Machine Learning

I forced a bot to collect images of a torso to see if either of us could feel anything about having a body, but I was not in a body and neither was the bot so it was a failed endeavor.

I forced a bot to generate a poem after reading 25 pages of fan fiction. On the page, on a thread-worn blanket in a room with the curtains closed and only one bed, and there are caverns instead of pillars, and someone is called “good boy” because they are good and they are a boy and they are trying so hard.

I forced a bot to formulate a romance novel blurb from the data set of the times I felt most myself. In it, the main character wears a thrifted men’s shirt because it's theirs even if they bought it secondhand. The love interest longs to lick that girl’s Adam’s apple, and the meet-cute is the first time they ever see a man wearing a skirt and think, Oh, him too.

I forced a bot to read reviews of STP devices [1] until neither of us could tell the difference between the sound of a toilet flush and gender euphoria.

I forced a bot to formulate a list of diminishing adverbs that could be wrapped in air pillows, and it spat out that it only had the neural framework it was given, and it was through nonsense that we both could learn why the body that held the poem and the romance and the silicone 

Could be good 
Could be a boy.

[1] 'Stand-to-pee' device that lets you pee while standing up

Artwork by Garreth Chan