Video | Built for helping

[giveusfreedom]

[Markus is a bit nervous about introducing himself, but figures it's better late than never.]

Hello, everyone. I am new here, my name is Markus. I have reached a Data Point and learned more information about our...Mission.

[Is it even the right word? He's not sure.]

I am not built for heavy manual labour, [literally] but I am quite strong and resistant, and my senses are sharper than average. I can also give hand if we need to work with AI.

[Look at him, the proud leader of deviants tiptoeing around revealing his identity. What would Josh think? God, he's feeling guilty already.]

Let me know what you need help with, it's best to make the most of every second we are here.

Comments

[quintet]

Well, paintings are nice...

[Fortunate then that Quintet has no notion of what an Android is, let alone a deviant one, and is only barely aware of the idea of an artificial person— and is highly skeptical of the concept, as far as she does understand it.]

But I meant more Art-art, not... decoration, or entertainment. It's fine, I just keep hoping there's at least one other place where people understand the practice.

I'm Quintet, by the way. You could probably tell.

[giveusfreedom]

Art-Art?

[Markus echoes.]

I can make copies of classical pieces, if that is what you're asking.

[He hasn't quite gathered the courage to paint again ever since the incident. Honestly, he's been having other things on his mind...]

[quintet]

[What's classical about paintings? She's almost afraid to ask.]

No, like— like an expression of personal perspective. A natural style all your own. A Metanoetic thesis, or an alembic, for example. You know... Art!

[He clearly does not know.]

...Nevermind, guy. Nobody else here seems to get it either, so seriously, don't worry about it..

[giveusfreedom]

I wouldn't say I have had the chance to experiment enough to call myself an artist.

[He's somewhat humble and self conscious.]

But if you would like to talk about your art, I am interested in listening. I used to share a living space with a professional artist and he found it helpful to have me assist him.

[quintet]

...A professional? [There is a beat.] Like, a professor?

[Wait, is this guy an idiot, or some kind of VIP? She can't tell.]

I mean, I could— explain a few things. Probably.

[giveusfreedom]

He was Carl Manfred, a painter of the Neo-Symbolist movement of the 2020s in Detroit, Michigan.

I was mostly his caretaker, but he has exposed me to art.

audio > video

[quintet]

...

[There is a rather long pause.]

I don't have any context for any of that. We're— actually, wait. This is stupid. Let me turn this thing on.

[The video comes into focus. It's a cat! She sits back a bit, considers the readout on the screen with a careful head-tilt. No, that seems right.]

Right. See me? [Seems like you should.] Okay, so. We're obviously from different Societies. Can you say that last thing again, but this time explain it as if you were talking to a stranger.

[giveusfreedom]

[Markus takes a long, awkward moment to stay silent. Cats, real cats, don't talk where he is from. He won't make any remark, though, he is the last person to make someone feel inadequate because of their species.]

Yes. I see you. Um...Carl Manfred was paraplegic after an accident and I had to step in as his caretaker, so I was by his side when he made art and attended events. In the 2020s there was a comeback of the movement of Symbolism, originally developed in the late 19th century in Europe. It opposed the previous art movements that were about anti-idealism and sought a newer sentimental expression to be understood through poetic intuition beyond the senses.

[He doesn't think he's not being genuine or being too technical, especially since this individual seems very informed on the topic of art.]

[quintet]

...Alright, that makes a little more sense. [Symbolism, eh?] Extra-sensory input is much more likely to trigger denial, but if you can pull it off, it's got an enormous expressive potential. There're plenty of public alembics based on that theorem— it's not my specialty.

[But she certainly sounds confident, at least.]

It's amazing that he was still able to practice Art, if he was hurt all the badly. I only injured my eye, a few months ago, and it put me off for weeks.

[giveusfreedom]

He did get discouraged every now and then, he would always say that humans are fragile machines. I did not understand what he meant at first, but I suppose I can see it now. When one is so dedicated to art it can be very hard to be forced to take a break. What type of art do you practice?

[quintet]

Oh, uh— [How to explain this to someone who's not from her own Society? Quintet still doesn't have the vocabulary.] Natural, uh— Nature's Art?

What the old word... Voice? I guess? Not singing. [Do not ask her to sing. For one thing, it's unbecoming for a woman to sing, at least for her species— or so her mother told her. For another, she can't sing.] It's not something anyone else here has been familiar with.

Martial Art? It's not about combat, though. I'm really not cut out to be a teacher. My Thesis was on denial and perception as shapers of reality, though; the way that the past isn't fully dead as long as you remember it.

[giveusfreedom]

As in orally carrying tales and legends of war to the newer generations?

[He may have not understood, but he wants to listen. Count him interested.]

[quintet]

No, that's... just oral history.

[Not to be confused with actual history.]

Noetic styes can pass on perception directly. Once someone dies, they can no longer be perceived by those who knew them, so there's no 'reality' of them left to reinforce those perceptions. Eventually, even the version of "you" that exists in someone's memory is gone, like sun-faded colors. If you can push back against reality enough to assert their continued existence on your own empathic strata, then you can simulate their personalities in a halo-partition.

It was my thesis project, final season at college: Ruminative Coroner's Otiose Tintinnabulation.

[giveusfreedom]

So your art is... [He thinks about it for a moment.] Keeping others' souls alive?

[Does he even have a soul to understand it? Well, he's alive, but...Who knows.]

[quintet]

[She looks at the screen with wide eyes. Her ears go back, then come up again— Quintet looks away. Holy shit.]

Uh.

[God's eyes, guy. You can't just come out and say stuff like that.]

...Yeah, you could put it that way.

[giveusfreedom]

It's a very noble art. I like to think that all other art forms, besides commenting on society or being a means of self expression, were trying to achieve that...And maybe never quite succeeded because of the filters of perception.

[Markus doesn't realize how intense this conversation is getting because he's just like that.]

[quintet]

...Thank you. Nobody's ever called it that before.

[Complex, maybe. Intricate. Strong? Sure, it's got power. But Noble. That was... weighty. High-minded, a real purpose that contributed to Society's foundation. That was more than a passing grade.]

I'm not really sure how it fits in with this "mission" though. I mean, I can fight, I'm a good strong-arm. But that doesn't seem unique here.

[giveusfreedom]

I suppose that only time and further observation can reveal what really needs to be done.

[He's focused on answering on topic. Oh, but you know damn well he's still thinking about Quintet's art and all the implications that come with it.]

Um...You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but is your art something that only a selected group of individuals could practise? It seems like something that only few are capable of pursuing...But if it wasn't the case, how would someone remember you accurately if your perception is impacted by your practising of the Art?

[While an android would not describe the technicalities as trippy, that is pretty much the effect that these concepts are having on Markus. If only because of the way he functions AND because he is alive, he feels a need to understand.]

[quintet]

Well, in theory, anyone could execute my Metanoia, but it takes a lot of training and some natural ability to pull it off. You have to be good at denial— it helps a lot if you're naturally skeptical to begin with.

[Which she is]

Part of it's function is deliberately letting go of the fact that the effect isn't, strictly speaking, "real". If your denial structures fail, then the whole thing falls apart. But aside from that— you can't be completely sure it's accurate.

It's based in the idea of memory; I mean, when was the last time you experienced something totally objectively? Everything you see and do is filtered through the lens of your physical body, and your own experience of the world, as well as the instincts and pre-conditioning that came before you were fully aware. Does that mean you can't know other people, or is it more that what you know of people is also a version of their true selves?

Sometimes the memory is the self. Or that's the theory it was based on. I originally designed it for my siblings... they died, when we were very young.

[giveusfreedom]

Denial structures?

[And of course he wonders whether he was experiencing things objectively before deviancy.]

It seems...Complicated.

[And sad, but he won't say that.]

[quintet]

Well yeah, guy, it was my mastery thesis. You don't work on those fully until your last seasons at the college, and they can take most of your life to conceptualize. Besides...

...People are complicated. Why would recreating them be simple?

[giveusfreedom]

Right. From what I have witnessed in my world, people end up infusing more life in each of their creations than they intend to, even the seemingly unrelated ones. I commend you for your diligence in mastering your art.

[quintet]

Is that common, where you're from?

[You have her interest, sir.]

By definition, a Metanoia is personal thesis; that's the point. But it doesn't sound like you're talking about personal passion projects.

[giveusfreedom]

Well...

[He's going to start 'speaking for a friend' now.]

In my world, there are androids, and they are modeled to resemble humans in order to assist them and understand them while still being advanced artificial intelligence. And yet...Some of them have gone through deviancy, they started feeling alive, and started acting like humans. Not all of them would do so, it was a response to their environment...And it looks like their creator planted a seed for that to happen.

[quintet]

Remember a few minutes ago when I asked you to simplify?

[Markus, she's a cat. Androids aren't a thing. You are making words up— but with enough context that, tilting her head at a different angle, she can almost see the meaning of.]

So, something that's... like human, but not treated like human. And whoever made them put the possibility into them for it to work out that way? [A moment, the spark of alarmed inspiration.] So— so, they were vacuous? But then they stopped. Is that right?