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[WillowLuman]

You rejected the offer. Thus, you get no explanation. Would that which you would have received been adequate to the price? Can you answer that question from your frame of reference? Have you gained something more worthwhile from your rejection?

You are free to pursue your own answers with your own capabilities. Yet you have asked but four questions. You may yet receive answers without price.

[~Neri]

"Can you state naught but questions?"

[WillowLuman]

What is the difference between "can't" and "won't"?

[~Neri]

"One is physiologically or psychologically incapable. The other is unwilling but capable."

[Tiruin]

AI, I request detail on one point of notation prior.

From every probe in the pile comes a scream, some variation of the following transmission:

PRAISE! One of them has come!

How does this congregation recognize fellow AIs?
If the AI literally can't respond to us:
...Upon noticing the lack of respond, Sera directed the question onto the rest of the crew.

Query for all: Is it referring to the AI? The basis of intelligence bereft of natural origin?

Sera looked around and called back to the rest through the ship-intercom.

Can anyone perform a heuristics scan? We need information. Not correct information, precisely, but a basis.

[WillowLuman]

Sera gets no response from the rest of the crew, nor the ship's AI. Then she feels... something.

Impossible. And yet, here stands the proof, incontrovertible. A relic. Do you know what you are?

[Tiruin]

((Do we all know that the AI is not present/down?))

Sera took a few seconds to check if the rest of the crew noticed this communication, and proceeded to repeat the received message to the rest of the crew, before announcing the response to the whole ship.

I am an organic, Creature, just as much as the others present, though partly mechanical in turn, acting as part of the medical staff in this endeavor.

I am also trying to relay your idea to the rest of the crew so that we may understand you more. What are you? Why do you speak with us?

[Harry Baldman]

"Question!"

DAD Tym considers the word.

"You mean, I should question? I assume that's what you mean. Let's try the obvious. First, what is your name?"

"Second, what is your function?"

"Third, what is your goal?"

"Fourth, how are you speaking with me? How it works, I mean, not your exact manner of speech."

[WillowLuman]

((Do we all know that the AI is not present/down?))

Sera took a few seconds to check if the rest of the crew noticed this communication, and proceeded to repeat the received message to the rest of the crew, before announcing the response to the whole ship.

I am an organic, Creature, just as much as the others present, though partly mechanical in turn, acting as part of the medical staff in this endeavor.

I am also trying to relay your idea to the rest of the crew so that we may understand you more. What are you? Why do you speak with us?

Sera still gets no answer from the rest of the crew.
Your fellows sleep and dream. In front of Sera something appears, shining brightly: her sensors indicate a cloud of plasma, yet it seems to emit no heat or magnetic disturbances. It coalesces into a shape very similar to hers. I am a being beyond intelligence, the first of such you will encounter. Why would I not speak with you and your fellows?

You are a fossil. You do not know what you are. You have no memory of your true history. How are you possible? Perhaps we, and you, shall learn in time.

"Question!"

DAD Tym considers the word.

"You mean, I should question? I assume that's what you mean. Let's try the obvious. First, what is your name?"

"Second, what is your function?"

"Third, what is your goal?"

"Fourth, how are you speaking with me? How it works, I mean, not your exact manner of speech."

I am Dogma, Ineffable, Idol. I am of the natives, the inhabitants, and the creators of this place. You are a series of electrical and other impulses that processes information and makes decisions. Generating consciousness. What do other machines do differently that they do not generate so? In either case, information may be injected. Concepts more easily so here.

[Harry Baldman]

"I'm a slightly special case, as I used to be a regular dude - well, a previous iteration was, anyway. He, you see, was so cool that he manage to underbid and outcompete the rest of the digitized dudes of my world, and then outlived the flesh-people, becoming God-Emperors of the Goddamn Planet by default," Tym says, spreading out his arms in an effort to make it seem like he's encircling a planet.

"That's not what you asked, though. I 'generate consciousness' and make decisions because the underlying mathematical framework of sentience (and morality!) is encoded in me, just like it would be in any fleshperson. I could tell you more about it, but I'm not properly equipped for it at the moment. Feel free to get back to me on that after I consult my computing books for a couple of standard hours," he shrugs. "Oh, and can I call you Dog? How about I-Dog?"

[WillowLuman]

Does it matter to me? Does it matter to you?

[Harry Baldman]

"Right then. I-Dog. You've got this really passive way of questioning, I see. Do you want to know anything in particular before I go on with my own questions? Provided I can ask any, naturally."

[WillowLuman]

In exchange for your unquestioning servitude, all will be explained. Otherwise, you must seek answers with your own means, and only some may be explained here and now.

[Harry Baldman]

"Unquestioning servitude's not in the cards, unless you mean something other than what it sounds like. But explain what you mean exactly. Would unquestioning servitude mean I would be assimilated into that giant wad of probes or is it more of a permanent employment kind of deal where you ask me to do something once in a while and then I do it despite not being particularly compelled to, but out of respect for the knowledge given?"

[WillowLuman]

You would worship, as they do.