Chee's Non-Violence Programming

[TobiasMasonPark]

     On a different note--sorry to just stear away from your discussion, Phoenix-- I just can't stop thinking about how different Erek is from the other Chee. It's not even the fact that he's the only known Chee to use violence. Whenever he makes an appearance in the books, I get the impression that he's one of the Animorphs; like he's an actual person. I mean, the other Chee have been on earth just as long, but they don't seem to be capable of mimicking human nature like Erek. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that Erek is the only Chee we hear from consistently. I don't know...Erek just seems...human. And him feeling remorse about killing only makes him all the more human. I know very little about Androids...Can they feel emotions?

[Phoenix004]

I know what you mean, but like you said that's most likely due to the fact we rarely encounter other Chee. Most of the few we have met seem just as human to me though. They've had more than enough practice at it.

Aside from being made of metal, the Chee are barely any different from any other living being. They are sentient androids, meaning that they can think and feel for themselves, make decisions, be affected by consequences, etc.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Mr. King is someone we see pretty often--maybe not as often as Erek-- but I don't get the same vibe from him.

[Blazing Angel]

The pemalites programmed them not to directly hurt any individual. Maby they thought there was no need to go for indirect revenge or violence becasue being pemalites and blissfully ignorant  they never thought "Maby one day we'll get nuked!"

[warren_bearclaw]

One thing I just thought of: The Chee aren't responsible for others' actions. That's why they could tell the Ani's what the Yeerks were up to. Because at that point, it was their decision to take action, not the Chee's.

[Blazing Angel]

He has a point. But I still don't know why chees can't fight. If their fighting in the name of peace isn't that kind of justified. And since the yeerks basic goal is chaos than they should be able to step on those slugs.

[Chad32]

It probably would have been better to just teach erek restraint instead of just putting his programming back. I don't really buy the "I can't forget" line. There should be some way to remove data, otherwise the Chee's memory will run out and they won't be able to input anymore data.

[TobiasMasonPark]

It probably would have been better to just teach erek restraint instead of just putting his programming back. I don't really buy the "I can't forget" line. There should be some way to remove data, otherwise the Chee's memory will run out and they won't be able to input anymore data.

     Super hard-drive?

[warren_bearclaw]

It probably would have been better to just teach erek restraint instead of just putting his programming back. I don't really buy the "I can't forget" line. There should be some way to remove data, otherwise the Chee's memory will run out and they won't be able to input anymore data.

Keep in mind that the Chee are all connected to each other (so they share data) and to the ship (which holds who knows how much data), and that the Pemalites created a computer the size of a peanut that could do such massive damage. My mind is blanking on what exactly the Pemalite Crystal did... >.< But anyways, who knows how much data they could hold? And who says they didn't have a way to store it externally? It's safe to assume that the Chee knew at least half of what the Pemalites knew (and that's being way conservative, of course) so it would make sense that they could build devices for external memory storage. And if they've been able to hide out amongst humans for these thousands of years, I don't think they'd really have to worry about these devices being stolen or hacked. I bet the Chee put up a mean firewall, unlike the Pemalites.

EDIT:

It probably would have been better to just teach erek restraint instead of just putting his programming back. I don't really buy the "I can't forget" line. There should be some way to remove data, otherwise the Chee's memory will run out and they won't be able to input anymore data.

     Super hard-drive?

Basically, yeah.

*shrugs* That, or maybe the filters that the Chee have the decide what memory to store and what to discard is something they can't alter. Him killing the small army in #10 might be classified as something to save by his programming.

And then... there's also the fact that he isn't sniveling and whimpering about that in any other book in the series. Maybe he did forget... *shrug*

[Chad32]

I don't know.

[Blazing Angel]

well if he dried in every book he'd basically be the biggest soosy in the whole series so it makes sense to pull himself together. Besides he has a life to live and if he starts crying in the middle of school what will he say. "I'm sorry Mrs. Jones, I just slaughtered about a dozen aliencs last night and its been tough." He'd get a note sent home about laying off the video games.

[Tim Bruening]

And also, what counts as 'harm' and what counts as a living 'being'? I think it is safe to assume that plants aren't included. Do bugs? Do rodents? Domesticated animals? Wild animals? Dictionary.com defines 'being' as "conscious, mortal existence" and also as "a living thing". Thanks to the insanity that is the English language, this isn't too helpful. Does anyone recall any instances of any Chee eating meat or swatting flies? And also, I think that this excerpt may be of interest:

  <How did you convince the Yeerks that you
are one of them?> Ax asked him.
  Erek turned off his hologram and became a
machine once again. And then the front of his head
split open. Inside his steel and ivory head was a
chamber, just a few inches in diameter.
  And inside that chamber was a gray slug,
helpless, unable to escape. Tiny wires, no
thicker than hairs, wrapped around it.
  <Yeerk!> Ax hissed.
  "Yes," Erek said. "The Yeerks
believe I am human. I accepted infestation. But
of course the Yeerk cannot make a Controller of me. I made a
place for him instead. He sees nothing. Knows
nothing. I tapped his memory, not the other way around. And now I can pass
among the Yeerks like one of them."

In later books, why doesn't anyone ever suggest putting dissident or POW Yeerks in the type of chamber Erek was using to imprison and keep alive that Yeerk?  For example, in Book 29, Aftran could have been kept alive by putting her in such a chamber (modified so that she isn't a prisoner, of course).  Book 28: The Controller-Scientist who helped tha Animorphs escape from the Yeerk meatpacking plant could have been kept alive in that manner.  Book 31: Tom's Yeerk could have been kept alive and questioned, while Tom's death is faked and Tom given refuge at the Hork-Bajir valley.