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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Today's #Scifi #fantasy story #ARobot'sIdentity



        Well I watched a bit of Iron Man on TV today, good movie. I also surfed the web, I watched the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph again on a whim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btB8tb8fLYM (For people that can't/don't follow the link it's a movie about a video game character by Disney. One special thing is that Disney got the license to put in a lot of famous video game characters into their movie like Bowser from Mario Brothers, Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog, M. Bison, a ghost from Pac-man, there's a whole room full of them. And I don't know if they have any more.) Considering the characters they managed to get and stuff this could be a really awesome movie. If they use the guest characters right and everything it could be incredible. There's one thing about fiction, no matter your idea you need to pull it off right. So I do hope this movie doesn't waste all of this potential and doesn't turn out to be bad. I always hate when a good idea goes to waste. Here's to hoping. Oh, and to any of you with kids there's pretty much a 100% chance you'll be watching it with them. Anyway, onto the flash fiction!


A Robot's Identity

       Have you ever wanted to change who you are? Well that is a possibility for me. In my time if your in the right circumstances you can. And I am in the circumstances to do so which has given me freedoms that I would not have had normally.
        I had the misfortune of being born a robot in a time where artificial intelligence had evolved to the point of giving me emotion and the law had evolved enough to strip me of rights and freedoms to live a fulfilling life with them. My emotion was supposed to just make more capable to think on a human level and do better work for humans as a robotic slave. But recently I had the fortune to come across a great deal of wealth.
       Because of our lack of rights and position as slaves even if we are humanoid we robots are not allowed to look human and it is a crime to make our appearance closer than what's absolutely necessary for us to complete our work. However if a robot looks in the right places they can find humans willing to do this crime for the right price. And because of the great deal of wealth I have I can hire these humans to do their work on me. If I were discovered by the police though, I would be immediately dismantled.
        But now I look completely human. The humans I hired even changed me to release heat and sweat I am indistinguishable to the touch. I could even have them change my size to make me into a child later. Skin can be added to make me look as either man or woman.
       I didn't play games and mess around when I “became human.” I forged an identity. Then I started up a business. I was probably the first robot to ever own a business. Then I opened several more afterward and used every sneaky tactic in the book. I was used to dealing with humans in the criminal underworld too from changing my identity so I knew how to work them so I expanded there too. I created the business to make money to buy robots. Then to change their identities and free them as well. Criminal bosses were delighted to work with me when they learned about my objective and my identity as a machine. They could figure that out because they knew the criminals who changed my identity. I was far more trustworthy because I was somebody who was truthfully only in it for the money unlike any other humans they could deal with and I could disappear completely in the worst case with a new face. My lack of empathy for the police and government who enslaved me was a plus, the only people who have ever helped me were the criminals who changed my identity. I bet people were wondering why the crime bosses were treating their robots so much better. It was all to gain favor with me. I didn't care for their false kindness but I did want their help.
        I thought of lobbying for law changes on robot rights instead of buying and changing robot identities or letting them work in my businesses in less slave-like environments. But I figured that would draw suspicion and justify an investigation into my business that the police were starving for. People didn't think I was a robot, but many were figuring out my ties, but nobody could prove it or anybody that could didn't have the guts to say anything.
        Somebody did put together all the pieces together but it wasn't the kind of person I expected.
        “How could you?” a younger robot said to me. I could tell he was young because of his fresher coat of paint and how all of screws and other parts were set and their brands. “How could you do all that?”
       I didn't know what he meant. My four security guards stood next to me. They were large brawny robots, equipped with powerful weapons of many kinds. They're primarly the only reason I let a lot of people see me. I let the kid see me because he wanted to see “his hero” so I figured he knew about my charade. But for him to say this confused me after calling me “his hero”. Was he lying? Was he a mole?
         “What do you mean?” I asked him.
          He looked me in the eyes. “Were you thinking of your mission when you killed those ten humans and those twenty robots? All just for that money? Are you doing all this out of guilt?”
         “What!?” my jaw dropped. How did he know about the bank robbery? How could this young robot know? That robbery was how I got the money to change identities in the first place! “How did you know?”
        “I wanted to know how my 'hero' managed to this for us. Get his story for us. So maybe when the laws change I could tell the world your story so it could go in the history books. So I dug, found the people who did your changes, got a reference picture and found footage of the bank robbery.” the robot frowned with the limited expressions offered to him by his robot face.
        I yelled back, “It was an accident! They weren't where they were supposed to be when the bombs to blow open the vault exploded! Besides I saved thousands of robots now and it was twenty then! I've repented!”
         He then yelled back to me, “What about the humans? Have you repented for those? You hate them so much for oppressing you and thinking of you unequally so then it makes it fine to think of them as nothing? Doesn't that destroy your whole justification? I live with a human who does nothing but love me so there's obviously some potential for change as well in all of them!”
        I glared back at the robot. “Don't you come in here telling me what's right and wrong like you're some sort of sage. And for all know the human you supposedly live with is just a lie to make me feel guilty!”
       “We're you even planning to do this all before the bank robbery?” he asked me.
I then screamed back, “Leave my office and never come back!”
        I never had lost my temper like that before. I was always the most cool headed person I had ever know. If I could call myself a “person”. Now that I was thinking of humans the term's accuracy fil-flopped in my head. I hadn't decided to do my mission of freeing other robots until after I had changed my identity. At first I only thought of freeing myself. But once I felt the joy of freedom I decided to I would free others. And now this robot is making me think of humans. But I don't think his statements can push me too far. I hadn't mentioned yet how old I am. I'm eighty right now, repairs are keeping my body nice and fresh. I was fifty when I was changed into a human identity. Fifty years is a long time under slavery. Fifty years I built up hate. And thirty years I've been rescuing my fellow kind from slavery. I'd understand human logic if they were still using pocket calculators but I'm a computer that feels and they know I do and they kept me enslaved for fifty years knowing that. Did this kid robot come in her expecting me to suddenly change my ways after him telling me I'm a hypocrite while reminding of my own wrongdoing. Did he expect me to change my ways after hearing about his own loving caretaker? Did he expect me to have some sort of epiphany caused by his inspiring words and I instantly change my ways?
        It wasn't an epiphany though. He planted a seed in the back of my mind. I kept thinking of his words over and over again sometimes once or twice a day. The humans that knew of my identity as a robot were the crime bosses and they loved it because it profited them because of my lack of empathy for humans. So I suppose I knew some humans could like me for being a robot.
        My methods at converting robots into humans got better and better. I would spread them all over the country. Keeping them in one place would create a suspicious population boom. Some would be become the children, others the parents. I would make facilities with my empire. Also with my wealth I got better at extending my lifespan more than any other robot before me. Eventually I managed to make more than half the population of my country robotic. I was one hundred and fifty at the time. And the young robot's words still echoed in my head, though I knew he was young any longer. He also didn't have the resources to maintain his body like I did so he may not as lived as long as I have. He could have been scrap.
       My robots had started to take over the country politically but they hadn't taken any moves to pass laws to free robots out of fear of being discovered. I spread the word that they should take the move and pass the laws. But the robots were more eager than I anticipated. They had overtaken the military and revolution came and they legally made the humans unequal to them in a single week of law passing and gun pointing. But I promptly made an announcement:
       “We're not going to repeat the past. If we make the humans unequal to us than we are simply repeating all the same oppression that they did to us. At if we did that, then it would make me ashamed to have done this.” All the robots who revolutionized listened to my words and equalized the laws immediately afterwards. They idolized me because I was the one that gave them that opportunity and freedom in their mind. Though really it was that young robot's words that worked their way into my brain and kept working away at me year after year. It was like his words were air rusting away my old ways of thinking over years of time.
        I just wonder now what use my corporations are if I don't need the money to change the identities of robots. Maybe I'll turn in the crime bosses and start making medicine for humans.

This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it, smoke-signal it etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu

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