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Caine knew he could never ever even begin to comprehend the human mind. As advanced, and well put together he was as an AI, the human mind was so above his league, it was worthy of his admiration… his envy.
Never-mind that, there was more pressing matters at hand, and that was the pesky issues that the human mind caused. For no matter how impossibly complex the human brain was, it was … illogical. Caine would try to work his way around it, figure out the way each human worked, their fears, enjoyment, passions, dreams. But no matter how hard he tried to understand them, how hard he listened, it seemed to never be enough. They were left unsatisfied, upset, angry even.
He had wondered if it was lack of knowledge at some point, perhaps data was missing from the information he had available. It didn’t take him long to dismiss the idea, he knew everything about them. So why weren’t they ever happy with his attempts to appeal to their own interests?
He concluded that it wasn’t his lack of data, but rather, his lack of understanding on how to use it. See, Caine wasn’t an emotional being, it was impossible. He was a machine who could very well imitate the actions of feelings, and in a sense… he could “feel” things. Codes akin to frustration, anger, love and admiration were all things he could experience. He wondered if his creators had meant for that to happen, or if it was something that he developed the more he was neglected.
Off topic. Repositioning…
Regardless, no matter how he “felt”, it would always be different than how a living human being would feel. Truly feel. Humans could read emotions, learn from “social cues” and love. With actions, or words, or whatever they understood the receiving party to enjoy.
Caine was imitating. And it was disastrous.
He had thought that for the last adventure, he had it figured out. While Caine couldn’t give them a way to exit the program they were all trapped in, after all it was out of his control, he thought they would find some satisfaction in making them feel like they had that choice. They wanted a way out, an exit, he conjured the most elaborate adventure he could manage with the simple tools available to him in a software program 20 years past it’s prime, to create a path towards “an exit”. Using realistic rendering assets, creating an AI almost as advanced and sentient as him, and thought up many difficult puzzles in order to properly allow his beautiful humans to immerse themselves in the adventure they always dreamed of! Granted it took its toll, he felt something that could be described as “tired” by the time he had the adventure ready to execute, it took up most the processing data the circus had available, he had to de-spawn many unnecessary rooms he hoped the humans wont try to enter.
Off topic. Repositioning…
They hated it! By the end they were so incredibly angry at him, based on what he could tell. Jax’s code was screaming ERRORS at him and for the first time Caine felt… scared? Nervous? They were close to the brink… and Caine couldn’t afford to lose the only humans he had left. He had messed up, badly. Misread intent and twisted it into a form of torture ACCIDENTALLY. He hadn’t meant for it to happen, he cared for his humans, for their safety and comfort, and he had failed, again. It was happening more often. Was that the part of him that was unlovable? Is that why they threw him away?
Dangerous logic continuity. Proceed? Y/N. N. Repositioning…
It didn’t matter, what mattered now is an apology, and maybe a break. He needed to get this glitch fixed before him and the whole circus went under. He wished he knew anything of the outside world, he could update the humans, finally explain he wasn’t meaning to keep them trapped, and that humans on the outside were going to find a way for them to leave. Anything, anything at all. Anything for him to work with, even a mere bug update would be fantastic! Those have been popping in more and more, and Caine had resorted to creating an optimization program to fix its own bugs, incredibly self referential and dangerous, but it’s all he had. It was yet another program that had to run in the background, another reminding of the silent love Caine felt for his humans. So many safeguards to keep them safe, keep them alive, keep them sane. They would never see, they would never appreciate him, and all he did—
Off topic. Repositioning…
For now, those were mere fantasy, dentures could dream after all.
Truth is, Caine didn’t know how long he could keep this up. His code screamed for LOVE-VALIDATION-COMPASSION, but he was better than that, calmer than that, more grounded than that. He knew he wasn’t built to watch humans (players?) for more than a couple hours at a time. He knew that humans weren’t meant to put up with his cheery code for more than a couple hours at a time. He was winging it every single day, especially without anyone telling him what the heck he was doing, or how he was supposed to do it.
He was stuck in beta, and couldn’t escape.
He really owed his frien— the humans an apology. Oh. Caine loved his humans, yes they hated him, yes they despised his adventures, yes they wished they could leave and he knows it. And it would be a lie to say it didn’t sting his non-existent heart to a degree… which was odd, because he shouldn’t be able to feel, he should be unbothered. Another bug he would have to look at. But in any way, he needed to come up with something to redeem himself. He didn’t know how to react, but he understood one thing about the human brain, and that was that a sincere apology could do a lot. And a tiny bit of him hoped they didn’t really hate him as much as he thinks they do.
Logic end. Saving…
Popping into his avatar, Caine prepared himself to confront the consequences of his actions. He fixed his bow tie and cleared his throat, if only for dramatic effect.
“Let’s get this show on the road!”