considered to be nonexistent

This room is considered to be nonexistent.

Two men sit across from each other at a metal table with metal chairs, one with a clipboard, and one without. The man with the clipboard speaks first.

"Please start from the beginning", he said in a calm yet authoritative tone.

"From where it started, or where I started caring?" said the man with the eerily obedient tone.

"Wherever makes the most sense to you" said the clipboard man.

"Well, I think the first thing I remember is moving houses after mom and dad split. That was probably what impacted me first", he said.

"What then?" he said, making notes on the clipboard.

"I was pretty quiet after mom got full custody, I would blend into the background at school. I never played sports, I did have some friends, but none of them were close enough to keep in touch with after graduation. I figured since there wasn't much tying me to my hometown, I'd move to a bigger city and see what happens", a forced chuckle coming at the end of his reminiscing.

The sounds of the pencil scratching on the paper against the clipboard seemed to be getting progressively louder.

"What then?", he said flipping over another sheet.

The chuckling stopped and a sad smile turned to an almost empty stare.

"I met a girl freshman year but we broke up right after junior year. We got along really well and liked the same stuff, but she felt her calling was to join the peace corps. And what could I say, don't join the peace corps, stay here and be with me?", he said, unable to make eye contact as he stared down at his twiddling thumbs.

The sound of the pencil lead snapping on the paper echoes throughout the room. The clipboard man sets down his namesake and takes off his glasses.

"Would you say that was the first break, Andy?" he asked in a hushed tone.

The mention of his name causes Andy's thumbs to move twice as fast.

"Not the divorce?" Andy said, still unable to make eye contact as his thumbs continued to twiddle, albeit a bit slower now.

"Breaks don't happen unless you legitimately blame yourself. As you grew older, you realized your parents were better off apart, but what happened with the girl?" he asked as cleaned his glasses with his black tie.

A beat of silence filled the room, then a slow inhale, followed by a slow exhale.

"I proposed, and she said no. She said dedicating here life to me instead of other people would just be selfish of her", he said, speaking very slowly to prevent his voice from breaking.

"So you did ask her to not join the peace corps and stay with you. The shame of that compounded with the pain of her leaving was probably enough for this to be a clean break." he said, jotting down notes on his trusty companion again.

Andy, no longer able to hold back the tears, croaks out:

"That's all of it right?"

"Sorry Andy, last one. What happened since your graduation 4 years ago?" he said.

Andy continued to look down, though his thumbs had stopped twiddling.

"After college I graduated with some pretty above average programming skills. Pretty much got a job at a mid size company straight out of school. The pays above market level, the benefits are good, and it's not even remotely challenging so it's stress free." he says in what felt like a rehearsed tone.

"And now that you're at this job, where do you see your life going?" the clipboard man says, his hands folded.

"I guess I'll just work here awhile, it's comfy and I've never really been one to reach that far anyway. I mean, the one time I did, it didn't work out so well. People always tell you when you're a kid to go after what you want, chase your dreams, work hard and you'll accomplish everything you ever wanted." he says with a bitter smile.

"But those people fail to mention how bad it hurts when what you dream about is taken away. I just don't want to risk feeling that way again. I like it here, it feels safe", says Andy, as he slumps down further into the metal chair.

"I see, well Andy I guess that's how it was always going to go for you", said clipboard man, rising from his seat and approaching Andy's left shoulder.

"What do you mean, that's how it was going to go? Who are you, where am I?" Andy says getting progressively louder as he takes in his surroundings seemingly for the first time.

"What do you see Andy?"

Andy stops, then looks directly in front of him.

"A light?.....Why's it so bright?".

"It's almost like a small light flashed in his pupil before shutdown" I said as I looked at the now powered down robot. Getting through the childhood building blocks and finishing with the truth usually ends mandatory compliance mode, too much going on in that metal head. Well, my experiment was successful, a machine that actually believes he's a real person with real memories. Making the identity wasn't too hard, a bad enough breakup will make anyone a coward. Now maybe the public will back off on protesting the AI research.

What could possibly make the people get onboard with AI? Why, make the AI's lesser than us, of course. The issue is, what defect to put in the AI to ensure the human remains dominant? Over the course of my career I have seen what the broken of society are like. The people who have no spirit to create, for better or worse. These people usually have the same thing in common: they're scared. Scared because of a past failing, an insecurity, or even just because the idea of trying something is too scary in itself.

To make an AI that will never think for itself, that will never stand up to humans, that will just keep its head down and do it's job with human levels of efficiency, that is what will ease the mind of the masses. And now that we've tested Andy, we can confirm that programming of the AI's personality is effective. Starting with our company, programmers can be replaced by Andy's at a fraction of the cost.

I look down at this Andy one last time, then head to the door.

"No matter what people think of AI's, anyone who saw what I just saw would agree that things not really alive."

This room is considered to be nonexistent, except by the people who know of it's existence too well.