Moreplay!

[elfs]

So, into the mix I've tossed a preacher's daughter, a pair of incestuous clones sharing one set of memories and a very strange fashion sense, and a semi-sentient bed that wants to keep them all happy. 4,448 words in three hours. Damn, maybe I could do this for a living. (Aaah, I say that every Nanowrimo, win or lose.)

Buzzword of the day: Cognitively Modified Organism. That's the bed: its brainwiring preprogrammed to lack Darwinian instincts for independence, mateseeking, and self-determination but instead predispose it to be wholly interested in the wellbeing of those who sleep on it.

Comments

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

I wasn't able to find a good cite for 'sophont' (though I've encountered it before and I believe I grok your meaning), but I do appreciate the distinction you're drawing. If we could, for example, engineer cats with some set of mental traits considered desirable, that's a very different kettle of fish from making something more or less 'human' in its mind-shape, but with a serious case of directed OCD (and that's ignoring the fact that we already have engineered cats for a particular set of mental traits; to wit, domestication).