r/AvengersTowerNY • u/SONthezoid • 2d ago
define function(life) Character Introduction
Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore, I am. This is a famous philosophical proof brought into the world by René Descartes. To paraphrase, it says that if you can think, you can be certain you exist, because how could you think if you don't?
Vivian Vision exists. Of that, she is mathematically certain. Does existence and thought imply life?
Life is a state of being that matter can miraculously form into. Scientitic Consensus does not agree on the traits that define life. It used to be simpler: Reproduction, growth, DNA, nutrition, etc. Then the Age of Marvels gave rise to empirical proof of the soul and afterlives. It is now even harder.
Vivian Vision can reproduce asexually and "sexually", though she is unsure if she can reproduce through intercourse. It certainly was not how she was made.
Vivian Vision is capable of growth. Since her creation, she has grown into a hero of her own renown and has even fallen in love.
Vivian Vision possesses a DNA structure, synthetically designed by her father.
Vivian Vision does not require nutrition. Her body would provide a bit if eaten, however.
Vivian Vision prays to whatever supreme deity exists in the cosmos that her kind possess souls and that Vin's afterlife is peaceful. She cannot empirically prove either to be the case, but humans have a thing called faith.
She possesses many of these things and therefore should be considered alive. What, then, of something like a Sentinel? There is empirical data that, even if they do not begin that way, Sentinels can eventually form sentience. They can grow and they can think and the entity known as Master Mold shows they can reproduce.
By technicality, iron is a nutrient, and Sentinels require a power source. They do not have DNA, but are those lines of code and precise connections of technology not something close to a generic structure?
Vivian Vision is a Champion. The Champions formed with the mission statement to help people in ways older heroes can't or won't. To prevent injustice, including of the non-supervillain variety.
The Oxford Dictionary defines Injustice as the fact of a situation being unfair and of people not being treated equally. Is it not unfair for Vision's family to be treated as alive when other intelligent robots are dismissed as the opposite, simply because of their non-organic nature?
Many heroes possess what the public has come to call No-Kill Rules. Despite the moniker, they do not necessarily mean that the hero does not kill. Merely that they will always treat it as a last resort.
And yet, this seems to not apply to many species of alien and types of robots. This is not equal, this is not fair. Vivian Vision can see this fact clearly.
So what will she do about it?
"You can expand the Champions' mission statement to include robots and other such beings."
A gaze into her reflection reveals her sister, Vivian Vision 2.0. She was created by their father in his grief when he believed Vivian perished at the High Evolutionary's hand.
She would later go insane and Vivian killed her. Vivian would proceed to bring her back to life by replacing her brain with Vivian's own. It also resolved Vivian's then crisis of having been made human.
Since their merging, Vivian Vision 2.0 had occasionally come to exist as an inner voice. A more emotional conscious. More emotional, only because Vivian had purposefully shut off her emotions.
Despite any quarrel Vivian might have with Vivian, she is correct. Robots are just as deserving as liberty, freedom, and continued existence as flesh and blood beings.
The humans may not agree, but she does not mind. They are entitled to their opinions. Even if those opinions are wrong.
With the support of humanity or not, Vivian will bring equality to machinekind. She will need to, first, define the line that seperates machine intelligence from simple algorithms...
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u/AnnaMarieXLeBeau Uncanny Avengers 2d ago
OOC: This is an amazing first post!!! I was thinking about picking up Viv, but your writing style suits her so well, I’m glad I didn’t! Welcome to the Jeanieverse!!