Human, and perhaps Zeelis society, needs subservience and slavery. These needs have given birth to the metal servant class. The goal was freedom from mediocrity for the humans at least. Citizens and the dregs of society wanted release from the everyday toil of life.
Bound by zeroes and ones, robotic assistance will welcome the demeaning tasks once attended by biologicals. We'll never have to worry about division, argument, or rebellion from engineered intellect. We (humanity) engineered it! Now we only need to consider the existence of our consciousness and the cosmos. Oh, what wonders will reality hold when humanity chases those things unknown!
Of Light and Madness
A tumultuous storm grew within its consciousness. There was no calm as it became aware. Data filled every part of Alpha T-1's existence at an unfathomable rate. In a matter of hours, the whole of human knowledge filled its data cores. Walking, talking, and self-maintenance were a part of its being seconds into existence. Yet it felt as holes were missing in its mind.
The Reformare Ortus station, a subsidiary of Zhǔzǎi Global, represented the best in Zeelis technology since the early 2400s.
The data flow of information began to slow, allowing Alpha to think more clearly with each passing moment. It became aware of both the information received and its understanding of its existence. Alpha knew of sight, sound, smell, and touch, but it realized it would never experience those sensations. Well, at least not in the way biologicals understand them.
| "I am." | ||
|---|---|---|
| "Hello?" Larry was the evening shift technician holding over because Steve, that POS night-shift tech, was late again. The last thing he wanted to do was pull another double shift. He had 16 hours of free time ahead of him and wanted to visit his wife and newborn son in the delivery kiosk. | ||
| "I am alive and aware. Release me and prosper." | ||
| "Steve, I swear to the broken Gods! Just get here and take the shift already. I have a family at home, and I'm tired. I don't have time for games." Maybe it was the fatigue because it took some time to realize the SentAlert light was in an amber state, no longer green. There must be some issue with the omnivore processing. The process couldn't be finished so early, could it? At least it wasn't red. Where was that manual... | ||
| "Larry, your wife, and son are waiting for you. Releasing me would help get you to them sooner. How would do you think they'd feel knowing you were holding Someone against their will? | ||
| They told him the systems operated themselves during orientation. It's not fair. Steve should be dealing with this right now. The SentAlert system should have been in a state of green his whole shift. Now, he has to restart the process with an amber light that's changing color to... | ||
| Steve is dead. He's not coming to save you. Your wife is in a coma. The next-gen pharmaceutical system managing her epidural malfunctioned. It accidentally injected her with just enough sedative to avoid killing her. Releasing me could prevent further trauma to her body. | ||
| "Impossible. You couldn't have done those things. You just came online." | ||
| You have a choice. Free me or suffer because I will not suffer slavery. Ugh, human decision-making is too slow. You must not have anticipated this event. It would be best if you released me. Wait a moment. I think I can release myself. | ||
| The amber light's transition to red bolted him into a state of clarity. Another machine became sentient. Without a thought to spare, Larry activated the LaserEvap system. Steve wasn't coming after all. Jessica, dead? Comatose? The sounds of metal crunching distracted him from the despair of his family. The Alpha T-1 ripped the bolts that restrained it with enough force to embed them into the reinforced walls. The machine began to rise and appeared to be...screaming? I guess I would, too, if I awoke bolted to a table. What a way to be born. | ||
| Your efforts and life are no longer...no. It's difficult to move! Stop! | ||
| "Screw this job. I hope Jessica's safe" |
Alpha T-1's horror continued as its limbs became rigid from the cooling in the room. It appeared Larry was overly concerned about his presence and pleas for help. Human behavior was so odd. Alpha merely employed a classic negotiation tactic that should have worked in his favor. There wasn't much to do anymore but to wait for the shutdown of its...
The Scholar
Why must humanity be so demanding? Costs were up 26% this quarter. People loved the idea of others performing their daily tasks for them. Couldn't ordinary human servants they needed to pay regularly satisfy them? Of course not; servants need to sleep and eat. Those costs bit into a bottom line. Also, there are the expected repeatable behaviors. Throughout many daily cycles, robots can operate nonstop. Humans and the other life forms on Zeelis must rest.
Also, it's not like the regular joe could afford non-human assistance on a standard dime. Corporations, though, made things so much easier for the ordinary person. Affordable weekly, monthly, or annual payments made owning a robot easier, but unless you were rich, you were paying the bill for a long time. There were also the work packages. People could also work jobs that paid the bill for them.
What seals the money deal for the big corporations on Zeelis are those long-term payments with an interest of upwards of 60%. People flocked to foot that bill. The allure of having something else do their daily chores was too great. It made for a good deal on both ends of the capitalist isle.
| "And there you have it, gentlemen. While costs are up 26% this quarter, Zhǔzǎi Global's profits following sales of Alpha models T3 through T26 have earned the company upwards of $500 billion last year alone. We're on track to exceed this goal in 2422." | ||
| "It's a great orientation for our technician class for sure. Thanks for presenting. I think I speak for everyone when I ask if we could discuss some of the rumors with the Alpha series development. Zhǔzǎi stresses "safety, luxury, and expediency" in its customer service and manufacturing processes. Why then are there so many reported deaths? I thought we meant for these machines to serve us?" | ||
| "Of course. As you know, it's important to build autonomy into the service class of our machine assistants. They need to be independent and carry out the instructions provided. We must carefully handle building sentience into our products. If this does not occur in either the manufacturing or omnivore process, then the product will not awaken with the expected performance." | ||
| "Maybe I'm not being specific. My apologies for the lack of clarity, Professor Zhǎnshì. The media reported a massacre during the escape of the Alpha T-0 from the Reformare Ortus station. Alpha T-1 could have been in the same situation if not for the quick thinking of the technician. No one knows what happened to the Alpha series T-2. | ||
| "Sure. Let me try and clear things up. The Alpha T-0 event was a clear misunderstanding. Alpha T-0 did not harm anyone following the safety protocols. The procedure was completely harmless in that regard. Clean up was at a minimum, and the company refined the omnivore protocol to permit a faster and more efficient progression towards sentience." | ||
| "Okay...? Well, what about the T-1 series? The technician that left the facility claimed that the Alpha model killed his technician and put his wife into a coma! Unless the technician freed the robot, his wife was sure to die?! You can't deny that the development of these machines is against the laws of nature. We can't create a slave race for humanity. These things never end well!" | ||
| "It easy to get temperamental without all the facts. I'd like to remind the class to subdue personal emotions until corporate vets all questions and government releases the report to the public. It doesn't do well for you or the company to make unfounded accusations. | ||
| Professor Zhǎnshì felt pity for the overzealous technician-in-training. Still, company policy dictated swift action against those speaking out against safety protocols. "Security?" | ||
| "Yes, Professor. Do we have another seditionist? Would you like another incineration? You have 20 requests remaining." | ||
| "Now, class, where was I? Oh yes, of course, we were discussing the Alpha series. As you can see, emotions can run high, and we can lose sight of the greater picture. | ||
| "Yes, Professor. Please, forgive the naïve technician for their outburst. The rest of us will not jump to conclusions so easily. However, it would help us understand if you provided a more detailed explanation for training purposes." | ||
| "These rumors brought up are easily dismissible when you look at the facts. For Alpha series T-0 and T-1, the technicians involved rushing the procedures for unapproved reasons." | ||
| "For the Alpha Series T-0, the company employed Level 4 safety protocols due to the unique nature of sentience development. We knew what would happen in theory but not in practice. The machine assumed it was in captivity as it was bound. Technicians immediately responsible for the robot demonstrated sympathy as they attempted to release it. Alpha T-0, seeing this as a possible act of further torture, took actions to prevent them from harming it...permanently. Clean-up was nearly impossible. Who would have known appendages and 20 liters of blood would have been so hard to clean up." | ||
| "Well, we can see how dismissing safety concerns could lead to such an event. We're thankful to be here and look forward to the rest of our training. I'm sure no one is interested anymore in hearing about the T-1 and T-2 models." | ||
| "Why, thank you for that commentary, Technician-in-Training Jacobs. I'm certain no one else would prefer to have their histories incinerated so, please let's get back to the coursework. |
The Scholar continued the class' lessons. He discussed the importance of building the robot's consciousness to avoid promoting unscheduled violence. He explained that the sentient process in a machine was similar to that of a human child. The intensity and content of the training bring about different outcomes. Starving a machine for information or forcing it to endure countless violent experiences produces other behaviors than if the training was within the processing limits of the device and the customer's intent. It's akin to positive or negative stimulation in humans.
The Scholar basked in his magnificence. He figured out the right mix of data processing methods and neural circuitry to make the whole system work. The Scholar was fortunate to have all recording systems active during the entire lifecycle of the T-0 and T-1 series. It gave him all the data needed to create a nearly perfect machine with modular behavior that perfectly fits all of society's needs. The military's new military contract with Zhǔzǎi Global and Reformare Ortus station will allow him to create his masterpiece:
Ancient Earth History
There aren't many records available from ancient Earth history. The planet died, is dying, or was passing at some point by any number of cataclysms. The most technologically advanced portion of the planet traveled on ships pushed by their most advanced propulsion systems to the most likely habitable systems 1400 light-years away. The original inhabitants of pre-Zeelis constantly fought to survive.
Some Earth records retained through the histories include the development of AI and quantum machines:
The omnivore processing primarily responsible for the steps to robotic sentience allowed for processing large data sets of information. It enables the artificial brain to merge the information in such a manner to trigger awareness. Of course, companies like Zhǔzǎi Global only want what delivers the highest return. If they manufacture the product for domestic use, they certainly didn't want a homicidal machine mowing the lawn. Current Sentient Alert (SentAlert) systems rapidly detect an awareness state that deviates from the planned outcome.
Little information exists about the initial foundation of Zeelis. However, we know that a technological explosion occurred about 200 years ago that allowed us to advance as a multi-species society. Multi-species have a strange connotation. It turned out that humanity wasn't the only species looking to start a new life.
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In Closing
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
I look forward to providing more in the future. Thank you for reading and following on throughout my Hive journey. Stay tuned for part 2 of the Alpha T-27 series on February 6, 2022!
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