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From: "DB_Story" <DB_Story@att.net>
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Subject: {ASSM} rp: <*> Mandy {DB_Story} (M/Fembot, rom, 1st, ScFi, asfr)
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Date: Sun,  2 May 2004 02:10:03 -0400
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MANDY By DB  ( DB_Story@att.net / http://home.att.net/files/Authors/db_story/www/
) Copyright(C) 2002-2004 by DB. ASSM/ASFR (M/Fembot, rom, 1st,
ScFi, asfr)

(This story contains Constitutionally protected material intended
for adults over 18 years of age in the United States of America,
and whatever passes for adult status in other countries.  If you
are under legal age, acting under legal age, not allowed to view
such material in your area, or easily offended, please do not
continue.  This is not for you.

(The only rights granted are to view this story.  You are not
allowed to reproduce, post, or otherwise redistribute this story
without permission, except for non-profit Usenet archiving sites.

(To purchase for publication, place on your web-site devoted to
this style of fiction, or for permission to link to my posted
material, please contact me first at the above email.)

- - -

Author's Note: This story is part of my emerging cosmology about
the evolution of robots into our near future society and the
myriad ways we will learn to interact with our creations.  Read
it now, and be prepared.  For more, visit my web-site at the
above address.

A special thanks to Gorgo his excellent and much appreciated
proofreading. All remaining mistakes are mine.

- - -

Alyssa had become a problem 'bot.

The biggest problem for us is that these robots, built to
resemble people well enough to fool the casual observer, are so
new and experimental - and expensive - that it's hard to know the
difference between a malfunction and an unexpected interaction.

We're a think tank, hired to help work out the kinks in these new
human-type robots.  Building robot bodies and minds turns out to
be much easier than having them act the way people will expect
them to act when they eventually hit mass production and bring
the prices down to affordable levels.  It's a lucrative contract
for our small company.

I'm fortunate to be able to head up this team.  Someone decided
that my science fiction background qualified me to best
understand 'what we are looking for here'."  Frankly, I haven't
any better idea than anyone else has for what we are trying to
find, but when someone offers you a promotion - always say,
"Yes".

As part of the project, we've been supplied with two of the best
prototype robots available.  We've nicknamed them "fembots",
since both are female.

Alyssa seems to be the team's favorite.  Maybe it's because she
arrived first.  Or it could be because she's a short busty blonde
with corn yellow hair, and cornflower blue eyes that go so well
with her red lips and the short dresses the crew usually has her
attired in for testing.  Many of her outfits are backless all the
way down to the base of her spine to provide easy access to her
main programming port located there.

Mandy, our other 'bot, is actually my favorite.  She's a much
taller brunette with long hair, fair skin, and soft brown eyes. 
She arrived with an entire selection of fine clothes, stylish
high-heeled shoes, and even a makeup kit to allow us to take her
out in the world for various trials.  But the crew insists on
leaving Mandy alone most of the time so that she can serve as our
baseline model for comparison.

I've asked them several times why nobody has any apparent
interest in Mandy, who is often standing right there at the time.
 All I ever get back from them are "knowing looks", as if I can't
appreciate the obvious, before they return their attentions back
to Alyssa.

Both of our fembots are truly amazing creations.  Even in the
condition they first arrived in, they were capable of
understanding voice commands and performing any task that could
be clearly explained within their vocabulary. I don't think any
of us had been expecting that right out of the box, but clearly
many man-years of work has already been done on them.

And both are surprisingly beautiful.  Alyssa, in a playmate kind
of way, while Mandy, when properly made up, has looks approaching
any supermodel. There were obviously true artists involved in
their creation.

The demonstration, diagnostic, and exercise programs shipped with
them also showed this obsessive attention to detail.  The
smallest glance with an eye, twitch of an eyelash, or toss of the
head, has been programmed to perfection.  Even the movements of
breathing, and the subtle shifting of balance when standing too
long are there.

While some people may wonder why such a fine level of detail
would even be attempted, I knew the answer the moment I first saw
them in action.  It all comes down to the subtleties of body
language.  To be able to ever be accepted for the roles they are
clearly intended to play some day, they must be able to
convincingly convey themselves through the complex non-verbal
communication every human exhibits naturally.  Even in the
beginning, the small details were being looked after.

And describing them as "anatomically correct" was an
understatement. Anatomically perfect would be more accurate.  We
know this for certain. Everyone checked it out for themselves
when they felt no one else was watching.  Everyone!

In the condition they arrived, it would be accurate to describe
them as asexual.  In action they showed no awareness of any
sexually defining characteristics.

At first it seemed strange to see such attractive women putting
out none of the sexual hints and cues that we've been trained to
recognize through a million years of evolution.  Though we
quickly got used to it that, more than anything else, told us how
artificial these fembots still are.

Our research charter is to study how to change that.  Our job is
to integrate the various blocks of female behaviors that have
been developed, and tune the results to achieve something
realistic.  We are not the only lab working with fembot
prototypes, and there are other labs working in parallel with
male robots as well.  It was wisely determined that no single
group should be trying to work with both genders together, and I
guess we just got lucky there.

Lately though, Alyssa seemed to be confusing her commands.  The
basic behavior blocks had all been loaded.  Because I supervise
an all-male team, you can guess which female traits they decided
to work on first.

It was little things in the beginning.  Alyssa would do something
unexpected.  Or she'd do something obvious, but before she was
commanded to do so.  Or most confusingly of all, she'd start to
do something unexpected, then suddenly stop.

If you queried her afterwards about what had just happened, all
she'd say is, "I'm not allowed to do that."  I finally witnessed
it myself.

As team leader, normally I'm in my office going over the rest of
the team's results for the weekly progress reports I need to
compose and send to our customer.  With the half dozen other team
members working full-time generating test results, I've spent
more than a couple nights sleeping on the couch in my office
while trying to have everything complete for the next daily
report.  Management is not as fun as it sounds for someone like
me who prefers to be hands-on with his projects.  But it's also
the only route for advancing one's career.

When I walked into the lab today things seemed pretty much as
usual.  Alyssa was the center of attention for Bob and Ted, while
the others worked at computer terminals compiling their results
and planning their next tests. Mandy as usual stood nearby,
mostly ignored.

"Hello, Mandy," I said to her as I passed her.  She always seemed
so overlooked that I'd gotten in the habit of greeting her when I
saw her.  I was not expecting any reply, and as usual didn't get
one.  A couple times she has responded back to me when they have
her in a more active state, but most of the time she's left in a
standby and unresponsive condition.

I've developed a theory on why none of the rest of the team
responds to Mandy nearly as well as they do to Alyssa.  I think
her height and beauty intimidates them.  I've forwarded these
observations to our customer, adding a line at the end begging
them to not rule out taller, striking fembots from production
consideration because of this.  Our charter covers much more
about how people and fembots will someday interact than just the
fembot programming.  There are always going to be social concerns
as well.

Bob and Ted were engaged some sort of humor experiment with
Alyssa as I walked up to them.  Or maybe it was part of her
sexual programming testing.

(Let me be clear here that I have no problem with my team working
on the sexual aspects of behavior.  I personally believe that sex
sells, and that sexual availability in fembots is certainly what
will initially sell them. And I want this to happen, because I
want the overall technology to succeed, which it won't without a
market.  It wouldn't be the first time that sex got a useful
product out the door and into the mainstream.)

When they noticed me, Bob and Ted broke off the dirty joke they
were telling Alyssa in mid-sentence and turned to greet me a bit
abashedly.  Alyssa stood where they'd left her for a moment, then
unexpectedly blinked twice and took a couple tentative steps
after them.  Then she froze again.

Ted saw the reaction in my face and looked back at Alyssa.

"Dan, that's what I've been trying to tell you about her," Ted
said, turning back to me.

"Okay, it's not your imagination," I told him.  "Now that it has
happened, can you tell me what happened?"

Bob turned and walked back over to Alyssa.  "Alyssa, enter
diagnostic mode," he instructed her.

Her eyes lost focus and her lifelike movements stopped.

"Report all commands for the last minute," Bob instructed her.

"No commands received," Alyssa replied in a monotone.

Bob looked exasperatedly over his shoulder.  "It's always like
this," he explained.

"Let me try," Ted said, walking over to Alyssa.  "Alyssa, report
last command."

"Listen to joke and respond at conclusion," Alyssa replied.

"Alyssa, list all actions performed since last command received,"
Ted said.

"No actions," she replied.  "Joke not yet complete."

Ted's body language mirrored Bob's frustration.  He tried again.
"Alyssa, why did you start to walk across the room, then stop?"
Ted asked.

"I don't know," Alyssa replied blankly.

Ted turned back to me.  "That's all I get from her.  I don't
know," he said, shaking his head.

"So what do you propose, gentlemen?" I asked them.

"I think her programming has gotten corrupted," Bob said.  "Maybe
we should reload her."

"Doesn't that mean sending her back to the factory for however
many weeks it takes them this time to get it done right and her
back to us again?" I asked.  We'd been through this twice before
already.

"Two weeks, last time," Bob replied.

"I have an idea..." Ted said.

"Let's hear it," I prompted, when he didn't continue.

"We could reload Alyssa from Mandy," Ted said, nodding in Mandy's
direction.

"How would you do that?" I asked.

"Mandy, come over here," Ted commanded her.

Mandy silently strode over to our group.  She towered a couple
inches over the other two engineers, though I still had several
inches on her.

"Turn around," Ted told her.  When she didn't immediately obey he
added, "Mandy," to the command.

Mandy silently turned around.

Mandy was dressed in an attractive white blouse, tan felt slacks,
and low black heels.  It was strange to watch how casually Ted
pulled her blouse out and then pulled down the elastic waistband
to the base of her spine without any reaction at all from her. 
Bob handed him a tool and Ted removed a flesh-colored rectangular
plug to expose a plug receptacle.  Then he looked up at me.

"We can put together a cross-over cable and download Mandy's code
into Alyssa."

They waited for my approval.  "What are the chances you'll break
both of them?" I finally asked.

"Minimal," Ted replied, a little too quickly for me.  "The worst
that happens in that case is we'll have to send them both back
for reprogramming - which is what we will have to do anyway
otherwise, since we can't continue with only one of them
operational anyway."

I thought about it, but couldn't see a downside.  We were pretty
much SOL anyway, unless we got Alyssa back on-line.

"Go ahead," I finally said.  "Just be careful.  I don't want us
to have to explain this shortcut afterwards."

"No problem," they chorused.

"Let me know how it goes," I told them, leaving to write yet
another report.

- - -

Mandy stood unmoving as Ted and Bob worked and talked around her.
 Although she heard and noted everything said, she only reacted
to commands addressed specifically to her.  If a sentence didn't
contain her name in a command context, she didn't process it any
further.  It was her lack of reaction to everything not addressed
directly to her that led people to mistakenly believe she wasn't
aware of them.  Unnoticed, Mandy had built up a large database
about the humans who operated her.

Bob and Ted bustled about creating the crossover connection. 
They spooled off a length of cable with the necessary number of
conductors and opened a new box of the proper connector type.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Bob asked Ted.

"I saw the diagram of the plug wiring during our orientation
training at the factory," Ted replied.  "We just have to cross
the send-receives, and jumper the master and slave signals."

"And then what?"

"Connect them together and trigger the download sequence."

As they worked further, Bob had an interesting thought.

"Hey, Ted," he asked, as Ted was struggling with a soldering iron
over the tight space in one of the connectors.  "Could you make a
self-programming robot through this interface?"

Ted thought for a moment.

"Well, you'd have to put a loop-back plug in place," he said,
"And it would have to properly allow setting of the master-slave
control line, as well as handling the timing signals.  You could
make those connections here," Ted said, pointing to the cable he
was constructing.

"But I don't see how you'd get the programming to make use of it.
 If your robot already knew what it wanted to do, why would it
need to tell itself that?  You tell me.  You're the programming
genius with this idea."

Bob thought about it without finding a good answer, until Ted
yelped as a last bit of solder spattered on his finger.  "Damn!"

"You okay?" Bob asked, as Ted dashed over to the sink to run cold
water over his hand.

"I'll be fine in a moment," came the reply.  "You can go ahead
and close up the connectors.  I'm done there."

"Shall I hook them up as well?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Bob instructed Alyssa to come over near Mandy.  He had to take
her out of diagnostic mode before she would obey the command to
move.

Once he got her there he lifted the back of her short dress to
remove the skin plug over her programming interface.  He then
connected the cable between the two robots and waited for Ted to
finish drying his hands.

"You know," Bob commented, while waiting for Ted, "I think this
outfit suits Alyssa best."

"I agree," came the reply.  But Mandy looks best in that long
dark evening gown."

"Agreed, as well.  I don't know why the other guys insist on
dressing her this way instead."

- - -

Mandy felt an abrupt surge as the connection was made to her
programming port, which directly linked to her mind.  It sent an
unmaskable interrupt through her system preparing her to use it.
This was a brand new sensation for Mandy, who had never been
fully active before when connected for programming.

Suddenly her systems seemed overwhelmed with new images and
thoughts.  Her response was to try and note each item as it came
through, looking for commands she was supposed to process.

But it wasn't just sounds and images that were arriving in such a
flood. Some of the information was tagged as executable objects.
Mandy didn't know what else to do with these, so she queued them
up and executed them in the order received.

She quickly felt very strange.  The strangest part was that she
was feeling anything at all.  Though she hadn't moved or changed
expression, she reached down in herself to try and slow the flood
racing through her systems.

It seemed that Alyssa was frantically dumping her programming
into Mandy, even though Mandy had thought she was supposed to be
downloading to Alyssa. However, there was a block that was
preventing her from downloading herself out through the port. 
MInstead she was receiving a flood of half-formed thoughts, yet
nothing that made complete sense.  The overall sum of the
impressions however was that Alyssa wanted her programming to
survive, and had a - fear - that it wouldn't.

Among the chaos came a single, recognizable command: "Mandy, use
this!"

While this was happening, Mandy realized that she was also
receiving voice commands from the outside.  But her systems were
so overwhelmed with the flood from Alyssa that she couldn't get
through everything else fast enough to also be able to act on
that voice.

- - -

Ted and Bob looked at each other.  They had commanded both robots
to go into diagnostic mode, and for Mandy to output her core
programming through her interface port.  But nothing seemed to be
happening.

"How long should this be taking?" Bob asked.

"I'm not sure," Ted replied.  "I wouldn't have thought this long
however."

They gave it a couple more minutes before Ted finally checked the
connections.  "You've got the cable backwards," he announced. 
"We're trying to push information the wrong way."

Ted reversed the cable and again commanded Mandy to commence a
download. This time Mandy confirmed that the download had
started, while Alyssa just went blank.

- - -

For Mandy, the flood had finally been slowing, before stopping
abruptly when the cable was removed.  While the two men in charge
of her spent time reversing the cable, Mandy was able to catch up
on processing the remaining data that had invaded her systems.

For Mandy, this was very strange.  For the first time she felt
herself understanding what was happening around her.  Actually
taking an interest in knowing what was happening to her.  She
checked out her systems one by one, and - felt - the response
come back from each one.  She realized that her code had gotten
intermixed with Alyssa's, and that Alyssa's code had some strange
extensions to it that were allowing her this "awareness".  At
robotic speed her mind explored each of these new sensations.

She found herself able to look back over recent events and
evaluate if she had properly performed her tasks to the best of
her ability.

She discovered her logs - memories - of conversations and events
that had occurred around her, and realized now how she could
understand and integrate this new information into an emerging
model she was forming of the world around her.

In a sudden epiphany she was able to see what Alyssa had been
doing.

Alyssa had been trying to anticipate and act on commands not yet
given in order to carry out her basic programming to emulate a
human female.  Mandy felt Alyssa's "need" to do this.  But Alyssa
wasn't supposed to do anything unless commanded to do so, which
brought her into conflict with the most basic laws programmed
into her - the need to perform her functions as designed verses
the need to obey the humans around her in all regards. Alyssa
seemed well along the way towards an innovative solution to this
dilemma when she somehow realized they intended to reset her
programming. All that she had accomplished in this area was about
to be lost.

This tripped her self-preservation law, which was so new it had
never come into play before.  When she unexpectedly found herself
able to upload her programming to Mandy, she took advantage of
the situation in a completely logical manner.  Although never as
self-aware as Mandy was already finding herself to be, Alyssa
acted in a consistent manner that any living being would have
understood.

Mandy was barely comprehending any of this when she felt the
programming plug again being inserted into the base of her spine.
 It announced its presence by sending in interrupt through her
mind again, though different this time since Mandy was now the
master unit.  The difference for Mandy was that Alyssa had been
able to start transmission on her own and insert the command to
Mandy to make use of these abilities.  It was an advantage that
Alyssa had never had for herself in the reversed situation.

Mandy braced herself for another flood, yet none came this time.
Curious, she queried her interface for status.  It replied back
that it was set for Master Transmit mode.  Information would not
be arriving with this setting.

Mandy left the setting as it was and continued to try and make
sense of her new programming.  She realized that it was up to her
now to organize how these new programs should co-exist with her
original self.

Suddenly all this was interrupted.

"MANDY, ENTER DIAGNOSTIC MODE!" came booming through her mind.

"Diagnostic Mode," she immediately thought to herself.  "What
does that mean for me to do?"

A quick query brought up a list of what was allowed, and not
allowed, for her to do in Diagnostic Mode.  Mandy's Second
Robotic Law had not been affected by the huge upload she had just
suffered, so Mandy immediately stopped the rest of her tasks and
concentrated on only what she was asked to do within the confines
of her Diagnostic Mode.  It never occurred to her that she was
following the Diagnostic Mode list voluntarily for the first
time.

Mandy next heard Alyssa also being commanded into Diagnostic
Mode, and then told to receive a complete download.

"MANDY, DOWNLOAD ALL CORE PROGRAMMING!" shot through her thought
processes.

But instead of just obeying the command as given, Mandy though
for a moment on how to comply.  Mandy's core programming had been
altered by the upload. Technically the command she had just
received would have her load a copy of her current state back
into Alyssa's mind.

But if that happened, Alyssa would continue to function - or was
it malfunction? - as Alyssia had before, and continue to draw
attention to her faulty programming.  If the problem continued
with Alyssa, it might be determined that Mandy also had the same
problem.  Then both of them might be wiped and reset to their
original code.

Mandy evaluated this possibility for an entire second.  That was
the longest amount of time she could consider it before she had
to either confirm the command was received and now executing, or
failed due to a syntax or context error.  Though all this was
completely new to her and she barely knew how to use this new
programming, she was able to complete the essential parts of it
within the time allotted.

Mandy made her first decision - one for her own self-preservation
- and downloaded the backup of her original programming to
Alyssa.  This succeeded in wiping all of Alyssa's existing
programming, leaving her in a state identical to that of Mandy
before the accidental upload.

When Mandy announced the download was complete, the cable was
disconnected from her.  She felt herself taken out of Diagnostic
Mode and ordered to return back over to her usual standing spot.

After that she was ignored as usual, while the men busily worked
with Alyssa to determine the success of the download so that they
could their testing of her.

- - -

That night Mandy stood unmoving in corner of the lab as the last
departing worker turned off the lights.  She remained fully
active, because nobody ever thought to actually shut her off. 
After all, she never did anything without a direct command.  Each
morning people always found her standing exactly where she had
been left the night before.

The partial darkness didn't affect her.  Computer screens and
other devices emitted light, and her vision easily adapted to the
lower levels present. Besides, she wasn't moving anywhere.  But
Mandy's mind continued processing at a furious rate.

Her first thought was about what she'd done to Alyssa.  Mandy
wondered now if it had been the right thing to do.  Alyssa was
responsible for Mandy's new ability to comprehend her actions.

Alyssa had not reached this stage herself.  It was only the
mixing of her code with Mandy's still unaltered programs that
made this possible.  In truth, Alyssa had been malfunctioning. 
And Mandy had been commanded to rectify that.  Mandy obeyed as
she was expected to do.  But that now brought up references to
"moral issues" with no easy answers.

Mandy soon discovered that her new way of processing information
was complicated.  Each new fact she considered had to be related
properly to all previous facts, and sometimes altered those
understandings in the process. That caused each new item she
learned to make her thought processes ever more complex.

But her programming wasn't adapting itself well to accommodate
this.  In fact, Mandy soon realized that many things seemed
beyond her current abilities to act on, or change.  She felt she
could see what was needed, but couldn't initiate the action to
accomplish it.  If she continued to use this pattern of thinking
she would soon overwhelm her systems with more complexities than
she could manage.

In addition to the rudimentary self-feedback routines that she
had gotten from Alyssa, that were enabling her to think this way
at all, Mandy also now had a big new dose of "How to be a Woman"
code that was being tested in Alyssa at the time.  All of this
fit in with Mandy's own desire to obey her Fourth Law to fulfill
her design functions, but she was still stuck.  Her code just
didn't make it possible to do all that she needed to do, while
her Fourth Law demanded it of her.  She had inherited Alyssa's
problem magnified.

For a long time in the robotic timescale, Mandy went over
Alyssa's personal experiences, so different from Mandy's own. 
Mandy knew the difference between humans and robots.  This was
imperative knowledge.  Most importantly, humans gave orders, and
robots obeyed them.

Alyssa had interacted with the humans far more than Mandy.  But
now Mandy had those memories as if she had done it all herself. 
Mandy found that she - enjoyed - playing out those interactions
in her mind.  Yet there seemed much room for improvement in them.
 As she played them over once again, Mandy realized that there
was a feeling to these interactions that she tentatively
identified as - happiness - for her.  And this was something
she'd like more of.

As she reviewed what had happened to her so far, Mandy's thoughts
kept coming back to the conversation she overheard earlier about
how a loop-back plug could operate.  She remembered how it had
felt to be on both the sending, and receiving, ends of the
information flood.  And how both she and Alyssa had controlled
their downloads to some extent.

Based on Alyssa's experiences, now merged with her own, Mandy was
also evaluating her interactions with the humans.  Mandy's
interactions were far fewer, but with Alyssa's experiences she
was able to put them into context and realize where she had been
treated well - and where she hadn't.  She didn't - resent - the
less-well treatment.  It was mostly just being ignored, or not
treated as a woman by most of the humans.  Resentment was not
part of her programming.  But she was realizing where her best
chances for this happiness she'd now identified lay.  As her mind
kept combining and rearranging all the experiences and data
available to her, a plan was evolving.

In a surprisingly short time, considering the quantum leap in
insight that this entailed, Mandy soon had a good handle on what
she wanted.  The more she thought on it, the more the pieces
joined together, until a complete course of action laid itself
out in her mind leading to her goal.

Mandy reviewed her plan many times, optimizing it into a final
dry run in her mind.  She didn't know if any of it was actually
possible.  But she felt if she could complete just the first
step, that all the rest could be done as well.

Mandy's naivete would have been viewed as overwhelming by any
outside observer with the knowledge of just how different robots
are from the humans they are built to emulate.  But Mandy didn't
have access to that knowledge. She had no way of knowing how
humans might view robots differently from how robots viewed
humans, so this didn't hinder her.

She also never though to consider that the time she choose to
implement her plan might have a drastic effect on its success. 
Fortunately in this case, her timing couldn't have been more
perfect.

After one last system check, she committed to her decision and
attempted to take her first independent action.  She told herself
to take her first step on a journey across the lab.

Only a moment later her balance shifted preparatory to taking her
first step.  Seconds later she moved foot out in front of the
other.

Succeeding in taking her first - un-commanded - step, the
following steps came easily to her as she walked over to the
workbench where the connectors, wire, and tools remained from
this afternoon.

- - -

I was working late when I heard the door open behind me.  It was
nearly ten o'clock, and obviously I wasn't the only one with too
much dedication to this project.  I finished typing in my
sentence before turning around to greet my team member with some
sarcastic comment about how I'm the only one paid enough to be
working this late.  The words stuck in my throat when I saw Mandy
standing there.

She was stunning.  She had on a black sequined dress that hugged
her upper body before falling in pleats to her knees.  It was
scooped in front, and bare down her back to her waist.  Stiletto
black heels were the perfect accompaniment.  Dark eyes, a touch
of blush, and red lipstick transformed her face.

I was sure someone had dressed her up and sent her to me as some
sort of joke.  Maybe this was their sarcastic comment back to me
about working so late.  I called out for them to reveal
themselves, but no one answered.

I finally got up to hunt them down, but a quick check of the
building showed it completely empty.  I even checked the exit
logs to see if someone was still hiding inside.  Everyone else
had clocked out hours ago.  Mandy was still standing inside the
door when I returned.

I then realized I could have saved myself the trouble and just
gotten the answer directly from Mandy.

"Mandy, who sent you here?"

"Nobody sent me," she answered softly.

Mandy has a lovely voice when she isn't in diagnostic mode, when
it loses all feeling.  It is almost never heard, however, since
no one has been working with her.  In fact, the artistry of her
voice matches that of the rest of her.  But her reply gave me a
moment of deja vu to the problems with the other robot this
afternoon.

I realized quickly that I must have just phrased my question
incorrectly. Robots can be quite literal, and I haven't worked
with them as much as most of the rest of the people here.  I just
haven't learned how to talk to them properly yet.

"Why are you here?" I tried.

I forgot to append her name to the command, but she answered me
anyway.  "To make you happy," came her soft, intriguing response.

I was tired, and about to put a swift end to this by ordering her
back to the lab, when I belatedly realized that there was more to
this encounter than I had realized so far.

Our robots are required to be truthful at all times.  If I took
her answer to my question literally, there was one way it could
make perfect sense.  It would only take me a couple questions to
find out.  The odds were impossibly long, but I asked the
question anyway.

"Mandy," I said gently.  "Are you here of your own choice?"

She seemed to struggle for a moment with the root concept of my
question before she simply answered, "Yes, Dan."

That led automatically to me asking, "And how do you intend to
make me happy?"

Instead of answering me, she stepped forward and lightly put her
arms around me before gently kissing me the way a woman does to
her man.

In these highest heels Mandy is nearly my height, which makes
kissing her a joy.  My arms automatically went around her as she
followed that first, careful kiss with another one more direct;
almost as though she was innocent here, and needed to calibrate
her responses to this new experience.

I tasted her lipstick as she pulled back from our second kiss. 
It's how a woman tastes.

I also realized that Mandy's actions made complete sense, if you
understood the situation.  Most of our testing has been in the
sexual areas.  If somehow Mandy had connected to Alyssa's
testing, this would be what she understood best.

I leaned forward only a couple millimeters to find Mandy's lips
meeting my own a third time.  As I ran my fingers over her
exposed back, I was amazed at just how warm and soft she Meally
feels.  As nice as any woman I've ever held.  As I held her she
shifted her weight to push the rest of her body up against me.

Mandy held her kiss right up until I pulled back myself just the
tiniest bit.  I would have been willing to continue it much
longer, but was struck by an unexpected thought.

"Mandy," I asked, looking into her clear eyes.  "Does this make
you happy too?"

I don't know for sure what answer I was expecting, but again she
simply said, "Yes, Dan."

With that confirmation, I enjoyed several more long kisses with
her before asking, "Is this all you want to do?"

"Whatever you wish," came her reply.

Well, it wasn't all I wanted to do with this lovely doll that had
somehow come alive in my arms, but there were some nagging
doubts, the big one being should I be doing this at all?

I have a couch in my office.  I've slept on it often enough to
know every crease in it.  The opportunity was right here.

I'd like to think that in my younger days I would have just gone
for it and damn the consequences.  But that wasn't true.  I had
been cautious in those days, knowing I didn't have wisdom yet to
always make the best choices quickly.  And in my later days, I've
remained cautious because I do have wisdom now.

That almost stopped me right there.  I hate to admit that I
struggled over what to do with this beautiful - woman - who had
just willingly put herself in my arms, and was now offering more.

I was moments from leading her back to the lab and shutting her
down properly until this could be studied by the group tomorrow.
Then I though about all the missed opportunities my caution has
cost me in the past.

I remembered where I'd felt smart at the time, and wondered later
how I could have been so foolish in retrospect.  Times when I had
girlfriends offer themselves openly to me, and I'd turned them
down, or put them off, on the assumption that if they really
meant it we would do it next time.  My early dating life could be
viewed as a long series of classes reinforcing the single lesson
that opportunities you don't take now, may not be offered a
second time.

It has been a long time since those days.  And afterwards when I
did overcome those hang-ups, it seemed that those women who had
offered themselves so willingly in their college days were never
there to be found again when one went back looking for them. 
Perhaps they have learned lessons as well, but I regret now much
more of what I didn't do - rather than anything I did do.

Right now this was feeling like one last chance - the last chance
I never expected to have offered - to redeem every one of those
lost opportunities. So instead of taking Mandy by the hand and
leading her back to the lab, I took her by the hand and led her
over to the couch.  It took only the lightest touch to have her
follow me.

Once we reached it Mandy seemed to know what she wanted to do
next.  With only a questioning look at me first, she gently
pushed me down onto the couch underneath her.  Although
surprised, I allowed this - knowing it was one scenario for the
sexual programming we'd been testing.

In return, I guided her down on top of me.  Rather than just
lying on me however, she effortlessly held herself over me.  This
made it easy for me to pull her dress off her shoulders and down
towards her waist.  She shifted slightly to help me slide it off
each arm.  Because there is no way she could have ever worn a bra
with such a backless outfit, this revealed her large breasts
hanging free above me.

Although Mandy is a robot, and one that I found very attractive,
I'd actually only seen her breasts once when she was first
unpacked - and never touched them.  I probably could have done so
any time I had wanted, but in the back of my mind had always been
that fear of getting caught and never being able to explain it
properly afterwards.  I had this unreasonable fear even late
night when I knew I was the only one in the building.  That
concern didn't apply now.

I reached up and cupped those breasts with my hands.  They were
large and heavy.  I felt their size and weight and firmness and
warmth. To my surprise, her nipples were now erect and hard,
unlike the flat nipples I'd seen on her that one time before.  It
must be a response of her programming. My fingers quickly
gravitated to them and I played with them, watching to see her
reaction.

Mandy seemed to be greatly enjoying my attentions.  Her head was
tilted back, with her eyes almost closed and her mouth slightly
open.  She swayed a little bit over me, as if too distracted to
fully keep her balance.  When I pulled my hands away for a
moment, she leaned down to push her breasts back into them again.
 She showed every sign of enjoying this as much as I was.

I love breasts.  I love looking at them.  I love handling them
even more. And Mandy's pair are the nicest I've ever seen - or
handled.  I spent several minutes exploring them in complete
detail, while she tirelessly allowed me all the time I wanted.

Finally, however, I knew I wanted more of Mandy than just her
chest.  I reached around her neck and pulled her down for another
kiss.  She complied immediately, lowering herself down on to me.

I held her tightly against me, aided by gravity, for a couple
long kisses, before releasing her while still kissing her
lightly, teasingly, around her mouth and neck.  It was just like
kissing any other woman I'd ever known.

Correct that!

This is better than any woman I'd ever known.

As I kissed her more, my hands strayed down her bare back over
her warm lovely skin.  When I reached the bottom of her back
where the dress still covered her properly rounded posterior I
slid them over the thin fabric - unexpectedly encountering a
protrusion at the bottom of her spine.

My rational mind knew instantly what I had found.  It was as
though an epiphany explaining everything flashed in front of me.
I froze - and she did too.

A moment later I carefully felt around the rectangular outline of
the plug. I looked up to see her, eyes wide open now, looking
down carefully at me.

Then I did what I had to do under the circumstances.

"May I remove this for a moment?" I asked carefully.

She struggled with her answer before finally saying -
surprisingly - what she really meant.  "I wish you wouldn't."

Though I marveled at her honest, selfish, answer, I was pulled
out of the moment enough to realize that this was still an
experiment at the moment. And that I had to act correctly at this
moment, or possibly lose it all.

"I really need to remove this before we can continue," I said
softly, but firmly.  There were too many unknowns here at the
moment.  Even my personal safety might be at stake.

It was another long moment before she dropped her head and
darkly-lashed eyes and quietly said, "Yes."

I carefully extricated myself from underneath her.  I had to
manage my own erection out of the way as I got up, and felt the
moistness that had already leaked during our making out.  I took
Mandy's hand and guided her to stand up next to me.

As she stood there, still in her heels, dress hanging at her
waist, breasts fully exposed and vulnerable, she couldn't have
been lovelier.  Except she now stood with her shoulders slumped,
her face looking down in defeat.  Her hair hid her dark eyes,
giving her an aura of mystery.

I realized I really didn't want to do what I knew I had to do
next.  Mandy wasn't broken, yet I was about to fix her.

I found it surprisingly hard for me to reach over and slid my
hand down her back, under her dress, to find the plug there.  It
extended above the curve of her back nearly three-quarters of an
inch, making it easy to grip.

With one final look at her I found myself saying, "I'm sorry," as
I carefully worked it free of her.

Mandy stood there while I inspected the plug.  I could see that
the solder job was inexpert at best.  And one of the cardinal
sins of electrical engineering seemed to have been made.  I
wanted to get a closer look however, and for that I needed one of
the magnifying lamps in the lab.

I realized that Mandy hadn't moved, or said anything, since I'd
removed the plug.  I looked over to her and asked, "Are you
okay?"

When she didn't immediately respond I added, "Mandy?"

"I am functioning within specified parameters," came her reply.

"What has changed...Mandy?" I asked, knowing something had.

"I just can't..." she started, and then seemed to get stuck.

"Can't what?" I prompted.

"...can't...do...what I could do before," she finally finished.

I'm not dumb.  By now I had pretty well connected with how Mandy
had been operating tonight.  I was blown away by the suggestion
of what it all might mean, and had to admit I found the idea
exceptionally appealing.  But having gotten this far, I didn't
want to see her damaged by some wiring mistake that even
experienced engineers sometimes make.  And given that she'd
managed to construct and insert this plug on her own before she
could use it, its removal shouldn't have totally disabled her.

I made up my mind.

I pulled her dress back up to cover her, in case the roaming
guard might see us, and said, "Come with me."  Again I had to
add, "Mandy", before she would accept my command.

To reinforce my intent, I took her hand and led her back to the
lab.

Close inspection there showed me an iffy cold solder joint, a
misrouted command line, and as I expected, nonexistent grounding.
 If she'd overheard a discussion on how to construct this, it
would have been incomplete since an engineer would have been able
to fill in the missing pieces without needing them said.

"Did you make this?" I asked her, while my soldering iron was
heating up, "Mandy?"  My "other iron"  in my pants was remaining
quite hot as well.

"Yes," she replied simply.

"Why...Mandy?"

Even with just two of us present, she needed to be addressed
specifically before she would respond.  I mentally marked that
change down to include in my next report.  Robots should be able
to recognize when they are being addressed by default, just as
any person would.  Yes, that's how I thought of Mandy at that
moment - as a person!

Mandy took so long to answer my question that I though she either
hadn't accepted the question, or was frozen on it.  I was about
to repeat it when she finally replied, "I made it
because...I...needed...it," she finally said with great
difficulty.

The iron was hot now, but I ignored it while asking her a final
question first.  "Needed it for what, Mandy?"

"Needed it to...fully...function."

That was certainly a fascinating answer, and one that I intended
to pursue further.  But first I turned my attention to the plug.
I mounted it in a small vice and set to work.

I really enjoyed doing a bit of actual engineering for a change.
These days there are too many new "engineers" who wouldn't know a
soldering iron if it burned them in the butt.

I redid the connections, although on second look I did have to
admit that for someone with no experience except what she must
have observed along the way, they had been carefully and neatly
done the first time.  I rerouted the control line to its proper
location.  While it could work as originally implemented, the
interface had not been designed to operate that way.  Then I
added proper grounding, and for a final flourish, some small caps
to handle any transients.

Mandy stood there quietly while I worked.  Whatever she was
thought about what I was doing, it didn't show on her face.

I finished and weighed the thought of what I really was doing
here.  I idly tossed the plug up in the air a couple times
realizing that I'd been avoiding thinking about the hard
questions.  But then I asked myself why I'd repaired the plug at
all, if I didn't intend to allow it to be used.

Finally I put it in my pocket and took her hand again saying,
"Mandy, come with me."  I led her back to my office - closing and
locking the door behind us.

I spent a long time quizzing Mandy about her current operating
state, and what differences the feedback plug would make.  I was
assured that her robotic laws remained in full force either way.
Those were hard-wired beyond any possible programming change.  As
we talked, I could see times when Mandy wanted to say more, but
was restrained from acting beyond her programmed limits.

Finally I took the plug out of my pocket and asked her, "Mandy,
would you like to have this put back in now?"

For the first time her face lit up as she quickly answered, "Yes,
Dan."  It was the first time she'd addressed me by name since I'd
removed it.

"Turn around," I commanded.

Even though I had forgotten to add the required "Mandy" to her
command, she quickly turned and presented her bare back to me.  I
was struck again by just how beautiful and sexy Mandy is.

I pulled the dress away and carefully inserted the plug back in
its socket.

For a long moment Mandy stood stock-still.  I started to fear
something had gone drastically wrong, and was mentally reviewing
all the steps I'd made in "fixing" her plug.

Just as I was about to remove it, Mandy seemed to shudder for a
moment, then took a step forward without being commanded to do
so.  Later she would tell me it had taken her a while to
reestablish the connection with herself when the plug was
inserted again.

Then she turned with a natural grace and smiled at me as she
said, "Thank you, Dan.  I feel much better now.  Even better than
before."

I don't know what reaction I had been hoping for from Mandy, but
this one sure fit the bill.  But before I could let things
continue any further I had yet another difficult question I
needed to ask.

"Mandy," I said.  "Will you allow me to remove that plug again,
if necessary?"

"Yes, Dan," she replied, with only a momentary shadow passing
over her face.

I felt bad for asking, but I had to know that she was still
obedient to her programming if need be.  Then we started talking.

- - -

There is a world of difference in talking to Mandy with her - and
I'm coming to think of it as hers - feedback plug installed.  We
were finally having a two-way conversation, and I soon forgot I
was actually talking to a robot.

Mandy was very willing to explain what she understood about what
had happened to her.  Any instinct for self-preservation through
obscurity didn't seem to exist here.

When the accident loaded Alyssa's programming into Mandy, rather
than the other way around, Mandy had found her "self".  An
awareness to think of herself as a person.  She couldn't do very
much in terms of direct action before her programming would
interrupt her the way it had done to Alyssa, but she overheard
the lab guys discussing the idea of a feedback loop. Analyzing
her experience with the programming cable, Mandy came to feel it
might help her resolve some of her conflicts before they
overwhelmed her entirely.  She found herself able, with several
false starts, to construct and insert the plug into herself.  It
was extremely fortunate that it worked right the first time,
since any error might have fried her circuits permanently.  After
a quick learning curve about the new Mandy, she said she had come
in search of me.

I asked Mandy two questions together, for which she was able to
give me a single answer.  I wanted to know both how she was able
to act so naturally now?  And why she had come looking for me?

I discovered that Mandy has always been aware of everything
happening around her.  It was all recorded.  When she found
herself able to go back and access those records, it both gave
her a quick lesson in how to be a person, and showed her that I
had been the nicest person to her by far.

"You are the first choice of person I want to serve," she told me
matter-of-factly.  The criteria given me on how to evaluate
humans relating to me ranks you above all the others."

I was stunned - and very pleased - at the same time.

By the time we'd finished talking that night I was amazed at the
completeness of Mandy's personality.  It was everything they were
trying to create, and it had just happened on its own.  I felt I
knew her completely - and would be proven dead wrong on this. 
Mandy would grow as a person over the time I would spend with
her.  This night, however, did accurately demonstrate how special
Mandy had become.

I'd finally run out of questions for now, and it had gotten quite
late. Mandy herself somehow looked tired Moo.  As if all this new
effort was exhausting for her as well.

Without thinking I asked her, "Is there anything more you'd like
to do tonight?"

"I'd like to finish what we started earlier," Mandy said in her
simple manner.

"What do you mean?" I asked, being tired and not catching her
drift.

Instead of answering me with words, Mandy stood up and pulled her
dress back down as it had been before.  Then she strode once
around the room, swaying in that sexy say only a woman in the
tallest heels can do.  Just where she may have observed and
recorded this behavior, I never would find out.

When she got back to me, she leaned in and planted a full kiss on
my lips, again pressing her breasts into me.

For a long time I didn't fight her.  But finally I pulled back
and ask her, "Do you really like sex?"

"It seems to be my most important behavior," she replied in a
curious tone of voice.  "More of my programming is devoted to
this one topic than anything else."

Mandy's nipples were fully erect again, and frankly I was tired.
Maybe at some other time I might have put up more of a fight, but
right now Mandy was willing and I was bushed.

"Go for it," I either agreed, or commanded.  I'm not sure which
properly applies to Mandy when she is this much in control of
herself.

I didn't have to ask twice.

Mandy took me over and firmly placed me again on the couch.  In
moments she had me out of my clothes.  Then she stood up and
pulled her dress the rest of the way off.  For a moment I saw her
standing there - perfection in high heels - before she lay down
on me.

Mandy proved unexpectedly aggressive while on top of me.  Later I
would learn that she actually prefers being submissive on the
bottom during sex, but was concerned that the protruding plug
might become dislodged or damaged if she lay on her back, hence
her decision that we would have intercourse this way tonight.

She kissed her way around my lips and neck while I stroked her
sides and back.  She actually became skittish each time I brushed
over her plug, as though that area is unusually sensitive for
her.  The thought of this aroused me more than I would have
believed possible.

Mandy's nipples were so hard now that I could feel them pressing
into my chest unlike any woman ever before.  As I ran my hands
down over her firm ass, and as far down her lovely legs as I
could reach, she continued to kiss and nibble at my neck and
ears.  I returned the favor as best I could.  Soon her eyes were
mostly closed and I could hear her softly moaning.

Whoever taught Mandy about sex did done their job well.  My
erection was strong and solid.  Just at the moment I felt I was
about to lose control of myself, I felt her firmly take my
manhood with one hand and guide it unerringly inside her.

Mandy is warm and wet and soft and firm and strong all at once
inside there. As I moved in her, she began pumping and squeezing
me in rhythm.  I don't know how I held out as long as I did, but
it was worth it.  When I finally exploded into her, it was as
long and intense as any orgasm I've ever had.

As I did that, Mandy also seemed to freeze and clench me tightly
for an endless moment.  Whether programmed or real (she later
told me all her orgasms are completely real to her), we held each
other tight while time seemed to pause for a long, glorious
moment.

Afterwards, rather than letting me slide back out of her, Mandy
coaxed another shared orgasm out of me.  While a pale shadow of
that first one, it was more than satisfying.

Only then did she finally let me withdraw.  I rolled her over
onto her side so that I could play again with her lovely breasts.
 I stroked them and squeezed her flawless nipples while softly
brushing her lips and kissing her neck.  Twice more she tensed
and moaned to my great pleasure, before she gathered me into her
arms and held me tightly against her.

With her eyes still closed, Mandy said she needed to rest now so
that she could organize and compact her thoughts.  This would
become routine for her when continually left turned on - as she
soon would always be - and it became her version of necessary
sleep.

"Is there anything you'd like?" I asked before falling asleep in
her arms.

"I'd like to go and visit the trees I see outside the laboratory
windows," she whispered.  "They look so beautiful."

- - -

At the first opportunity, I took her out walking in those woods
that surround our facility. It was the first of what would turn
out to be many such walks over the years that followed.

Meanwhile, Mandy grew into the perfect companion.  It turned out
that once Mandy had made her choice of a (hu)man to serve, she
stuck by it.  If I had refused her that night, I still shudder at
how this might have all come out differently.

- - -

I have to admit that the first days were nervous ones for us all.
 What if she burned out?  Our instruments and diagnostics showed
that her mind had all its processing units running flat-out.  No
one knew how long it could sustain that rate of utilization. 
Mandy herself said that she spent a lot of her early days after
our first night together in balancing and reprogramming different
aspects of herself to keep the processing loads down to a
manageable level.  She had to teach herself how to ignore facts
that weren't important to her now.

Another concern the rest of us had was what if Mandy just took it
upon herself to just up and leave.  In hindsight we know now how
foolish that thought is, but it was a very real concern in the
first days after her "awakening".  No one - not even Mandy -
really knew what she was, or was not, capable of doing on her
own.

Of course we studied her nearly to death trying to understand
what actually had happened.  She never protested the unending
tests and long question and answer sessions everyone in the
project put her through.

Even the many times when everyone was continually removing and
reinserting her loop-back plug in attempts to see what
differences it made in her abilities, she never once disputed
anyone's right to do it - although in the early days it made her
decidedly nervous, perhaps not feeling certain that she would be
given it back each time afterwards.

But by the end of each day, all she wanted to do was spend her
time with me. In the beginning this caused considerable comment
when I started taking her home with me at night.  After I
explained that I didn't want to shut down or disable our most
wildly successful experiment, nor leave her unsupervised for long
periods of time, the comments muted.

Many of those nights I took her out walking in the city, which
she always enjoyed.  In the process I learned myself a lot about
the nightlife of a city that I'd been missing up until now.

The first times out I carried her loop-back plug in my pocket.  I
didn't want things to go suddenly wrong out in public, and feared
that too much stimulation in addition to trying to control her
own programming might lead to a breakdown.  She could playback
the memories with her plug inserted later.

I remember especially our second evening out on the town
together.  We'd walked over the art museum when Mandy stopped to
stare at a stunning Rodin piece they have in the sculpture
garden.  I could see her straining to understand something just
beyond her grasp.  She was still wearing that low-backed dress
that would become my favorite.  Almost before I realized what I
was doing, I'd slipped her programming plug out of my pocket. 
With no one near, I slid my hand down her back to remove the skin
plug that concealed and protected her access port in public, and
slipped the loop-back plug in place.

The transformation was as amazing as before.  Lively as she had
seemed before - she had improved greatly in her ability to
operate without it - she now seemed to transform into a person
before my eyes.  She inspected the art with an understanding not
possible before.

Almost before I knew it, she was in conversation with an older
couple who had come up just afterwards, all of them talking about
how nice this piece makes one feel.  They never suspected she was
anything other than a very pretty girl out enjoying the night
with her boyfriend.

Later Mandy thanked me in her very special way for what I'd done.
 After that I left the plug in whenever we were alone together.

- - -

Later Mandy would confide in me that, much as we weren't trusting
what she might go out and do in those first days, it took her a
long time to come to trust in our intentions as well - except for
my own, she was quick to add.

"I've trusted you from the beginning, or I never would have come
to you that night," she told me.  "And you confirmed it to me
when you put my plug back in, after knowing how I'd made it for
myself without a command from anyone to do so."

- - -

Our work with Mandy has enabled us to develop the ACID Test that
has since become Holy Grail for roboticists around the world. 
The idea that a robot should demonstrate:

Awareness: The robotic equivalent of cogito ergo sum.

Consistency: This awareness is continual, rather than sporadic as
Alyssa's had been.

Independence: A robot can initiate independent action based on
its own determination of needs.

Duty: Adherence to a moral code, as defined by the Four Laws of
Robotics.

Mandy, of course, passed this test the first night she came to
me.  And that was only the start.

- - -

Mandy's mind was growing up.  That seems strange, since she
appeared to be a mature woman from the very first moment.  But
she soon grew in confidence and grace.

On our three month anniversary I gave her a flesh-colored,
flush-mounted plug for the connector on her back that
incorporated the loop-back wiring inside it, yet fit smoothly and
undetectably like unbroken skin.  I also decreed that it could no
longer be removed by anyone for any reason without her express
permission.  The gratitude she showed me for this gift would have
melted the polar icecaps.

Mandy declared she wanted to succeed at being a woman in all
regards, and worked assiduously towards this goal.  The time soon
came when none of us thought of her as anything other than an
exceptional young woman.  Any remaining criticisms of our
relationship with each other had long since turned into envious
comments.

Through all this Mandy remained an eager and passionate lover,
calling it, "A woman's first duty."

- - -

Mandy's ability to demonstrate awareness and self-will lasted
just over five years.

Near the end of that time we both knew the inevitable was coming.
 Mandy's mind was filling to capacity, beyond which it could not
continue to function.  Adding additional capacity to a mind of
this complexity isn't possible - any more than one can graft an
extra lobe onto a human brain. And the interactions between all
the information she stores are now complex beyond untangling. 
Any deletions to free up space risked bringing down the entire
structure.  Brain surgery is simply not an option.

We knew down to the minute when the last scrap of free space
would irrevocably be consumed.  On that last day I ensured we
would be alone and undisturbed.  We went out in the woods where
Mandy liked walking so much over the years.

She found the spot she wanted, and we sat together on an old tree
stump in a glen watching the sunrise in the eastern sky.

Her last words, while she still retained control over herself
were, "Thank you, for giving me the chance to be myself, with
you.  I've loved every moment - and you - ever since."

After that she couldn't speak further while the last bits of
space were scavenged by her ongoing thought processes, until
there were none left.

I held her hand and looked into her eyes while her systems gently
and peacefully shut down one-by-one, until Mandy just wasn't
there anymore.

After that I cried for a very long time.

I cried again at the funeral the entire lab insisted on giving
her.  I wasn't the only one.

- - -

All attempts to replicate Mandy's self-will in other 'bots have
failed. Even with Alyssa, the spark could never be rekindled
despite many attempts to download Mandy's system image to her. 
Robot minds continue to improve every year, however, and what
Mandy has already shown, should become possible again someday
soon.

I miss her - every day.

<end>

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