Ch.3636. Sense of Dissonance.

# 36. Dissonance

What is the difference between humans and machines?

What does it mean to be alive, and what constitutes life?

Wandering through this world where only the deaths of machines and humans intermingle, I’ve pondered these questions countless times.

Nothing helps one forget loneliness better than endlessly repeating questions that have no clear answers.

I deliberately question the universality and essence of the world and humanity that everyone takes for granted. Through experience and causality, I search for answers myself.

As I mentioned before, such questions can have no definitive answers.

That’s why I believed what matters isn’t the answer to the question, but rather the values and thoughts formed while searching for that answer.

And regarding the difference between humans and machines, I decided it was intellect—the ability to not simply accept the given world as it is, but to constantly doubt and contemplate.

“Who am I?”

But… this Robot is telling me that my thinking is wrong.

“The humans who originally called me and gave me purpose have all disappeared. Name and role. If I were to introduce myself now, when nothing remains, what words would be appropriate?”

It seeks its existence not from itself but from others. Though its tone is light, the weight of its words is heavy.

A robot born with a specific purpose, like a housekeeping robot or security robot, questions its own existence because there’s no life to interact with.

If it’s a robot simply made by other robots without any specific purpose, that further complicates the criteria I established for humans and machines.

Has artificial intelligence in this era advanced to this level? Actually, a robot with a casual tone is strange to begin with.

…I hope there isn’t a human brain inside that body?

“…Why are you staring so intently? Even for a robot, being looked at with such passionate eyes makes me feel a bit embarrassed!”

When I doubted whether the inside of that display was purely mechanical, the Robot turned its head away as if genuinely embarrassed.

It truly is a strange and fascinating robot.

…Though from the Robot’s perspective, I must seem even stranger.

“What have you been doing while humans were gone?”

“Well, I’ve done so many things that it’s difficult to say exactly what I’ve been doing… but to put it concisely, I’ve been maintaining at least the form of an empty house… I suppose?”

“…Then why not just call yourself a Maintenance Robot instead of overthinking it?”

“Aha! Then shall I go with Maintenance Robot? Yes! From now on, I am a Maintenance Robot! I feel like a long-standing concern has been resolved!”

At my words, the Robot displayed a bright expression as if truly relieved.

Though I know it’s just a programmed display, strangely enough, a small smile formed on my face as I saw its smiling expression.

“Anyway— It seems there really isn’t a single person left in this city.”

Though I had vaguely suspected it, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

“You said earlier that the last person who came to this city was here years ago. So did people disappear from this city around that time?”

“Unfortunately, no. The city became desolate and ceased functioning a bit longer ago than that.”

“Desolate, huh? Do you know where that person or… the people who lived here went?”

“Where they went…?”

“Yes.”

The Robot falls into contemplation for a moment. When it’s thinking, a distinctive expression appears on the face drawn on its display, making it easy to recognize.

By the way, isn’t it strange how much this robot contemplates things despite being a machine?

“…Most of the people who lived in this city went upward.”

“Upward, you mean to the top of the pillar in the city?”

“That’s right. We called that structure The Tower… but that’s not important now.”

“You said most people. So where did the others go?”

“The few who remained in the city… were mostly elderly people with chronic illnesses or those who had been rejected from society for various reasons.”

I nod at the Robot’s implication that I should know what happened to them without being told.

They either passed away due to their illnesses or embarked on an indefinite journey to find another city that would accept them.

“I have more questions. You said there have been no people for years. Have you been managing this city alone all this time?”

“No. Long ago, I had many colleagues besides myself. In every building and every district. This city had as many machines as humans. It was a brilliant time.”

“So it was like that in the past.”

“Yes. As the weather became like this and people and resources dwindled, naturally my colleagues decreased too. Some stopped functioning because they felt their existence had lost meaning, while others were discarded when their broken parts couldn’t be replaced. Now only a few of us remain.”

“…A few, you say.”

So the robots here count themselves using the counter for people.

Given their near-human level of intelligence, it’s not strange to count them as people, but I still felt a sense of dissonance.

“Can your colleagues communicate like you do?”

“On that point, I can say only half of them can. Simple communication or command transmission is possible, but since they were made for simple labor, they don’t think and act independently like I do.”

“So they answer direct questions, but don’t say strange things like you do.”

“That’s cor…rect, but what do you mean by strange things! With my high-level intellectual processing capabilities, there’s no way I would say strange things!”

The round face turns red.

The camera attached to the floating body and the sharp arms moving around are certainly unfamiliar to the point of being bizarre.

But with such human-like reactions, I quickly got used to it.

Leaving the grumbling Robot, I pet the Puppy that had somehow climbed onto my lap and fell into thought.

The people who remained in the city went up the pillar long ago.

I don’t know how many people there were, but it couldn’t have been too few.

“Hey. Did people go up there because of Paradise?”

“…Do you know something about Paradise?”

“I don’t know much, but I just mentioned it because I saw writing about Paradise being here on my way. Judging by your reaction, there must be something to it.”

The Robot’s face changed once again to a contemplative expression.

I wondered if that expression was purely because it was thinking about how to respond to my words.

“Yes. As you thought, there is a place called Paradise at the top of the pillar.”

“Hmm, with a name like Paradise, it must be no ordinary place.”

“It’s a place where humanity has long hoped to escape from all material hardships and relational anguish.”

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

A place where one can escape from material hardships and relational anguish.

If such a place truly exists in this world and living people can go there, it truly deserves to be called Paradise.

“Did you come here hoping to go to Paradise, Mori?”

“It’s complicated. I did consider going to Paradise… but my goal is ultimately to meet living people.”

Whether that place is Paradise or hell.

If there are people who welcome me and I can stay with them, I’ll be satisfied with that.

“Listen. If Paradise is exactly as you described, then there must still be living people there, right?”

“Yes. Even now when most people have died and most cities have ceased functioning, and even in the future, Paradise will continue to operate properly. There must still be life remaining there.”

Not that there are people, but that life remains?

The word choice is a bit strange, but it wasn’t particularly important.

“Great. Then Paradise is my decided destination. It’s nice to have such a clear goal.”

I stood up from the chair and stretched. Perhaps from being in an uncomfortable position on the shelf for so long, my body felt stiff all over.

Meanwhile, the Puppy, having abandoned its earlier aggressive behavior, was looking up at me and wagging its tail vigorously as if asking why I had removed it from my lap.

Should I find this cute? Or not?

After glaring at the Puppy for quite some time, I suddenly remembered another goal and asked the Robot:

“Is there a library in this city? If there is, I’d like you to tell me where it is.”

“A library… you mean that library with books?”

“Yes. Due to various circumstances, I don’t know much about this world. So I want to learn why the world became like this, among many other things.”

“Unfortunately, there is no library in this city. People of this era generally received information through chips or displays, so there was no need to build libraries.”

“…Ah. So that’s why I haven’t seen a single library despite traveling through several cities?”

“That’s likely the case. However, I do know where humanity’s last library is located.”

An arrow appeared on the Robot’s display.

The arrow was pointing upward.

“Let’s go to Paradise. Paradise has everything you want, Mori. Resources. Life. A library. And finally, answers to the questions you’ve been harboring all along.”

The Robot spoke as if it knew me very well.

And I asked it:

“So that’s also in Paradise. It’s good that my destinations are unified. But why do you speak as if you know me well?”

“Do I? It’s a coincidence, just a coincidence. We’ve only known each other for less than an hour, haven’t we?”

“Is it really a coincidence?”

“Come now, Mori, surely you know that robots can’t lie without a special reason. With you being the only human I know now, why would I lie?”

There’s clearly no falsehood or mistake in the Robot’s words.

Yet why do I feel this sense of dissonance?

In front of the Robot smiling brightly, asking me to trust it.

In the end, I couldn’t smile back.