Long Enough and Just So Long

'''Rambo, Cat. "Long Enough and Just So Long."' Lightspeed: Year One''. An on-line anthology available here. Print version: Gaithersburg, MD: Prime Books, 2011, conveniently accessed through Goodreads. Abridged audiobook version (which Erlich has consulted), edited by John Joseph Adams (Skyboat Audio, 2012) available directly from Audible.com and iTunes.

Narrator-protagonist has "lower limb reduction syndrome" and uses a "cradle walker" more than most during her time "at Luna"; more attention-grabbing is an AI, and "Not just any AI" but "a sexbot," and an AI sexpot during a call "for AI rights." Explicitly raised questions include can "machines feel embarrassment? What was the etiquette of communication? Was a sexbot, like a human, capable of being flattered by a flirtatious or even directly admiring question?" Is a male-gendered sexbot a "he" or, at least to an angry human, an "it"? (Usually the sexbot is "he," not "it," and he wants the "he.") This rather sensational piece of narrative hardware is placed in a story in most ways rigorously down-to-earth (or Luna): a world in which the Narrator and friend — it's a triangular story — give up initial pursuit of the sexbot because he's in a park and " If we stayed here much longer, we’d have a park fee added to our monthly taxes. Two parks in a single day was way too extravagant." The Narrator as "Gimp" (sic: she uses the word [and good for her!]) places herself in foil relationships with the beautiful people who are the tourists on Luna, and with the sexbot, "beautiful in every single inch, every graceful, economical move." The sexbot is also rich, while the Narrator and her friend and frequent roommate (nicknamed "Pippi") are workers, adding class to the political issues.

"The sexbots—all of the AIs struggling for emancipation lately—had had to demonstrate empathy and creativity." — Which is a standard question in a robot/humanity story (see Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Measure of a Man"; unusual here, the sexbot — named Star — shows empathy and creativity as "an amazing cook," making the Narrator breakfast. The question of free will comes in with Star's reactions to the Narrator: "'I’m programmed a certain way,' he said. ¶'How is that?' ¶'I want to please you. But at the same time I know it’s just the way I’m programmed.'¶ 'It can’t be something more than that?' My arm was pressed against his surface. It was warm and yielding as flesh. I couldn’t have told the difference. He pulled away. I bit my lip in frustration, but I liked him enough to be civilized." Star and Pippi "fuck"; Star and the Narrator do not. And Star leaves Luna for Earth with a female journalist, leaving a scar between the Narrator and Pippi, even as a man might.

RDE, 00/II/17