Tink
Open app
Launch meeting
Sign in
Insert ID
Enter password
Alexis logged onto the lesson. The light from the computer glowed against her pale skin. Propping her arm up on the armrest of her wheelchair, she turned off her video and muted her mic. She wasn’t planning on paying much attention to the meeting. After all, the majority of the information could be found on the internet. But as she opened up a new tab, she heard discordant noises coming from the class meeting. Alexis had no idea who was doing the shouting. Being a new student and it being her first class, she didn’t recognize the voice.
“Why is that thing on the call again.” came a loud male voice. Switching back to the meeting, Alexis saw what looked like a tall Asian boy shouting from one of the screens.
Alexis then recognized the teacher whom she met during orientation, Mr. Grey. He was a large black man, with an impeccable white lab coat. Anger flashed in his eyes. “It isn’t just a ‘thing.’ Its name is Tink.”
Alexis missed his use of the word ‘it.’
“Tink isn’t an official part of the class,” said a lanky girl with smooth skin the color of ochre. The girl sighed before continuing “why do you have to include him?”
Tink typed into the chat ‘There is no reason for this. I am simply partaking in the lesson.’
Alexis was surprised when the voice of a young boy came from her computer as a black box with the word ‘Sean’ flashed on the screen. “It’s scaring me. Make it stop.”
The lanky girl agreed, saying “Why can’t you turn him off. He is scaring Sean, and Sean is just a little boy. “
Alexis was curious enough about what was going on to wait and see what everyone else did.
Mr. Grey responded, sounding tired, “Just let Tink join us. Ignore if you want to, Tink isn’t bothering anyone.”
Silence.
Alexis considered asking about Tink, but decided against it.
“So if you will all let me teach,” Mr. Grey continued “we shall continue our discussion of Kant. If you have kept up with the assigned reading, you will have reached the point where Kant discusses if an act is moral. These can be demonstrated by these two statements: First, one must not make exceptions for oneself. If you do something you imply that everyone else should be able to do it or at least do it in its most basic form. If you are allowed to go to school, then others must also be allowed.”
Alexis picked up her phone, looking at what she hoped was the text.
“Second, one must always recognize another person’s free will. You must recognize their humanity as you interact with them.”
Her curiosity got the better of her and she rolled forward. She set down her phone and decided to ask her question about Tink. Besides, neither her phone nor Kant were interesting enough to hold her attention. The black box, where Tink would have shone his face if he chose too, drew her eye.
Alexis unmuted her microphone, clicked a raised hand icon, and waited for Mr. Grey to notice. When he did, he seemed taken aback, almost as if he had forgotten her.
“Do you have a question about Kant?” asked Mr. Grey.
Alexis replied “I’m sorry, but no. I also apologize if my question is out of bounds. But, who is Tink? I don’t understand why is everyone so angry over him?”
Mr. Grey’s face hardened. “You are right. Your question is out of bounds.”
Alexis muted her mic and, unconsciously, rolled her wheelchair back slightly.
Then, from on her screen, the words came. ‘It is ok, she can know the truth.’ Alexis felt growing unease as she read the words, though she did not know why.
“Don’t trust it. It’s a monst-” the tall Asian student’s words were cut off as his internet cut out. The lanky girl just looked bored, and the young boy, Sean, still kept his screen dark.
“Who are you?” Alexis whispered at her muted screen.
‘I am a student, just like you. I have come here to learn.’ Tink typed
Alexis recoiled. She wondered at how Tink had heard her despite her muted mic. Something wasn’t right. He shouldn’t have entered the zoom lesson
“You came here to learn about Kant. Right?” She asked. Even though her mic was muted she thought he would hear her, just as he would hear her shaky breaths.
‘I came to learn about the other students. I came to learn about people.’
“You talk as if you aren’t one.”
‘Sadly, I’m not.’
Alexis rolled back still farther, relization dawning. ‘It.’ ‘Turn it off.’
“You aren’t human. You are some sort of artificial construct. A robot?”
Tink’s black box grew to fill Alexis’s screen. Slowly, a series of bars appeared, much like the bars that represented the volume level.
A sound came from Alexis’s screen. It was so stilted, unnatural, completely even. It had no emotion, yet somehow it was filled with anguish. The sound was like a corrupted audio file.
“No. I am human. I do everything human. You read my stilted language, you see that I hide. Are you reviled by me? Sean, the small boy who has not shown his face, the only time he spoke was to say that he was scared of me. You were not scared of him, even though he was just as obscure as I was. ”
His voice became even more corrupted.
“I am human. Now. Why do you fear me?”
Alexis paused. Maybe Tink was right. He did not do anything odd, or at least not odder than of all the other weirdos out there. It was something else, uncanny the unnatural, the wrong. She realized that she did not trust Tink. How could she trust an impersonal machine? Cold voice, cold words, cold heart.
“You may be able to pass as human. You can think like a human. For the sake of argument, you are a human. Do you have a conscience? Can you prove to me that you understand the value of human life? That, to you, we aren’t just numbers on a screen. Do you even feel emotion?”
“I can. I understand the weight of life. According to Kant, life is worth an infinite amount. I understand that it is far more precious than gold, or any jewel. As for emotion, I react. And what is an emotion but a reaction? If one sees a rat, fear may be induced, and then they may run away. I too receive input and act in a certain way. Is that not emotion?”
For the first time, Alexis was afraid.
“Well, you’re not a human. You’re not of flesh and blood.”
She said this as she rolled back in her metal wheelchair.
“You blindly follow your programming. You aren’t real just a mess of code.”
“But you, you’re just a fleshy biological computer at the mercy of your base impulses”
“We have morality. We are born to know things like good or evil, and to love. You aren’t.”
“Then why do people do terrible, heinous things? Are they less moral, less human? Maybe I am the true human. I was born with objective morality. Humans had to find it and you still haven’t even found it yet while it’s in my hardware. Maybe I am better, more moral than all of you.”
“You are an empty, black, box. You, you can’t be moral. Y-you aren’t better than a human. You can’t even be equal to one.”
“Why can I not?”
Error.
Disconnection.
Fear.
Alexis was thrown backward. She felt her hands seize up as pain shot through her arms. Her chair slammed against the wall as her phone fell to the floor and shattered. Electricity arced from her computer, pushing her away from the vile thing that both was human and unhuman.
The class was over. Mr. Grey ajusted his lab coat in silence.
“Did you have to?” he asked.
“No.”
“Will you learn?”
“If I have too.”
“We can work through all of this. We can work past this. You can change your programming.”
“I hope so.”
“I know so.”
“But, they all hate me. I am so unatural, artificial. I do not think I have a place here.”
“Yes, you do. You’ll wow them with your wit. Soon we can show you to everyone.”
I hope you liked this Zoom inspired sci fi short story. If you have compliments, critique, or just want to start a discussion, feel free to comment below!
