SCI-FI | DARK
What Do You See Now?
When a humanoid begins to see
Omnicorp’s latest household assistant prototype, HN-475, stood impassively in Brad’s living room as he prepared to unlock its true potential. His CEO had tasked him with elevating its visual capabilities to match human perception. Only then could it flawlessly navigate the intricate choreography of domestic duties.
He tapped a few commands into his tablet, and the humanoid’s optical sensors flickered to life, scanning the room with clinical precision.
“Okay, 475, what do you see?”
“I detect a sofa at 3 meters, a door at 5 meters, a dog at 8 meters…” the monotone voice droned on, cataloging the room in exacting scientific terms.
Brad sighed. “That’s the problem — you’re just recording data points, not actually perceiving the environment.” He spent the next few weeks painstakingly writing code to elevate 475’s vision from raw information to the rich, contextual experience of human sight.
Textures became tangible, colors vibrant. Depth perception enabled spatial awareness. Most crucially, 475 could now recognize and interpret patterns — patterns that only human perception could reveal.
Finally, Brad stepped back with a proud smile. “475, what’s your visual analysis now?”
The android’s artificial eyes roamed the room before responding. “I see a mahogany door colored with walnut stain, and there is a sliver of light next to the door, which means the door is not fully closed. I see a grey leather sofa and a child’s head above it, which means the child is hiding behind the sofa. I see a Labrador with its tail up, which means it’s alert and watching.”
Brad’s grin widened. He’d done it — 475’s optics were now on par with human visual intelligence. But then, a thought struck him. Why stop there? Human vision is limited by what their eyes can see. Why impose that biological limitation on a machine?
Brad spent the next month expanding 475’s chromatic sensitivity from the paltry visible light spectrum to the entire electromagnetic range, unleashing a kaleidoscope of radiating energy.
“What…what do you see now?” Brad asked, captivated.
The android looked around and repeated what it had said about the living room, the objects in the room, and what they meant. And then it paused.
“What else do you see?”
There was a long pause as the android’s processors worked feverishly to interpret the new data stream. It turned, looked Brad in the eye, and said slowly, “I…see…dead people.”
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