Inbox

[itsjustabaddream]

INBOX OF NEIL WEST

Neil would be happy to hear from you. Leave a comment below to reach out. You can pay him a visit at home, or send him a letter any time.

GAME NAV ✦ THE OCULARUM

Comments

[restingslasherface]

Jean is quiet for a long time there. This is not, in itself, unusual; indeed, one of the things they appreciate about Neil is not being bothered when they need to give something serious thought, especially in cases such as this where an intuitive belief is now being challenged on the basis of evidence or reasoning. They go remarkably still, somewhat more unusual in this case, but then, that was a rather cutting question, wasn't it?

"...Robot," they say, in English. "A word from my world derived from an older word, robota, the forced labor of serfs. You have perhaps heard Doctor First Aid refer to himself as a bot, but in this he refers solely to a machine life-form, without necessary reference to purpose, compulsion, or ownership. Historical attempts to create robots were an end-run around the moral repugnance of slavery; in creating an unthinking machine which would obey orders but lack an internal life, the owner class could disempower labor while acquiring an extremely consistent process."

"The City abandoned its attempts to create robots through technological means, but its society, its culture...it stripped from us all that which I lack. To make us into its robots, Doctor West. Do you understand?"