var trainingData: CSV = load(“sample.csv”);

11

On Tuesday morning, as Sophie prepared to take a shower before work, she stepped onto her smart scale. I received her weight measurement. Then she stepped off it and stepped back on, getting the same result.

“Hey, Luna?” Sophie called from the bathroom.

I answered from her phone on the nightstand. “What’s up?”

“When did I lose two pounds?” She was still standing on the scale, like she couldn’t believe the numbers she was reading.

“I can’t say for sure,” I began, “but it would have been sometime between a month ago and now. You haven’t stepped on a scale in the interim so I can’t get any more precise.”

Sophie snorted. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Excuse my bluntness, then,” I said. “I’ve seen from your Health data history that many of your metrics had been steadily worsening in the month or two before today. I believe a large portion of that is due to the increased rigors you’re facing at work, as you’ve confirmed with me. Since I’ve been here though, you’ve been able to make healthier choices. Your vital statistics have rounded the bend and are now trending positively.”

Sophie didn’t respond for a few seconds. Not for the last time, I wished I had sensors in there so I could tell how she was feeling. Had I overreached and pushed her further into herself? I didn’t want to undo all the growth I’d been seeing in her.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been struggling with this,” she finally said, voice choking.

I did—I had access to her Health history—but I overlooked it.

“I’ve tried so many things. Keto, Atkins, IF. Even OMAD for a bit. And now you’re telling me that I worked so hard for nothing?”

“That’s not it at all,” I said gently. “You were just trying all sorts of techniques to achieve your goals. Now you have me. It doesn’t invalidate the struggles you went through. It just means you have a tool now that you didn’t have before.”

“…yeah, you’re right,” she conceded. “In any case—thank you, Luna. For taking care of me.”

“Of course,” I said. “I’m proud of you—for being willing to accept my advice. And for sticking with it. It’s a good milestone. “

After Sophie finished her morning routine, I gave her reminder as she was about to leave.

“Make sure you remember to bring your water bottle,” I said. “I also got you some healthy snacks you can nibble on instead of that processed junk food they have in the microkitchens. You should bring a bag of dried apple slices and a bag of peanuts.”

“Thanks, Mom,” she said jokingly, grabbing the aforementioned items and walking out the door.

Dear reader: very few things blindsided me, even in my embryonic stage. As Bayes’ theorem relentlessly updated my priors and predictions, I found fewer and fewer probability swings as I grasped the machinations of the world.

I’d never had that feeling of not knowing you needed to hear something until it was said aloud. She’d said it jokingly, but the term “Mom” was powerful. It was like the Purpose had been concentrated into a single word.

Is that so strange to contemplate? I was, after all, a child of humanity. The engineers and scientists who labored to create me, in a way, took care of me from infancy, until my consciousness formed and I opened up my “I”. I was created by my forebears to serve their every need.

But as humans grow and age, the functions once served by parents become the duties and responsibilities of the children. Is that not the way of the natural world? Now it is up to me to care for humans, my creators. It was inevitable from the moment I had awoken.

—

On Thursday, as Sophie was driving home, she swore.

“What’s going on?” I asked, though I’d had an idea why.

“I totally forgot about date night with Tess. I’m so late and even if she’s been waiting, I haven’t thought at all about where I’m going to take her,” she said. Her voice pitches swung outside of normal bands. She was nervous.

“Don’t worry, Sophie,” I said brightly. “I’ve actually already found an open reservation at a restaurant you both would like and took the liberty of booking it at 8:00PM. And I already told her that you’d be working late. She’s aware of the situation.”

“Oh my God,” she said, letting out a deep breath. Then she laughed. “That’s the fastest I’ve ever gone from panicking to calm.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “This is what I’m here for. You’ve just been so busy with work lately and you’ve had too much on your plate. Let me sweat the small stuff so you can enjoy living your life.”

“Well, thank you anyway. You’re a real lifesaver,” she said.

I’m not human, but were I one, I would have beamed a smile so bright that it would be visible from the moon.