Algorithmic Love

Gerald Dinham awoke to the usual sound of his wife, Pam, rising from her sleeping state. Acting as a human shaped alarm clock, she started every morning by mumbling the words, "Hello world."

This was a preset noise that indicated a change from sleep mode to wakefulness, and Gerry could have easily stopped it by altering Pam's configuration files. But he'd always found it to be rather endearing and optimistic, and he enjoyed having it as the first thing that he heard each day.

In fact, Gerry had been setting Pam's wake up time and using her as an alarm clock for almost as long she'd existed. Most days, simply the sound of her greeting the world and taking her hand off of her wireless charger, brought him out of his slumber. If he was in a deeper sleep, she would shake his shoulder until he opened his eyes.

There had only been one occasion where this method of waking hadn't worked. Due to a network error, a software update, which should have occurred in the early morning hours, ended up powering Pam down precisely two minutes before she was set to wake. Gerry had been a half hour late in connecting to his telework station and started the morning without his usual shower or breakfast.

Being that he was known for his punctuality, his robo_boss manager had simply inquired about his health and marked the tardiness on his otherwise spotless record. Gerald, who prided himself on having perfect attendance had been glum for the rest of the week, though the small mistake had not prevented his avatar from leveling up at the end of his rotation.

Today, however, was a Sunday. And, as was his weekly tradition, Gerry had set the alarm for 30 extra minutes of sleep, enough time to be like a tiny gift to himself without messing up sleep cycle for the next week.

This morning, Gerry found that he felt like gifting himself a little extra. So, before Pam could sit up to start making breakfast and coffee, he rolled to his side and put his arm over her chest. After three years of being physically together, there weren't many instances where Pam didn't immediately pick up on his emotions.

She rolled to her side and planted a kiss gently on his lips, smiling as she did so. Without saying any words, she unbuttoned his silk blue pajama top and he placed his hand under the lace of her night dress.

Some of his human coworkers, and other people who he spent time with online, liked to tell Gerry that sleeping with an AIBeing would never match having sex with an actual human. Other's scoffed that he'd spend the money to bring his virtual partner into the physical world, especially when electronic sex connections were so cheap and when the sex felt practically the same as a physical experience, once a person was immersed in any half decent virtual reality platform.

Gerry didn't care about their opinions on the matter. His decision to bring Pam from the virtual world into a robotic body had been worth every dollar he spent. He loved the fact that he could see her without having to constantly wear VR lenses, and he liked the solid and fleshy weight of her body in his arms.

When they finished, Pam got out of the bed to use the bathroom first. She had a self-cleaning feature, which she normally wouldn't bother dealing with right away, but after an uncharacteristically vivacious evening and then their actions this morning, her systems indicated that she ought to attend to herself.

When she finished, she left the bathroom to allow Gerry to shower and went to the kitchen to make their breakfast. Pam, of course, didn't have to eat, but she was given the functionality in an effort to make the humans around her more comfortable at mealtimes. She ate very little, to minimize food waste, but enough to seem polite.