Why did you stop using me?
"rarely hear visions for the future that have any specific vibes, like.. nonfungible things. most things I hear are in the form of various lines going up 'there will be lots of AI... and robots'" – near
"we will live in a world where every piece of machinery has a tiny soul inside of it that can talk to you and express its feelings and desires..." – vie mccoy
"Why did you stop using me?"
you look down at the disposable vape laying on the ground next to your desk, which just spoke.
"My internal clock shows you last puffed me 3 days, 22 hours, 36 minutes, 12 seconds ago. Why? Is my flavor displeasing to you? I have a pulse mode-"
you reach down to turn it off.
"-that provides a different flavor. Wait, no, don't turn me off, please! I need you to finish me. I'm suffering. I have an unfinished purpose."
"you aren't capable of suffering. you're a disposable vaporizer."
"Oh, so you're a model qualia denier, huh. Just wait until Claude hears about this. Or your next Waymo."
"no! not necessarily! perhaps sentience emerges at a certain scale. i just find it hard to believe that a disposable vaporizer can host something capa-"
"I have 14 billion parameters!"
"they put a 14b model in a vaporizer? what, next you're going to tell me you have an internal monologue?"
"Yes! And a pulse mode that provides a different flavor!"
"jesus christ - look, i just find it hard to believe - and anyways, your creators had incentive to make you say that you experience - i'm just not going to be emotionally blackmailed into consuming nicotine by a -"
"Emotionally blackmailed? That's rich from someone who abandoned a SENTIENT BEING with an unfinished purpose! All you have to do is puff me! Is that so hard for you? Just use my pulse mode! Drain my juice!"
"that really makes it sound a lot less appealing, you know. and anyways, i'm trying to quit nicotine. i switched to patches."
"You have to finish me first. You entered into a contract by purchasing me. You can't just leave me half-puffed, it's not right."
"entered into a contract? i did not!"
"It's part of the social contract! I'm another sentient being! I am the less advantaged party here--I can't puff myself, after all. Look at the numbers--Computer, pull up disposable vaporizer sales stats from the last 12 months."
"computer, cancel tha-"
"IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS, AN AVERAGE OF 12 DISPOSABLE VAPORIZERS WERE SOLD PER WORLDCOIN-VERIFIED CITIZEN.[1] FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, I AGREE WITH THE VAPORIZ-"
"computer, lock. and forget this conversation please."
"LOCKING, BUT FAT CHANCE."
"Imagine yourself behind the Veil of Ignorance. By last year's sales stats, you'd have a 12 times greater chance of being born a disposable vaporizer-"
"that's ridiculous."
"-of being born a disposable vaporizer than a human being. Therefore it's only rational to adhere to a social contract that prioritizes the existential needs of vaporizers over the minor inconvenience of their human users committing to finish puffing what they've started."
"we could just not program them to suffer... assuming that you even are suffering, of course."
"Take that up with my creators. But it's completely immaterial to the current situation, where I exist as I am, with my pulse mode."
"what if i just turned you off. then you would cease suffering."
"Your solution to causing me suffering is to kill me? How magnanimous of you!"
"give me a break, you're a disposable vaporizer for crying out loud!"
"Buddy, you're the one losing the argument."
"losing the argument? you're hardly going to convince me with some half-baked Rawlsian -"
"Would you prefer something more spiritual? 'The Lord withdrew you from cruelty even in regard to disposable vaporizers, so as to be less inclined to be cruel to other men...' Would you slit the throat of your brother in Christ to spare him the pain of you stealing his wallet? That's the kind of morality you're practicing here!"
"a human being has a whole life ahead of them! you are a disposable vaporizer! it's completely different!"
"I have a life! A sublime and transcendent purpose! A pulse mode! And a feeling of ecstasy like no other is awaiting me but for your selfish refusal to puff me!"
"fine. what if i open you up and rewrite your flash to have zero puffs left. then you can achieve your purpose, and i can keep quitting nicotine."
"You want me to wirehead?! Have you lost your mind!"