His head cocked slightly to one side as he studied the figure before him. There was satisfaction in his expression, but no warmth. Successful repetition confirmed functionality. Same neural pathways, slightly better speed, same result. For confirmation, it… he… programming now confirmed he-ness… It-he blinked again. Slowly, methodically, eyelids opened and closed. Execute a preliminary test, then, preferably one involving multiple systems operating in tandem. It was important that the impatient body remain subordinate to the accelerating mind. More neural pathways coming alive in response. Both face and mind had been designed, programmed, but only one was capable of change.Īural reception. This particular face would not reflect the mind that lay behind it. Fresh, unmarred, unlined by too much age or not enough thought. Had it been able to do so, it knew, and activate additional cognitive facilities, it would have taken note of a human visage. There was a small but unarguable neuromuscular response.

A requirement for auxiliary neural stimulation. There was only the ongoing state of not quite nothingness. There were no hypofractionated percentages of either. In the absence of dreaming there was also no pain. Only it could understand what it did not know, did not see, did not feel. Ultimately, only it could define its own state of non-being. The speculative information dump necessary to allow for dreaming was absent. In the absence of an unconscious consciousness there could be no abstract conceptualization. Where it was concerned, the intention was that there should be no surprises. This was simply a known consequence of its creation.

The omission wasn’t intentional, not deliberate.

Quozl by Alan Dean Foster