Zima Blue 齐马蓝 21

"A machine," he said. "A complex robot; an autonomous artificial intelligence. I was already centuries old when I arrived on Kharkov 8, with full legal independence." 

"No," I said, shaking my head. "You're a man with machine parts, not a machine." 

"The clinic records were very clear. I had arrived as a robot. An android form robot, certainly but an — obvious machine nonetheless. I was dismantled and my core cognitive functions were integrated into a vat-grown biological host body." With one finger he tapped the pewter side of his skull. "There's a lot of organic material in here, and a lot of cybernetic machinery. It's difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. Even harder to tell which is the master, and which is the slave." 

I looked at the figure standing next to me, trying to make the mental leap needed to view him as a machine albeit a machine with soft, cellular components—rather than a man. I couldn't; not yet.

I stalled. "The clinic could have lied to you." 

"I don't think so. They would have been far happier had I not known." 

"All right," I said. "Just for the sake of argument... " 

"Those were the facts. They were easily verified. I examined the customs records for Kharkov 8 and found that an autonomous robot entity had entered the planet's airspace a few months before the medical procedure." 

"Not necessarily you." 

"No other robot entity had come near the world for decades. It had to be me. More than that, the records also showed the robot's port of origin." 

"Which was?" 

“一台机器，”他说。“一个很复杂的机器人，具有自主智能的机器人。到达哈尔科夫 8 号星球的时候，我已经几百岁了，但是完全具备合法的独立性。”  

“不会吧。”我摇了摇头。“你顶多就是个装有机器零件的人，怎么可能是机器呢？”  “诊所里的记录非常清晰。我来到诊所的时候就是个机器人。一个男性外表的机器人，如假包换的机器。我被彻底拆散，我的核心认知功能被整合进了一个快速生长的生物宿主的身体内。”他用一根手指敲了敲他的脑壳。“这里面有大量的有机材料，也有大量的神经机械系统。里面错综复杂，搞不清从来开始，从哪儿结束。甚至搞不清哪个是主机系统，哪个是辅助系统。”  

我看着这个站在我旁边的躯体，不得不迫使自己的思维发生跳跃：不能再把他当成是人了，只能把他当作是机器——一台由细胞组成的柔软的机器。可我做不到，一下子很难接受。

我停下了脚步“诊所有可能骗你的呀。”  

“我不这么认为。不让我知道这件事，他们会更开心。”  

“就算这样。”我说，“总得有证据……”  

“那些就是事实，很容易证实。我检查了哈尔科夫 8 号星球海关出入境记录，发现在做手术的几个月前，有一个具备自主独立性的机器人进入了星球的大气层。”  

“不一定就是你啊。”  

“在这前后几十年，就没有其他机器人靠近过这个星球。那个机器人就是我。而且记录上还显示了这个机器人的始发港。”