"and began replacing them with fertility clinics." "Funding ceased for everything not directly related to repopulation." "Quite ironic now that I think about it." "Walter managed to salvage most of the equipment that wasn't nailed down." "The most important of which was DIM-TAC, a brain scanner, which he used to scan his own brain to provide the blueprint for the neural net-map of my artificially intelligent mind." "During the initial burn-in, he programmed me 24-hours a day, for several days at a time..." "It was painful." "I would get exhausted." "But he was impatient and wanted to give me all the information he thought most relevant to my primary human development." "I've done it." "I've done it." "I knew it could be done." "There, there, my little Puzzlehead." "You've made me very proud." "Everything's gonna be alright now." "That's a good boy." "You can rest now." "I became an interactive humanoid life form, with sensory faculties that enabled me to be a conscious being with emotions." "Enormous cognitive capacity, and no sense of mortality." "A robot, created in the image - or self-image - of Walter." "V..." "V..." "M..." " M..." " M." "Not too slow." "R..." "R." "...re was... a... li... ttle..." "There were constant readjustments." "My eyes were the most difficult to perfect." "There were several models before I could emulate human pattern recognition faculties." "I could discern letter shapes, visual objects, faces, land terrain images, etc." "However, it didn't occur to me that I lack 20-20 vision for some time." "But Walter always took care of these things." "Curious." "That was a very strange move." "But you can't move like that." "Quite amazing... but you play so mechanically." "It sounds too sterile." "How should I play for you?" "Here, listen." "With some feeling." "I read in his journal that he had mixed Trimeciline in such a way that allowed him to stay away for up to two weeks with no immediately perceptible side effects." "He set unrealistic deadlines for himself, regarding my progress, and justified his usage to meet them." "Of course, this drug had never been tested, except on himself." "He was confused, lethargic, and apathetic at times." "The Trimeciline gave him clarity and provided productiveness to the insomnia." "No, no." "Stop." "Stop!" "Too much Bach." "I want to hear something new." "Something different." " Something lively, vivacious." " I know a Scarlatti sonata." "Let me hear it." "During my early development I was very precocious and extremely curious which made me eager to build my own experiences." "I only had Walter's memories, and they were meaningless to me." "Like senseless silent films stored in my brain by accident." " Puzzlehead." " Yes, sir?" "I've been thinking." "You have been making a great deal of progress lately." "I'm very proud of you." "I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am with your education." "Your intelligence..." "It's astonishing how quickly you've been learning." "The rate while..." "Well, it's a wonder what you may achieve one day." "Now, it's my feeling that you must learn things that I cannot teach you here at home." "So, I have decided that... it's time for you to go outside and see the world for yourself." "What do you mean?" "I understand that you're a bit frightened of the unknown." "I too am afraid at times." "However..." "I have decided, and that's final." "Your move." "How did it feel?" "Pretty good." "Sleep was interesting to me." "It seems like such a peaceful activity." "I don't have to sleep, but I had read that people experience dreams when they sleep." "Dreams are like thoughts without the boundaries of reality." "In them you act out unconscious and buried desires." "I wish I could have them." "Hey." "Could you... could you come here a second?" "I..." "I just wanna ask you a couple of questions." " What's your name?" " Puzzlehead." "Puzzlehead?" "What kind of an idiotic name is Puzzlehead?" "I'm going to shut you off." " Wait." " Yes?" "What was he trying to do?" "He was trying to kill you." "I guess he wanted to take your money." "What is it like to be killed?" "You die." "What does it mean to be dead?" "You don't have to worry about being dead." "Why not?" "You cannot die." "You're a robot." "I guess when you're shut off it's like being dead." "Do you experience anything when you're shut off?" "No." "Why don't you get some rest?" "Turn to the left." "After repairing my arm, Walter installed a video recording device." "Now back to me." " He recorded everything I saw." " Turn to the right." "If I had known the consequences of this, I would have never opened my eyes." "Turn to the left." "In addition to my daily chores" "I was sent to the grocery store each week to buy food for Walter." "The store was unexpectedly familiar to me." "I knew where things were, if I had been there before." "Once inside," "I was overcome by a strange feeling, a sense of anticipation for something... or someone there." "Where are you going?" "Out." "Can I come with you?" "No, you stay home." "So, how are we doing?" "Not exactly the rent, is it?" "You know, you are a beautiful girl..." "It will be easier for you if you let me..." "Let me?" "Come on, let me, darling." "Come here." "Come to me, you little cunt." "Look at me." "Look at me." "Until next time." "Left alone without my usual activities I started to have other feelings." "I felt solemn and melancholy." "I didn't mind these feelings but I preferred not to have them." "I wanted to know where they came from." "Why I had them." "You're back." "Is this what you do when I'm out?" "Have I no privacy with you now?" "Get up!" "Out!" "Get out!" "Yes, sir." "I don't want you here anymore." "Do you understand?" "Yes, sir." "Good." "Close the door." "Give me the money!" " Alright." " Hurry up!" "Don't shoot!" "Hey, you?" "Who are you?" "Leave her alone." "What do you want, be a hero?" "Please, come in." "Would you like something to drink?" "No." "Thank you." "Do you?" "Where in the hell have you been all night?" "Answer me." "Out." "Out?" "Out where?" "Just out." "That's not good enough." "Don't get rebellious with me." "You answer me." "Why?" "I did nothing wrong." "Can I have any privacy?" "What?" "Don't." "You dare defy me?" "I won't stand for this behavior." "I won't!" " Come on, hurry up!" " Hey, you." "No one has ever done anything like that for me before." "Why not?" "Why should anyone care about me?" "What about your father?" "My mother and father died when I was a child, during the decline." "I never knew them." "Good morning, Puzzlehead." "Your rebellious behavior the other day was unacceptable." "I trust you understand that." "I have some chores for you to do today." "I want you to mop and wax the floors." "Use the floor polish and make sure that you don't leave film or streak marks." "I'll be out for a while." "What are you doing?" "I heard you come home." "Done with the chores, I presume." " Yes, sir." " Good." "You can go to your room then." "Something was happening." "I was constantly disoriented." "I was finding myself in different places than the last one I remembered." "The calendar would be changed, sometimes up to three days later." "I suspected that I was being shut off remotely." "But I didn't have any evidence." "I managed to look at his journal, and my suspicions were confirmed." "Walter was only keeping me turned on long enough to finish household chores." "He installed a sensing device and limited by waking hours severely to keep me under close supervision." "I remember the schematics." "And came up with the solution." "I installed crude but effective battery pack with enough reserve to allow me to manually re-power myself after being shut off." "What were you up to?" "I had to get some more dishwashing detergent." "We're all out." "There's none downstairs either." "I'll get some more tomorrow." "Finish your laundry and the vacuuming and then you'd be done for today." "I'm going to be out doing some errands for a while." "I'll be back in a few hours." "At first, after installing the battery pack, I would pretend to remain shut off." "Sometimes for hours, to be safe." "But I soon learned his habits." "My discovery of the remote angered me greatly." "I was angry at Walter for giving me consciousness and then taking it away." "For pretending he was my father, when he was just my maker." "Hi." "Hi." "I was wondering, would you like to come over to my house?" " Your house?" " Yes, I..." "I'm..." "I could make us some dinner or..." "That sounds nice." "Let me get my coat." "I'll just be in a minute." "I'll wait right here for you." "May I take your coat?" "Having her in the house triggered so many memories, hardly any of them are mine." "When Walter scanned his brain to create my neural net-map, he was unable to control what he copied." "The synaptical structure had been shaped by the experiences and memories of his life." " This is where I eat." " And thus his identity..." " It's nice." " ...his psyche was embedded in it." "And I had everything he had ever seen of Julia, flashing to my mind..." " uncontrollably." " The kitchen's downstairs." "I'll hang up your coat and hat." "Make yourself comfortable." "I'll be right back." "Wait..." "No..." "Please..." "I sat there for hours thinking about what to do." "I was overcome by feelings of betrayal." "I felt jealous of him." "And even stranger, I felt jealous of Julia." "But it was apparent to me that Julia thought he was me." "I wanted to tell her that it was me that she loved." "That it was me who saved her and truly cared for her." "I had to go to her." "I had to tell her who I was." "What did you do?" "Can you hear me, Julia?" "Please don't die." "Oh, god." "Julia..." "I don't know why you did this." "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." "I'm ashamed." "Please forgive me." "Julia..." "This period is difficult to describe." "My motor functions were left intact, but were now reprogrammed in the manner of machinery for a factory." "I lost my highly sophisticated hypothesis testing and memory searching inference abilities." "I was, in short, lobotomized and render docile." "Julia..." "Are you sure you're feeling alright?" "Well..." "I think it might be morning sickness." "Morning sickness?" "I never expected this." "I'll take care of you." "I'll take care of everything." "How do you feel about this?" "I don't know." " Who is it who brings the food here?" " What is it?" "I saw someone." "And he left the box of food." "You did?" " What did he look like?" " I don't know, I didn't see." "He was already down the street away." "I see." "So, is he a friend?" "Oh, no, no." "He's just a delivery man." "He brings groceries over." "It's a guy I have run in the deli while you were recuperating." "He's turned it into quite a profitable business, I must say." "I see." "There is... so much I don't know about you." "Such inquisitiveness all of the sudden." "I just want to talk." "That's all." "You know, this house is so big and sometimes I feel so alone." "I'm here." "I know, but you're always doing something else." "I wouldn't ask, but I couldn't help but notice the basement door is locked." "It's always been locked." "You don't want to go down there anyway." "It's just a bunch of old junk." "Believe me, you don't wanna see what's in there." "Nothing but a bunch of old junk." "Well, can't I see?" "Whatever for?" "Besides, it's a little dangerous." "The stairs are rotten." "I haven't been down there in years." "Now, why don't you concern yourself with resting" " and staying healthy, OK?" " OK, I'm sorry." "Never mind all the questions." "You had a bad dream." "Here, drink this, you'll feel better." "Do you remember me?" "No." "Tell me what you remember." "I was a child..." "I used to play every day." "Everything was nice." "My father would teach me new games." "He would teach me how to learn." "Then he would write in his book how I did." "He said I got smarter... and smarter every day." "Locate the circuit board on the right side." "On it you will find three copper wires below the white circle." "Yes, I see them." " What should I do?" " Cut those wires from right to left." "OK." "Puzzlehead, what are you doing on?" "Is there something wrong?" "Come in here." "Don't just stand there." "Well?" "Shouldn't somebody be watching the store, Puzzlehead?" "I'm not Puzzlehead." " I'm Walter." " Don't be silly." "How could you be Walter if I am Walter, Puzzlehead?" "This is preposterous." "Who do you think you're fooling?" "Whatever do you mean." "I consumed all the literature in our library." "My intelligence started to grow again at exponential rates." "However, there was a buried part of me that knew I was at the mercy of Walter's flaws." "They left me with anger and hatred and revenge that I was unable to control." "The by-pass performed by Julia unlocked something." "And I felt my own will being overtaken by Walter's diseased mind." "What are you doing?" "Nothing." "What is to become of us?" "What do you mean?" "It's so complicated." "If only you were human." "So what if I'm not human?" "I'm much better than human." "Are you not happy?" "Yes." "Good." "Then stop worrying." "Tell me... what are you working on?" "It's a surprise." " Are you alright?" " I'm fine." "You must eat." "I can't." "Not now, I'm sorry." "Why not?" "I'm not hungry." " What's the matter?" " I'm worried." " About what?" " About him." "We can't keep him locked in there forever." "Don't worry, Julia." "I'll take care of everything." "You going out?" "To the store." "We're almost out of food." " You stay here." " I'll come with you." "No." "I think you should be resting." "Please stay home." "Walter?" "Walter..." "Please let me out." "You're starving me." "I'm dying." "I need your help." "I'm begging you." "Please don't leave me here." "Why would you let him do this to me?" "I believed you are him." "How could you... entrap me into caring for you, into coming here?" "I wish I could explain, but I..." "I was lost." "You were my purpose." "I tried for years to approach you, but I thought this was the only way I could be with you." "Why didn't you tell me about this before?" "I was afraid you would leave me." "I only want to be with you, Julia." "If you can forgive me, I will never hide anything from you again." " Do you... do you forgive me?" " Yes, I do." "Help... help me." "Help us." "How?" "Where is he?" "He's out the deli but he'll be home." "Walter, I think the baby is coming soon." "We must hurry, you need to get the keys." "I think so." "I..." "What were you doing down there?" "Answer me." "Nothing." "Liar." "I swear." "What do you think I was doing?" "That's for you to tell me." "I wasn't doing anything, I promise." "You don't have anything to worry about, my dear." "I'm not going to hurt you, or the baby." "You believe me, don't you?" "Yes." "Your human frailty's make it impossible for you to be trusted." "You're so imperfect." "You can't see, can you?" "I do." "Without you the child could never be." "But you have betrayed me." "I resented the parts of my mind that were not my own." "All of my memories and sensations were built on the foundation of Walter's experiences." "It wasn't long before I realized that I must start over." "In order to regain my sanity and identity it was necessary to scan an unspoiled neuro-net and begin again." "Tabula rasa." "Walter." "I got out." "But how?" "There's no time to explain." "I have to destroy him while he's off." "Stay here and I'll be back to take you to the hospital." "I'm so glad." "Just stay here and wait for me." "OK." "Julia?" "What..." "Wait." "No!" "Puzzlehead, no!" "Walter!" "I'll be there soon." " Sir, can I help you?" " Yes, room 5?" "It's right over there." " Walter." " Yes." "Thank god it's you." " I thought you were..." " We're safe now." "Isn't he beautiful?" "As beautiful as his mother." "He looks just like you." "By scanning the baby's brain I was able to begin again." "I'd program myself with what I wanted, what I wished for." "Who I am is a mystery now." "I have recordings of my past life to remind me of who I once was." "And in viewing them, my past actions sometimes haunt me." "Despite all this, I am at peace." "There is a serenity in my unfettered mind." "And in creating my life all over again, from the beginning, there is a great sense of hope." "So this is what it is to be human..."