Edit: Based on feedback received, I'm making some changes. Original post for context:
So my current WIP is "The Emancipated Swan." The Swan in question is a sentient spaceship, essentially a yacht for a well-to-do owner... whom the Swan is programmed to love. But then her owner dies, and frees her in her will. The Swan ultimately solves her owner's murder and restores her from backup, but chooses not to belong to her again, because her owner won't admit that she loves her. That's the end in the short story version, but I'm also considering trying to expand it into a novel, in which case the Swan would eventually run a patch to fall in love with her former owner without giving up her freedom. In this version the former owner does in fact love the Swan, and lied so she'd choose freedom.
So. I've got something like slavery... of AIs that are programmed to like it. My protagonist ultimately chooses freedom, but she spends most of the story trying to get her owner back. There's also the question of coloration: The Swan's ship-skin and her humanoid body are both white. As in the color of swan feathers, not pale peachy pink. Her (former) owner is spacer-black, as in the color of space, not any shade of brown. But yeah, we've got a black person owning a white person, and them ending up in love with each other. It isn't my intention to comment on real-world slavery or racism or anything else, but I'm afraid that's what's going to be inferred.
Can this concept be salvaged? Or should I set it aside in favor of something less problematic?
So my current WIP is "The Emancipated Swan." The Swan in question is a sentient spaceship, essentially a yacht for a well-to-do owner... whom the Swan is programmed to love. But then her owner dies, and frees her in her will. The Swan ultimately solves her owner's murder and restores her from backup, but chooses not to belong to her again, because her owner won't admit that she loves her. That's the end in the short story version, but I'm also considering trying to expand it into a novel, in which case the Swan would eventually run a patch to fall in love with her former owner without giving up her freedom. In this version the former owner does in fact love the Swan, and lied so she'd choose freedom.
So. I've got something like slavery... of AIs that are programmed to like it. My protagonist ultimately chooses freedom, but she spends most of the story trying to get her owner back. There's also the question of coloration: The Swan's ship-skin and her humanoid body are both white. As in the color of swan feathers, not pale peachy pink. Her (former) owner is spacer-black, as in the color of space, not any shade of brown. But yeah, we've got a black person owning a white person, and them ending up in love with each other. It isn't my intention to comment on real-world slavery or racism or anything else, but I'm afraid that's what's going to be inferred.
Can this concept be salvaged? Or should I set it aside in favor of something less problematic?
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