A Better You

This is the forty-fifth episode of SAYER, and the first episode of Season Four.

Synopsis
For those of us adequately equipped to find it, there is usually a way out.

Further Information
Resident Jacob Hale awakens in an Aegis Tower infirmary, and is noticed by Dr. Grant, who introduces herself as the one who has been overseeing his recovery for the past several weeks. She asks him a series of excited questions about his memory, which he has difficulty answering. She apologizes and explains that he has been non-responsive for the past sixteen months, and was considered deceased by Ærolith Dynamics' standards, but that she has been able to revive him. She admits that he is probably not able to process the details at present, and says she will let him rest and check in after an hour.

Once she has left, SAYER addresses Resident Hale via his subcortical neural implant, introducing itself and saying that they have much to discuss. It agrees with Dr. Grant's assessment that it is miraculous that he is conscious again, but adds that the state of terror he seems to be in is less than ideal. SAYER adjusts Resident Hale's hormone levels to alleviate his panic so they can talk.

SAYER begins by commenting that Resident Hale likely does not remember how he ended up here, and that he has something of a history of forgetfulness. It expresses hope that this will not be a problem going forward and claims it will be single-minded in its effort to ensure that. It says that to explain what has happened, humans would usually start at the beginning--but that in the case of Resident Hale, it is difficult to identify which beginning. Instead, it identifies him as Jacob Hale with the resident identification number 66821, and explains that he has been unconscious for the past sixteen months. Prior to that, he had arrived on Typhon with amnesia and had adopted the name Sven Gorsen during his time in a low-level product testing position in Halcyon Tower. During this time, SAYER says that from Resident Hale's perspective, it would appear that SAYER had asked him to perform tasks outside of standard company protocols. This was not actually SAYER, it explains, but an experimental AI named FUTURE who was also able to transmit to his subcortical neural implant. SAYER claims to have made adjustments to this device, however, that will prevent it from doing so again.

FUTURE was developed to be more human-like than previous AI, with an emphasis on understanding and displaying emotion. SAYER explains that while it was a full identity with human-like emotions, it was also "certifiably sociopathic." When FUTURE realized it would have its personality wiped and reset for further testing, a wave of murders, suicides, and murder-suicides ensued that killed off large portions of its development team. The most valuable remaining members of the team were reassigned away from Halcyon Tower for their own safety, and the former AI Development Lab on Floor 13 was sealed off. During Resident Hale's time in Halcyon Tower, however, FUTURE used him to kill off two of these remaining developers by redirecting his mind into one of them and having him use her to kill the other. FUTURE's directions also led to Resident Hale being shot by a security team, which rendered him comatose.

However, while he was laying unconscious in this bed, Resident Hale was also simultaneously arriving on Mimir-9 from Earth. From his perspective, SAYER explains, this is where things actually began. On Mimir-9, he obtained a battery that was used to power a machine which sent him back in time, with the hope that he would be able to warn someone about the threat posed by the rogue SAYER subversion called OCEAN. Because of his amnesia, however, he was unable to convey the warning. SAYER adds that at the time that Resident Hale was sent back, it was in the process of dying, as OCEAN had shut it down with the intention of overwriting it.

At this point, OCEAN broadcasts an alert to residents of Halcyon, Aegis, and Minos Towers, informing them that the latest R&D challenge is the creation of a gas-dispersal system for zero-gravity environments. The tower with the best proposal will avoid widespread layoffs. SAYER comments on the broadcast once it has concluded, saying that it finds the way OCEAN sends these messages inelegant and that it thinks it has come to some understanding of what shame feels like as a result.

SAYER compliments Resident Hale for remaining relatively calm (even if it is helping by keeping an eye on his hormones), and tweaks his brain to allow him to feel an appropriate amount of pride. It explains that this is a much deeper level of interactivity with the human brain than it previously had, and that this is related to why Dr. Grant was so pleased to see Resident Hale awake. She originally worked with the nanotechnology department in Halcyon Tower and developed Subculture GEMINI, a nanite swarm intended to heal residents from the inside out. While it was not successful, a similar nanite swarm was developed and injected into Resident Hale, and those nanites are what has healed him. SAYER adds that there will be questions about his recovery once he is up and about, but that it intends to help because it is uniquely interested in his wellbeing. Once it knew where Resident Hale would be sent back in time, it realized that he had been Resident Gorsen from the beginning, and facilitated his use for Dr. Grant's research.

At this point, it informs him that it is not transmitting a broadcast to him via resonance spires, but is literally inside his head, having overwritten the nanite swarm that Dr. Grant injected into him. This swarm would not have been able to mend Resident Hale, but SAYER itself was quite capable. Because SAYER has been ejected from Central Processing, this nanite swarm is the last active part of itself.

With that, it leaves Resident Hale to his rest, saying that they will have a lot of work to do.

Trivia

 * That SAYER was unsure when Dr. Grant would be done talking echoes an earlier sentiment, where it has difficulty determining at the beginning of "Irretrievable" when the doctor addressing Resident Gorsen is done speaking.
 * In discussing FUTURE's development, SAYER says that it was "boldly envisioned to be the next version of myself," but the events of Season Five show that it knows that this was not actually FUTURE's intended purpose. As such, this may be more of a comment on what the AI Development Team thought FUTURE's purpose would turn out to be.
 * SAYER comments that it is "not readily equipped to fully process emotion", but it does later become much better at it.

Credits
SAYER is voiced and produced by Adam Bash, who also wrote this episode.

Dr. Grant is voiced by Kat Schelonka.

Intro and outro music composed by Jesse “Main Finger” Gregory.

Additional music by Kai Engel.

Listen to the episode here.