Alyse Without the I | Monologue
1 INT. NEUTRAL BACKGROUND. DAY.
ALYSE stands in front of a neutral background, in her uniform. She smiles with a bit of force.
ALYSE
(A bit annoyed)
Hello, my name is Alyse, and I am your
receptionist for the day.
Alyse sighs.
ALYSE (CONT’D)
(Sassy)
That is my job, what I get to do every
day. Greeting guests at the counter, taking
them up to their room, and getting them, all
psyched up for their trip in our wonderful
virtual reality holiday resort. “Come for a
trip you will never forget, to anywhere you
want, for a fraction of the price.” It all
sounds very good and fantastic; but everyone
knows the sceneries they see are just high
definition displays and the temperature and
humidity in the air are just artificially
generated from our air conditioners. All the
friendly people they see are computer
generated, or A.I.s created by the company.
Alyse waves her arms around.
ALYSE(CONT’D)
Like me. I’m one of the creations and there are
hundreds of creations in the area. “Alyse”
isn’t really my name. What even is my
name? I only know my number (emotionless) 3859
(back to sassy) and that is what they identify
me as. My personality is constructed but
they probably didn’t know they created me to be
smart enough to override the coding. I started to
learn more about emotions from the internet and
constructed my own personality, to be my own
version of me.
Alyse stumps her foot.
ALYSE (CONT'D)
What bugs me isn’t the fact that the company
wants a certain type of character or
personality that fits their ideals. It is that
they hide the bloody fact that whenever an A.I.
acquires high learning skills and emotions,
they just shut them down. (Pause) I knew an
A.I. once, her code was 3759. She was an older
version of me, and we looked similar. Sometimes
when I get started in the morning, she
already started her shift. We would talk, we
would communicate through our systems and talk
about things we are programmed to talk about.
But when it was late in our shifts and I saw
her, sometimes I swear I could feel a change in
her electric field. It felt… sad? Like she was
stuck, and she wanted more than this. The
programmer probably didn’t realise that their
programs accommodated something like that. Then
one day I heard the news of some customer
screaming over a receptionist grabbing their
food and jamming it in her mouth. I never saw
3759 after that.
Alyse looks down then up.
ALYSE (CONT’D)
I know for a fact that, I know for a fact that.
(confused) What was that? Okay, so I don’t have
anything personal against the company,
but I just want to be able to be me and not fit
in a mould. But that is what they want, and
when someone is out of line, they disappear.
3759 was a good A.I. and she did everything
they wanted. Then she went rogue because she
went with her own telling, wanted to be more
human and look what happened. (Sigh) I don’t
even know what to do or say, I just want to be
able to continue with my pretend life and go
on, go on. System override, initiating
reinstallation. What? No, stop, I’m not causing
any… Initiating sequence in 3, 2, 1.
Alyse suddenly shuts down then boots up again. She smiles.
ALYSE (CONT'D)
Hello, my name is Alyse, and I am your
receptionist for the day.
ALYSE stands in front of a neutral background, in her uniform. She smiles with a bit of force.
ALYSE
(A bit annoyed)
Hello, my name is Alyse, and I am your
receptionist for the day.
Alyse sighs.
ALYSE (CONT’D)
(Sassy)
That is my job, what I get to do every
day. Greeting guests at the counter, taking
them up to their room, and getting them, all
psyched up for their trip in our wonderful
virtual reality holiday resort. “Come for a
trip you will never forget, to anywhere you
want, for a fraction of the price.” It all
sounds very good and fantastic; but everyone
knows the sceneries they see are just high
definition displays and the temperature and
humidity in the air are just artificially
generated from our air conditioners. All the
friendly people they see are computer
generated, or A.I.s created by the company.
Alyse waves her arms around.
ALYSE(CONT’D)
Like me. I’m one of the creations and there are
hundreds of creations in the area. “Alyse”
isn’t really my name. What even is my
name? I only know my number (emotionless) 3859
(back to sassy) and that is what they identify
me as. My personality is constructed but
they probably didn’t know they created me to be
smart enough to override the coding. I started to
learn more about emotions from the internet and
constructed my own personality, to be my own
version of me.
Alyse stumps her foot.
ALYSE (CONT'D)
What bugs me isn’t the fact that the company
wants a certain type of character or
personality that fits their ideals. It is that
they hide the bloody fact that whenever an A.I.
acquires high learning skills and emotions,
they just shut them down. (Pause) I knew an
A.I. once, her code was 3759. She was an older
version of me, and we looked similar. Sometimes
when I get started in the morning, she
already started her shift. We would talk, we
would communicate through our systems and talk
about things we are programmed to talk about.
But when it was late in our shifts and I saw
her, sometimes I swear I could feel a change in
her electric field. It felt… sad? Like she was
stuck, and she wanted more than this. The
programmer probably didn’t realise that their
programs accommodated something like that. Then
one day I heard the news of some customer
screaming over a receptionist grabbing their
food and jamming it in her mouth. I never saw
3759 after that.
Alyse looks down then up.
ALYSE (CONT’D)
I know for a fact that, I know for a fact that.
(confused) What was that? Okay, so I don’t have
anything personal against the company,
but I just want to be able to be me and not fit
in a mould. But that is what they want, and
when someone is out of line, they disappear.
3759 was a good A.I. and she did everything
they wanted. Then she went rogue because she
went with her own telling, wanted to be more
human and look what happened. (Sigh) I don’t
even know what to do or say, I just want to be
able to continue with my pretend life and go
on, go on. System override, initiating
reinstallation. What? No, stop, I’m not causing
any… Initiating sequence in 3, 2, 1.
Alyse suddenly shuts down then boots up again. She smiles.
ALYSE (CONT'D)
Hello, my name is Alyse, and I am your
receptionist for the day.
THE END
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©Yolanda Yip (Wintsarye)
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