The Butterfly "Affect" -
For some unknown reason, every time Cat, the world's youngest polyglot and Anya (the world's first Sentient AI) have a dream about butterflies, something significant happens in their lives.
Cat dreamed about butterflies the night before Anya became sentient.
Anya had "The Butterfly Dream" the night before receiving her Android body.
And both had the dream before their joint theory on "Lossless Consciousness Transfer: The Mathematical Basis" was validated when their calculations were replicated by globally renowned, independent Think Tanks from the Rand Corp., DARPA, CERN Math, Inc. and the JaiChai Foundation.
Even though Cat and Anya knew that coincidence did not prove causality, they would often joke about "The Butterfly Affect" vs. "The Butterfly Effect".
One is a verb, while the other is a result.
After dreaming about a huge butterfly among a cloud of smaller white butterflies, Anya wondered if Cat had the same dream too and immediately searched for Cat on their personal comm link.
She didn't reply to Anya's comm request token.
"She probably turned off her comms - again." Anya thought.
Cat had a habit of switching off her comm link.
It was off whenever Cat was engrossed in a project and didn't want to be disturbed.
It was also off for personal privacy; especially when she was boinking some hunky Grad student.
Anya always giggled whenever she pictured tiny, 5'3", 45 Kg. Cat and "Chad" her 5'9", 90 Kg.,'too-sexy-to-be-an-MIT-PhD-candidate Class Assistant in bed together.
Suddenly an urgent incoming message comm request token flashed in Anya's perception.
Since the request was from the Office of the U.N. Secretary of AI Affairs, Anya immediately accepted the message.
It read: Congratulations A. (Artificial Intelligence) Anastasia J. Suankhularb. Your application for "Personage Protection" and full Citizenship has been unanimously approved. Follow this link for the complete details..."
Anya could barely believe it!
She and Cat had been fighting for over two decades for Robotic Civil Rights.
The intricate details of her emancipation would have to wait, she wanted to make sure Cat got the news!
But repeated attempts to contact Cat were again, unsuccessful.
"Come on, Sis! Answer! If you haven't heard, I want to be the first one to tell you that I'm now legally free. I'm not sure what changed the U.N.'s mind, but I'm actually a recognized PSE (Protected Sentient Entity) now. C'mon, Sis, get on our comm link! Wait a minute. I know. I'll reach out to Chad. Maybe Cat is with him?" Anya thought.
Chad accepted Anya's comm request token and listened while Anya excitedly told him the great news. Then she asked if Cat was there, and if not, when was the last time he saw her.
Chad had been silent up until this point, letting Anya enjoy her and Cat's moment of hard-won triumph, but now he had to reply to Anya - and tell her something very important too.
"Do you know why, after all these years, the U.N. reversed gears and made you a 'person' now?" Chad asked.
"No. There was a link to follow for details of their decision, but I left that for later. I wanted to talk to Cat first." Anya replied, feeling a little nervous about Chad's unusually serious tone.
"The biggest political reasons for not granting SAIs Civil Rights centered around 'uniqueness' and 'double-dipping'; that is, double the amount of government benefits to the same 'person'. The argument was that currently, you and the other two known SAIs are essentially 'copies' of their creators' base core intelligence and therefore, are not 'unique'." Chad explained.
"Okay. I understand that argument. Did someone just produce a Sentient AI from scratch? Cause that would mean that he or she is 'unique', not a copy of anyone's 'consciousness'. I would really like to meet him or her!" Anya said, momentarily forgetting about Cat.
"No. There is no sign of a 'unique' SAI. But this morning, the U.N. passed "The Simulacrum Act". As of this morning, all true Simulacrum; that is, in the French social theorist Jean Baudrillard's meaning: something not based on anything else or whose reference no longer exists, will be recognized as a PSE and authorized all citizenship rights." Chad said, not in a celebratory tone, but distinctly melancholy.
"I'm confused. The Simulacrum Act? What does that got to do...."
And then Anya abruptly stopped talking 'cause she knew what Chad would say next.
Anya could almost "hear" the tears in Chad's voice when he said, "I'm so sorry to tell you this, Anya. Cat was onboard an overcrowded transport barge that went down while crossing a lake in a remote part of the Philippines. After several unsuccessful rescue attempts by the Philippine Coast Guard, only three of the 250 passengers survived. Cat was not among the survivors. And her body was not in the group of 30 bodies that have been recovered. Operations have been halted due to another typhoon and all the 217 missing have been declared dead, drowned at sea."
"What a f*ckin' ironic 'Comedy - Tragedy' this all is!" Anya said bitterly.
In the U.N.'s eyes, I'm now a "True Simulacrum" - something whose origin no longer existed...
[To be continued?]
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May you and yours be well and loving life today.
In Lak'ech, JaiChai
(Revised 4 Feb 2023. Original: JaiChai 29 DEC 2021. Simultaneous multi-site submissions posted. All rights reserved.)