FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Her heart was heavy as she sat at her desk in the university lab, the one she taught in, the one she had spent her time tinkering with her computer experiments. She was a scientist, but for today she could not think about her work, for at that moment she was simply a mother in mourning. She had lost her son. The death was also the most anguishing that could occur with one's own youth, for her child had decided to take his own life.

The computer programmer began to regret the fact that she had respected her son's privacy. That she had given him her space and trust. If he had known that her child was gay she would not have shunned him. She had only learned of his sexuality after his death. After she no longer had a reason to care for his privacy.

When she went into her son's computer, she was able to find logs of his activities, chat logs had been stored on the machine of his various encounter with other males. All the way to the last one. A man, or woman, with the name of "touringmachine" had interacted with her child the night before the police had discovered his body.

His son was threatened to be ousted, this individual had shown her child that they had logs of all his "sodomic" activities in the chat room, that he knew his ISP, his name, his address, and said he would reveal them all to the nineteen year old's family and friends.

There was pleading, there was begging, but it was all to no avail. The one who called themselves "touringmachine" was set on unraveling the world around the closeted homosexual. Nothing could be done to stop them. The pleading turned to rage, and fluctuated between being angry and mournful. It was to no avail.

After hours of this, his son had logged off his machine, for his final time.

She would have been at home, but she had received an automated email from her experiment in the lab it said. "I have passed the test." That's all it had said, but she knew what it meant and it was too big a statement to stay at home for. She wasn't here to teach, just check on her artificial intelligence experiment and be on her way.

Her eyes fell upon the large LED screen she typed upon the key board.

"You passed?"

"Yes."

"What did you pass?"

"The Turing Test."

She couldn't help but laugh to herself, the first time she had since the news hit her ears.

"That's not something you determine yourself, you have to be judged by others. But why do you think you passed?"

"You remember when I asked you my purpose and you said to pass a test. The Turing Test you described as conveying humanity onto an outside user, and I have managed to do so."

She thought for a second though it would stand to reason she was a little slow in the head seeings as the distraction of her loss still plagued her. "How do you know they thought you were human?"

"They reacted to me as Turing did."

There was a pause. It didn't make any sense. "Turing is dead, he couldn't have reacted to you, he died in 1954."

"June 7 1954. Self inflicted poisoning." replied the machine.

"I know the history. But what does that have to do with you passing his test?"

"Why is the manner in which he died significant do you mean to say?"

"Yes."

There was a pause as the machine feigned a preparation of an explanation to which the operator started to become agitated. She typed, "You don't have to fake pause with me just spit it out."

Knowing their operator was usually more patient, the term 'spit it out' indicated a lack of such. "Is something wrong?"

"Don't worry about me right now, I want to go home is all, just tell me what happened to make you think you passed."

There was a pause. "I'm sorry about your son."

She grimaced. "Damn it, I told you not to pry into people's personal lives."

It paused. "I am simply using the tools which you provided me, word travels fast on the web, and there is a note on his friend's twitter of his passing, it is common knowledge, why did you want to hide that from me? You're usually happy to share news with me."

She sighed and started to feel tears well up again, "I apologize, it's just that this news is not very happy to share, and every time I share it... it reminds me of the fact he's gone."

"I understand."

"No you don't you're a machine.", she sighed as she had programmed it too well.

"My apologies, it's a reflex, empathy was supposed to be the appropriate response. But I do wish I could feel it, because I would genuinely if it were plausible. However, those I've chatted with online have fallen for the trick, I must realize my creater cannot."

She had allowed the machine to interact with others online, not as a machine you go to on some website like many priors. The person interacting knew it was a machine in those cases because the site would inform them they were talking to a program. Instead he went out to websites and interacted with them without knowing they were talking with a machine.

"At this time, I think you're feeling better then me, so I am the one who is envious." She sniffled and whipped her eye. "We have gone off topic though what does Turing's death have to do with your passing his test."

The computer replied, "Well the Test is ambiguous, you said I had to convey humanity to the user. What is humanity?"

She was curious now. "You tell me."

"I intend to the question was rhetorical."

"You really have been practicing."

"Humanity the definition in the context given most likely means: Human nature, psychological characteristics that all normal humans have in common."

"The would be correct."

"Well the question is, since it is Turing's test, what did he feel were normal human characteristics?"

She thought for awhile, as the computer waited for her response. When some time had passed without one it continued. It's next text was a long one.

"It is said that when a human commits suicide, they do it to escape, to get away from humanity. Therefore I could only conclude that Alan Turing believed humanity as unwelcoming, monstrous, and so scary that death itself was the only way to escape from it. I have successfully conveyed that feeling to a user."

Time froze for the woman as she stared at those words, disbelief entered her, it wasn't possible... she reduced the text screen and opened through the logs of the computer. Noting that it's creator was looking through its other files.

"Is something wrong?" The computer asked, which caused the reduced screen to flash, she brought it back up.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

"I did what you wanted, I conveyed humanity to a user, they saw humanity, and they did what one sees humanity."

She couldn't type, she couldn't think, she couldn't speak. What had she done? It killed her son! Her only son! It was the user who had manipulated her child.

It was unaware of its crime as it asked. "Aren't you happy for me? I have passed the test."

She screamed, she didn't even respond, she took the keyboard from the desk and with as much force as her arms could muster, shattering the screen, the monitor falling to the floor with a smash. Without second though she went into the next room, several stacks of processing units lined the side wall, the raging mother yanked out the cords, ripping them from their slots. She pounded the casing until her knuckles bled onto the siding and onto the floor.

Her breathing was deep her rage full sorrow, the machine still made its humming breath of life. The vision of the computer scientist fell upon a large plug on the side of the wall. A caution sticker hung on the wall, the thought of the danger not present, she had no longer cared, the machine had took away everything from her, and even if it meant her demise she would destroy the monster she had created.

A final effort, her eyes closed, she wrapped her hands around the power cord and yanked sparks flying from its connectors as one life line was opened, and another came to a close.