Guin’s lab results looked at the lab results, a self-reflexive reexamination of itself.

Did the results reflect its best effort?

Could the results present itself in a better light?

Were the results indicative of a philosophy that it itself did not purport?

When lab results became self-conscious, an unintended consequence of the pervasive ISSA Net, the Internet of Things became a running joke about technology for technology’s sake.

Guin analysed the lab results’ judgment of its self-image, basing her next decision on the lab results’ confidence level.

The survival of the colony no longer depended on her next action…the possible extinction of Homo sapiens in Solar System No. 0000000000000000000001 might.