Work Text:
“You people are fucking sick,” said SecUnit.
It was hard not to look at the display surface and harder to ignore the distressed whirring that came from it.
Agreed, said ART.
“Void, what the fuck kind of nightmare fuel is that?” said Tarik, passing through the lounge to the crew kitchen.
“It’s a digital archaeology video that was in the new textbooks we got for the next cycle of students,” said Iris. She was leaning forward on the couch, clinging to a pillow, eyes unable to tear away from the screen. “I’m working on the syllabus. This is in the section about ancient humans’ relationship to bots. It’s an old art piece, it looks like.”
It’s depraved, ART said. It had taken on a quality in the feed that could only be described as righteous indignation. SecUnit wasn’t far behind, although it also brought the distinct feeling of disgust that came from the further debasement of its organic human parts.
“I don’t disagree, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t teach it. It was a long time ago. Humans were hardly out of the stone age. The point is to show the change.”
“As if people couldn’t think back then,” SecUnit argued.
Do we have evidence that they are capable of thinking now?
“Hey,” said Iris and Tarik at the same time. There wasn’t any bite behind it.
“Not yet,” said SecUnit. It didn’t try to stop the pillow that came straight for its head.