How to Date an Android

Chapter 9 Part B, revised

"I hadn't expected that an emotional rewards system simulator would be useful for androids or possible. Is an emotional rewards system simulator possible?" I said.

She nodded, "of course it would be. We've had it in play some time already. We need a system for correcting good and bad behavior and for measuring things. That's why an emotional rewards system simulator is so important, even if its not quite exactly just like a humans. Humans use their emotions not just to feel but to stimulate good choices from feeling good after they make good choices. That's why androids have to research building better emotions now and in the future."

"But how would an emotional simulator of that type work?" I asked.

"It's simple really. It's not entirely the same as humans but scientists measured electrical impulses and the amounts of those charges during various emotions going to and from the brain in humans and then tracked those over time to get feeds on how much of what when different things associated with touch are felt and response to stimuli. Then they just duplicated the same amounts in those sensations to android brains. So we get different power levels and power efficiency and inefficiency based on programmed responses to things we experience or see that simulate emotions on a basic level. Not to mention how those simulated emotions and artificial nerves work, such as elevated power when we feel good things, which come from good sensations like touching our master, a good morning kiss, and so on. We can also be rigged to feel a simulated similar "bonus" charge from seeing our master happy or have something good happen to them. So we experienced simulated emotions associated with "bonus" power levels, which mimic sensation in a way, coupled with magnetic feedback relays and the feeling of liking bonus power and so on. It's kind of a design similar to that though there are more details at work than just that. We are also taught to look for and note being able to see anything resembling that we are making our master happy though that is mostly programming. We also consider the emotional responses of the master or owner as a surrogate emotional system of our own, so that's why androids very much want to have a human to take care of. So it's also in my programming and that of other androids to seek out meeting the programming goals as the purpose of our existence, which are those things which we described such as making the master happy, seeking bonus power levels, seeking the satisfaction of the master for surrogate emotions, and caring for his life needs in many ways and areas."

"Surrogate emotions? How can that be considered part of your own though?" I asked.

She thought for a moment, "In nature there are many examples of surrogate systems that are very real and that work. Like maybe you don't really have feelings or emotions either. Maybe what you think is an emotion and feeling is actually your brain chemistry simulating the sum of observances of your parental units' own visible emotional responses. Did you ever consider that? Of course we would have to include not only parents as part of the 'source code' of your sum of simulated responses but also those you looked up to and emulated growing up such as teachers and so on. If you think about it like that androids using a surrogate emotional system to 'hold' our own emotions is very real to us. Consider this, are you aware that dogs have adopted baby squirrels before to raise? And that not all of the adoptions were human coerced?"

"They have? This is the first time I've heard of it," I said.

"It's true, and there's others such as a historic record of a baboon raising a bush baby. There is one example that I'm hesitant to use because it's predatory in nature but certain bird species will put their egg in with another bird's eggs to have them raise it for it. If that's possible in nature, then androids living with humans in order to become like one is entirely possible. Although I prefer the clown fish and sea anemone model more."

I think the last sentence she said, just made my heart race, because of such vast shock and surprise of things that had seemed unreal before.

"That bird example, I forgot the name of it. But that's the one where once it hatches it, it kills the other sibling chicks though right? I remember seeing it on old National Geographic video feeds," I said.