C.H.R.I.S. I--Cloned Humanoid Robotic Interface System Introduction

Excerpt from the first book of the series.

               C.H.R.I.S.  I

               Cloned Humanoid Robotic Interface System

 

By

 

Wallace Beery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

          Imagine--if you will--that you could create the perfect child, the perfect human being. What would he or she be like? And, more importantly, what would be involved in the process of creation? Would the process end at conception? At the implantation of the embryo? At birth? Perhaps the process might continue through the child’s formative years? What if the process never ended?

          What would that process be like? What would it entail? Cloning? DNA alteration? Brain modification? Sensory modification? Say, for instance, your limitations were almost non-existent. How far would you go? Would your creation be the savior of the human race? Or a monster beyond imagining, that had the potential to wipe humans off the face of the Earth for all eternity. And who, exactly, would get to make the assessment whether your creation fell into the former or the latter of these two categories?

          If your creation was benevolent, would it matter? And, if your creation was malevolent, what power on Earth could stand against it?

            C--a child cloned from the DNA renderings of five brilliant fathers. A child that knows only the bank of two hundred video screens that instruct him and give him a window onto a world that he has never seen, never touched, and has no idea really even exists except in the digital environment behind the glass. Never the touch of his mother, or his father. No friends. No one to converse with. Only the video screens … and the voice.

          H--Humanoid, because he is not exactly human any longer.

          R--Robotic, in the sense that his mother (one of his creators) filled his embryonic brain with millions of nanomachines to enhance his intelligence and mental capabilities.

          I--which made him the perfect interface

          S--system between man and machine.

          He is stripped of everything that makes humans human, including clothing. This dehumanization process would be cruel to a child that had ever known anything different, but how can a child miss something that it has never experienced? And, if the child was never meant to see the light of day, never meant to ever leave its deep underground habitat, would it even matter?

          The researchers’ reasoning for this total deprivation was sound, of course. What they had created was a being so far beyond anything that had ever walked the Earth before, that it had no peers. Even as a toddler, their creation was intellectually superior even to themselves. How could it function, how could it interact, in a normal social setting? It would quickly be ostracized by those of its own age group, and deemed a freak by adults.

          Best to isolate it for its own good, to save it years of lonely misery. Its mind could be studied, its breakthroughs in science applied and used for the betterment of mankind.

          We, my friends, are now entering this scary new realm in our own world. We have the ability, not only to create life from nature’s building blocks, but to manipulate those building blocks to create new creatures. Creatures that are not always viable, true. Not always welcome additions to our big blue marble. Some, however, benefit mankind. Oil eating microbes, for instance. Vaccines created by manipulating a cold-virus’ DNA and piggy-backing a killing agent into its genetic make-up that infiltrates the enemy virus, surrounds it, and neutralizes it.

          Good things.      

          Beneficial things.

         Cloning is a good thing. I am a strident proponent of this new and exciting science. It has many, many possible benefits to mankind, especially now that scientists are getting close to being able to grow specific organs--your very own organs, not someone else’s--in a laboratory. Eyes, arms, fingers, legs, toes. Even faces, identical faces to their own, for people who have been brutally scarred. All these things would be miracles for those who need them. And these miracles are just the tip of the iceberg.

          But, with this nearly god-like power comes awesome responsibility, limitations on how far, ethically, that we can go. The religious fundamentalists have a valid argument … to a point. Cloning has wonderfully benevolent potential. It also has horrific ramifications as well. Bodies without brains grown for those not ready to die. A month at a resort hospital and your brain is transferred into your brand new twenty-year-old body. Tempting, but monstrous all the same.

          One can also imagine a total, or almost total, cessation of normal reproduction once the death rate grates to a near halt. Once humans begin living a thousand years or so, there will not be any room for newcomers. This would be a terrifying prospect personally. In a thousand years, I could get to know and tire of everyone on the planet, and then where would I find stimulating conversation?  

          Points to ponder, dear reader. Like everything else in this brave new world, advancements in science--even miraculous ones like cloning--have a good side and a bad side. Wondrous, shadowed by horrific, potentiality.

          The creation in this book is as totally unprepared for the world, and its mind-boggling social interactions, as the world is for him. He is a social blank, but he is the only hope of a besieged, and about to be extinct, human race. His edges are sometimes rough, and his naivety sometimes leads him to follow bare instincts that many humans suppress as abnormal behavior, but he is the essence of humanity stripped of its delusions of grandeur.

          I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. It has been an experience, I must say.

 

  Wallace Beery

Reviews

[ms. barrie]

I can't help but echo KTBradley' s sentiments.

I enjoy the unique, concept, a being/robot that has been devoid of humanistic ego, etc. --

This story/novel sound like it'd be a lesson for all of us to learn (very enlightening.)
and from the sounds of it, far different from the mundane. I enjoyed the concise introduction you presented as well.

Looking forward to reading more of this, soon.

Thanks for sharing - xx

[Wallace Beery]

Thank you so much for your warm review. I'm posting the first chapter or so tomorrow. I would be most pleased if you would review it.

[ms. barrie]

I will do so as soon as I can. I am having issues with ads on here & glitches (gets frustrating.) I'll be back to visit this (these) pieces once I finish editing my latest. I put this story in my library also (:

[Wallace Beery]

Alas, I know what you mean about the ads and glitches, but me must persevere for the sake of our art, mustn't we, milady?

[ms. barrie]

yes!! (raises pen) - it's so bad now that comment reply, notifications are on top of the "contests" tab lol so when you try to click
on them...you click on "contests"
-- lol bloody hell! guess live feed is good for something eh

[Wallace Beery]

I know! I've been trying to befriend someone and it keeps sending me to mail requests instead! AAAARRRRGGGGG!!!!!!!

[ms. barrie]

fun isn't? I've repeatedly tried to let the mods know of these ads/glitches, and then just same old thing! Oh well! Thank you much my for subscribing - x (:

[Wallace Beery]

Well, I've been told that we're just mere humans slaving away at our silly little self-aware musings while unfeeling robots run this place and hold us prisoner in our cybernetic, malfunctioning dungeon ... but that could simply be the science fiction geek in me postulating story ideas .....

[alanwgraham]

You have created a plausible if scary scenario. I wouldn't like to think
that our future depends on a humanoid created in this way. We have to face that the future is bleak but we need to focus on the best elements of our humanity in our leaders.
You've got some great ideas here and I'm interested in how you develop them.
Alan

[Olympia Addy]

Make you really think about life

[KT-B]

Wow fabulous introduction and such an interesting concept - the way the world is progressing it's only a matter of time before robots are the norm - there was one on This Morning the other day, so life like it was unbelievable - I like your style of writing too, this book sounds so good - how can I read the rest?

[Wallace Beery]

It's not on sale yet, but I intend to put the first chapter up tomorrow. You are most welcome to read that, and if you like it, perhaps I'll share more with only you and a few select readers.

[KT-B]

I shall buy it with glee when it becomes available :)

[Wallace Beery]

You are most gracious, milady. I hope that holds true for the other 24 books as well! ;-)