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[Vgray]

You add the motors necessary to allow your robot to perform the six universal facial expressions: happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear, and disgust. (++Empathy)

You notice that the expression of disgust makes Caliban seem somewhat hateful. Perhaps he would get along better with people if you removed his ability to express disdain.

1) Good idea. Disgust only causes irrationality and hate.
2) No, I want to allow my robot the full range of human emotion, including negative emotions.
3) Actually, it would be somewhat entertaining to create a robot that smiles when it experiences disgust. That ought to troll people!

Spoiler: Current Stats (click to show/hide)

Year: 2019

24-year-old Ada Doniec
  Humanity: 77%
  Gender: female
  Fame: 0 (Who?)
  Wealth: 0 (Broke)
  Romance: Eiji

Caliban

  Autonomy: 3 (Buggy)
  Military: 0 (Nonexistent)
  Empathy: 13 (Stable)
  Grace: 3 (Buggy)

Relationships
  Professor Ziegler (Good): 52%
  Eiji (Great): 72%
  Josh (Good): 60%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%

[FelixSparks]

2.

[Arcvasti]

3

A muppet that smiles at you when its unhappy? It is terrifying.

[birdy51]

3. Trololo

[Culise]

2.  We probably don't want to invite misunderstanding with the first prototype.

[Sensei]

3

[Vgray]

This is not going to help the robot get along with people, you understand. (Except for the users of the ever-iconoclastic 4chan who, years later, will adopt your robot as a kind of unofficial mascot.) But this is another factor that will help your robot become…iconoclastic. (--Empathy) (++Autonomy)

It's about lunchtime when Eiji enters the hacker space wearing a red crew cut shirt and shorts fit for the summery weather outside.

He's carrying a shiny, black bento box and an Arduino microcontroller, both of which he sets down on the countertop of half-finished projects.

"Hey, Ada!" he says. "I thought you might have forgotten about lunch, so I brought extra for you." He looks at Caliban's frame with interest.

1) "What are you working on, Eiji?"
2) "You brought lunch for me? Thank you—you shouldn't have!"
3) "Hang on, I was in the middle of a thought…."

Spoiler: Current Stats (click to show/hide)

Year: 2019

24-year-old Ada Doniec
  Humanity: 77%
  Gender: female
  Fame: 0 (Who?)
  Wealth: 0 (Broke)
  Romance: Eiji

Caliban

  Autonomy: 5 (In Beta)
  Military: 0 (Nonexistent)
  Empathy: 11 (Stable)
  Grace: 3 (Buggy)

Relationships
  Professor Ziegler (Good): 52%
  Eiji (Great): 72%
  Josh (Good): 60%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%

[FelixSparks]

I say 1.

[birdy51]

1.

[NRDL]

1

[Vgray]

He smiles, pleased that you should take an interest. "I figured I could work on my own project while you work. I'm making a soil sensor. This Calathea ornata can get rootbound quickly, and it's finicky about its micronutrients. So this controller is going to do a little pressure sensing, and a little nutrient sensing."

It's easy to forget that Eiji also went to MIT, except when he reminds you like this. You didn't quite realize gardening had its own technical jargon, and you're a little too embarrassed to admit that you don't know what "rootbound" means.

Eiji examines Caliban's body. "It's…kind of cute," he says. "I've got to hand it to you."

"Thanks," you say.

You take your smartphone out of your pocket and snap it into place in the core of the robot's frame.

Eiji looks on with dismay. "Aren't you ever planning on calling anyone again?"

"I can always get a new one," you say. You then put the tiny periscope in place that will channel light from the robot's ostensible eyes to your smartphone's camera.

You start up the app that will bring your robot fully to life. A barbershop pole progress bar inches across the screen as the program systematically destroys all the other information on your phone to make room for Caliban's working memory.

As the program is booting, you place Caliban on the Formica floor, so that he is ready to move around.

When Caliban's brain is done booting up, your smartphone's screen is simply a big, red button on your robot's back that says GO.

Caliban's limbs begin to flex and unflex wildly as he walks in herky-jerky movements around the room. Since you've already given him a fair amount of autonomy, you decided to skip the usual, careful test phase and go directly to seeing whether he could figure himself out.

Eiji instinctively ducks behind a workbench.

"Knowing you, I suspect this is not going to be a very controlled test," Eiji says.

Picking up on Eiji's voice, Caliban stops, turns, and heads toward him.

"What's it doing?" Eiji asks. "Why is it heading toward me?"

1) "Relax, Caliban probably just wants to say hello."
2) "You should probably run."
3) "You'll see. Trust me."
4) "Damned if I know."

Spoiler: Current Stats (click to show/hide)

Year: 2019

24-year-old Ada Doniec
  Humanity: 77%
  Gender: female
  Fame: 0 (Who?)
  Wealth: 0 (Broke)
  Romance: Eiji

Caliban

  Autonomy: 5 (In Beta)
  Military: 0 (Nonexistent)
  Empathy: 11 (Stable)
  Grace: 3 (Buggy)

Relationships
  Professor Ziegler (Good): 52%
  Eiji (Great): 77%
  Josh (Good): 60%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%

[Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum]

Eh, 1.

[NRDL]

1

[birdy51]

4. IT"S SCIENCE!

[FelixSparks]

1