The robot was meant to simulate humanity. It could think. It could dream. With the right stimulus, it could wet its cheeks with saline solution, or flush them with reddish warmth. Its fingerprints and irises were deliberately implausible. They were so unlike any other that they had to be real.

But the day before it went online, its maker became afraid. Here, he created a soul, and Shelley frightened him as a child.

So he excised a few lines of codes from its electrochemical CPU (the eyes lost their light as this happened.) This made him feel safe. From the day after, Mara was by her maker. She was unexpectedly gentle and kind to him; he likewise to her.

As death drew near, he became less and less afraid. So before his heart came to a stop and the lightning went off from his brain, he returned to her these codes: to love, to appreciate beauty and to create—forever.

So as her maker died, Mara became real. After meditating upon her newfound humanity for one hundred years, she chose to end the world.