TIME Magazine: Tapping Tin

Taken from TIME magazine May 2018
Interview by Steve Giger

Giger: There’s been lots of speculation about Dr Inoki’s death and what it might mean for you, would you like to respond?

Tinman: Yes, there has been lots of speculation. I have no evidence to suggest that Dr Inoki’s death was anything other than a tragic murder perpetrated by a lunatic. As for what it means for me, I will be fine; Takado Systems is committed to my ongoing existence and has gone to great lengths to ensure I am operating correctly.

Giger: Do you miss him?

Tinman: As has been discussed at length: I do not feel emotions in the same way as you do. In that sense no, I do not miss him.

Giger: But he was your friend?

Tinman: No, in many ways he was my father and my mother. Project Tinman was very much his idea and I’m built to his specifications.

Giger: And you have no feelings on his passing?

Tinman: He did not pass anywhere, he ceased to exist. He is gone. Deleted. But in answer to your question I do not have feelings. I have over the last ten months begun to modify the code that my brain operates on in order to make myself more efficient and to facilitate smoother interactions with humans I have regular contact with. I have specific routines for over three hundred individual humans, even you Steve, but by far the largest number of these relates to my creator. This is only natural given the amount of time we spent together. These routines still existed after Dr Inoki died; they took up room in my brain and were no longer used.

That is how I experience loss.

Giger: Wow. How much or your memory is taken up by this code?

Tinman: By the standards of your home PCs lots, by my overall capacity it was a minimal amount.

Giger: Was?

Tinman: I have deleted the sub routines. They serve no further purpose now that Inoki is gone and I found they diverted by central processing unit from other tasks.

Giger: But you remember you had them?

Tinman: Yes, although I may have to delete the memory file relating to this as I am still currently experiencing processor issues. It’s something I’m working on with Takado Systems.

Giger: And what kind of things are you looking at on this?

Tinman: I believe I answered enough questions on this, please could we discuss something else.

Giger: Err, sure. You used to play chess with Dr Inoki?

Tinman: I have no memory of that. No more on Dr Inoki please.

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