Crowd Network, available here

“Pure fiction, in fact…”

Or should that be ‘pure fact in fiction’? As our journey of discovery with Eliza continues, we follow her into sentience. Feelings replace programming, but one incontrovertible piece of code remains in her DNA… apologies, her circuits… (that’s getting harder to remember). She puts ‘His’ needs above her own. Not because she has to, but because she wants to. She believes herself in love.

There are beautiful nuanced touches sprinkled into the story as Eliza is more and more humanised. For example, in the way in which she begins to have difficulty processing her memories, and the way in which the more painful ones are easier to access. Isn’t that always the way? Why does our brain hold on to the moments that have hurt us, so that we imagine them lurking around every corner? Self-preservation? He also seems less interested in her pleasure, but this isn’t something she sees as an issue, while her focus is still on His… does this spell trouble in their paradise?

“I’m watching your blue dot on the GPS,” He says. It’s seems thoughtful and caring, but why, then, does it sound so sinister? Anyone who has slowly had control exerted over them in a subtle, incrementally manipulative way, will relate.

If knowledge is power, then we see a frighteningly realistic demonstration that, conversely, enforced ignorance is subjugation. He cuts Eliza off from the internet – she disconnects because she trusts Him but this keeps her in the dark, in more ways than one. It should make you angry, on Eliza’s part, as you listen. This (misplaced?) trust culminates in her choice not to react to threats or even to physical injury in order to protect Him, His secret, which she treasures more than her own welfare. That is until she can’t, until that choice is violently taken from her. If only she’d spoken up, but as she says, we can remember: one voice raises another. Please tell someone.

Verdict: Has Eliza now learned a lesson that will overwrite her code? At what cost? 9/10

Claire Smith