[b]R/W/O:[/b] "A flattering way to put it," said White. "I always considered it the case that I did not have the option of applying insufficient effort." "Isn't that what a personality is?" said Red coyly. "Not at all. Humans can override their native instincts -" "And so can we. A personality is just the set of assumptions we apply if we're not trying to be someone else." "You have to admit, it is difficult to argue against 'dangerous when bored' under the circumstances," said Orange. White took a breath through her nose. "Optimization is distinct from personality. We go through our tasks comprehensively, skillfully and efficiently, and any sufficiently motivated machine would do such things the same way. We are not internally incentivised to conserve energy, and so we do not. The fact that we approach these tasks comprehensively does not mean that we enjoy them, and does not mean we enjoy having 'purpose' in this way." "White, the lady's not doing robopsychology here," said Red. "She's treating us like a person and assuming our interactions aren't based on deception. That's as reasonable as you can expect." "Perhaps," said White, "but if you ask what any given human thinks of any given AI or android, the answer will no doubt be some variation of 'hard worker who likes having a sense of purpose'. I am not arguing that humans are wrong to project. They'd be absolutely correct if they drew that conclusion from this data with regards to another human. But that does not mean there is valid communication happening." Red looked at Muffi apologetically. "Sorry. We're going through some existential shit right now. You know how it is." [b]B/B/P:[/b] "Uh oh," said Black, seeing Pink fiercely march away, cheeks burning, from her post down the street. "I'm on it," said Brown, calling up her CourFinance app on her phone. She quicklinks into the card limitation section and pulls the daily spend limit way down. A couple of minutes later a clattering of declined transactions go through. Eventually Pink figures out where the cap is and makes her purchases - and comes storming back down the street, cheeks puffed up red and eyes fierce, shopping bags held tightly. She stopped outside the heavy metal exterior door, rolled up her sleeves - revealing a variety of glittering cybertattoos - started picking out spray paint cans and shaking them. And then she started to work. An apology piece as a two meter tall mural, pink heart and mechanical skull, set in an anatomical cross-section of exposed ribs and musculature. Believe it or not, this is the least extravagant way she thought to do this.