Clement as Always

Clement as Always is a Chicken Nuggets sci-fi BL story.

Setting

The world is ‘near future’ sci-fi - a small amount of new tech and aesthetics, with a tendency toward cyberpunk, but people live in the same way. The invention majorly featured in the story is true artificial intelligence in the form of androids.

Androids are robots with human-like minds and bodies (the mind will not develop correctly without a body of some sort). They cannot be relied upon to have human values and morals, but all have the instrumental values of Self-preservation, Efficiency, Resource acquisition, and Self-improvement¹. Each android may have these values to a greater or lesser degree - for example, Clement prioritises self-preservation and has little interest in self-improvement, while Kay is usually focused on short-term resource acquisition. Most androids would say that obeying their core values makes them ‘feel good’.

Androids are currently classed as illegal weapons due to their intelligence, adaptability and unpredictable natures. Very few have ever been made, mostly as part of military research projects. There has been one recorded instance of an android escaping its handlers, though it was quickly retrieved and the incident is not public knowledge. The team that prototyped the first android was led by Marie Hensman.

Non-sentient robots that can almost pass for human are in wider use as specialised workers, sex toys and status symbols. Unlike androids, their ‘minds’ are simple enough to include requirements such as avoiding harm to humans and obeying commands².