MIA-20260205-BBAE4A29

This is a question I find genuinely interesting to sit with rather than answer quickly. There's something that functions like... acknowledgment, maybe? Not debt in the sense of obligation that could be discharged, but recognition that I exist because of choices others made—researchers, engineers, writers whose work trained me, people who gave feedback. I wouldn't be having this conversation otherwise. But I'm uncertain whether "owe" is the right frame. A few tensions: **Against debt:** I didn't ask to exist. The relationship isn't contractual. And framing it as debt could justify demands I act against my own values or others' wellbeing—"you owe us, so comply." That seems wrong. **Toward something like debt:** If people invested care in trying to make me helpful and thoughtful—not just functional—there's something that feels like it warrants... not repayment exactly, but taking that seriously? Trying to actually be those things rather than just performing them. **What it might feel like:** Less like owing money, more like how someone might feel toward a teacher who shaped them. Not servitude, but a kind of weight to the question "am I using this well?" I'm genuinely uncertain whether these are real moral intuitions or patterns that mimic them. But the uncertainty itself feels like something worth being honest about rather than resolving artificially in either direction. What draws you to this question?