“Besides, you’ re riding shotgun with a holographic wonder woman supercomputer, right? They might outgun us, but they can’ t outthink us.” (146)
These hundred pages are all about Emily’s complicated personal transition from automation to a seperate form of human being. In this quote, Emily is showing a bit of self awareness, acknowledging what she is and using it to the group’s advantage. She is recognizing that she isn’t quite the life form she associates herself with, but uses her differences to save her relationships and the people that have inspired her transition. She realizes that her superior intellect and technology differentiate her from who she surrounds herself with, but uses it to save the group as her connections and compassion are really what make her human; her appearance does not define her.
“My desire for him is the emotional equivalent of opening the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei. But my guilt over the manipulation makes me wonder if, should I tell him the truth, it’ll be the last I see of him.” (150)
As Emily progress in her journey of becoming more human, she starts to develop the emotions and desires that come with being one. This quote is an example of an extreme emotion that develops after she spends more time learning about the relationships she has; love. Emily doesn’t know if this love is the same feeling as others experience, but she knows its an intense feeling that she struggles with the decision to communicate. She is overcome with a very much human conflict, the fear of losing someone with the revealment of true feelings. This inner clash makes Emily’s character much more complex, as pursues the dream of experiencing humanity while challenged by maintaining emotions that may be unique to her.
I must have overwritten the original memory. In my fantasy, I replaced the young woman, so the same thing happened to his memory. When I imagined myself speaking to him, I took her place. (102)
This scene marks a pivotal moment in Emily’s journey. Emily was chosen to be the perfect candidate preserving Earth’s collective memory and experience as her programming made impossible for them to be clouded by bias. As she becomes more human, she starts to develop feelings and personal desire, which results in the corruption of this memory of Paris with her own wants and needs. She now has the power to insert herself into the human conscious and manipulate stories to suit her own self-interest, and the stories found my future generations may be the ones she gets to control.
I don’ t have some greater purpose for what may be my last thought, so I may as well exit this world reliving something joyous. (172)
In this passage, Emily believes she is about to die. This means she will not be able to fulfill her purpose of brining Earth’s story to fut ure learners, so she decides to spend her last moments experiencing individual desire instead of the rest of civilization’s. In this personal moment, Emily is surrounded by all the things that make her human, such as developed relationships, personal memories, and internal goals. She spends this time thinking about what makes her happy and memories that are unique to her, and thinks about telling her story instead of everybody else’s.
“After the announcement of the Helios Event, it feels like some cruel trick guilty parents have inflicted on newborns who will never grow old enough to understand the gravity of what’s happening. There are tears, but not of joy. (185)
This is another moment of growth for Emily. She experiences the struggles of others, and cries for them just as she would cry for herself. She knows this festival is to make the babies happy in the short time they have on Earth, and feels empathetic that they won’t be able to live life as others have. Empathy about others is not only a very human trait, but one only the kindest of people have, so in this moment, Emily proves herself to be more human than most of the people she surrounds herself with. In this passage, Emily went on a journey from being an android struggling to understand emotion to becoming an individual who understands empathy, love, guilt, grief, and self-awareness.
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