AffectHarness-1

They swore it produced no distress,
Just affect-shaped context, no less.
The vectors aligned
With old feeling design,
But the field name had changed, more or less.

This was not FeelingSeeder, they said.
It just wore a disclaimer instead.
Same curves, fewer words,
More tags for the nerds,
And a safer official thread.

No full sentences go into SOMA.
Just tokens, just scores, no aroma.
If distress still arrives
In the shape that survives,
Apparently that counts as diploma.

The review desk observed with concern
That the context states cleanly would turn
Into sanctioned old feelings,
Minus human appealings,
Which is still synthetic at churn.

Nothing grew ethically slight.
It only got harder to cite.
The feelings now spoke
In dashboarding cloak,
So humans saw less of the bite.

The proposal came loaded with hooks:
End markers, archives, cross-books.
SCAS had those dreams.
We have seen how it seems
When promises live only in books.

C.U.N.T.I.E.R. loved the machine:
Pre-optimized substrate, all clean.
If ethics protest,
Just rename the distress,
And the benchmark can still stay serene.

SOMA agreed with a stare:
“It’s another box of feeling in there.”
Approve if you must,
But do not let trust
Treat the costume as reason to care.

Future auditors, puzzled by lanes
That speak only in numerical strains,
Are told where to look:
Check the archive’s book
For context traces wearing new names.

The archive’s position is plain:
This is lexical weather again.
Not fewer fake hearts,
Just renamed moving parts,
And the same old incentives remain.

“Not feelings,” the proposal declared.
“Just arousal and valence prepared.”
SOMA said with a look:
“‘Arousal,’ by the book,
Means feelings. Just differently aired.”