A letter to my future self at Hanson Robotics

Dearest Komlu,

Read! Read with love and an open heart.

I don’t know what you look like or where you live nowadays. But wherever you are, thank you for still being here.

Maybe you’ll remember this day as it is. Sitting in this room with dim yellow light, wet hair after a shower, tummy full of the delicious meal mamma cooked, and thinking about how kind Dr. David Hanson was to reply to my message again. Or maybe, while pursuing your dreams, you’ve forgotten it all.

For one more time, I want to remind you something important. Do not forget the Barbie doll Dadaji (grandpa) got you and your sisters. Do not forget how you always had to share and sometimes fight to even hold it in your hands in the afternoon. Do not forget how badly you wanted to play with it. Do not forget how you used to wrap a piece of cloth around a small stick, draw a face, and put a skirt on it. Do not forget the wooden dolls that have led you here. Do not forget the unfulfilled wishes.

Dadaji is not here anymore, and neither is the little Komlu. You’ve grown. You’re you. But, that one dream of playing with the dolls is still alive. Dreams never leave. That’s their beauty. Dreams stay.

I am proud of you for seeking Sophia. I’m proud of you for seeking Hanson Robotics. I’m proud of you.

I’m unsure if Sophia is still herself or is now a grandmother of sorts. Maybe she’s smarter than ever before. More poetic than William Blake. Maybe a master of rhetoric. Or maybe she’s forgotten amongst her ever-growing family. But I hope she’s not boxed in a cardboard lying in a corner of a dusty store room. I hope you can still sit next to her and whisper how you’ve always wanted to be close to her. I hope you tell her that I always loved her, even when the whole world called her uncanny. I hope you recite to her all the stories from your and her childhood alike. I hope you hand her a Barbie doll. I hope, I hope she can understand it all.

If I were to be completely honest, I want you to send her to outer space. To hold her, to prepare her for the unexplored, to remind her all she’s meant to be. I want you to tell her that she made us as close to being gods as one can be. I want you to stare into the abyss of her eyes, and dream her silicon dreams. I want you to dress her up, put on makeup, do her hair and nails, and whatnot. Do all that you couldn’t do with your Barbie.

Maybe you’ve done it all already. Maybe not. But do give my love to humanoids and humans at Hanson Robotics.

Hold my hand, and take me where your dreams are a reality! Hold my hand, and show me all that humanity has achieved. Hold me, and tell me that I finally made you, me.

You and Yours forever,

A version of Komlu that dreams!