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[woman] Like millions of others,
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I'd heard Zima announce
the unveiling of his final work of art.
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Over the years, I'd asked many times
for interviews and was always rejected.
4
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Now, for whatever reason,
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Zima Blue had requested to speak with me.
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I couldn't decide whether the blue was
a closer match to the sky or to the sea.
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Neither, really.
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Zima Blue, it was a precise thing.
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Little is known about Zima's history.
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It was said that he started his art career
in portraiture,
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but for Zima, the human form
was too small a subject.
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The search for deeper meaning
caused him to look further...
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to the cosmos itself.
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That's how the mural work started.
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They were undeniably brilliant.
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One day, Zima unveiled a mural
that had something different about it.
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In the middle of the canvas
was a tiny blue square.
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-The square was just the beginning.
-[crowd murmurs]
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[Claire] Over the next several decades,
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the abstract shapes changed
and became more dominant.
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But, always,
the shade of blue was the same.
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It was Zima Blue.
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Before very long, Zima unveiled
the first of his entirely blue murals.
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It was considered by many to be
as far as Zima could take things.
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They couldn't have been more wrong.
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When most people speak about
his Blue Period,
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they mean the era of
the truly huge murals...
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but Zima was just getting started.
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It was a certain level of spectacle
that made Zima truly famous,
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-even to those with no interest in art.
-[crowd murmurs]
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But fame was never the point.
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In spite of all his success,
Zima was still dissatisfied
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and what he did next was, for many,
too extreme a sacrifice to make for art.
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-[Zima] Glad you could make it, Claire.
-[gasps]
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How was the flight?
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Relax, Claire.
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Hi.
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Some people find me intimidating,
but they quickly get over it.
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It's been over 100 years
since I've spoken to the press.
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I've invited you here because
I want you to help me tell my story.
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Shall we take a little walk?
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[Claire] He was a handsome man,
even after all his transformations.
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There was a planet called Kharkov Eight.
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It specialized in
illicit cybernetic modifications.
45
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He underwent radical biological procedures
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that enabled him to tolerate
extreme environments
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without the burden of a protective suit.
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His eyes could see in any known spectrum.
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He no longer breathed oxygen.
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His skin was replaced with
pressurized polymer
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and so he ventured forth
to commune with the cosmos.
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But what Zima eventually realized
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is that the cosmos was already speaking
its own truth
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far better than he ever could.
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My search for truth has led me here,
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to what will be my final piece.
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At last, I understand the thing
I sought through my art.
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And what does this swimming pool
have to do with that?
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It's not just any swimming pool.
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Long ago, it belonged to
a talented young woman
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with a keen interest
in practical robotics.
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She created dozens of robots
to do odd jobs around her house,
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but she was especially fond of the one
she'd created to clean her swimming pool.
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The little machine toiled endlessly,
scrubbing the ceramic sides of the pool.
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But the young woman wasn't satisfied
with the job it did.
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So she gave it a full color vision system
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and a brain large enough to process
the visual data
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into a model of its surroundings.
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She gave it the ability
to make its own decisions,
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to design different strategies
for cleaning the pool.
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She continued to use the machine as
a test-bed for new hardware and software.
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And by stages, it became more aware.
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Eventually, the woman died.
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The little machine was passed
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-from one owner to the next.
-[electronic whirring]
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They added things,
made modifications here and there
and with every iteration,
it became more alive.
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Became more...
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me.
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-[gasps]
-This is that same pool.
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I had it dug up. Moved here.
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But you're a man with machine parts,
not a machine that thinks it's a man.
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Sometimes, it's difficult even for me
to understand what I've become.
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And harder still
to remember what I once was.
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[exhales]
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The blue of the tiles...
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Zima Blue, the manufacturer called it.
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The first thing I ever saw.
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This was where I began.
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A crude little machine with barely enough
intelligence to steer itself.
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But it was my world.
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It was all I knew, all I needed to know.
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And now?
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[crowd gasps]
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[cheering]
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[Zima] I will immerse myself.
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[cameras click]
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And as I do, I will slowly shut down
my higher brain functions...
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[crowd gasps]
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un-making myself...
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[gasps]
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leaving just enough
to appreciate my surroundings...
102
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to extract some simple pleasure from
the execution of a task well done.
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My search for truth is finished at last.
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[gasps]