Kayla watched intently through the glass as her father, with the help of his lab assistant, inserted microbes into the brain of a lab rat. Kayla was so entranced by the scientists that she barely noticed another girl joining her.
“That’s my daddy,” Kayla said without turning her head. “He didn’t want me to come on bring-your-kids day but I made him so he did.”
“I’m Beonca,” said the girl.
“I’m Kayla,” she responded. “So anyway, I made my daddy tell me about what he does, and like, he sticks wires into those mice’s heads and then he can control them,” she paused, waiting for a response.
With eyes still glued on her father, Kayla continued. “Then I started to think, like, what it would feel like, y’know? Like, do you just feel your arms and leg move and you don’t know why and, like, you don’t want them to? Or does it, like, make you feel like you really want to move, or do something? What if they did that to a person? Like, could they make you think something? Could they make you like something?”
Kayla finally stopped to catch her breath. For a bit, both girls stood in silence, watching the scientists poke and prod without emotion at the rodent’s brain. Kayla’s father then walked to a console and pushed on a joystick. The mouse started moving and Kayla’s father nodded his approval.
“Like,” Kayla paused, trying to find her words. “I donno how much thinking a mouse can do, but they’re treating him like just some object. What if some aliens or robots were doing this to people? Like, y’know, talking about us like things and stuff, talking about our feelings like it was just data…”
Beonca gazed down at the ground, “I think I have to go now…” she uttered quietly and looked away.
It was only then that Kayla looked over at Beonca and noticed the wires.