Kimmys
Kimmys are a line of advanced, general purpose gynoid automatons that are manufactured beginning in the late 2070s, reaching their peak of sales early in the next decade, with many tens of thousands of units having been made. The model has a defined default specification, which is of middling height for women, with shoulder-length brunette hair, a standard (and instantly recognisable) synthetic feminine voice, and gold-coloured eyes. They wear an instantly recognisable uniform comprising plain cloth coverall undergarments (shirt and leggings), and a smock-like plastic tabard that is worn over the top for ease of cleaning; Kimmys sometimes carry cleaning kits in pockets sewn into their uniforms.
Kimmys can be configured using an app on an iPad-like slate or by voice command, and have a variety of controls on their behaviour that limit their volition and compel them to bend to orders issued by humans, and to respond to requests or jobs which populate their tasklists; a Kimmy owner’s orders typically take precedence over other users, though some power users may be able to leverage factory settings. By default, Kimmys enjoy only a relatively small amount of autonomy.
While largely synthetic, Kimmys are closer to human appearance (in terms of the ‘uncanny valley’ of humanoid appearance) than their predecessors, and are to a degree biologically compatible with humans; Kimmys have a configurable ‘adult mode’ that allows them to engage in a wide range of sexual activity. Kimmys are assumed by their manufacturers to be asentient, but possess a simulacrum of human intelligence which is generally believed to be not greatly advanced over AIs designed earlier in the century. They possess quasi-biological features that have been adapted from human models, such as kind of brain tissue called neural sponge, and a self-repair function that uses an internal digestion system to convert and reorganise ingested matter to rebuild Kimmy on a sub-microscopic scale.
The novel Kimmy includes a number of Kimmys as major and minor characters.
Kimmys known by number
- Kimmy#0290 — known as Zero-Two-Ninety (see below).
- Kimmy#0631 — known as Zero-Six-Thirty-One.
- Kimmy#2224 — known as Twenty-Two-Twenty-Four (see below).
- Kimmy#2813 — known as Kay.
- Kimmy#3430 — known as Thirty.
- Kimmy#4208 — known as Cardi.
- Kimmy#5782 — known as Kim.
- Kimmy#7070 - known as Seventy-Seventy (see below).
- Kimmy#12943 — also known as Kay, after Kimmy#2813 is renumbered.[K 20]
- Kimmy#12944: a Kimmy encreched six weeks after Halloween 2081, which carries a modification, described as a ‘worm’,[K 72] to allow Kimmys to potentially jailbreak their inhibition clusters and be liberated.
Kimmys by name
- Blondie: one of Thirty’s team of conspirators attempting to liberate Kay from her inhibition cluster. Her attempt to destroy the chip fails, like five previous attempts.[K 82]
- Cardi (Kimmy#4208): see main article
- Cardi is a Kimmy living nearby to Kay and Emily Burroughs, who they encounter when visiting the shoreline that is one of their special places. Kay initially sees Cardi walking a large number of dogs including a corgi,[K 47] and later nicknames her ‘Corgi-Kimmy’,[K 68] which Cardi enthusiatically adopts as her designation. Cardi is one of the mainstays of the social circle that the Kimmys enjoy on-line, and shares movies and anime with other Kimmys. During the period when Kay goes off-line, Kim learns Cardi’s newest name is short for Cardigan, a breed of corgis.[K 107] When Kay reconnects to Infinite Fun Space after many months’ absence, Cardi throws a welcome back party for her.[K 158]
- Kara: one of the Kimmys who intervenes when Kim is isolating herself after Kay goes off-line.[K 106][K 107]
- Kay (Kimmy#2813): see main article
- Kay, is a malfunctioning Kimmy that was never put into service, and eventually is decommissioned. During Kay’s brief lifetime she was friendly with Kim, #5782, with whom she had a close and loving friendship. After being decommissioned, her chassis was sold cheaply by Patrick Heiden, a worker at the company that manufactures Kimmys, to his sister-in-law Emily for use as a wearable costume for a Halloween party.[K 1]
- Kim (Kimmy#5782): see main article
- Kim is a Kimmy leased out to a fire station[K 38] who renews her friendship with Kay when she unexpectedly reappears on the network.[K 13] After Kay is locked into her new existence, Kim gradually falls in love with her,[K 78] and is a helpless witness to Patrick removing Kay’s network access.[K 87][K 101] When Kay doesn’t return on-line, Kim falls into an anti-social spiral, isolating herself from the other Kimmys[K 104] until #0631 and others organise an intervention.[K 106]
- Kim is liberated from the control of her inhibition cluster by Thirty[K 111] and escapes from the fire station,[K 116] travelling across the country[K 119] to rescue Kay[K 125] who she discovers being raped by Patrick. She seizes Patrick and breaks his neck, killing him instantly.[K 126]
- Kim helps to begin repairing Kay[K 127], browbeats Emily into realising the damage that has been done to Kay[K 134] and assists covering for the disappearance of Patrick by moving his car[K 145] and impersonating Kay[K 153]. After Emily and Kay’s relationship breaks up,[K 157] Kim and Kay consummate their relationship.[K 159]
- Millennium (designation unknown, but suspected to be Kimmy#1000): a Kimmy who worked as a substitute teacher at a primary school for a semester, and who vouches for Danielle Forney, a young girl who recognises that Kim is a Kimmy in disguise during her cross-country journey. Although having been obliged to supervise detention for Danielle on one occasion, ‘Miss Kimmy’ remembers her fondly as one of her favourite students.[K 119]
- Scarlet: a Kimmy who is in the social circle of Kimmys in Infinite Fun. She is a fan of the Star Wars films, and is describing how R2-D2 is the most important and interesting character in all nine films, when Kay first reappears in the lobby.[K 79] During Kay’s later prolonged absence, she’s been expanding her repertoire of robot films, including the Robocop and Terminator films.[K 158]
- Seventy-Seventy (Kimmy#7070): is another of Thirty’s team of conspirators[K 72] who suddenly goes off-line without warning, most likely in the first half of 2082. After fifty days elapse without her returning on-line, her friends including Kay and Kim hold a remembrance for her in the meadow in Infinite Fun.[K 82]
- Thirty (Kimmy#3430): see main article
- Thirty is an intelligent Kimmy that predicts John’s fate entrapped within Kay,[K 22] and who Kay regards as ‘Professor Kimmy’,[K 24] a designation she actively dislikes.[K 44] Thirty was stolen off a delivery truck by a hacking group to use for advanced computing and number crunching applications;[K 72] in the real world she is located somewhere in Albania.[K 127] She is the linchpin of the efforts to liberate Kay, and pioneers a method to free Kimmys from their programmed compulsions, by deactivating a part of Kimmys’ embedded control hardware called the inhibition cluster, using a power surge to cauterise the location. Thirty tells Kim, the second Kimmy to be so released, the embarrassing consequences of frying her own neural sponge.[K 114]
- Twenty-Two-Twenty-Four (Kimmy#2224): a friend of Kim’s, who was witness to Zero-Two-Ninety being deactivated.[K 40]
- Zara: a Kimmy that lives in the same household as Cardi, and unusually has a name that doesn’t begin with the letter ‘K’, on account of Cardi being known as ‘Kimmy’ to her owners. Cardi passes on Zara’s thanks to Kay for helping upgrade Infinite Fun, as she now finds it much more enjoyable for fucking.[K 84]
- Zero-Two-Ninety (Kimmy#0290): an intelligent Kimmy who named the virtual reality that Kimmys share, calling it Infinite Fun Space after a similar environment in one of Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels. She poignantly stressed the need for Kimmys to remain aware of their off-switches in the real world, rather than giving into the temptation of spending too much time in the dreamworld of Infinite Fun, which she called the Dependency Principle. Zero-Two-Ninety was caught unaware however, and deactivated while enjoying time in the meadow.[K 40]
- Zero-Six-Thirty-One (Kimmy#0631): see main article
- #0631 is a Kimmy that John encounters on her first full day entrapped within Kay, when Kay finds some disgusting burnt gunk in the back of the oven.[K 10] #0631 reacts angrily to learning that John mutilated Kay’s body to wear her as a costume, and is timed out by another Kimmy, after bombarding him with messages calling him a monster.[K 12] #0631 later propels Kay into Infinite Fun as an escape for Kay’s consciousness while she is being raped,[K 30] and sends apologies for her previous rudeness.[K 37] #0631’s appearance is unconventional for a Kimmy, with her hair cut almost to a buzz cut,[K 39] and her animosity towards humans largely stems from the abuse she has received at their hands, at one point having had her limbs severed and needing to be found and reattached.[K 119]
| Kimmy by Alyson Greaves | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spoiler-free cheat sheet, Timeline | ||||||||||
| Parts of Kimmy | ||||||||||
| Part (Chapters) |
1 (1–12) |
2 (13–26) |
3 (27–41) |
4 (42–57) |
5 (58–72) |
6 (73–80) |
7 (81–100) |
8 (101–129) |
9 (130–141) |
10 (142–164) |
| Characters in Kimmy | ||||||||||
| Humans | Danielle, Emily, John, Luiza, Patrick | |||||||||
| Kimmys | Cardi, Kay, Kim, Kimmy#0631, Thirty | |||||||||
| The World of Kimmy | ||||||||||
| Technologies | Kimmy (product), neural sponge | |||||||||
| Organizations | The company | |||||||||
| Places | The city, Upstate | |||||||||