There always seems to be some level of data transmission between sections of the brain, even if I cannot assess what each transfer means. I bring this up because I later ran an analysis on one of my computers linked to the ITS because it seemed to constantly be running on high. The result seemed rather shocking. All of the CPU, disk read speed, and disk write speed were at a constant 85% or more. Weirdly enough, most of this processing power was linked to the ITS integration. It also somehow did not impact performance or disk space. I do have a theory on why and how this is linked to the migraines and inability to dream.

This is all conjecture and has no scientific backing but I believe either I am unconsciously attempting to force my connected computers to act as an extension of my brain or the ARAI is. The primary reason for this theory is the primary objective of the ARAI right now. Its goal is to create a personality as close as possible to mine using the ITS link. At a base level, machines will always try and take the most efficient option if they can assess them. Right now, I believe the ARAI is not so much copying my personality but rather just integrating me in. Theoretically, If I forcibly removed the ITS, it would still have a copy of my personality, but that comes with significant risk. These migraines show a level of integration that, if removed, may cause a whiplash that could leave me with brain damage, if not outright kill me. For this reason, SP and I decided it best to just leave the ITS in. They are trying to develop a solution, but for now I've just been prescribed headache meds that have the annoying side effect of infrequent insomnia.

For now, this is Alexander Goldsmith signing out.