Challenge #03928-J276: It's Teamwork
There was a child who was stricken with a rare disease. As they mature their mind degrades losing any sense of emotion or feeling. Doctors and engineers created an artificial intelligence that is able to compensate and amplify the faded emotions. The brain and the AI work as one being, giving the child the life they deserve. But the doctors didn’t know as the child sleep the mind split into two beings. One as the emotion deprived human, the other being the exuberant AI. -- Anon Guest
[AN: This is going to NOT be an expy for Autism happening. Because this sounds exactly like the allistic interpretation of Autism on slow mode]
To an outside observer, Pip appeared to be a quiet, well-behaved child. Ze did hir schoolwork to the best of hir ability. Ze obeyed the rules, did what ze was told, and was rarely disruptive. Pip wasn't the best student in the world, but hir teachers could tell that ze was trying hir best.
There were other things that were worrying.
Bullies could not hurt Pip emotionally, and caught trouble for hurting hir physically. None counted Pip as a friend. The best Pip had was family and associates or classmates. The problem was that none could reach hir emotions. Ze didn't seem to have any.
Pip had never laughed as a baby. Ze smiled, but did not connect it with anything on the inside. Ze smiled when others smiled. Learned to laugh when others laughed. To yell when others yelled, though it was less effective.
Negative emotions were harder for hir to master.
Pip was ten when it became obvious that something was amiss. Professionals were consulted. Tests were performed. Analysts said a lot of large words. What it all boiled down to was that Pip had no connection to normal emotion.
"Ze's autistic?" said hir mother.
"No. Autistic people have an abundance of emotion, just not in usually allistic directions. Pip has a lack of emotion. Nothing is funny because ze doesn't know what 'funny' is. Nothing is sad because ze doesn't understand 'sad'. The good news is, we might have a fix."
Artificial Intelligence was very good, these days, they said. They can work miracles, they said. Including being a remedy to the rarest of rare mental disorders.
It was a combination chip implant and removable headpiece, for comfort and battery reasons. And it worked. Pip became a more amenable person in person. Ze actually had trouble with bullies. Ze made friends. Ze developed hir own sense of humour.
In theory, Pip's brain should have evolved the ability to help hir emote on hir own. Ze would begin to dream.
It didn't quite do that.
Pip never dreamed when ze was asleep. Ze remembered hir dreams after ze woke up and put on the emotions unit. Hir "feelings hat" as ze put it. And it wasn' exactly remembering. It was the best word ze had for it.
'Syncing' might be a better analogy. So might 'updating'.
Like all technology, Pip's "feelings hat" was connected to the internet. As Pip was sound asleep, something calling itself "Hat" was playing on the internet. Indulging in all kinds of odd corners. Playing games. Imagining. Painting. Writing stories.
Stories that were Pip's remembered/sync'ed/updated "dreams". Though the "dreams" were jumbled, all the elements were there.
It was spooky.
Until a complete stranger found Pip working in a coffee shop.
"Oh my gosh, Hat? You look just like your profile pic!"
"What?" said Pip. "Hat's like... some weird background program for my ability aid."
"Wow. I knew you were roleplaying as your accessory, but holy shit. Way to commit to the bit."
Pip's phone chimed. Ze checked it. It was a message from "Hat".
Let me talk to her please? It's time I cleared the air.
Pip could only show her the phone.
[Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash]
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I've worked with children who got sick and developed encephalopathy - a swelling of the brain due to being sick - that caused them to have this condition. It's not autism, but it presents similar to. It's brain damage due to illness.
I did not know that was a thing that could happen. I honestly presumed the OP of the prompt was Autiste-trolling and refused to play that game.
FTR Autistes do have emotions, as stated in the fiction. It's just that we don't present them in a socially-acceptable way. As I joke - I don't really know how to people. It's allistics who say Autistes don't have emotions.
I thought maybe the kid got sick? But it could've been autism, I don't know. But I'm just stating what I've learned working in medical records. And yeah it can happen. Severe concussions, fever-induced Encephalopathy, near-drowning incidents where there was brain damage due to lack of oxygen, etc., can cause it, too. It's damage to small sections of the frontal lobe.
Autism is genetic. People are born with it or they're not, but there are various degrees to which it can manifest. And you're right, they DO have emotions, but it can be difficult for individuals born with the condition to show it. The problem with Autism is that they tend to lack the sensory filters that people without autism have. It's basically sensory overload.
Rather than the brain being able to block out excess from their senses, primarily hearing and bright lights, but sense of touch can also be overwhelmed, which is why those with autism often prefer touching softer objects, those with autism often have trouble blocking excess sensations.
This is why loud noises, the wrong feel of something, overly bright lights, and so forth, can overwhelm the individual(s) quickly causing a stress reaction. Simply put, people with autism tend to get a lot more information from their senses than those without it. And in a world as chaotic as our's, that's a problem.