Get ready for a thrilling ride into a future where robots and humans clash for control in RoboNomics, the updated and refreshed version of the 2013 sci-fi classic.
In Toronto, elementary school teacher Andrea Anderson's world crumbles when she's rep...
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"Have you heard the news?" Miriam asks as she bustles into the loft one particularly chilly February afternoon, cold seeping off her coat into the warmth of the room. "I just read it on the train."
"No, what?" Henri asks from where he was bending over one of the headquarter tables, talking with me.
I notice that Alexa and Bill, at the next desk over, stop tapping the AR keyboards invisibly projected onto their desks or gesturing in the air. They're listening. Two or three of the newcomers are watching us intently, anxious for any news.
Miriam sheds her coat and flops it over the back of a chair. Her boots, wet from the latest snowfall, leave puddles on the gray floor.
"RoboNomics released a statement," she explains. "They consider the I.I.U. pilot program in Canada to be a success. They're going launch something similar in the States."
"What?!" Henri exclaims more than asks.
"You can't be serious," a teacher from a table over says.
"Here, I'll find it." Miriam's eyes glaze as she looks for the article. "A spokesperson for the Toronto School District," she reads aloud, "says that the partnership with RoboNomics, a pilot project in which Interactive Instructional Units have been placed in each school, has been so successful they are rapidly replacing teachers with further rush-order units. School boards across America are watching this progress eagerly."
I shake my head, my thoughts whirling. I can't respond. They have been countless incidents like this, in which Canada was just a testing ground for some program that would be rolled out to our neighbors to the south. I can't believe I didn't realize it: this entire time, we've just been guinea pigs.
"There goes their economy, right?" Someone asks, rhetorically.
"Found it," Bill says with a note of triumph. "There's another section to the article. It says that..."
He stifles a gasp.
"What?" Henri prompts.
"That iTronics is in on the action now too. They're going to start their own pilot program. Like, immediately. Only this time, they're replacing nurses."
"Andrea?"
It's not until she says my name that I realize I've caught a hold of Miriam's wrist.
"Oh my god," I finally manage. "I'm so sorry."
Miriam straightens, crosses her arms, and hugs herself. Her eyes are wide and fixated on the middle distance.
"Can they do that?" Her glassy eyes land on my face. She rubs her forehead back and forth with the palm of her hand.
"Nothing's happened yet," I say to calm her. "And I think it's a bit more complicated than that. I mean, they can't just order up some robots and fire everyone. I'm pretty sure that's not legal."
