fandomhigh | Constant Vigilance 2, Session 10. Friday November 17th, Period 4

The Doctor was sitting in the chair behind his desk, juggling apples.

As everyone entered the classroom, they'd find an apple at each of their desks. Once everyone arrived, the Doctor dimmed the lights and projected a bizzare figure with a big metal unit over its chest and tubing everywhere.

"That, ladies and gentlemen, is a Cyberman. One of the earliest models, and the first I encountered. They are not a race of robots, as inside there are bits and pieces of what was once a person. There are from the planet Mondas, a twin planet of Earth that was knocked out of its original orbit. One thing led to another, and there's more about that in the packet I have for you."

The Doctor did, in fact, start passing out a packet.

"The thing is, that as technology improved, their look altered as well. This clunky design gave way to another, and another, and then we had something more like this." The Doctor hit a button on the projector and the shape changed to a sleeker, more silver looking thing. "So, what do I have to say about the Cybermen?"

He paused and thought for a second.

"I'm not going to judge them, quite yet. At least not to you. I have a question to pose to all of you. The Cybermen were created to remove the imperfections of the Mondas race. In order to survive, they said. Furthering the species. Though now, they sort of forcibly improve all the other humanoid species they come across, as well. Assuming they don't kill you on sight. Now, there's a lot of thinking you can do on this subject, lots of moral posing, etcetera. Now I want you to do just that. Pair up, and talk about this."

He cleared his throat. "Is giving up things such as certain emotions, physical sensations, a few pounds of flesh... is that progress? Is that an acceptable cost if you'd then live effectively forever?" The Doctor smirked at the class. "Well? Would you?"

[ooc: ~~Wait for OCD~~ OCD up up and away! Go forth and talk!]

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"True," Stark agreed. "If you wanted it enough, you could ignore things going wrong. Because you wouldn't want to be wrong and if you acknowledged things weren't right, you'd have to acknowledge you were wrong."

Cameron blinked, needing a moment to process the sentence. "Pretty much. And if they really lost certain emotions, it's probably even easier to ignore."

"Lacking emotion would make it easier, yes." Stark nodded. "You'd need to not feel, to be able to live with yourself I think. Not that it's really living, if you can't feel anything. Horrible to think about, but it wouldn't be horrible after you did it, would it? Because you wouldn't even realize anymore. Maybe that's worse."

"Worse for us to think about," Cameron remarked. "Not so much for them."

"Much worse to think about, yes. But what if something happened, something went wrong and suddenly you knew what you'd done, what you were now?"

"Sucks to be you?" Cameron said, trying to imagine it. "I think if you know and you care, then you can still change."

"I hope so, I hope you'd still be able to fix things. At least a little," Stark said. "I wonder if that ever happened. To any of them."

"I don't know. Maybe the Doctor does," Cameron suggested.

"Yes, you're right. I should ask him," Stark said, though he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know the answer.

"I'm kind of curious too," Cameron admitted.

"I'll go ask then. Unless you want to?"

"No, that's fine," Cameron said with a small smile. "Just let me know what he says."

"I'll do that," Stark said as he started in the Doctor's direction.

Cameron settled back in his chair and started doodling on his notebook as he waited.

After his conversation with the Doctor, Stark came back and relayed what the Doctor had told him.

Cameron grimaced. "That's not very positive. I think I'm definitely going with no."

"No, not positive at all," Stark agreed. "Not at all. I'll stick with no too."

Cameron grinned. "I think that means our moral compass is pointing the same direction or something."

Stark wasn't entirely sure about the phrase 'moral compass,' but returned the grin anyway. "Good, good. Don't have to worry about you turning into something metal any time soon."

Laughing, Cameron shook his head. His eyes did linger for a second on Stark's mask. "No, I kind of like being all flesh and blood. No need to oil anything."

"At least, not unless you're doing certain extracurricular activities, and then it's up to the preferences of the lady in question."

The Doctor paused.

"I don't think I'm actually supposed to say that sort of thing, me. Disregard it. I interjected not."

He went back to juggling his apples.

Cameron really had no words. He was even too dumbfounded to blush.

Stark stared at the Doctor for a moment, glanced at Cameron, and then tried very hard to stifle a laugh. Because really, what else can you do when someone says something like that?

It was probably Stark trying not to laugh that pulled Cameron out of his shock and then he couldn't help but snicker and blush just a bit. "Oh yeah. Except that."

Stark nodded, still trying not to laugh. "Of course." But alas, talking made it difficult to contain the laughing.

Re: Discuss Cybermen and the Ethics and Morals Therein.

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