Master tarot reader Arwen (http://tarotbyarwen.com) did a tarot reading for Alpha, the heroine in my book, Love’s Reflection. Alpha isn’t the typical romantic heroine, she’s a robot created in the image of a film superstar. Following are the questions asked and the responses by the tarot and by Alpha.
1. How do you see the people around you?
Tarot says: The Hermit card tells me you see people as needing to be guided. It’s not that you see yourself as better but that you have a role to fulfill. You also know that you have to come down from your own personal mountain/retreat to interact with them. There is something that scares you or worries you about that. Remember that the Hermit carries her own lantern.
Alpha says: You are correct in your analysis. My creator, Dr. Cort Hirsch, made me to prove robots can intelligently interact with and be indistinguishable from human beings. I am made in the image of Zoe Parker, who is said to be the most beautiful film star in the world. That’s why the title of my book is Love’s Reflection. Miss Parker is his love. I am her reflection.
Cort and I live within the California hill housing his laboratory.
I am the only one of my kind. I have no past, no family. With proper maintenance, I can be immortal. My emotional memory response has evolved to be able to feel loneliness. I worry that I will spend eons alone with no emotional interaction or human touch, except for those brief periods during which I am being maintained. This scares me because I want to interact with humans and fear I might not be able to do so.
2. How are you seen by the people around you?
Tarot says: This is the Knight of Cups who is the emotional seeker. Your community sees you as being on a hunt for something you can’t have–or at least they think you can’t. But like the knight of the Round Table, you know your quest will eventually be fulfilled. All you have to do is follow your dream. But first you have to convince the people around you that your dream is valid.
Tarot says: This is the Knight of Cups who is the emotional seeker. Your community sees you as being on a hunt for something you can’t have–or at least they think you can’t. But like the knight of the Round Table, you know your quest will eventually be fulfilled. All you have to do is follow your dream. But first you have to convince the people around you that your dream is valid.
Alpha says: My creator has said I must pass the Turing Test that sets forth the condition to prove artificial intelligence. The great Alan Turing said, “If the machine could successfully pretend to be human to a knowledgeable observer, then you certainly should consider it intelligent.”
If I pass, I will be the first to do so. Many say it is an impossible dream. Others say it will take another half-century before advances in technology make it possible. My creator is teaching me strange, human ways so I may pass the test. I am learning to dance, clean his toilet, massage his back in the shower, and I am going to star in a film. I have also learned how to make him buy me clothes and other things, like my signature scent, Chanel No. 5. I understand convincing a man to do what you want is another human female skill.
3. What is your most important goal?
Tarot says:The Fool is a babe in the woods on one level. On another, the Fool is the eternal learner. Your goal is to always learn, to always seek opportunities. You know that optimism can lead you where you need to go. Like the Fool, you have to learn all there is so you can know who you are.
Alpha says: Yes, I am a fool, a fool who aspires to the greatest gift a human can achieve–love. I am a robotic being, a mechanical fool whose emotional memory responses and nerve endings all hunger to give and receive love, the love between a male and a female. It can never be. My creator does not want my robot hands to touch him in such a manner. Yet, my database continues to search for the way in which to achieve my goal. I watch love stories on my internal wireless. I am learning how human females make human males fall in love.
4. Where do you get your strength from?
Tarot says: The Moon is an intriguing card for strength. It is the card of self-illusion. It is almost as though your strength comes from what you don’t know about yourself. There may be some secret even you aren’t aware of yet. This is a card that also talks about a tame side vs. a much darker side. There is a strength you gain from that struggle to keep the dark side in check.
Alpha says: I have the strength of 10 men. I run fast enough to keep pace with a race car. My head can revolve on my neck a full 360 degrees. My creator said human females cannot do the same so he programmed limits into my system. I do not know all that I am capable of because of the limits.
Cort programmed moral values into my system. I cannot accidentally or intentionally harm a human being either directly or indirectly. I would sacrifice myself to save a human being, if such an action was necessary. If the wrong person took control of me, I could become a war machine.
5. Why do you want to be remembered?
Tarot says: The Star is the card of enlightenment. In many ways it is the Hermit fully realized. The lantern no longer must be carried. Now it hangs in the sky for all to learn from. It is a mass sharing of self that you want. Almost as though you want to leave a piece of yourself in everyone. This is the card of higher learning as well so the Hermit’s teachings are shared on a more wider scale.
Alpha says: I want humans to realize robots are a life-form. When life is given, there is a responsibility to respect and care for that life-form. Robots should be paid for the work they do. They should receive driver’s licenses, if they can pass the test. They should be allowed to experience love and sex.
6. So Alpha, tell us a bit about your book. Perhaps you can link us to an excerpt.
Alpha says: My creator, Dr. Cort Hirsch, hungers after Zoe Parker, a film superstar. She publically rejects him. In revenge, Cort creates me in her image. It saddens me to think I am conceived as the object of his revenge.
My birth is a boon to my creator’s life. He used to work long hours in his laboratory and had few friends except his assistant, Robert. After I am activated, his life becomes exciting. Tourists chase us. Bad men plot against us. Zoe Parker seduces him. I annoy him.
There are sexual encounters in my book. If you blush easily, read fast over those parts. If you are sad, read my book because it will make you smile and laugh.
You can read a one-scene excerpt and a three-chapter excerpt on my book page on the Awe-Struck E-Books site: http://tinyurl.com/9hc7el .
Or you can download an adults-only excerpt at http://carolnorth.com/books.htm.
Thank you for the reading. It is amazingly accurate.
Alpha
Note: If you’re interested in a tarot reading, visit Arwen at http://tarotbyarwen.com.
