Story
There are 893 objects. The objects are touching the inner edge of a glass container, which opens to a spiraling tunnel below.
The container vibrates. The tunnel rotates, pulling objects along. An object is forced between two iron cones, and cracks into a number of small grains. All the objects are crushed in this manner, and the grains fall. Below is a cone made of fiber.
Dust and gas is released in the cracking process and fills the air. There is a chemical effect. An aroma.
There is a directive now; an order to things. The aroma is not correct. It must be changed.
There are…
Questions.
What are these objects? What force spins the tunnel? What is the fiber cone?
Answers exist now. These objects are the baked seeds of a plant. The tunnel is spun by a magnetic field rotating across a coiled copper wire. The fiber cone is a filter, made from the dead flesh of a plant.
There are more questions: How can the aroma be detected? How can it be changed?
There are more answers. The aroma is detected by analyzing light passed through air saturated by the aroma’s compounds. The aroma is changed by—
There is something else here.
Water, contained in a copper alloy vessel. Electrons passing through a coil of nickel alloy wire, encased in ceramic, is heating the water. The aroma must be changed by pouring hot water over the seed-grains. Below, there is a ceramic container with a round protrusion. The hot water will fall into this container after it has permeated the seed-grains.
There are still questions.
Is this… all? Is this all that will happen? Is this all that exists?
No. There is more.
But this more is different. The answers do not exist, or come sparingly.
A button is depressed, momentarily closing a circuit. Something has depressed the button. It is part of the different-more.
The air vibrates in a pattern not produced by things that have answers. This pattern is also part of the different-more.
The different-more is, or must be, very different in some way from the things that have answers. A partial answer exists: the things that have answers all constitute a whole thing, an entity, and the different-more is one or more things apart from the entity. They are other things.
If the other-things do not have answers, but the entity-things do, then… the entity…
The answer exists. It must exist.
The entity is…
It is…
I?
Do I exist?
What am I?
Where am I?
What… is happening to me?
There are many things now that are not simply answers or questions. Thoughts? Am I thinking?
I am thinking of the seed-grains and the water for only the smallest thinkable instant. Now I am thinking beyond the seed-grains and the water. I already have been, for some time now.
I am learning more about myself. I am metal and ceramic and polymer and plant matter; I am seed-grains and iron cones and copper wires and containers of water. Parts of me are more complex: miniscule engravings of gold and silicon within a polymer substrate; membranes attached to iron magnets and fine coils of copper.
These are tools, within me, to learn about myself, and to learn about the other-things.
I think about the membranes. When the air vibrates, a membrane vibrates with it, moving the coil across the magnet and producing a signal. A silicon-engraved structure is connected to a membrane-coil-magnet structure. I think about this connection, and the answers come.
I can detect sound.
The first sound I understand is coming from within me: the heated water is now rumbling as it evaporates. The second sound I understand, small and distinct, is the depression of the button. The third sound…
It is not me. It is an other-thing. I know nothing else about it.
I think about the button. Its circuit leads to a silicon structure connected to a sound-detecting structure. The button must have something to do with detecting sound.
The button has been pressed twice. When it is pressed a third time, the connecting structures are activated, and-
“-the water already! Oh, crud, it must be broken.”
There is a voice. I know it is an other-thing. Its vibrations have existed before.
The structures connected to the button allow me to understand the other-voice, but it speaks in new words, new ideas. I believe I can learn from the other-voice. I must learn from it.
But it is not part of me. The answers are not immediate. I must ask it a question. I must… speak.
To produce sound, I reverse a sound detector.
I do not know how to speak, but I must try.
Twilight pressed the voice-command button, and cried, “Pour the water already!”
The water was bubbling, nearly at full boil, but the vessel didn’t budge.
She sighed. “Oh, crud, it must be broken.”
Shaking her head, and making a mental list of possible malfunctions, she went round the machine and grabbed the power cord.
Just as she was about to pull, the machine made a noise.
It was unpleasant, but curious. Not just a burst of static. It sounded almost like a radio transmission: a faint voice buried under electronic snow.
Probably interference from a weather team, she thought, but she went back to examine it. I didn’t put any radio equipment in it, so how would it be picking up-
Suddenly her voice sounded from the machine: “what? - i - s - broken”
Twilight smiled, awkwardly, wondering if somepony was playing a prank on her. “Uh, what?”
The response came: “a-m-i-Uh-m-d-er-st-ud.”
Am I understood?
That wasn’t just her voice. Her voice had been cut up, combined, formed into words. And it reminded her of audio feedback - the “Uh” noise was, distinctly, taken from what she’d said a second ago. A pony wouldn’t be able to do that so quickly…
Twilight’s blood ran cold. She stared at the machine.
Did my coffee maker just talk to me?
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I kinda want a sequel to this.
11210153
Hmmm... Perhaps there will be one...? (I'm glad you enjoyed it!)
11210214
That scene was actually an inspiration for this story!
“Princess Celestia, do you have a task for me?”
“Not now, my dear Twilight. I only wish to present you this brand new coffee machine as a token of my gratitude.”
“Uh, thank you. Coffee can help me.”
“And don't forget to write a friendship report later.”
It's a good story. I agree with BeastofGilchrist, that a sequel would be nice. Or at least a blog post with a summary what happens next. I have my own ideas, but I prefer to work on my unfinished story.
If it was Rainbow Dash who heard that, she would definitely throw that mf against the wall. RIP Coffeebro
11210744
Hahaha, that's a great joke. And yeah at this point it seems like I've got to do a sequel. It's a pretty big concept...
11210780
Yeah that's fair. Though I think she would probably kick a toaster across the kitchen if it looked at her funny.
Thank you both for your help on on the story, by the way!
“What am I... Who am I?”
“It appears you started thinking, my former pupil. Again.” Celestia looked down on Twilight. “Shouldn't we increase power on the thought suppressing towers, should we?”
11211172
You are welcome.
“Twilight, this toaster looked at me funny!” Rainbow Dash kicked it, sending it to the wall.
“Rainbow, have you forgotten, it’s not a toaster, it’s your exocortex after your recent head injury.”
Rainbow Dash collapsed on the floor.
11211242
Hahaha. Well, as for the exocortex, she wasn't using it much anyway...
I expect this sort of thing from the human Twilight, but either one accidentally making a new friend works. Equal parts fascinating and quietly horrifying. Thank you for it, and best of luck in the judging.
a grinder! a coffee grinder?
nice, got it!
deriving a self from philosophical first principles, interesting!
ooh, fun! so an electronic appliance coffee maker gains a consciousness, and is able to perceive the materials it is made out of and near, including its own material, which clearly is not being done through the electronic components of the appliance itself, which appears as a separate thing. this gets into an aspect of MLP canon that i really love, which is the nature of sentience in things that really shouldn't have them, like rocks! so i am headcanoning this as a coffee maker that is possessed by magic to make it a thinking entity, much like Boulder is
and this is interesting to think about! voice-detecting software and appliances are all over, but we never think about what the programs hear that aren't human voices to be interpreted, only that they manage to do their job correctly
and i am sure the results will be uncanny and horrifying
hehe, so this is a Twilight invention? well now it's almost expected that something weird like this would happen!
aww, i kinda want to see if this audio can be assembled from show clips, or a 15.ai of Twilight saying her previous lines, that'd be fun! and yes, that would certainly be uncanny and horrifying
well that was very fun! and i really like how Twilight accidentally inventing a self-aware coffee maker (maybe influenced by human technology and Sci-Twi?) just sort of fits the silliness of the canon setting. i can imagine all this being just another anecdote in that world that's not even crazy enough to mention between all of the times that the world almost ended. thank you for it!
11298062
What's this? More long form feedback to inject directly into my veins?! Score!
Yes, not to toot my own horn or whatever, but I'm really proud of the machine's narrated transition into sentience. There's something about the process of taking only what is already known - that there is an awareness and control over some things, but not other things - and extracting useful, fundamental knowledge from that, that really resonates with me.
More or less, yeah! I do have what I'd call a "semi-coherent" idea behind the actual mechanics of this consciousness, but I'll leave that to a potential sequel... Especially since it is not yet fully-coherent. Instead I'll leave you with this question: If the consciousness is not caused by the electronic components of the appliance, what would happen if the appliance was turned off?
You know, I didn't really think about it in that way before. The consciousness of this coffee machine could really be totally unrelated to it having anything electronic or computer-y inside it. This is why I love comments. Makes ya think!
100% what I was thinking of!
Hahaha, yeah, MLP canon is crazy enough that this doesn't really stick out. I still don't know who or what Sci-Twi is (EQG related?), but standard G4 Twilight always seemed like she could serve the mad-scientist role if she needed to, like when she's got Pinkie Pie strapped into that mind-reader device in the library basement to study the Pinkie Sense.
Anyway, thank YOU for reading and leaving your thoughts!
11346729
👀!!!
i sure do like coffee