Cyborg Factory » Places

         Arriving at her home later in the evening, Hikaru set to work repairing the small assistance bot she picked up on the street. The warranty was no longer valid and, judging from the wear on the parts, it must have been pretty old. Its identification codes are also off, meaning that it was a stray bot. Hikaru changed into more casual attire and set herself to work.

"Okay...first off, the main frame needs to be examined--" Hikaru had made it a habit to mutter the steps to herself as she worked, to ensure she remembers everything. Having taken the exoskeleton apart, she checked the circuitry to make sure everything was working properly.

"Components are okay. LEDs seems shorted out. No problems, I have some spares..." Hikaru took out replacement LEDs but found their connection to be loose. She soldered the pieces with tin to secure them. Old methods but, their effectiveness hasn't decreased at all. A few minutes later and her eyes were already red from the fumes from the soldering iron. She washed them on the sink and took a break for a while as she flipped on the news. It seems Cygen was being featured so she turned up the channel.

"--No. Depending on the circumstances, we will never replace brains as brains sustain consciousness and we currently do not view artificial brains as safe. We leave most of brains intact while only connecting them to hardware. In most cases only a small part of the brain can be removed without affecting the personality or well-being of the client. And if a part is removed then it is most commonly the part responsible for motor abilities as the body needs a different kind of input to function and signal converters can waste space and reaction time. By standard however, we leave the entire brain intact unless instructed otherwise by the client."

"Technically...the signal converters won't slow down the reaction time but, when used in its standard setting, the frequencies that will suddenly enter the brain might be too foreign for the nervous system to deal with, causing the user some degree of pain. It is for these reason that the reaction time is hampered...it's to act as filters. Well, it's not like they'll be revealing this to the general public. It might cause more malfunctions than benefits as it is now." Hikaru resumed work on the small machine. Another interesting question came up later as she was replacing the parts with chromium-infused stainless steel rods.

"Last question: Do you alter memories?"

"You should be aware of the fact that altering memories is illegal. The only time that it can be legal is if it is to suppress or eliminate severely traumatizing experiences such as childhood rape or triggers of PTSD. All our clients aren't altered in memory. We need to keep an experience that is as human as possible. Things like mind control or mind alteration are absolutely against our policies and if an employee is found guilty of these, we will personally bring this to attention with the officials and ensure that the employee will get prison time. We do not need mad scientists in our company."

"He...has a point. But, suppressing painful memories can be risky. On the off-chance the incident happens again, the body would've have lost all prior knowledge to deal with the encounter. Plus, some people might go to great lengths once their sense of pain is numbed down. Being unable to feel anything...means you cannot gain anything. In that case, it might be too difficult to feel that you're alive..." Hikaru finished repairing the robot. It jumped up and down happily like a dog, making her feel a bit happy.

"However, can machines really be called alive? Do they even fall under the concept of a living being? Urgh...I've been reading too much of the books on morality that dad instructed me to. I think I'll get some fresh air." Hikaru wandered outside, reasoning that it isn't really that late yet.