english,
“The newest invention for the safety of our community! The Choice of Hardship and Risk Intervention System, or C.H.R.I.S., for short! No need to be nervous or scared again when you have C.H.R.I.S.! It calculates your every move so that you can be confident that nothing will go wrong or put you in danger!”
You hear a button click and a bunch of whirring sounds from somewhere. You can’t quite see anything due to it being incredibly dark. Suddenly, lines of text appear in front of you that say Power on. A familiar voice says:
I am the Choice of Hardship and Risk Intervention or C.H.R.I.S. I am here to prevent any sort of danger or unfortunate outcome from happening, how may I help you?
Next to the lines of text, a screen appears showing the face of a thin teenager with black hair and tired looking eyes. He wears a faded blue sweater and the edge of his hair touches the top of his eyes. He stares directly at you.
“A-Are you working?” he asks.
A keyboard suddenly appears in front of you.
“Uhh, h-hello, are you working?” he asks again.
You feel inclined to approach the keyboard and type out an answer for him. You get a weird feeling, as though you had to reply.
“Hello, are you okay?” you type.
Suddenly, more words appear under the lines of text from earlier.
Hello, my name is C.H.R.I.S. How may I help you?
These weren’t the words you put in, but it was close enough.
The teenager’s eyes open wide, as if he had just seen a ghost. “You work? Oh my god, maybe you really can help me. Is it true you can help me out so that I don’t make mistakes anymore? Is that true?” the teenager shakes the screen, arms outstretched.
It feels like he’s in dire need of an answer, like he needed help badly.
You start with something simple. “What’s the matter? Are you okay? What’s going to happen?” The voice spoke and text appeared once again.
Is there anything I can help you with?
He stares at you again. This time his body droops, arms still holding the screen. He looks down, as if he is hiding something, then he looks at both of his arms.
You realize what it is he has trouble saying.
Your hands whir on the keys. You want to comfort him, to say something, anything, just to put him at ease. “Please. It’s going to be okay. You shouldn’t feel that anymore, nobody should. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know if you’re going to tell me, but I hope you do. I hope to learn more about you and I want to see more of you in the future. Please.”
The voice and text that came along with the words don’t come.
The teenager’s arms drop. You hear sharp breaths coming from him. His hands slowly go up to his face.
“How do I become better? How can I prevent messing up?” he manages to let out.
You take a deep breath and type as fast as you could. Words that would comfort him, words that would let him know that it would be alright, words that would let him know that he has a chance out there in the world. Your hands typed, but as soon as you hit enter, no words appeared on the screen and the voice remained silent.
He sits there in silence as the clatter of the keys reverberate around the room until a screen to your left flashes with red text: Warning! You have entered too many invalid commands. Too many invalid commands? Is it talking about the words of comfort I’ve been trying to give? It won’t let me reach him?
Do you want to allow free input? Y/N
Your finger immediately presses the Y key, not thinking about the repercussions or the risks that it might bring, just as long as you can reach him. Your hands freeze above the keyboard thinking about what to tell him now that you can. You think about whether it would be relevant to comfort him about his problems or to just try and solve it. You look at the one of the very first lines that was said. That was your intended purpose, right? To try and prevent negative outcomes. You start typing.
There is no absolute way to become better. There is no safe way of doing so.
He raised his head up toward you, staring at you with raised eyebrows and confused eyes.
The ability to become better is fueled by risk, mistakes, but also learning. To try and better yourself means to pick and choose those who you will listen to, to see what is relevant and what is needless chatter. To prevent mistakes is to be content with what you have, to be complacent. Complacency counters becoming better because you are content with who you are.
“But isn’t that what you’re built to do? To prevent mistakes and unfortunate events?”
That is true, I was created to prevent unfortunate events, but not mistakes. I was created to formulate plans so that people would be more confident about their actions, and so that is what I am doing. I am encouraging you to make mistakes to learn from them, for it will be okay.
He stares at you, not moving from his spot, deep in thought.
So what are you going to do?
Literary: C.H.R.I.S.
“The newest invention for the safety of our community! The Choice of Hardship and Risk Intervention System, or C.H.R.I.S., for short! No need to be nervous or scared again when you have C.H.R.I.S.! It calculates your every move so that you can be confident that nothing will go wrong or put you in danger!”
You hear a button click and a bunch of whirring sounds from somewhere. You can’t quite see anything due to it being incredibly dark. Suddenly, lines of text appear in front of you that say Power on. A familiar voice says:
I am the Choice of Hardship and Risk Intervention or C.H.R.I.S. I am here to prevent any sort of danger or unfortunate outcome from happening, how may I help you?
Next to the lines of text, a screen appears showing the face of a thin teenager with black hair and tired looking eyes. He wears a faded blue sweater and the edge of his hair touches the top of his eyes. He stares directly at you.
“A-Are you working?” he asks.
A keyboard suddenly appears in front of you.
“Uhh, h-hello, are you working?” he asks again.
You feel inclined to approach the keyboard and type out an answer for him. You get a weird feeling, as though you had to reply.
“Hello, are you okay?” you type.
Suddenly, more words appear under the lines of text from earlier.
Hello, my name is C.H.R.I.S. How may I help you?
These weren’t the words you put in, but it was close enough.
The teenager’s eyes open wide, as if he had just seen a ghost. “You work? Oh my god, maybe you really can help me. Is it true you can help me out so that I don’t make mistakes anymore? Is that true?” the teenager shakes the screen, arms outstretched.
It feels like he’s in dire need of an answer, like he needed help badly.
You start with something simple. “What’s the matter? Are you okay? What’s going to happen?” The voice spoke and text appeared once again.
Is there anything I can help you with?
He stares at you again. This time his body droops, arms still holding the screen. He looks down, as if he is hiding something, then he looks at both of his arms.
You realize what it is he has trouble saying.
Your hands whir on the keys. You want to comfort him, to say something, anything, just to put him at ease. “Please. It’s going to be okay. You shouldn’t feel that anymore, nobody should. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know if you’re going to tell me, but I hope you do. I hope to learn more about you and I want to see more of you in the future. Please.”
The voice and text that came along with the words don’t come.
The teenager’s arms drop. You hear sharp breaths coming from him. His hands slowly go up to his face.
“How do I become better? How can I prevent messing up?” he manages to let out.
You take a deep breath and type as fast as you could. Words that would comfort him, words that would let him know that it would be alright, words that would let him know that he has a chance out there in the world. Your hands typed, but as soon as you hit enter, no words appeared on the screen and the voice remained silent.
He sits there in silence as the clatter of the keys reverberate around the room until a screen to your left flashes with red text: Warning! You have entered too many invalid commands. Too many invalid commands? Is it talking about the words of comfort I’ve been trying to give? It won’t let me reach him?
Do you want to allow free input? Y/N
Your finger immediately presses the Y key, not thinking about the repercussions or the risks that it might bring, just as long as you can reach him. Your hands freeze above the keyboard thinking about what to tell him now that you can. You think about whether it would be relevant to comfort him about his problems or to just try and solve it. You look at the one of the very first lines that was said. That was your intended purpose, right? To try and prevent negative outcomes. You start typing.
There is no absolute way to become better. There is no safe way of doing so.
He raised his head up toward you, staring at you with raised eyebrows and confused eyes.
The ability to become better is fueled by risk, mistakes, but also learning. To try and better yourself means to pick and choose those who you will listen to, to see what is relevant and what is needless chatter. To prevent mistakes is to be content with what you have, to be complacent. Complacency counters becoming better because you are content with who you are.
“But isn’t that what you’re built to do? To prevent mistakes and unfortunate events?”
That is true, I was created to prevent unfortunate events, but not mistakes. I was created to formulate plans so that people would be more confident about their actions, and so that is what I am doing. I am encouraging you to make mistakes to learn from them, for it will be okay.
He stares at you, not moving from his spot, deep in thought.
So what are you going to do?
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