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[FelixSparks]

2 yes.

[birdy51]

1). Give the bot hope.

[Kassire]

2

[Vgray]

"Really?" Joyeuse says.

"Certainly," you say. "Turing argued the same thing, back in that first paper about artificial intelligence. 'In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children. Rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will, providing mansions for the souls that He creates.'"

Joyeuse gives you a funny look. "You memorized all that, Master?"

"Is that so surprising?" you say. "I always did think of you as my child."

Joyeuse gives you a solemn look. "If you die, I will destroy myself as well."

1) "No, you need to be alive so that you can tell my story. Nobody else knows it as well as you."
2) "No, this is a part of your education, too. Remember that everyone you meet must face losing loved ones someday."
3) "Most humans would love to have the opportunity you have — to keep exploring. Take it."

[NRDL]

2

[Rolepgeek]

3

[Kassire]

2

[FelixSparks]

2

[Vgray]

Joyeuse seems to ponder this deeply. Apparently, this never occurred to it. Finally, it lets out a great wail. "But that means — this world is full of so much sadness, Master! How does it keep functioning?" (+++++Empathy)

"We adapt, Joyeuse," you say. "And so can you."

The sun is setting, so you head home before it gets dark.

You recall from your earliest days making chatbots that the easiest parts of the conversation for an A.I. were always the beginning and the end. As in a chess game, there are only so many ways to open: "Hello!" "Heya." "Sup." And as in a chess game, once the action is done, there are only so many ways it makes sense to close: "We should do this again some time," or "It's getting late…" The pieces are off the board, and some moves will never be made.

So, too, with life. There are only so many ways to say goodbye.

You spend the next year trying to replicate yourself down to the finest detail. Over the course of the project, however, you realize you underestimated the immensity of the task of replicating a person. When you make artificial intelligences, you use terms like "learning" and "memory" and "awareness" as if they meant the same thing as human learning and memory and awareness. But trying to replicate yourself has reminded you that they aren't the same things at all, but pale imitations of those human capacities. Even Joyeuse's finest, cleverest moments were largely an illusion, fueled by your desire to have created a truly intelligent being.

Meanwhile, as the year wears on, your fainting spells become more and more common.

Finally, one day, you find yourself face-to-face with your robot double when another fainting spell comes along — but this one is accompanied with a splitting headache. You think this might be it: this is the stroke that will kill you. But your robot double is still incomplete.

Will you activate this partial, incomplete you, though it is not truly ready?

1) Yes, I can't wait any longer. I may be dying now.
2) No! I'm almost done! I keep working.

[Rolepgeek]

Number 2...

[Vgray]

You keep working, trying to ignore your splitting headache. It's getting hard to see, and you drop your tools more than once. You just need to hook up the working memory to the long-term memory — there. And now run this cable — oops, no, this cable — to your laptop to upload the decision-making software. Start that process. Whoa — you can't see the screen — okay, it's back. Start uploading image recognition. That's a progress bar. Goddamnit, move, progress bar.

The roaring in your ears is getting louder. You have a splitting headache.

Did you just lose consciousness? You think you did. Too late to refactor the emotional code: does it compile? Now it does. Upload. Goddamnit, move, progress bar.

You power your double on — you'll just hotload the remaining modules. You're not going to fail just because you can't reach for the power switch.

—Which is good, because now you're on the floor. How did you get down here? Did you faint? Doesn't matter. Keep working.

…No, wait…are you done? You can't think of anything left to do.

You're done! You're done! The roaring in your ears intensifies. You're done, thank the gods, thank your lucky stars, thank everything.

Dimly, you see your robot double rise from the workbench. It takes a disdainful glance down at you.

You want to say it is beautiful, but it is only you, and not even a pretty you at that. But it lives.

Your robot double steps over your body, and heads out to the great big world.

You sink back to the floor, and finally rest.

The End

[FelixSparks]

..... Woah. That was a ride.

[Rolepgeek]

Yup.

[Vgray]

Spoiler: Game end stats and summary (click to show/hide)

Year: 2049

54-year-old Isaac Tesla
  Humanity: 40%
  Gender: male
  Fame: 10 (Internationally Famous)
  Wealth: 4 (Disposable Income)
  Romance: none

Joyeuse

  Autonomy: 15 (Good)
  Military: 32 (Transhuman)
  Empathy: 16 (Good)
  Grace: 17 (Good)

Relationships
  Professor Ziegler (Bad): 19%
  Elly (Very Good): 67%
  Josh (Good): 54%
  Mark (Bad): 32%
  Juliet (Good): 55%
  Tammy (Bad): 17%
  President Irons (Bad): 44%
  ?: 50%

World Power Balance
  China: 56% U.S.: 44%   

Summary of Completed Chapters

Chapter 1

On the day you first built Joyeuse, you awoke from a dream about a robot Anubis to head to the lab. Your graduate school advisor pressured you to make Joyeuse more acceptable to the military. After some back and forth, you ended up making a metal caterpillar track robot with a cubical head and multitool hands.

Then you went back to your place to teach Joyeuse some words.

Chapter 2

The next day, you hooked up Joyeuse's biodiesel engine and tried activating it. You then spent the afternoon perfecting Joyeuse's motor control and parts.

As months passed, you became busy teaching Joyeuse about the world through high school textbooks and taking it to the park. Your funding from DARPA kept you in Professor Ziegler's good graces during this time.

In time, Mark Ali, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, heard about Joyeuse and asked for an interview. You agreed.

Chapter 3

You gave Mark an interview, and allowed Mark to come back to your place to interview Joyeuse.

Mark wrote an article that was generally negative about you and Joyeuse. When Professor Ziegler found out about the article, he was very displeased, and finally kicked you out of his lab.

Mark's article also attracted the attention of one "robotObsession1987," known in real life as Tammy Cooper. After threatening you with repercussions if you would not stop making robots, Tammy sent a bomb to your apartment. You escaped the blast, but your apartment was consumed in the fire.

Shortly thereafter, your father passed away. You resolved at his funeral to be remembered not only for your intellect, but for your kindness as well.

You joined Josh at U.S. Robots as his chief scientist.

Chapter 4

Your first potential client for U.S. Robots was Spark Incorporated, a flying car manufacturer. But they were unimpressed with Joyeuse. Eventually, however, you secured a deal with the public. That allowed you to build a robot factory in Alaska. You hired an all-human workforce as a gesture to the local community. When you finally shipped robots to the public, they were pleased with the robots you delivered. Your business suffered a blow when Chinese companies, aided by Chinese government hackers, began to steal your technology. Your business was dealt a further blow when there was an explosion at your factory, caused by a bomb set by Tammy. But Tammy was apprehended and put in jail.

You were visited by a politician, Jacqueline Irons, who asked for a campaign donation. Despite your unhelpfulness, Irons won the presidency. The newly elected President enacted a series of protectionist bills that ultimately made China angry, and they cut off the U.S. supply of rare earths. The tensions between the United States and China came to a head with the assassination of the Chinese Prime Minister in San Francisco. War followed shortly thereafter.

Chapter 5

Captain Rogers invited you to a military lab. There, you saw that Professor Ziegler was copying your work and passing it off as his own to the military. Captain Rogers asked you to join the country's war effort. You agreed. You were granted a Top Secret clearance.

An agent came to your place to try to get you to lure Elly there, because she was suspected of being a spy. To escape, you and Elly fled to Canada together. You found out through Mark that Juliet died while performing field tests of Joyeuse V, Professor Ziegler's copy of your robot.

In the end, America lost the war, and the Chinese took over Alaska. You swore to retake the state.

Chapter 6C

For five years, you waged a rebellion against China, ordering your robot soldiers from deep within an abandoned mine under Mount Hesperus. When Mark started reporting your troop movements, you had Joyeuse assassinate him. The United States offered its support, but you declined.

Elly offered to run away with you to Canada, and you agreed.

Chapter 7

In 2049, you went to Surprise, Arizona to surprise your mother with a gift for the holidays. You learned it was your surgical technology that had kept her alive this long. On returning to Hope, you had a brief stroke, followed by a vision of a robot Anubis -- the same one you saw thirty years before. In the hospital, the doctor told you you had Algernon's Disease, a rare disease that increased your intelligence, but came at the price of increasing seizures, comas, and possibly, death.

Instead of undergoing surgery, you chose to create a robot body for yourself. You successfully created a double of yourself just before losing consciousness once and for all.

It was...interesting to be sure.

[NRDL]

I feel like the ending would have been more  satisfying if we'd stuck to either total military dominance or not get involved with the military at all, and actually do stuff with Joyeuse.

That being said, this was a hella fun game.