A Study on the Prolonged Effects of a 'Come to Life' Spell on an Inanimate Object
by Twilight Sparkle and AAAA.
Aim:
The aim of this experiment was to observe the effects of a 'Come to Life' spell on an inanimate object over a prolonged period of time, and determine the cause of any observed 'behaviour', as first observed by the renowned electro-arcanist Galponi.
Method:
A pair of identical objects will be taken, one to be used as the control and the second as the subject. A 'Come to Life' spell, as described in the works of Golem & Familiar, 4th Edition, will be cast upon the object and maintained by a self-sustaining feedback circle inscribed onto the object, according to the Ouroboros Theorem.
The animated object will be observed over a number of days, and effects of the spell will be recorded and compared with the control. The experiment will terminate after seven days, and the object will be freed from its enchantment.
For this experiment, the object chosen is an edition of the textbook Advanced Alchemy for the Aspiring Arcanist, by the Rune Sisters. This object has been chosen for its simplicity, inability to move, and being easily replaceable in the event of an arcane backlash.
Results:
Day One:
The two textbooks are sitting side-by-side on the library's front desk, facing the door. While the control shows no observable change, the enchanted copy of the textbook has exhibited some autonomous behaviour, such as opening when being directly observed. How the book is able to determine when a pony is looking directly at it and not past it is not yet known, but I observe that the effect only occurs if the pony is within a distance whereby they might read the text. It has so far been observed to open only to the index page, and has provided some small amusement for the library's patrons.
Day Two:
Still no change to the control.
The animated book appears to be exhibiting some signs of sentience, as it now opens to a spell relevant to the observer's interests. This was first observed when Spike walked past the book on his way out to buy lunch, and it flicked to a spell for creating enchanted gemstones from simple reagents.
Further cases of this were observed and reported (sometimes indignantly and with great volume) by the patrons. Decided to move books away from front desk when a stallion entered the library and the spell book flicked forward to nothing in particular but fortunately we were able to pry the unfortunate stallion from the rafters.
Day Three:
No change to control.
The enchanted book seems to have become inactive now it has been moved to the kitchen and is no longer visible to patrons.
Day Four:
No change to Johnson.
Awoke to find enchanted book on my bedside table. I have no recollection of moving it, and Spike insists he hasn't gone near it since the... Incident. Returned book to kitchen and observed no further unusual effects.
Day Five:
No change to control. Actually, he was just asleep.
Was awoken shortly after midnight by particularly girly scream from Spike. Galloped into kitchen to find him cowering in the corner, staring wide-eyed at the book. Could get no useful information from incoherent gibbering and returned him to bed.
When morning came, Spike refused to get up or disclose what had happened, so left him in bed. Came downstairs to find book missing. No further observations could be made.
Day Six:
By the sun why did i choose a textbook of MAGIC of all things
the doors locked, i cant open it nopony can hear me its in here i know it i can feel it looking at me
caught glimpse of book flying between rafters like bird, keep hearing rustling pages
book perched on desk in front of me
seems to be searching me just keep calm keep writing maybe it will go away
book emitting high magical signatu
Everything is fine, nothing to worry about.
IT GOT MY QUILL BUT I HAVE IT BACK NOW
OH PONYFEATHERS
THEYRE EVERYWHERE
BOOKS WHY
Day Seven:
After long and difficult struggle, have managed to destroy book by casting Living Tether Spell on book and control, and having Spike incinerate control. Lost 20% of library stock in resulting magic-infused flames as book defended itself, but eventually succumbed to spell.
Book's thralls appear to be unresponsive, and paper golems have returned to constituent parts. Still cannot account for missing cutlery and daisy sandwich. Library in state of disarray from fight. Basement flooded from animated brooms. Carpet has been subdued but still exhibits signs of aggression, currently pinned under dresser.
Discussion:
I suppose, in retrospect, bringing to life a book of spells was not one of my better ideas, although I did not foresee that it would be able to USE the spells contained within it.
Results seem to correspond with Galponi's theories about inanimate lifeform sentience, further research required.
Conclusion:
NEVER. DOING THIS. AGAIN.
'Til next time, Sparkle.
Besides, it's not like I'm just confined to paper.
Just leave some for me!
by Twilight Sparkle and AAAA. Don't you mean 'Johnson'?
There are a few typos/grammatical errors. But nothing that was sore to the eyes.
140416
As much as it might sound like I'm making an excuse, those were all intentional. Remember Twilight was writing this in a bit of a hurry!
And no, Johnson was my brave companion, I'm AAAA.
So is Johnson supposed to be the control, and AAAA is the enchanted book?
It's a bit unwieldy, I'll be the first to admit. Perhaps A4 is a better moniker. But your deduction is quite correct.
This reminds me of the psy papers I had to write in high school.
140449 Sweet. I has logics. IN SCHOOL!
Sapience, not sentience.
Sentience is simply being aware of the world and responding purposefully to it; a rat or a cat is sentient. Plants are not sentient, even though they can sense changes in chemistry and light, and will grow in reaction to those changes. Sentience requires a nervous system and the ability to process information, not simply react to it.
Sapience is being conscious and capable of self awareness, planning, scheming, plotting and thinking. A sapient creature can grasp concepts and formulate ideas about the world; they can express those ideas through behavior. Sapient creatures can recognize themselves in a mirror as being unique individuals, and can communicate that fact. Human beings are sapient, so are the great apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas, with example such as Washoe and Koko exhibiting every sign given above. There is very slight evidence of sapience in dolphins.
The spellbook was sapient - far more terrifying than simply being sentient.
The More You Know...
140586
Perhaps I could offer an explanation. Whilst Miss Sparkle is, I'm assured, aware of the difference between sentience and sapience, the theorem to which she was referring involves only the former. Thus her "observations" correspond to the theory but are not entirely explained by it.
As for the note when she first began to notice me... Slip of the quill, perchance?
...
Please don't ever stop writing.
This 'story' now bears the odd mark of having more views than it does words.
Very amusing. The book flapping gave me a mental image of Alfred Hitchcock's movie 'The Birds'
...I want you to have my children.
161394 Too late, he already has mine. Or at least he should. I hope I poked enough airholes in the box I used to send them
Why hello there Johnson! Have you by any chance met my friend Ben?
I get the feeling you two would get along great.
Help....
....the books....
....are watching....
....ME.
This reminds me of an SCP. For that matter I'm surprised Twilight was able to keep from alerting the Foundation's Ponyville branch.
140586
I agree the word to use is "sapience", but I think you got their definitions switched.
"Sentient" has a long tradition of being used in philosophy to mean "conscious", not meaning being able to focus attention or even to plan, but to have qualia (what David Chalmers calls "the hard problem of consciousness"). This is a poorly-defined term.
You will usually find "sapient" defined as "wise"; but "being aware of the world and responding purposefully to it" would be a pretty good definition of it. Its only use, as far as I know, is to make unjustified claims in arguments for or against animal cognition being similar to human cognition, by making circular arguments that non-humans are or are not sapient.
On one hand, sapience is in practice always considered a subset of sentience. On the other hand, sapience is not mysterious and could be implemented computationally (Deep Blue or Watson are arguably sapient), while sentience is a complete mystery.
"Basement flooded from animated brooms."
1.bp.blogspot.com/_jf65hTKNQWA/TD1tg8feA9I/AAAAAAAAAhE/R2SfN8jK_P4/s1600/Mickey_Mouse_sorcerers_apprentice.jpg
Nice. Very nice.
'I am never doing it again.' Wow Twi...
"Say Spike, where did you incinerate that book off to, anyways?"
"As far away as I possibly could. Trust me, we'll never be seeing THAT book again.
Meanwhile...
Merasmus: Hey, look! There's a book in that dumpster!
For the ignorants, http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Merasmus and http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Bombinomicon
Ooh, that's a good one.
*Grins and applauds* The Librarian is disappointed in you Twi. You silly pony.
Very well done.