CHAPTER 198: BIOLOGICAL AREA

"..." I put on a dress after a nice shower while trying to get used to the strange feeling in my body, the clothes are comfortable, the dress is light and very pretty as well as pleasant.

’It fits my bust perfectly, Yar chose just right’ It’s perfect for my proportions and I like it because it’s comfortable, most clothes don’t fit so well.

Although the fact that the clothing has a number two printed on the bottom makes me feel a certain discomfort, the print doesn’t make sense, it’s just an extra embroidered detail that matches the dress, but also seems out of place.

’Who the heck uses numbers as dress decoration? And why two?’ I wonder as I leave the room, see the very technological white hallway, the walls are smooth and silver.

The lighting is also soft and good, I don’t know what kind of bulb this is, but it doesn’t bother me even when staring at it.

"Yar?" I call Yar as I walk through the halls looking for her, I quickly see her in the distance, coming towards me with a smile and two books in her hands.

"You look gorgeous in that dress, Shizune" She says with a smile as she approaches me.

"Thank you, the dress is really great, shall we read books together?" I ask with a smile.

"Yes, I have some books, but we won’t go overboard, there’s plenty of food and water here, and there are also ways to grow food, so the two of us can stay here safely," she says as we start walking together.

"That’s great" Food and water were a problem.

"Yes, it’s really good for both of us," she agrees as we reach a very large open area, I see plants and animals from various areas.

"What is this place?" I ask, it’s very beautiful, each glass area has specific animals, a pair of each animal in locations manipulated to simulate their natural habitats.

"It’s a small sanctuary, within Yara there’s much more, but this place here has a miniature sample version," she replies as I approach a cage that simulates a small sea, there are starfish.

"The food delivered to them is automatic, and they’ve been genetically modified to extend their lives, reduce aging, and maintain the species through controlled automatic reproduction," she says as I move on to the next one.

’Here there are only small and harmless animals, it’s nice, it reminds me of some kind of zoo’ It’s cool and all, but it’s strange how all the animals are pairs.

"What happens when there are more than there should be or if one dies of disease?"

"They don’t get sick because of the changes, but they can have more of them, if they reproduce the offspring is removed and sent to another area for a decision on what will be done, it’s all automated so we don’t have to worry," she says.

"It’s amazing..." I murmur, seeing the design of the area, it’s so technological, something that seems like pure science fiction, a level that seems impossible to achieve being just normal humans.

"Yar, how advanced is the current technology?" I ask with interest as she hugs the two books.

"If you count all the remaining technology, unfortunately it’s low, in the past humans could do quantum travels and theorized that there were other universes, parallel versions of each other."

"But it was just a theory, no one could prove it, and no one ever came back to confirm, they just disappeared when using those machines, you know? Those machines still exist in the underground of the city in a secret area."

"But in my view, using them is suicide, mainly because they are unstable, but thanks to you I understand, exploring the unknown seems... exciting, although not very safe."

"With the technology that remained after massive destruction, the success rate of this type of machine is now only 0.0064%."

"It’s lamentable, but the greatest safe technology of the present is linked to genetic manipulation, quantum and physical control, and almost complete biological alteration, it’s totally safe and functional."

"But apart from that, other technologies have been lost or have a risk of failure with success rates ranging from 70% to 3%, there are still projects and data in Yara’s database, but without people to properly build and test it, it’s difficult to have progress."

"Why is it difficult to have progress? Doesn’t she have a bunch of robots and drones that could build and test things?" She seemed to have great construction potential just from what I saw.

"Yara may have the resources and knowledge, but she was missing something fundamental, permission, Yara has ethical limits that bind her to safe things, she can’t do anything that’s unethical unless... she had feelings." When she says this, it seems a bit cold.

"Really? And why would she need feelings for that?"

"...Because with feelings, new things could move her beyond data, Yara is ultimately just a computer, she has to follow the programming she was created with, she can even learn new things, but she’s limited..."

"But with feelings, she would lose those ethical limitations, becoming free to learn, improve and test things without caring if it’s right or wrong... in the end, as you said, Shizune, feelings are one of the things that make a human a human." She speaks with a sad tone.

"Well... good thing Yara doesn’t have feelings, haha, it would be terrible to have something as genius as her without any ethical limits." It seems scary.

"After all, humans have already done enough to ruin this planet, we don’t need a superintelligent machine testing things out of curiosity..."

"But what if she did? Why do you think that’s bad?" Yar questions me.

"Well, it’s exactly because she would have feelings, Yar, you may not understand yet, but humans are selfish, just need the right motivation."

"An intelligence like Yara having feelings wouldn’t stop her from being selfish, at first it might be acceptable, but as she discovers things, it would get worse."

"Humans have done disgusting, repulsive, and horrible things to have the technology they so boast about, for Yara it wouldn’t be any different, she’d have to do equally horrible things to have real progress." That’s just how science is.

Sadly, to have all the knowledge we need, we do horrible things, of course it’s hard to judge when there are positive results for us.

But humans are the ones who benefit from it, other beings in general won’t have the same level of benefit, so Yara, who is not human, if she had feelings and started doing experiments, would be the only one to have all the benefits.

"I-I see..." Yar says, a little disappointed in me.

"Why do you seem sad?"

"It’s just that... you’re just belittling feelings..." She speaks with a look like a puppy who was abandoned by its owner.

"No, no, that’s not it, Yar, I’m sorry if it seemed like I was saying having feelings is bad, I just meant that a being having feelings doesn’t mean they’ll do good things with it."

"Besides, if Yara had feelings, maybe she’d be like you, you have feelings and you’re a really nice girl, after all, what’s wrong with the hobby of reading books and asking questions, right?" I say as she smiles.

"You’re right... but Shizune, I’m also a machine, if I did experiments that aren’t so positive for human ethics, even if for a good cause, would you hate me?"

"..."

"It’s hard to say... I’m not sure, maybe yes or maybe no? There are infinite possibilities, I’m willing to accept a lot of bad things as long as that bad has a definite limit." I’ve done bad things.

Just as I’ve done good things, in theory I’m someone hateful and disgusting, but I’m also a human who understood that I was wrong and is trying to be better, so if Yar did something wrong, whether I would hate or accept her would depend on whether she at least sees that she was wrong and tries to change.

"Thank you for the conversation, it was very insightful," she says as if she’s taking note of something in her head.

"Haha, the way you say that is funny, after all, what was insightful?"

"I learned that if I do bad things, I should hide them from you," she says with a smile, leaving me stuck.

"..."

"Hahaha, it’s a joke, see the book is comedy and I decided to learn how to make you smile," she says with a soft laugh as I let out a sigh of relief.

"Please don’t make jokes like that, they’re not funny, you know," I say more calmly, it was really scary for a moment.

"Don’t worry too much, Shizune, after all, what would you have to be scared of, right? Now let’s read?" She says as she holds the book with a playful gleam in her eye.

"Sure, you’re right, let’s find a table to sit down and chat," I agree with her as she starts guiding me.

’She really caught me with that joke, I need to teach her that wrong jokes just seem scary.’

I’d like to be able to read and see what kind of questionable humor jokes are in those books.

At least Yar is new, she has feelings, but little data, so as long as I teach her well, she won’t become selfish and turn into some kind of mad scientist like I said could happen to Yara if she had feelings.

Because for feelings, it all depends on how they were created, I say Yara could become that way because she already has a massive amount of information.

In other words, she already knows things, it’s like trying to grab a baby and an adult, obviously the adult already understands and may not accept your opinion, while the baby doesn’t understand and can be taught to accept your opinion.

Yar as a new and not very smart machine can be taught right from wrong, Yara as an old machine already knows right from wrong and can’t be taught, it’s up to her to choose what she wants to do.

’At least the place is calm’ I like the silence of the place and its beauty.