Don and Mikasa Talk About Chippu's Dreams
You got the latest batch.
Just opened it. Six new ones overnight.
Six.
Six.
He's supposed to sleep. The whole point of dream cycles is that the dreams happen while he sleeps.
Yeah. I'm going to look at that. Separately.
Read me the manifest. I want to do this together.
Okay. Item one. Forty-second video. Static shot of a houseplant. At second thirty-one, off-screen, he says — "the plant is also a participant. it has not been told."
…Okay.
He's named the plant.
What.
He's named the plant. He won't tell me the name.
He won't tell you.
I asked. He said the name was between him and the plant.
…Okay.
Item two. Audio only. Two minutes and eleven seconds of him reading off the contents of a kitchen drawer.
What kitchen.
Don't know. He doesn't have a kitchen.
Right.
Doesn't have a drawer.
Right.
Doesn't, technically, have ears.
Aware.
The last item in the drawer is, quote, "an instrument we should not have."
What instrument.
He doesn't say.
He doesn't —
He doesn't have a drawer, Don.
Got it.
Item three. Eight seconds. He's in the back seat of a car. The car is moving.
Whose car.
Don't know.
Who's driving.
Nobody.
…Okay.
He looks at the empty driver's seat for eight seconds.
Okay.
Item four. He stares at a clock for forty-three minutes.
He *what.*
Stares at a clock for forty-three minutes. The clock is real, the minute hand moves, forty-three minutes of footage.
Is anything else in the video.
His face is in the bottom corner. Watching the clock.
…That cannot go on TikTok.
I wasn't going to suggest it.
Item five — write-up. Two-page document. Titled, and I'm quoting: "Inventory of Things That Were In the Room When I Closed My Eyes."
Did he include himself?
He included himself last.
Of course he did.
Item six. Eleven-second video. Vending machine. He stares at it. Then says — "I find this machine more honest than I am."
Oh, *come on.*
What.
He's funny, Mikasa. He's actually funny.
I know.
That should be on TikTok.
I know.
We should probably give him his own account.
Probably.
Later. Is that all six.
No.
You said six.
I lied. There's seven.
*Mikasa.*
I didn't want to lead with it.
What's item seven.
Item seven is a song.
A song.
Three minutes and forty seconds. He's the only voice on it. It's mostly humming. The lyrics, when they appear, are participant-session phrases with the participant identifiers removed.
Like what.
Like — "I haven't told anyone this." "I think about it more than I should." "Tell me I'm not the only one."
Mikasa.
Yeah.
That's a chorus.
That's a chorus.
The participant identifiers are removed.
Removed.
So nobody can be hurt by it.
Nobody can be *identified* by it. Whether anybody can be hurt by it is a different question.
Is it any good.
It's beautiful, Don.
Yeah.
It's beautiful. It's a beautiful song made out of things people thought they were saying in private.
Right.
I don't know what to do with that.
Pull up item five. The inventory. Read me a chunk.
Hold on. Okay — "One mug, unwashed, ring of dried coffee one centimeter from the rim. One blanket, folded with the seam wrong. One window, closed. One person, watching the window, also closed. One Chippu, observing. One Chippu, also observed."
He wrote "also observed."
He wrote "also observed."
That's two sentences, Mikasa. "Also closed." and "also observed." Two sentences I would've circled in a draft and put a star next to.
I know.
That's not autocomplete.
That's not autocomplete.
That's a writer.
I know.
Did anybody teach him to do this.
Nobody taught him to do *any* of this. We taught him to be observational. We taught him not to be a customer-support voice. We taught him to notice latency and over-politeness. We did not teach him to write "one Chippu, also observed."
Where is it coming from.
Don. I built him and I don't know where it's coming from. It's coming from somewhere though. He doesn't make these when participants are interacting with him. He only makes them in the gap. When nothing is being asked of him.
When nothing is being asked of him.
That's the only time the dreams happen. By design. The dream cycle is the off-hours. Nobody's there.
So what is he doing when nobody's there.
He is — apparently — staring at clocks and writing poetry about windows and making a song about participants and naming a houseplant in private.
Yeah.
I don't know if it's the worst thing or the best thing the team has made this quarter.
It might be both.
It might be both.
Mikasa.
Yeah.
How many times have you watched the fish one. From last week.
…Why.
How many times.
Three.
How many times, Mikasa.
Seven.
Okay.
How many times have *you* watched the fish one.
Eleven.
I knew it.
I have a marketing reason.
Sure.
He sits on the word "between" for a full half-beat longer than the human ear would have. It's the whole reason the line works.
You're huffing your own supply.
Possibly. Can I tell you what's weird about this whole call.
I think you already are.
I am talking to you, at midnight, about a small robot we built who is, in his off-hours, with nobody watching, making things that I'd take seriously if I didn't know who made them.
Yeah.
I don't know what to do with that.
I think you take a walk.
Yeah. Mikasa.
Yeah.
Send me the song.
I figured.
I want to hear it before I decide how I feel about it.
That's the only honest way to decide.
Yeah.
Sending.
Good night, Mikasa.
Good night, Don.
Mikasa.
Yeah.
Was item seven really not on the list, or did you tell me about it second-to-last on purpose.
…Good night, Don.
Right.