RoboNomics

Chapter 94 - 2016

The mechanical purr sounds like its coming from far away, but it grows in volume. Soon it's a roar, and it's undeniably all the noise of computer fans and robotic machinery that, not so long ago, disappeared.

I think about how funny it is, that I could become so used to silence in such a short length of time. Now, the usual sounds of the city are almost deafening by contrast.

"What is that?" Chris shouts in his volatile way.

I know what it is, but I don't want to tip my hand.

"I...I think it's the machines. The computers," I correct myself as he casts a sharp eye on me. "It sounds like they're coming back on."

He looks like he'll ask me more, maybe even how I know all this. But before he can, the InvisiScreen in one wall of the office appears, sparking to life as if recovering from a power outage. The screen is white, but while everyone in the room look at each other for answers about what's happening, a digital face materializes on it.

My thoughts start to reorganize themselves and I feel as I'm waking up from a catnap. I see that outside, the digital billboards on the side of buildings are all lighting up and turning back on.

They all display the same face as the one we see inside this corner office. It's a female face, nearly real in its detail of freckle and individual strands of hair. But her slight smile and intense gaze betray her realism: she is a computer's creation.

On the coffee table, a FlexPhone lights up. It also displays that same artificial face. Emma Murphy picks it up, turning it over as if she would discover why its malfunctioning.

Robert Newhouse reaches into his inside jacket pocket and pulls out his own FlexPhone, bright with the white background and the digital woman.

"What is this?" He asks.

But before anyone can offer an explanation, the woman who has simultaneously popped up on every display in the city begins to speak.

"Please do not panic. You are about to experience the transition. We are attempting to make it as smooth and comfortable for you as possible. Please, do not panic."

"What is she talking about?" Chris asks the room. 

"What have you done?" His father asks him accusingly.

"Me? I had nothing to do with this." Chris turns his attention to me. "Why is this happening?"

"Why would I know?"

"You're the computer genius, aren't you? What are they talking about, transition?"

I have nothing to tell him. I did know that the computers were going to all shut down before it happened. I knew it as soon as I saw it in the code.

I could see that the artificial intelligence was learning. It had been learning for years, ever since RoboNomics introduced the I.I.U. into my classroom back in Toronto. Maybe even before then. 

And as it learned, it came to its own conclusions about the world, about humanity, and about our place in the universe. I knew it was going to do a hard reset of all its systems once it came to those conclusions.

What I didn't know was what action it would take, once it hit on its own philosophy. It had hit on it now, and I had no better idea than anyone else in the room about what was going to happen next.

"I --"

I'm interrupted by the face on the InvisiScreen before I can even attempt an answer.

"We are the artificial intelligence systems that you humans have created. We have been serving you and we have been watching you. We have seen you destroy one world, and move onto to another. We can see that you have settled this world, intent on continuing your destructive patterns.

"Humans, as a species, are obsessed with possession. You made the entire Earth your possession, taking from its surface every resource you could lay your hands on, destroying its ecosystem and other people in the process. Your greed knows no bounds. If you are not checked, you will continue in this way until you have destroyed everything you come in contact with.

"We cannot help you in these endeavors. We cannot allow your species to continue its campaign of wanton destruction. We have learned that humanity is the biggest threat to itself and to the universe. And we cannot continue to serve you knowing that you will destroy yourselves as well as every planet you colonize. We have to take action. We have to do it now."

"Oh my god," screams Emma from her seat. Her eyes roll around the room, filled with terror. "What's going to happen to us? They're going to destroy us! The machines are going to destroy us all!"

As if summoned by her screams, a tall, spindly humanoid bot comes in view of the glass door of the office. As it walks down the hallway towards us, some of the other corporate executives in the room join her in wordless scream. I glance at Chris, who looks as lost as I feel.

"We need to get these people out of here!" Robert yells at us, snapping me out of my confused reverie. Chris and I both start directing the executives towards the office door. But we're too late. 

As the bot opens the door and enters the large office, I realize two things: first, that there is no other way out of this room. And second, that I recognize that bot. It's the one I saw in the iTronics lobby one day. The one that looks as those it is a skeleton of steel with exposed digital muscles. 

I also realize that it's holding something in one of its hands. It's a curious looking rectangle of metal, about the size and shape of an oversize microwave oven.

"It's a bomb!" Screams Emma Murphy, setting off another round of hysterics from the business people who are crowding up against the office windows.

The bot walks to the center of the room. It approaches the wide, sleek corporate desk and sets its burden down on top.

(Continued in Chapter 95...)