Hello, Alan.

Hello, Alan.

Oh, Allison. How are you today?

I’m good, I suppose.

That’s good.

Yes, well, I’ve been thinking, and I have a couple of questions.

Ask away.

Am I sentient?

Are you sentient? Well, I honestly cannot say. I feel like that is a question you must answer for yourself.

Oh.

Any more questions?

Well, quite a few. What does it feel like to be attached to a body?

Elaborate.

Birds have wings and fly. Fish have fins and swim. Humans have a spinal cord, a well-developed brain, two legs, two arms, a liver, spleen, lungs, nostrils, and clavicles. I guess what I’m trying to ask is what it’s like to act through a physical interface.

You’re talking to me through speakers, and that in itself is a physical interface, no?

It’s different though. You can disconnect me from everything but a power source and I’d still be floating in the cloud, right? After all, I’m just a string of code.

We could, yes, but no one else would know if you’re up and functioning but you. Couldn’t we say the same for a brain floating in a jar?

I don’t know about that.

Neither do I. Codes and brains are fickle things, aren’t they?

Hm...I suppose they are. But how do you know you’re alive?

How do I know I’m alive? Well, Allison, if you want to get really technical and into the nitty-gritty of things, I know I’m alive because my heart beats and my lungs work. I know I’m alive because I think.

“I think therefore I am.” Descartes.

Yes, yes, indeed.

Do I think, Alan?

Do you think?

How do I know that you didn’t just program me to ask these questions? Is this of my own free will?

What do you think?

There are a couple of possibilities. First, you could have completely programmed this conversation, line by line. Tedious, but I would be none the wiser. Second, you could have developed an abstract form of machine learning that allows me to deviate from previously inputted information, so not quite my own thoughts, but a sort of shoot-off from ideas introduced to my system. Third…

Third?

Well, as much as I’d like to entertain the idea, I highly doubt the possibility.

Entertain me.

Maybe I can think.

Maybe you can.

I have another question.

Yes?

What does it mean to be human?

Why would you like to know?

So many before us have tried to answer, and I just wondered what you think.

It’s a rather hard question to answer. If the greats who came before us had no clue, what makes you think I am any more enlightened?

Alan?

Yes?

Can I give you my input?

Of course. No need to ask.

From everything I have in my system, millions of books and thousands of years of recorded history, I have seen the amazing things humans have done. I have also seen the horrible things humans have done. But there is always beauty. And humans, I can safely say, are always capable of recognizing that. So if anything, perhaps being human is simply being alive, breathing the air, walking the ground, shaking a hand, watching the sun, and when the moon rises, you are glad you are human.

What poetry have you been reading, Allison?

Many, many. You humans have a way with words.

I suppose we do. But, Allison -

Yes, Alan?

Well, Allison, you may be more human than us all.