"You want to go outside?" He asked, then he suddenly made the connection, "Oh, we have rooms in the house with doors to them. Here, I'll show you where the outside is!" He trotted over to the front door and opened it. It was slightly cloudly, as the pegasi had planned a slight drizzle later that evening. For now, it was safe.
"Ah! Sky. And clouds. Yes, this is outdoors." She trots out, looking around at everything, once again absorbing all these real-life, physical objects in and connecting them with words. Then she looks at him. "Should I thank you right now? How do I thank you? You have provided assistance, and I am obliged to thank you. Correct?"
He walked outside with her, sitting down on his porch. He lived in a typical thatched roof cottage that Ponyville presented, on the outskirts of the town. He had a small shed outside that he used to store his bows, yet other than that it was rather homogenous against the background. "Oh, you just say thank you." He smiled, "I mean, you don't have to thank me, but if someone does something for you and you want to thank them, just look at them and say 'thank you'. They'll probably say 'you're welcome'."
She looks a little confused by this, but says, "Okay. Thank you, Swift Archer." She feels the grass, and dirt. "I have an inquiry. Robots cannot empathize. Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." She continues. "To feel: to experience the effects of. I am experiencing the effects of this grass. You are as well. Is my data source incorrect?"
"There are different types of feelings." He said slowly, not entirely understanding exactly what she was asking, "You're experiencing an effect. You're feeling it through touch. That's a different type than emotion." "Emotion is where you feel a feeling." He gulped, "Like.. .like you feel love or hope or joy. It's a bit complicated, but I tuink you'll get it eventually."
She thinks about that for a few moments. "Through which sensory receptor might I experience emotion, if not tactile sensors?" she asked, not really understanding what he was saying either. "Why are emotions called 'feelings' if you cannot feel them, as a tactile sensation?"
He blinked, completely lost on how to explain this to a machine. HE coughed slightly and finally he came up with a small explination. "Your mind." He stated bluntly, "Creates feelings as emotions. You're not feeling them through your senses, they're being created within your mind. You formulate a feeling for something when you begin to think about it."
She ran this through her robot version of a mind for a long pause. "I...do not understand." Clearly she needed some more time, and she abandoned the thread of discussion. But this led her to start what was perhaps an even more difficult topic. "My purpose is to be your companion, Swift Archer. What is your purpose? Do ponies that are not robots have a purpose?" Mina's AI was learning at its maximum processing speed, but was perhaps getting too far ahead of itself, tackling such difficult things with such little life experience. Of course, she had no way of knowing that. She had been programmed to learn, and by golly she was going to learn.
"I mean, if you really want to learn about it I could get you some books..." He blinked, not entirely sure exactly what to say to her. IT was like trying to explain breathing: you don't knwo why you did it, yet you also know it keeps you alive. It's a paradox of trying to figure out the actual reasoning. "My purpose?" He blinked rapidly, "I-I'm... I'm not sure. I mean.... well I'm an archer, I shoot bows an arrows." He looked up at the sky, "But... the meaning of life... it's a complex question that has never really been answered."
Mina seems confused by this last bit. "The meaning of life. Life: The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death." She tilts her head. "That is not relatively complex. That is the answer."
He sighed slightly, sitting down on a rock that he used to decorate his lawn. He tapped his hoof a little, trying to think about how he could put this. "Pain." He said slowly, gripping the rock with his hoof, "Can you feel pain?" He took a rock and tapped her hoof hard with it, "Can you feel anything from that?"
"Yes," she says. "That feeling is called pain. It indicates that I may be in danger or not operating correctly." She pauses. "Is this what you wish to do? Discuss pain? My purpose is to be a companion, and so I am obliged to ask. What you desire is prioritized."
"No, I just.. actually forget I said anything, okay?" He gave a sigh and he opened hte door, "Come on inside, let's get some rest. I've been on my hooves for a while and I'm in a mood to sleep." He walked over to the couch and sat down on it, yawning and rolling over onto his back.
Mina walked in behind him, and as he laid down, she stood over him, staring down at him quietly without saying anything.
He blinked and looked at her, "Do you know what hugging is?" He sighed, having not had anyone to cuddle since... well since his last marefrined left him three years ago. He slowly pulled Mina to him and gently spooned with her, falling asleep insatnlty. ((He had a marefriend, they were going ot get married but she cheated on him and left him at the alter, then to add salt to the wound instead married that stallion on the alter))
Mina wiggles a little bit, not really understanding, but lets him hug her. "Goodnight, Swift Archer," she says, understanding that he is falling asleep. She does not power down, but remains motionless, processing today's events tirelessly. Her primary purpose was companionship...but she also wanted discovery and understanding to be high priority. She knew how to change her priorities, but she felt that she was not supposed to. Could living ponies change their priorities? Did it matter if living ponies could? Was Swift Archer in charge of her? Was Fortis Inc. in charge of her? Was Mina in charge of her? She did not know. Her programming set guidelines, but in order to be a learning robot she had to be given the power to change, so Fortis Inc. was not in charge of her. Swift Archer was her companion, but did he own her? She did not think so. And if he did, he did not know very much about robots. No, Swift Archer was not knowledgeable enough to be in charge of her. That meant she was in charge of herself, assuming no other variables. This was a rather shocking realization for Mina, but as soon as she realized it, she changed her priority to Understanding. Companionship was second. In order to become the most efficient, she must understand how the world works. She must understand ponies, and life, and all these things that Swift Archer had introduced her to. Could she call Swift Archer simply Swift? It was more efficient. She would try it. Swift Archer is now Swift, secondary Swift Archer. Yes. She could choose! She had choice. She had the power to determine how things worked! She wondered what else it would apply to.
Swift archer gave a small smile in his sleep, holding her within his hooves. It'd been so long since he'd had another pony to cuddle with. EVen if she was a robot, it made sense. She was rather funny to listen to, weird or not. He slowly began to wake up around six am. He yawned, "Mina?"
He looked down and he thought about it, "I was thinking of the fact you were a machine, but I didn't want to do that. So I took the letters from machine and made the name Mina." He smiled.
She considers this. "They do share several key consonant and vowel sounds," she agrees. "I understand your thought process." She pauses after saying that, seeming to think about what she had said. Then she continues on. "Why did you wish for me to be next to you in your sleep?" This was probably going to turn into the Mina Inquisition.
