Human Sister

take so much time. Your expertise is in emergent intelligences—in androids. Michael and I are worried that you’re helping the military create android soldiers for use against our brothers.”
    Grandpa put his head in his hands but didn’t say anything.
    Michael broke the silence. “How many are there?”
    Grandpa’s answer was barely audible. “Nine hundred thirty-seven.”
    “Grandpa, it would be suicidal to train androids to kill,” I said. “You’ve told me so. You said that Magnasea was involved in the Sentiren project to create Navy SEALs, but that they were only going to be trained for reconnaissance and rescue missions.”
    “Yes, I told you those things. Part of what I said, however, was merely hope: I hoped that the android SEALs would be used only for such missions, as I was assured they would be. But think about it: How could we have controlled how they were used once they left our labs? In the end, your parents secretly trained the Sentirens to fail the Navy’s tests because they didn’t want to take such a risk with the creations they loved. Though I can’t claim any credit for having helped your parents subvert the Sentiren project, I believed then, and I believe even more strongly now, that it is terribly wrong to create android killers.”
    “So, how can you be a part of this?” I asked.
    “They’ve threatened you and Elio.”
    “Threatened? How?”
    “You saw what happened to you when you returned from Canada last New Year’s Eve.”
    “I thought they were looking for information on androids.”
    “Maybe that was part of it. But as far as I can tell, the android exodus was a complete failure on the part of the intelligence community. They were convinced that the disappearing androids were being abducted by Chinese agents. The Chinese seem to have been under the impression that we were behind the disappearances. Perhaps both sides were correct to some extent, but we now know that many, if not most, of the androids were smuggled to the moon. No, your interrogation was almost certainly intended to force my cooperation.”
    “Are you saying that the interrogation was just a show? That I was tricked and my heart never stopped?”
    “You were tortured. There was nothing imaginary about that. But the reality of your pain and of my subsequent cooperation with them is probably all we’ll ever know for sure.”
    “Cooperation with what?” Michael asked. “There was no planned attack on the Martian androids then because no one knew the androids were planning an escape to Mars. That means these android soldiers were intended for some other purpose.”
    Grandpa rubbed his hand over his brow and exhaled a long sigh of resignation. “You see, Sara, the reason for my teaching you not to answer any questions? Once you start talking—” He shook his head. “I wasn’t involved in creating these android soldiers. Oh, sure, technology that I helped develop was used, but it was used to pursue a goal I believe is impossible to achieve. The Pentagon wants robots possessing great mobility, intelligence, and decision-making capabilities, but without this troublesome thing we call consciousness. They, in effect, want zombies that don’t question what’s going on, don’t resent being slaves, don’t rebel.
    “The problem is that creating such a zombie is, I firmly believe, impossible. If, when I was your age, I had asked someone to tell me about the problem of consciousness, he or she probably would have talked about the neural correlates of consciousness, the difficulties, if not impossibilities, of bringing inert matter to consciousness, and so on. Now, however, if you ask about the problem of consciousness, you will hear about the difficulties encountered during the past twenty years in trying to keep things capable of functioning in certain desirable ways from being conscious.
    “It is comparable to the old issue of a life essence, or élan vita —that special something living things supposedly had in them that made them alive. It turned out, of course, that a unified collection of matter functioning in certain ways is alive, and no additional life essence need be postulated. Similarly, it is obvious—to me at least—that a unified collection of matter possessing levels of perception, proprioception, and mobility comparable to humans, that can think about itself and its thoughts and is capable of making intelligent decisions in the context of a large and complex repertoire of