Tomorrowland: Frank and Athena

Chapter 22 - Emotions of Different Natures

Permanent Committed Memory
Subjective Time: 10.803911028951 Y.A.C.I. (Years After Cognition Initiated)
Local Time: 1962-09-30 11:59:08.762 (Earth Time: 01:15:38.209 GMT)

Athena sat in the park next to her mother, having a picnic on a sunny day. Her mother had commented that it was a 'glorious' day, though weather didn't matter to Athena, except when it affected her recruiting duties.

They were sitting on a blanket under a tree, both reading books, and her mother was eating a sandwich. Athena was reading a fictional book that her mother felt would give her insight into human behavior. It did provide some interesting information, but was also quite confusing.

"Mummy, I have noticed in my reading of this book – and other books, for that matter – that the emotion of 'love' plays a large role in much human literature. Yet, I notice that my mental states have no analogue. I have many emotion equivalents to various mental states, such as frustration, fear, concern, and others. These are fairly easy to define and map onto my mental states. I have dictionary definitions for all the human emotions, but 'love' is particularly difficult. The dictionary defines it as a 'state of passionate affection.' Yet, the definition of affection defines it as 'profound attachment or love.' This seems entirely unhelpful."

Caroline laughed. "That does seem like it would trigger a frustration mental state."

"It does," Athena agreed.

"The problem is that love is very difficult to define. It really does come down to a 'profound state of caring' about someone. You don't have a clear love emotion because there isn't an easy way to define the difference between regular 'caring,' which you do very much for your recruits, and 'love,' which is a special bond. And I realize that word 'special' is also entirely unhelpful."

"You have told me many times that you love me. In the past, I have assumed it was a synonym for caring about me. Does your love for me differ from loving a human?" Athena asked.

"I love you very much, the same way and as much as I would a human daughter, as odd as that may seem," Caroline replied.

Athena considered this. "Is it because you designed me? Do you love your other projects as well?"

"No, I don't," Caroline chuckled. "You're special in that way. It's admittedly a complex emotion and I'm not sure I can completely answer your questions. But I suppose it comes down to that I created you somewhat in my own image, the way I might create a human daughter. And that I raised you to a great extent like a human daughter. Lastly, I made you able to mentally grow and develop with your own identity and I don't know how far you will go – like a human daughter. I can watch you grow and take pride in that. I care about you to a profound extent."

"Does it bother you that I may never love you in return or even understand what that means?" Athena asked.

"No, sweetie, it doesn't," Caroline replied gently. "You are what you are. You have already so exceeded my expectations. I suppose being proud of you is somewhat self-serving, since I designed you. Nevertheless, I firmly believe you are more than 'just' a machine, even if you cannot decode the nature of love."

Athena paused, then asked, "Is it possible that I may someday have a mental state corresponding to love?"

"When I often say I have no idea what you're ultimately capable of, I mean it," Caroline replied. "There is much we don't understand about human minds and how certain behaviors emerge. Many behaviors are most likely complex interactions between many different things. That's why I didn't try and build everything into you. That's a fool's errand. I gave you many relatively simple behaviors, and the dynamic interplay between them produces complexity."