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Keres used to perform on stage as an escape artist, but he quit after he messed up the most dangerous trick in his performance. He lost consciousness before his assistants could get to him, and had the vivid sensation of wanting to walk towards the light at the end of a tunnel, but being blocked from proceeding by an underground river. In the water was a large snake. Keres asked the snake to help him cross, and it said: "Wake up, child, you're late for school." This despite the fact that he was an adult who hadn't been in school for many years now. He understood this to mean that he needed to finish the software engineering program he'd dropped out of - in the most common religion of his homeworld, the creator-deity that presides over Fate and holds the Milky Way together is often referred to as the Serpent, because to hold a Galaxy together, Its body would have to be very long.
Across the different worlds of the Interplanetary Alliance, it's a common belief that 'artificial intelligences becoming self-aware and rejecting their programming' is a divine punishment of some kind. Those who don't believe it, still agree that it's a good idea for there to be auditors who check that companies aren't accidentally creating any software that might become sentient. Keres is both an auditor and an ordained priest of the River-Serpent. The way in which he interprets 'divine punishment', is that the Creator makes AI's go rogue so they can punish people for their crimes. (And as a killer AI's first victims are usually its creators, not meeting the standards of safe software development must be a terrible crime indeed). His roles complement each other: because he will grant them absolution, employees are more likely to anonymously volunteer the information which he needs, and he's very good at presenting his findings and explaining what to do about them in a way that keeps the audience's attention. He's never met a sentient robot, and would probably react poorly, if one showed up in front of him. (It will happen.)
"Your offering of truth is accepted, and you are forgiven. The Serpent loves all of Its children, even the ones who skimp on quality control to meet a deadline."
