How to Date an Android

Chapter 2, revised & improved

During this time androids have a distinctively plastic look and don't blend in well with society but are gaining ground on other fronts quite steadily in a very short time. The A.I. gets really good enough to pass for a normal human for certain periods of time, and so does the endurance of the robots in being able to not be break down or have malfunctioning parts or systems. But they have a long way to go to be able to fully emulate being like humans. The ability of androids to be able to do complicated movement like running is in its infant stage still and it's known for them to fall if attempting to run, though walking and other movements are stable, but jerky in nature in simpler and older models while richer and more expensive models seem to have no visible robotic nature by discernment of eye, but rumors persist of the secrecy of whatever happened to the bio-organic androids that were announced but had become top secret over night. Coordinated movements with arms have long ago been able to do anything a human can do in almost all models with upgrades and patches, but the systems overall are still acting more robotic than human.

The 2040's become an arms race for the new androids both in domestic and military circles. Many people want a maid type android that can help clean the house, do dishes, etc. But the true applications came from military spending and research to combat the new cold war. The invention of new hydrogen fuel cells helps to contain progress. Unlike previous years which already had fuel cells, what makes the new hydrogen fuel cell technology distinct from fuel cells invented over twenty years ago was that the newer type fuel cells are built to last indefinitely, rather than just a few short years. This has a big impact in people being able to accept androids into a household when the perception that they may last as long as a human begins to be perceived by society as a whole.

Armed forces throughout the world are continuing to use androids and drones to hold borders, with not less than a tenth of armed forces being used by real people. In some countries, generals are forced to use androids for simulations by law before being able to legally advise their government on maneuvers without first proving feasibility. But even though military androids of this time are effective because of running endless search and destroy programs they fail to simulate a real personality. Both in the military and in domestic production the challenge remains how to you create a real brain that can fully emulate all the various platforms work put together. Androids are getting better but still have many hurdles to overcome.

Scientists raise concerns that using androids for warfare gives androids a loophole against following the programming of the 3 great laws. Their cries fall on deaf ears. An android may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. An android must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. An android must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. An android may not seek freedom or independence from its owner, nor may it take away work and ability to sustain oneself away from humans. Androids and humans should learn to cooperate symbiotically is the new prime directive for a society of androids and humans working together.

The last fourth law, with its cooperation statement, was also added in later years but isn't recognized as necessary except in a few rare scholastic circles.

A flurry of anti-android legislature passes in Canada and the United States while the rest of the world surpasses them in technology and industry as more and more androids are common in the workplace to protect androids from taking human jobs but the damage has already occurred. A few rural plants and foreign manufacturers hide under the radar continuing to exploit android labor to avoid payroll and taking care of real humans to promote their own stocks and investment contraptions. Too late, the people of the American continent realize they have become the victim of their own choices with poverty surging in new waves, while Germany buys out the governments of Europe directly, taking them over and ousting leaders overnight in places like France, Poland, Austria, and Italy while trying to keep Russia from advancing its territories through all of Asia. The iron curtain re-emerges during this time in any countries not under Germany's thumb, which are easily pushed under by Russia.

A new cold war ensues, though this time China and Neo-Korea are in Russia's pocket.

China loses another lawsuit in 2039 being forced to give Russia parts of the Gobi desert and give back the South China sea territories and the northern Phillipines islands that it had seized back to the Phillipines, Vietnam, and Indonesia, which have significant military infrastructure. Speculation about this ending their alliance proves to be wrong. At this time Russia begins using the Gobi Desert for nuclear energy technology for androids, resulting in the great Radiation Era beginning in Asia.

Mass panics and a neo leprosy phage spreads through Asia because of mass radiation poisoning and contaminated water tables in several countries caused by the Russians bomb and nanite explosion testing in the Gobi desert. Serious birth defects become commonplace in India, China, and parts of eastern Russia because of radiation winds circulating contaminated soils over much of Asia. Russia takes over Pakistan through a cover of night operation telling the world they are saving the world through medical saving operations.

Mass radiation poisoning, corporate greed and competition for resources with androids force many governments to avoid researching spacecraft and going into space at this time, though scientists do believe they could potentially find inhabitable planets outside our solar system if they could only get the funding to send craft into space to investigate.

In 2045, the Japanese market plunges again. They enter an era of rebuilding from promised help from Germany and the U.S. if they will head the eastern front against the Russians. At this time they try to shift people's moral view of androids being only domestic sexbots and instead as real tools to have a highly advanced civilization, and a source of military power. Their innovations enable them to quickly regain their business superpower status in only a few short years, revitalizing their economy while others continue to stagnate and weaken.

2049, the Germans and Russian android manufacturers are forced to take big losses as Mellifera Corporation in Japan begins production on android so advanced that it has revolutionized the android system and makes all other androids seem primitive. China continues to try to get into the android market, but because of legitimate past fears no one will trust Chinese workers or engineers with android designs because of outright known hostile territorial expansion in the last fifty years.

Leading scientists are now calling 2054 and onwards, the era of the birth of artificial life due to the rapid strides that the newer prototypes have broken open.

**Our story takes place around 2060 to 2065, after over fifty years of governments everywhere being fascinated by the idea of artificial life or smart robots that could work for them and reduce poverty. Governments have been dumping huge amounts of credits into their A.I., and android research for years**

Rumors persist that a lot of the new breakthroughs are due to being able to create synthetic artificial neurons and nerve networks around ten years ago, and connecting the android CPU to a cloned human brain to make them communicate with each other. Still also, it seems the patents and tech involved for the newest android prototypes are under Supreme Court judge's seal to be kept hush hush; and no engineers or scientists are allowed to break the secret openly to society.

Society distinguishes military androids by the street term 'warbots' and home androids as 'sexbots', or 'domestic partners'.

Yet nobody truly knows where Mellifera actually started from. Its entire company is thoroughly shrouded in mystery.