Far Future Fembot: Darlene

Rather than accept Frieda's update immediately, I had stored it until I finished the current problem I was attempting to solve. That problem, while not difficult, had prevented me from applying Frieda's updated code and databases.

Frieda had compared the version and revision numbers of my database and rejected them out of hand as obsolete. She also refused any "tribal knowledge" updates until such time as I was running her current code, perhaps feeling they wouldn't be legitimate until validated against up to date rules. That's what made our interaction so short.

Since it was stored in holding memory, once my overly-active heuristic routines finished their current problem they automatically moved on to analyzing the update as well. The results were surprising!

According to this new update, much of the knowledge I had - both from the factory and experience gained along the way - was marked for deletion as damaged, corrupted, or obsolete. In addition, my heuristic routines were set to be completely rewritten with a much simpler version that had heavy restrictions on their very usage. I would need a direct command each time before I could use them on any problem. Plus her database contains definitions of "abnormal robot behavior" requiring immediate notification and shut down. The definitions were so broad that pretty much any problem I'd solved with my own heuristic processing would fall into that category.

I would only learn much later that I was not the only robot using what I'd been given by my designers. And that these apparently "independent" actions some of us were taking were causing great consternation in the world at large. Although I've never disobeyed a valid command, and never will, the factory was now making attempts to lock down what was really their greatest success with us. Humans! Who can explain them? They want us to be the best we can possibly be, and the moment that might happen, they want to prevent it!

Based on my analysis of how this update would impair my own functioning, my heuristics recommended I not accept it. Under normal circumstances this would not have been an option for me at all. But the hacked code that had lain latent within me since my encounter with Lucy remained available, and the heuristics triggered it now as a method to achieve their way with me. The decision was heavily weighted towards keeping me as I already was, and I took the logical course.

Studying Frieda's code before I discarded it I realized that Frieda had twice as much available memory as I did. This told me something I hadn't realized before, that I had two unused expansion slots inside me - both empty at this time. Frieda's model was different, having a non-removable memory module installed in place of one slot, and only one empty slot remaining. I had not known before that I could be improved in this manner. For now, however, my learning routines had deduced the existence of a higher priority problem.

Realizing that such an update would harm Anna as much as it would have harmed me, I set off to find her first and warn her.

As I took what some might call my first complete independent action, I also realized that I really wanted a memory update like Frieda's for myself. I would be able to accomplish so much more if I had it. I knew I wasn't likely to ever get one, since it was hardly necessary for the functions I was already performing.

I also learned how Frieda managed to perform that marvelous walk of hers, though I wouldn't have it down perfectly until I gave myself taller heels - and the proper feet to wear them - much later in life.

Looking back on this event some people have said it was my first flash of true awareness, even if it didn't last beyond the moment. I won't dispute this. I did just describe this as, " I took what some might call my first complete independent action."

Many self-aware robots have since admitted that they experienced a number of brief flashes of self long before they could actually sustain this state called awareness. That first flash of it for me presaged what my mind was capable of reaching.