Quote:
Originally Posted by OkamiNoKaze
Yuki looks and acts like an android, but is she really mechanical on the inside, kind of like a terminator? or fully organic?
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That line rolled around in my brain for a while and eventually congealed into this:
Spoiler for length and off-topicness:
[BIKER BAR: INTERIOR: POV]
Our view is from the slightly red-tinted POV of SOMEONE who has just pushed open the door and entered the BIKER BAR, which is in full swing, with the jukebox loudly playing classic rock and patrons shouting harshly to each other over the din of the music and the other patrons' myriad conversations. As our SOMEONE moves around the room, and looks from patron to patron, a quickly scrolling litany of information is superimposed on SOMEONE's view of the scene, mostly in English, with graphical callouts describing different objects, persons, and pieces of clothing. As time goes on (no more than 15 seconds) the conversations gradually die away as we notice each of the patrons staring at this SOMEONE, most of the men (and some of the women) lasciviously so. Our view settles on one petite but tough-looking biker chick, tattoos covering her bare arms and a drunken look on her face. The graphical callouts focus on each article of her clothing and her boots, and on the keys hanging from her neck, comparing each to some internal database and coming back with a match. By this time every conversation in the bar has come to a stop as all eyes are focused on our intruder.
[BIKER BAR: INTERIOR]
Our view switches to an establishing shot of the fixated bar patrons, and as the camera pans over them, we finally see what our SOMEONE looks like. She is a petite girl with Asian features, auburn hair, and a large bust, and she is completely naked, from head to toe. She is also shivering, more from terror than temperature, but she manages to gather her courage, pulled from some internal reservoir of resignation, and as the last strains of the current song on the jukebox die away, closes her eyes with effort and nearly shouts the following in a reedy, nervous voice:
SOMEONE: [In polite Japanese] Um... I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle!
Back on topic, I see Yuki and the various other humanoid interfaces as approximations of human personality housed mostly in the wherever that the Data Overmind exists in, but connected to the bodies that have been created for that purpose. If the Data Overmind is seen as one big computer program, with various subroutines each handling their own processes, the humanoid interfaces are nested subroutines within those subroutines, with the express purpose of interfacing with the organic inhabitants of Earth and Haruhi in particular. When Ryoko was cut off from her interface, it was like a firewall cuttting off access of her subroutine from the larger data manipulation powers of the Data Overmind, making it easy for Yuki to then remove Ryoko's interface itself, and effectively toss her "subroutine" in the Recycle Bin.
As for when Yuki was created, I believe that she has existed in some form or fashion since the Data Overmind first gained sentience. Same with all the other interfaces, Ryoko included. But data entity consciousness and human consciousness are two completely different things, and that human portion of her existence has only been around for the three years (now four—or 598, however you want to count it) since her interface was created. And she's spent most of that time sitting in her empty apartment or reading books. Ryoko, on the other hand, interacted readily with other human beings, and (likely due to prodigious use of synchonization with her future—and thus more experienced—selves) developed a more human-like personality. I kind of get the feeling she was around on Earth before Yuki was, maybe as a kind of scout, observing humanity for clues to the Data Overmind's desired evolution (something it likely does on a number of sentient-occupied worlds), but having to take a backup position to the more competent (but less experienced in human existence) Yuki when she was created.