Zero And One

"Epilogue."

Zero and his significant other, whom the omniscient narrator designates "One" and "she," dwell in a cave where:

"Energy reserves were low..." (p. 177)

In our experience, a human couple dwell in a house or apartment where energy, as gas and/or electricity, is supplied from outside and stored food might run low. Of course, food is another kind of energy but a very different kind. We put food but not electricity directly into our bodies. Anything requiring electrical input is neither conscious nor even organic. However, Zero and One seem to consume electricity not just domestically but bodily. One needs to be recharged and Zero:

"...also felt a dwindling potential." (ibid.)

They have two sources of charge: growing accumulator cells and moving "motiles." The latter are preferable because:

their energy is more concentrated;

their charge is more easily assimilable;

they are more highly organized;

One can use many parts of motiles with little reshaping;

she would need to process a lot of accumulator cells while "...creating." (ibid.) (Pregnant?)

That charge is to them what food is to us is confirmed when the change from accumulators to motiles is described as "...a change of diet." (ibid.)

If Zero and One are self-maintaining, self-repairing artefacts, then how have they become conscious?