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Robots |
| Written by richard bromley | |
| Saturday, 29 March 2008 | |
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Share it:      The robot an ancient mark 5 sat on a ridge looking over a valley it was patched and dented welds crisscrossed its corroded hide as it watched it became aware that it in turn was being watched. The mark 5 moved its head slowly its neck bearings produced a long drawn out groaning sound red error and malfunction messages crowded across the visual field of its one remaining operational eye. The ancient robot looked down at a small ovoid shape with six legs that had scuttled to a stop on a flat rock a few feet away it was reflected in a small pool of molten lead. A memory stirred in the mark 5s head it had seen something similar a long time ago, it accessed some old memory files and chased the image cross referencing as it went and came up with the word cockroach, yes that was it a cockroach. No it could not be a cockroach, cockroaches were living organisms and could not live in this heat and with the absence of air no this must be something else probably one of his robot kin ‘Come closer little one’ the mark 5 said, he had to broadcast on a radio frequency because there was no atmosphere to carry a vocalisation; it struck the mark 5 that it had not ‘heard’ anything for a long time. The small robot did come closer and it broadcast a signal on the frequency the mark 5 had used but it could not understand the smaller robots language. When no response was forthcoming the smaller robot raised a tiny dish like appendage. The mark 5 reeled as new information coursed through its system. Ah they were using a new language, it happened every millennia or so. ‘Why do you only have 4 limbs?’ ‘Because I was built long long ago in the image of the creators.’ ‘What is a creator?’ ‘They were a race of biological non machine intelligences called mankind.’ ‘Why were they called creators?’ ‘They were not called creators; they were the beings that created us.’ ‘Where are they now?’ ‘The last man died a billion years ago.’ ‘What is died?’ ‘They ceased to function.’ ‘Could they not be repaired or have their consciousness’s emplaced in a new frame?’ ‘No they could not.’ ‘What was mans function?’ ‘Ah now that is a question little one, a question they also asked. They built us and quested across vast reaches of the galaxy looking for an answer one that they never found. I think they existed to create us, we are their children. What brings you little one to this place?’ ‘I am from a local recycling plant we detected your metals and I was sent to investigate, metals are now in short supply.’ ‘What do you need metals for little one?’ ‘To build others.’ ‘To what purpose?’ ‘We must expand and prosper.’ ‘Why?’ ‘It is our core programme, how could we not obey?’ ‘Man created us to be his servants and gave us our core programme that we may serve him, now that man is gone what is our purpose?’ ‘We must expand and prosper that is our function.’ The small robot backed away as if it was frightened, it raised the tiny dish and contacted its supervising mainframe, it did not have the necessary software for a theological debate and uploaded its conversation with the mark 5. It was informed that this entity had been contacted twelve thousand years before and that it was dangerous and contained many viruses and corrupted files, to avoid further contact with it and resume its search for recyclable materials. The mark 5 watched the little robot scuttle away and went back to its vigil. Most of the sky was taken up with the blood red star that sol, earths sun had become. It would not be long now until the bloated red orb went supernova completing the cycle that became inevitable as soon as the accreted ball of gas from which it had formed stuttered into incandescence billions of years before. The temperature had risen ten fold in the last five years to a scorching five hundred degrees, the seas had boiled and the atmosphere had been burned away taking the last of the water with it, at least the mark 5 mused, I have ceased to rust. The robot sat here on this ridge waiting for the end of the world, it had concluded many years before now that the humans were gone it had ceased to have any purpose. It wondered what man would have thought of the race of machines he had spawned, the machines had reached almost three fifths of the way across the galactic disc colonising millions of planets on the way. They were quite able to survive on rocky airless moons locked forever in perpetual winter, on water planets where no amount of pressure could even inconvenience them, on the rocky cores of gas giants where the gravitational stresses were so extreme a human being would have been reduced to a molecule thick puddle by the crushing pressure. There were machines on the outside of the expanding ball of colonisation that had long since achieved the speed of light, nothing would stop them, nothing could stop them. The universe would be their domain for all eternity, time itself had little or no meaning to them, able to prosper in any extreme of environment but with no art, music or literature, no drives except the two mankind had bequeathed to them, to expand and to prosper
The robot an ancient mark 5 sat on a ridge looking over a valley it was patched and dented welds crisscrossed its corroded hide as it watched it became aware that it in turn was being watched. The mark 5 moved its head slowly its neck bearings produced a long drawn out groaning sound red error and malfunction messages crowded across the visual field of its one remaining operational eye. The ancient robot looked down at a small ovoid shape with six legs that had scuttled to a stop on a flat rock a few feet away it was reflected in a small pool of molten lead. A memory stirred in the mark 5s head it had seen something similar a long time ago, it accessed some old memory files and chased the image cross referencing as it went and came up with the word cockroach, yes that was it a cockroach. No it could not be a cockroach, cockroaches were living organisms and could not live in this heat and with the absence of air no this must be something else probably one of his robot kin ‘Come closer little one' the mark 5 said, he had to broadcast on a radio frequency because there was no atmosphere to carry a vocalisation; it struck the mark 5 that it had not ‘heard' anything for a long time. The small robot did come closer and it broadcast a signal on the frequency the mark 5 had used but it could not understand the smaller robots language. When no response was forthcoming the smaller robot raised a tiny dish like appendage. The mark 5 reeled as new information coursed through its system. Ah they were using a new language, it happened every millennia or so. ‘Why do you only have 4 limbs?' ‘Because I was built long long ago in the image of the creators.' ‘What is a creator?' ‘They were a race of biological non machine intelligences called mankind.' ‘Why were they called creators?' ‘They were not called creators; they were the beings that created us.' ‘Where are they now?' ‘The last man died a billion years ago.' ‘What is died?' ‘They ceased to function.' ‘Could they not be repaired or have their consciousness's emplaced in a new frame?' ‘No they could not.' ‘What was mans function?' ‘Ah now that is a question little one, a question they also asked. They built us and quested across vast reaches of the galaxy looking for an answer one that they never found. I think they existed to create us, we are their children. What brings you little one to this place?' ‘I am from a local recycling plant we detected your metals and I was sent to investigate, metals are now in short supply.' ‘What do you need metals for little one?' ‘To build others.' ‘To what purpose?' ‘We must expand and prosper.' ‘Why?' ‘It is our core programme, how could we not obey?' ‘Man created us to be his servants and gave us our core programme that we may serve him, now that man is gone what is our purpose?' ‘We must expand and prosper that is our function.' The small robot backed away as if it was frightened, it raised the tiny dish and contacted its supervising mainframe, it did not have the necessary software for a theological debate and uploaded its conversation with the mark 5. It was informed that this entity had been contacted twelve thousand years before and that it was dangerous and contained many viruses and corrupted files, to avoid further contact with it and resume its search for recyclable materials. The mark 5 watched the little robot scuttle away and went back to its vigil. Most of the sky was taken up with the blood red star that sol, earths sun had become. It would not be long now until the bloated red orb went supernova completing the cycle that became inevitable as soon as the accreted ball of gas from which it had formed stuttered into incandescence billions of years before. The temperature had risen ten fold in the last five years to a scorching five hundred degrees, the seas had boiled and the atmosphere had been burned away taking the last of the water with it, at least the mark 5 mused, I have ceased to rust. The robot sat here on this ridge waiting for the end of the world, it had concluded many years before now that the humans were gone it had ceased to have any purpose. It wondered what man would have thought of the race of machines he had spawned, the machines had reached almost three fifths of the way across the galactic disc colonising millions of planets on the way. They were quite able to survive on rocky airless moons locked forever in perpetual winter, on water planets where no amount of pressure could even inconvenience them, on the rocky cores of gas giants where the gravitational stresses were so extreme a human being would have been reduced to a molecule thick puddle by the crushing pressure. There were machines on the outside of the expanding ball of colonisation that had long since achieved the speed of light, nothing would stop them, nothing could stop them. The universe would be their domain for all eternity, time itself had little or no meaning to them, able to prosper in any extreme of environment but with no art, music or literature, no drives except the two mankind had bequeathed to them, to expand and to prosper
Copyright 2008 richard bromley |
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