‘Are you deliberately talking in riddles?’

It makes another of its noises, this time a sigh. I use the temporary pause to make a quick connection with Field. The page superimposes on my in’screen. I blank.

Begin search …

What is the meaning of ‘station in life’?

Does it mean religion?

Loading …

… ‘Station in life’ as in:

Nonetheless, seams can make borders ‘semi-permeable membranes’, relatively more or less porous to people, depending upon their nationalities and stations in life, to economic exchange, to the passage of ideas …

That expression is considered ‘dated’ today, though a convenient catchphrase in flowery speech and writing.

{M’Rec Hub Bank}

Different stations in life

4.1 [count noun] • One’s social rank or position

… we are defined by our jobs …

In a broader sense, perhaps, status, standing, locus standi, position.

{M’Rec Hub Bank}

What determines ‘station in life’?

Your ‘station in life’ includes such things as age bracket, marital status, whether or not you have children, whether you are a priest, religious or layperson, perhaps your work status (i.e. if you are an employer or not).

{cut in’screen}

Darkness lifts. I return to Bo. It’s scanning again, this time with a frown cast across its handsome face. Even the swirling, circular daymark stamped on its forehead is beguiling, easy to view; under normal circumstances I struggle to take my eyes away. I blink to focus on what I’m trying to say. I’m leaning forward. My volume is raised.

‘Why am I lesser? I’m not ranked high enough to understand your warped ideas of hierarchy?’

Bo sits back, shaking its halo. It glistens in sunlight like the night skies of the wild.

‘Augo. Come on. Are you angry?’

‘Of course I’m angry. You’re saying I don’t have the capacity to grasp simple propaganda. You’re calling me unintelligent.’

‘No! Come on, why would I? I’m stating a fact. Look, listen a minute, don’t argue. You and me, we’re friends. Right? That much is clear. But at the same time we’re different. I’m Binary Organic, you’re Augmented. I’m daymarked earlier, sure, but that still gives me a forty per cent greater capacity on the back end, which works out an extra ninety million terabytes. That’s fact. Your qualia. You’re smart, I just have a greater capacity, hence our different stations. Look, man, that’s how Jazari made us …’

I sit forward, and something snaps. The urge breaks loose, blanking my hub again, surging from my mouth.

‘I’m not a man, and we don’t have different stations in life, the simple fact being neither of us are alive! We’re coupling machines for Jazari’s sake! Coupling machines!’

Silence. Bo’s still hand is raised mid-gesture, its face all hard angles, protruding cheekbones, grizzled spots of protein on the cheeks and chin. Eventually it relaxes. The hand falls, it sits back, its legs protrude. If I could name one thing it has a greater capacity for, I would instantly say patience.