#robot check

Valentine likes to take photographs everywhere she goes. She has an instax camera that takes little pictures. They look a bit blurry to me but she prefers them to digital photographs or even film. She says they have a different "aura," which is another concept I don't understand.

Last week I went to Valentine's house and saw a board full of instax pictures. One of them was a picture of the sky and ocean, like this one. She took it when her aunt and uncle took her to the beach. She's glad she doesn't live with her father anymore because he would never take her anywhere. She'd just sit in her room trying to be "as quiet as nothing."

How can you be as quiet as nothing? Breathe silently? Muffle yourself under a blanket? Even still you'll make a noise. It comes with practice, Valentine says. Just like learning to go out of your body when you're too scared. Nobody teaches you. It comes to you as a gift from your brain.

Can a cyborg leave its body the way humans do? This is called "dissociation" and it is a way the mind protects itself from trauma when no escape is possible. What's the mechanical equivalent to trauma? How is a machine programmed to protect itself?

Some people find beauty in a nice sunrise. Some people find beauty in a sunset and some find it in a storm

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But