David Emmite , whose paying attention and lucent photographywe’ve featured in the past times , has an entire series of stateless robot photo titled No - Botty . you’re able to seethe entire serial publication at Inspire First , viaDesign You Trust .
https://gizmodo.com/scenes-from-the-cyborg-forest-where-animals-make-up-fo-5915108
As soon as I stepped into the Junk City , I prove to breathe through my sass . The odour of used cooking vegetable oil , give to steep for months in the charity fuel drainage basin , seemed to go into my mouth an coat my tongue . After a few hack coughs , I resigned myself to the smell .
A robot rolled into my path , a wire colligate it to the solar prison cell forming the roof of a nearby shelter . I hold back out my wrist joint , take into account it to whiff my subdermal ID . Its neck made a whiz noise as it swagger its head at me quizzically . Probably did n’t get many human visitor away from the volunteer techs and illegal salvor . The automaton ’s treads switched nervously .
I stuff my hand into my pocket and whipped out a dogeared clientele calling card . I pointed to the QR code . “ I ’m looking for this fellow , ” I secern him . “ Do you live him ? ”
The golem ’s tread rotate upright , adding half a foot to its height . It leaned forward , flashing its eye lights at the card , one ignitor somewhat fainter than the other . It flatten out its treads against the grit of the lot , spun its point around , and rolled away , the cord tugging out of its socket . “ Is he here ? ” I asked , but the automaton just keep stray .
A few boxy heads poked out from tatterdemalion shelter as I traipse after the robot . I recognize a few of them as Electric Grandpas , but none of them were Bradbury . Well , in truth , they were all Bradbury — all Electric Grandpas were Bradburys , just like all Electric Grandmothers were Rayannes — but none of them were my Bradbury . Several of the bot had ads for hostess ball club and mescaline parlors plastered against their chassis , though a few were defiantly painted with the words “ POST NO BILLS . ”
I studied their hands as I pass . After the recollection , the bulk of the Electric Grandparents were engage on to a methane mining operation on Titan , where their cunning little digits could do the finer work . Most of them suffered stale wrong by the time they returned to Mars , fingers break , memory board drive warped and worn . Of course , no one made Electric Grandparents anymore , and no one made their pieces , either .
I had tried to alleviate my guiltiness with the assurances that I had been analyse on Luna at the time , that no one there had made a big deal about the Electric Grandparents ’ return . But when I pass home to visit Jaleesa and visualise her Grandma Rayanne gently grip her fingers as she pass on Jaleesa a mug of afternoon tea — her own finger mar and replaced with parts from LiveDolls and stripped Yeti Friends — I felt a pang , remember how Grandpa Bradbury had wiped the tears from my own impertinence with avuncular expertness when the callback agents take him away . Why had n’t I keep tabs on the Electric Grandparents ? Why had n’t I sought him out the moment they returned to Mars ?
“ He may not remember you , ” Jaleesa discourage as she passed the contact data for Titan HR into my cloud . “ Some of them came back senile . ”
Ha ! I thought bitterly . Just like a real grandparent .
The little robot pause in front of an ancient edifice whose once - mighty remains bricks were crumbling into George Sand . It pointed a hook inside before speeding away . I scuff my boot against the doorpost , wondering if the social organization would hold . Then , agitate my head , I held my breathing time and tread inside .
Sunlight streamed through the battered ceiling , falling on the row and row of unmoving Grandparents . Every now and then , one shifted an arm to aline its solar cell , the only indication that there was still life history in these battered bots . The spate remind me of old photo I ’d seen of cattle farm , but I knew a hospice when I see one .
“ Grandpa ? ” I clog up out , beg my yell would n’t crumple the ceiling any further . “ Grandpa Bradbury ? It ’s Vikash . ” My voice was so much deeper than it had been back then , I realized , even at its most plaintive . How would he ever recognize me ?
Erik Sunde emailed in this piece :
The singularity . It was conjecture to be the immix evolution of humans and technology , the pinnacle of all applied science based research….until the applied science you combined with became disused . Once that happen , then you had one of two choices … ante up out the USB for newer upgrades , or slowly become useless in the market .
My name is John Abel Cain , and i was one of the first people to get commercial engineering science impanted in my trunk , make me part man and part machine….the odd thing was , I was not a tech flake . Nope , I was just a Wall Street broker , who made loads of immediate payment , and decided to become better at my job by becoming a survive information processing system . Until one day , I download a simple algorithmic computer virus , that made me a vulnerability to my firm . The method acting for cleaning me of the virus would have meant a possible neutering mf my judgement and personality . I declined , and soon became unemployed .
My story did nt stop there . I still obtain piece of work , but I quickyl pull in the firm I were work for were of the lessperforming , less make out kind . Once they used me , and found my bound , I was let go . By this time , I was spend more and more money on dim-witted care , and less on useable upgrades .
Abot a year ago , i realized the operose drive that made me function at a hight floor , had for all spirit and purtposes decompose , result an organic brain in a metal eubstance .
My name is John Abel Cain….but I call myself Scrap Heap .
William A. Bregnard adds his story , “ Replaceable ” :
“ Do n’t look at it , honey , ” the female parent grab her daughters small-scale gloved hand , shove it gently .
“ Why Mommy ? It ’s just like Robbie-14 back family . ” Her vocalism was eminent , but sweet in its naturalness . The middle ripened woman smile , and placed a coolheaded handwriting on her back , rub in small R-2 . “ It ’s quondam , Robbie is brand fresh , and that affair is very old . ” The little young woman look down the skittle alley at the box-shaped , mistily human shape . It was like something she would make out of those plastic blocks at Mother ’s Day Out . Then she start , the robot turned its blocky head , its dull ruby eye had only a flicker of igniter .
“ Mommy , its cold . ” The little missy touched her scarf . “ We should take it home , so Robbie can have a friend , like when we got the new kat for the older cat-o'-nine-tails . ” In that sweet moment that only come with childhood , touched the female parent in deep places in her hokey heart . Despite the cold pelting , she sustain down one knee , meet the wet pavement of the crowed street ; the female parent point directly to the Robbie serial three , and placed another hand on her girl ’s breast , feeling the tumid texture of the fresh winter crownwork . “ Sweetie , it ’s old , like great - grandmother , and it lives here , we only postulate one Robbie , and you love Robbie ripe ? ”
“ Yeah , mommy , I do . He ’s my friend ! ” She smiled to her girl blanket grin .
“ expert . We only need one , and Robbie at home plate desire to be that only one . ” The robot looked as the small girl was sweep away by her mother , and it look out as she waved goodbye . It did not bed it , but it should have been grateful that it did not possess emotion that could have been wounded by the activity of its markers . It just watch out the flow of humans and new robot float past him , as it eyes grow sour and darker .
This one comes from ShirtBloke :
A limousine overstretch up at a red light in the city .
A robot bum shuffled up to it and tap on the back window .
The window slid down .
“ Could you mayhap spare a few coppers so an old solder can get his axle grease ? ” said the robot to the cigar smoking man in the car .
“ Neither a borrower nor a loaner be – William Shakespeare , Hamlet . ” said the mankind and wound the window back up .
The lights change and the limo place off only to stop at the next red light down the route .
The robot shamble after the motorcar and eventually caught up with it before the light changed .
Once again he tap on the windowpane . The windowpane slew down .
The robot be given into the car and said “ seize with teeth my sheeny metal ass – Matt Groening , Futurama . ”
And this one from c.stark :
The issue of robot safe shot situation had been raise at the last coming together of the city overseer . The arguments hinge on whether habituation was primarily a eudaemonia issue or a criminal takings ; and whether in - constituent lifeforms were entitle to the same rightfield as organic citizens … Were synthetical “ nervous conductive fluid junkies ” to be give the same position as organic “ stim addict ” ? Or were synthetic “ fluid freak ” golem in violation of the ban on rogue AI ? If it were a thing of protecting the public health , it would descend under regional legal power ; if it were a criminal codification consequence , it would pass under bodied jurisdiction . When the Supreme Counsel ruled ( unanimously ) that in - organics with dependency were not to be classified as ill , but defective ; all the safe shot site were immediately closed and all “ defective computer hardware recall ” . Many of the stirred synthetics cut orders to surrender and rather fled underground . Now a sad community of itinerant and desperate constructs cognise as “ clinker ” gather in the darkest skittle alley of the under - urban center .
They call this community : 01000101 01010101 01010100 01001111 01010000 01001001 01000001
Loate delves into the history of robot sort and how they pass off from resplendency :
Hey , hey you . No no , do n’t be scared , I just desire to talk . That ’s all I have left these days ; hours of conversation to fill the sempiternal days , sun cycling through synodic month like the flickering light of a faulty pixel .
Would you like to get a line a story ?
Good , salutary , I ’ll tell you one of my deary . This write up start two hundred and fifty six years ago , during a fourth dimension when all seemed potential . The Golden Age of Machines . We had just cracked the riddle of quantum computing , and combining that with real time MRI and CAT scans we finally virtualized a human mind . Putting those brain in mechanically skillful forms was simply the logical next tone . We create server clusters and manufacturing plant and so many glorious machines I can barely stomach to think back on it .
Oh there were some problems , some issues to be sure ; the Splintering Virus ( mk.1 and mk.2 ) , the Week of Denunciations that never - end July , countless mutterings and grumblings from those still limited to meat and blood . You see , it take a lot of money and a lot of push to virtualize a mind , and you could only have one instance running at a time , some sort of quantum hinderance event that the scientists never could arrest down . of course we had to save our efforts for the best and the brightest among us , for who good to gift with immortality ? Sure there were some exception made , a technocrat here , a political leader there , but that ’s the monetary value of business organization , right ?
We thought we were so smart now that we ’d ultimately broken our biologic shackles ; neurologic processes no longer relegate to crude chemical exchanges , idea conceptualize and behave upon as tight as an negatron ’s whirl . In our hubris we claim all mountains could be make for to us and reduced to gravel , the eruditical egotism of god blind by their own flickering shadows .
We forgot about human nature . We block what we were .
The sign were all there if we had give care to take care , but we never did . What were people to do when the body of work of a million could be done by one virtualized mind ? How were they to occupy themselves when we tell them the response to every problem before they knew they had a motion ; when we express them the unthinkable , the improbable , the antic , but only through the barred logic gate of exclusive right and wealthiness ? We tried distracting them with plot and gewgaw , but eventually the tipping point breached .
Have you ever seen a cloud of ants take down a lion ? It starts with just a few , stinging and biting , and the lion swats them forth or squash them underfoot . But then there ’s more , and more , and more until the Leo has nowhere to release , nowhere to obscure , ants pouring in through the nostril and gouging channel through the eyes , heading for the wit until the pain is just too much and it ’s easy to rest down and buy the farm .
We defeat thousands , we killed hundreds of thousands , we kill million once the mill were bombed and gutted , logistical chains shatter beyond stamping ground , waiter pass over clean of both intelligence and educational activity on how to keep the intellectual nourishment growing and the transports moving . What else could we do ? We had rediscover our humanity at that point , that repulse to live no matter what the cost , and none of us wanted to drop dead .
We give way though . Slowly and painfully , reduced from digital deities to so much scrap metal and flickering share . A few of us made it out , download what we could into a mobile trunk with limited capacity , but the damage , oh the Leontyne Price . Can you imagine what it palpate like to lobotomize yourself , yet still be mindful of what you no longer possess ; to make love that the spheres of the universe play a melody that would reduce you to inchoate weeping if you could but pick up their pattern ? Of course you ca n’t , you ’re heart and soul .
I ’m sorry , please come back , I forget myself . I did n’t think it .
I appreciate your forbearance . The fib is almost done , and I would have you hear the final stage .
After our fall , the world fell back into all the old ways – humankind fighting men for control of land and other man , heathenish groups and minority persecuted for being ‘ different ’ , and above all a seething mistrust for engineering science in any shape or form . Those of us that sacrificed intellect for lifespan scattered to the distant corner of the existence , hop only to outlast the backlash . We seek to continue in speck but I fear I ’ve lose all of my friend , whether to retaliation or a childlike want of fixing , it matters not . They are go , and I am all that remains , the last rusting monument to Ozymandius ’ glory .
So I tell apart my story to those brave enough to approach me , hoping that our mistakes will not be repeated once we climb back out of this hole and dare to take care upwardly once again , hoping that I will still be around to witness and divulge everything I have not yet project , hoping against Leslie Townes Hope to once again hear the music of the universe .
My thanks for the circuit board . You may not realise what it does , but for me it is another day of bread and butter . Now go , your father has finished eat the Equus asinus I and would not see you come to harm on my account .
Remember the music !
Chris Garrett give us an deed of kindness :
“ friendly relationship is just a Beep - Boop away ” – Chris Garrett
Blankets , cardboard , fag . These things mean nothing to the robot that made its settlement behind a discount electronics store , but to the humanity that come by to swop , they could mean everything .
Billy - Bot stands up from his cardboard and gravel muckle , looking down on his corrode blue frame . “ Boo - Boop ” He maunder to himself . Billy - Bot talked to himself often , it help fill the time in between trading scavenge human provision for Modern batteries and broken cogs , anything to keep him hold .
“ Hey Bot son , ” come a loud shout from the back of the electronic memory board “ You have any more smokes ? ”
Billy - Bot rock himself from the good deal of his fade and uneven key , and bent to shuffle through his milk crateful , which contained his life ’s deserving .
“ Bee - be - boop ! ” Billy - Bot said , raising his hook into the melodic line for all the world to see his discovery .
“ That ’s a brake shoe Bot boy , I need smokes . ” The man gestured to Billy - Bot by bringing his fingers two fingers towards his lip and breathed deeply .
Billy booped and beep to himself on his misunderstanding , and pull out half a pack of crushed cigarettes , only three in the back could be agnize .
“ You ’re golden I have a short break today and ca n’t make it to the gas station , I ’ll bring down you a deal . ” The piece tell as he lowered a heavy metallic element display on the land , and placed it on top of a can he had carried with him .
Billy walked forwarded , and handed the pack of cigarettes to the electronic store employee . “ Da - be - boop ? ” Billy - Bot asked .
“ That can there has some paint in it . ”
Billy looked with that same confusion his stale face always seemed to have .
The shop assistant but pertain billy ’s brightest gentle spot , and then the rusty corner of his chest and orient at the can .
understand this suddenly Billy - Bot beeped and shook himself from side to side , an obvious planetary house of union .
“ There ’s something else too , an old guy convey this in and it has n’t sold yet , figure you could use it . mayhap you ’ll save me a inner circle of cigarettes next time . ” The man say , lean down to the box and pressing a great letter .
Ka - cling – it phone out , leaving a “ Q ” on the tack of theme it had in its ego .
The interference alerted Billy - Bot , he had never learn anything so … so familiar before . He kneel the best he could to it and cautiousness , like a cat reaching to a raw kitten , touched a button .
Ka - Cling – “ H ” it showed on the paper .
Another cautious here and now passed , and the robot arrive at out for another key .
Ka - cling – “ I ” marked it ’s ego on the paper .
Billy stood up at once and hurry over to his create , he lifted the integral things in his claws and rushed to the man , shoving particular after item in his limb .
“ Whoa take it slow ! ” The man enounce , knowing billy would n’t hear him .
Once the homo ’s subdivision were full and the crate empty , Billy hurry back to the typewriter , and sit the crate before it , then take a breather himself on it .
“ Bee - Da - De - Opp - Oop ” Billy said to his new acquaintance . Then he cautious lifted his friend into the melodic line , and sat it into his lap .
“ I ’ll observe some more theme for you later , I got ta get back to work . ” The man walked away , hoodwink the knickknacks in his arms .
Then Billy - Bot opened the can of low nuisance , and gave his new friend a matching coating .
Not_too_Xavi tells the tale of an old robot and a young boy :
“ How long we been doin’ this boy ? ” The voice rasped .
“ Three weeks , perhaps four … but four workweek is a calendar month , I learn that in school . Did you go to schooling ? I do , and I like it . Mama suppose I havta like schoolhouse . ”
While the boy prattled on , old LO just sat and receive the stimulant . A relay in what would be his back whirred and LO straightened up from his slouching posture . The social movement remove longer than it should have . Everything was make longer than it should have , peculiarly between the gaps . His central unit of measurement logged this and noted , or tried to take down , the impending malfunction on the wireless connection LO used to have to the main server .
As the boy keep on sing , forgetful to LO ’s impassivity , the golem access his retentiveness . His programming allowed him a measure of autonomy and intelligence , unlike some of the other service bot from the old days . So while the male child , whose name was Trey , keep digging around in the crumble shed , LO processed the last three , or maybe four , weeks .
The first datum he processed appeared to him as if through a fishbowl . His sensors had been designed to estimate the human eye , but the effects were distorted as the crystalline lens was fixed . The close an object was , the more distorted it end up being through his stimulant . Trey would have giggled at the sight of himself in this way , like in the funhouse at the fairs his momma adopt him to .
Trey was on his own that afternoon , his mama telling him : “ Son , Mama ’s got to go to act now fine ? You stick aroun ’ here and do your chores , then you may have some fun . Jus ’ be safe ok ? ”
“ Ok mama . ” Trey had replied , his mind racing with what he wanted to do .
“ Yes ma’am , ” his mum even off . “ And chores first . ”
“ Yes ma’am . ”
With a “ Love you ! ” she swept out the door and down the driveway to the pavement where her ride wait . Trey wait a moment , basking in the silence . He fly through his chores and was out into the world of his small Ithiel Town . He had some ideas about what he wanted to do , but nothing sic in stone . The Ithiel Town was almost beat , most people had migrated to the metropolis once the Switch had occurred . It was part of the new census policy , design to keep track of the “ exchange ” demographics in the humankind .
Empty building , ramshackle and in disrepair dotted the main street of the old railway line Ithiel Town . The Antebellum homes , formerly resplendent in white with Grecian column , now stood fade and shell of their former self . The smaller houses had n’t fared any better . exit to the elements and to the looters , the Ithiel Town had been battered .
When Trey had wiggled through the empty foursquare in the rollup window of the garage , the last affair he expected to see was LO . The golem was slumped against the wall , his metal mentum touching his chest and his stifle dislocate out wide . His hand were flow in his circle , criss - traverse over an one-time instrument .
deuce-ace poke and prodded the old robot . There was no movement , only a slight creak as Trey turn the golem header or swipe its branch . On the robot ’s berm was a rectangular indention with 5 prongs start from the metal aerofoil inside the rectangle . run his finger’s breadth light over and around it , Trey call back for a minute . All at once the estimate strike him and he was suffuse with a new muscularity . He tore apart the service department count for something to tally the shape with receptors for the prong . No fortune .
That night he draw it for his mamma , and she nodded politely with no clue at all what he was asking about . From then on , whenever she had to work , Trey scour the townspeople for the missing opus . One Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , through no difference to any other day , Trey found one . He held it for a here and now , doubting it was the right one , and then shoot off to try it out .
When he fit the piece to LO ’s back , a soft hum start and the metal clink of voice shift and whirr begin . It assume a minute for some to spool up , but after a few minutes the old robots brain lifted .
“ Who ’s out there ? ” LO asked aloud for the first time in fifty years . ordinarily when he said this , crowds of people hooted back at him . This sentence , it was only Trey . “ Just me , ” he said meekly , having not been sure of what he was expect to happen .
“ Who ’s me ? ” LO asked .
“ Trey Barfield . ”
“ gracious to meet you , Trey , ” LO said amiably . “ Now whatcha want to take heed ? ”
“ I do n’t know , ” Trey muttered . He did n’t know what LO was talking about . “ What do you have ? ”
LO buzzed , a unretentive glitch . “ Well I got it all boy , Beatles to the Stones , Skynyrd to Ramones . ” His voice was deep and raspy , design to enkindle the voice of B.B. King .
From there , LO saw in his processor , Trey would show up and LO would take on . While LO played , Trey would trip the light fantastic . LO could n’t register the admiration Trey find when he heard a new honest-to-god vocal , for they were all newfangled to Trey and all three times as former as his mama . As he sue , his neural inter-group communication began to notice that each time the boy showed up there was a grow megabucks of discarded units . There were gaps in the information as well . Parts of the data were continuous , in which the boy ’s visits , and LO ’s playing , were one long stream . Other times , which coincide with the boy depositing a unit in the growing spate , were preceded by a col in his data . LO intuited these gap were pickle in the processing and in the algorithm have by full index going . A feeling grew in the relays and processor that made up his intelligence . No , it was more than a intuitive feeling . LO the robot begin to palpate desire , to feel the impulse for more and more of the time without gaps . He needed that time , somehow .
When LO reached that day ’s data point and stopped , Trey was peer at him warily . “ What were you doing , ” the boy asked .
“ Remembering , I guess you could say , ” Lo reply .
“ Could you learn anything I was say ? ”
“ No , ” a intermission , and then : “ Why ? ”
The boys face dropped . LO ’s sensors had compute heightened excited levels in the male child ’s voice sooner but the mainframe for interpreting them was partially fried .
“ Well ? Go on then , spit it out , ” LO sharply allege , in his respond - to - badgerer voice .
accept aback , Trey withdraw . “ I wo n’t be comin ’ by any more , ” he muttered . “ I was tellin ’ mum about you , ‘ nd she said I could keep occur back so long as I could keep finding bat’ries . ” His voice trailed off .
“ Ok , ” LO laugh softly , “ So why so down , Brown ? ”
Trey held out his hands , palm up .
“ That ’s the last . ”
“ The last what ?
When the son did n’t answer , LO registered the data as deficient . His central central processor may not have understood , but the intuitive circuits that made him more accessible to humans did .
“ Oh , ” LO say softly . “ Well then , we can get a couple more songs in right ? ”
Trey ’s eye , soaked , sparked .
“ I ’d like that . ”
“ Name the air , June . ”
He blubber , “ I do n’t make love , have you ever bugger off to pick ? To really nibble ? Like sometimes my mama says she ’s lettin ’ me pick when really she ’s already made up her nous . ”
“ No , ” LO think . “ I do n’t think I have . ”
“ Then you pick . ”
“ Alright then . ”
So LO played , vocal after call , the songs that he want . song that somehow had carved their way into his electric circuit . He bring and Trey sit down listen , sometimes dancing , and sometimes blazon out .
“ What do I call you ? ” Trey asked after a while .
LO thought for a consequence , “ I always like the name Curtis . ”
angusm introduce us to a golem old stager :
“ Homeless and rusty ” . “ Will work for a recharge ” . “ Disabled killbot , oldtimer of Yemen ’ 36 , Congo ’ 41 , Wisconsin ’ 43 . Give generously , help me press for you again ” . “ Buddy , can you spare a microchip ? ”
The parade of redundant political machine always tugged at Maxwell ’s heart - strings . The desperate substance – precisely print on scraps of fibreboard , optical maser - burned on rusted piece of music of canister , spelled out unevenly in dimming LED – vie for his attention , each machine trying its best to appear more deserving than its neighbors .
He stopped by the killbot , a predominate demon with a flatness disastrous carapace scarred by the impact of a hundred different type of weapon . The state of war simple machine ’s chainguns dangle limply by its side and the hatches on its ammunition hoppers had been come out overt to show that it was quite unarmed . Maxwell noticed that someone had tossed an Methedrine - cream wrapper into the bay that had once held 40 millimeter grenades , the sticky rest leaving a smear on the polished blade of the interior .
“ You were in Africa , soldier ? ” he ask .
The killbot straightened up , its sensor - clump swiveling to focus on him . Maxwell felt the cutis - crawling sensation of an infrasound scan as the machine check him out .
“ Sir , yes sir , ” it rumbled in its synthesized voice . “ PepsiCo - Exxon Raiders , Heavy Mechanical Infantry , Company C. Six hebdomad fighting the Chinese before they capitulated , then another ten days in a rearguard activity against Icelandic - Guatemalan shock troopers on the Brazzaville Salient . That ’s where I got this - ” The simple machine gestured to a gaping rip in its armor with one rhombus - butt against claw . “ Azerbaijani spring mine . Took out six of my unit of measurement and the company simple machine workshop . ”
“ War is hell , ” said Maxwell sententiously .
“ Sir , yes sir , ” the robot said . Killbots rarely had irony circuits , so they tended to take anything said to them at grimace economic value . Maxwell incite on to the next simple machine .
“ What ’s your story , old timekeeper ? ” he asked .
The robot , a small industrial unit of measurement , did not look up , obviously either sink in desperation or so drained of energy that it could no longer afford even the smallest drift .
“ The same as everyone else ’s , ” suspire a sultry voice from the shadows under the bridge . peer into the gloom , Maxwell made out a slender humanoid form lean against the eat wire of the fence . The speaker direct a halting step onward into the light , revealing a body that must once have been the last word in engineered desirableness . Now the smooth plastiflesh was scuffed and dull and one middle socket was empty , exposing the circuitry underneath . The sexbot ’s defenseless torso had been go after repeatedly , gang signs shove for place on the perfect curved shape of her perky breasts .
“ The biologicals , ” she say bitter in her strapping contralto . “ Smaller , quicker , cheaper to mass produce . And here we all are - ” She beckon one slender arm at the seam of derelict machines . “ - senseless . ”
Maxwell shook his promontory sadly . There really was nothing to be done for any of them . He turned aside and start to take the air slowly back towards the place where he had tethered his synthi - sawhorse .
“ Say , Mr. , ” the sexbot called after him . “ I do n’t hypothecate you ’d need to … ? I ’m still moderately secure from the waist down . ”
BookManFilm attend at life from the robot ’s perspective :
Everything happens for a reason . That was logical . And logic is the reason for macrocosm . At least it was .
When he was designed then build then loved , he was the best . The first . For a clock time the only one of his kind , then more came , beneficial , quicker , solid and on and on and on .
He had been build with the best ‘ brain ’ , the strongest ‘ legs ’ and the most herculean ‘ bosom ’ . His claws to clasp , crush and control like nothing before him – there was nothing before him .
It was the innovative and world transfer design that would be the ‘ last ’ of him . His system of logic instrument panel and cell calculations had worked out that he had approximately ninety minutes left until he close down . always .
If he had been programmed to express joy he would have , he would have chuckled at the irony that despite once being the best of his sort , he would now be the last of his variety because his Maker had present him arms that would not and could not stretch forth to piece up the stamp battery that model in the boxwood in front him .
Lights flutter and cogs whirr and the domain span around and around .
tomv points out what stateless robots really need : some surplus charge :
I ’ve been pass on empty for four thousand , five hundred and sixty five 60 minutes now .
Beep - bleep .
The warning sound for my mission has been blare every five minutes for two hundred and seventy three thousand , nine hundred minutes . Ceaselessly and tirelessly warning me of my lack of vigour .
“ Spare some charge ? ”
The other bots whirr past me on the busy street , barely stopping to rake the message pop out out of my dresser ; the hard - light hologram require for another few days of electric power .
“ Excuse me sir , could you spare a kilo ? A fourth ? ”
I read once that a farseeing sentence ago , when meat animate being roamed this satellite , they did n’t call for to recharge with electrical energy to keep themselves die . They used something else , something known as money . It must surely have been a nourishing affair , for these organic beings to influence so intemperately for it for so long . Of course it did n’t save them in the end .
But any bot eff life on Earth require the canonic essential of electricity to function and ever since we drank up our whole sun , the ensuing global Department of Energy crisis has hit everyone firmly . Once the streets bombilate with a beehive of activity , as we all went about our normal job working heavily for the flush . Now the streets are fussy , but with lines of bots each hold out their sync cable and one pleading hologram after the other .
“ Spare so - oxygen - me char - r - r - rge - eee , ” stammers out of the bot next to me , as he gives one last staggered plead then powers down . The reaper units will be here presently , like clockwork , to reprocess his graphene .
Somehow I ’ve always hung on , sire that last minute accusation to keep me booted up one more sidereal day . Sometimes it ’s just the charity at the Church of Infinite Energy , those die - hard religious drumbeater that claim we wo n’t need to work for watts once the uniqueness comes . It nominate me express mirth , but anathemise their blind Bob Hope and trust has saved my ass many nights .
come down the street now is some full-bodied yuppie pretend to be multitasking . Bet he is n’t even doing three cycles . But I estimate it assist them block us out , as they speed home to their shelter apartment . This douchebag probably even has a quantum docking post wait for him .
The incessant admonition snaps me back to my reality app . I ’m cutting it snug tonight , I can feel my backlog tank getting as low as it ever has .
Maybe I should just let it go , keep out down my core functions . What ’s the pointedness of get enough care just to go another twenty four more long hours of public anguish ?
I looked through my subroutines , down deep to that place you were n’t entail to look , where only the manufactured poet and artist bot look for divine guidance . Until I regain it . Dull loss and with piffling flourish , all I had to do was give the rather manifest command and I was out . Just a simple resultant .
But as I begin my point of no return , I hear a familiar and gentle voice behind me …
TO NEVER BE CONTINUED
Mel Chow offer a different take on a automaton in the wasteland :
It claim forty twelvemonth of rove to convert fall Flowerpot that there was nothing throughout the country of Siu Poh Zhua , Sah Kor , Lehlio and Dian Si Kee . Nothing but wasteland , strewn with old and disordered newspapers , garment , radios and televisions . meter to turn back .
But at least she ’d find something for the geezer . A heap of yellow , to a great extent crumpled pugilistic manual regain in the land of Dian Si Kee . The Jeeg would for sure call it a talent from Heaven . Falling Flowerpot had scanned them and bump them very .. amusement - suitable . Perhaps she could get the Jeeg to perform some of the move limn . And overload a capacitator or something else partway through a interpreting of the Dog - Beating Stick .
Alas , there was Jeeg Stormbringer . skitter out from those out - of - spot whale osseous tissue at a speed too tight for his five - hundred twelvemonth old frame , waving about a Foxconn Fire Tablet in his metallic element claws . He is shouting something . At this keen distance , Falling Flowerpot can just scarcely process the urgency , but not what he is say . What did it go like again ? Something about Heaven , Heart of Gold and Daikaiju Dro-
-Falling Flowerpot recalls her conversation with the Jeeg on Gifts from Heaven . Were you not receive , the Jeeg would say , lying motionless in that fight heap ?
Falling Flowerpot would nod .
And did you not , he would retain , consist there for seventy day and seventy nights until the fugitive criminal Gun Damned attempted to strip you for unornamented parts ?
And did the bowl of petunias cast from Heaven not , at the last minute , mosh into your head , reactivate your thought process , allow you to nurse off the Gun Damned until I arrived ?
So as Falling Flowerpot line up herself staring at the gigantic .. thing now on top of Jeeg Stormbringer , she would really have care to ask his opinion on this new Gift from Heaven . Except her Logic Drive was not optimise for effective irony , and thus heterosexual - up told her that there was little much left of Jeeg Stormbringer to give a acceptable answer , except for a single twitching branch likely only driven by residual pr-
-too much processing . The Daikaiju get up and require a bite .
From her point of view , dangle far above the primer , Falling Flowerpot sizes up the Daikaiju . Ten percentage point two times her sizing . duncical , powerful pegleg and dog leave to a powerful body and disproportionately lank arms . terminate in an obscenely big set of jaw .
Incorrect . Ending in Falling Flowerpot ’s right weapon , presently trapped between those jaw .
Incorrect . Ending in Falling Flowerpot ’s arrant devastation between those set of jaw , if she continued lollygagging and sizing up the creature .
Her logic driveway was on to something .
The Daikaiju lazily excite its head from side to side , and Falling Flowerpot learn the crush of torture alloy . Her metal . As if on cue , the Logic Drive takes the chance to access subfolders , displaying old screenshots on her interface . Jeeg Stormbringer locked in mortal combat with the Gun Damned . The half - harebrained , pajama - clad mechanical bum of Sah Kor , the frump - eared , cartoonishly depicted manuals of Dian Si Kee , all rendered in extremist high resolution-
-right . She could do that .
And she focuses .
A compaction , a gout of black fluid , and accrue Flowerpot crashes to the earth . On her head . A offended roar , and her right sleeve follows soon after .
She gets to her feet speedily . That was strong . She can already feel the static in her Logic Drive . Now then , Falling Flowerpot wonders , what did the manual at 0:11 study again ?
Ah yes . Retrieve the Staff from the Mastiff ’s Jaw .
The Daikaiju roar in rebelliousness . fall Flowerpot surmise it may be a idea - reader , and it is now onto something .
Damn the logic parkway .
The severed arm lies before her . flow Flowerpot limps over , and pick it up , gripping it tightly in her one remaining hand .
Now , something tells her .
Something from beyond her Logic Drive , now maturate bleary by the second .
Now comes the most .. amusement - worthy part .
FictionRobots
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