“45 years ago… in an era when the planet was not inhabited by robots”
In one corner of the world, a man is using his smartphone:
“Rob.AI, create me an image of a cat shooting laser beams!”
On the other side of the world, there is a teenager struggling to do his math homework:
“Do these teachers think we don’t have a life or what? Rob AI, tell me the answers to my homework.”
Somewhere else on the planet, there is a woman crying:
“Rob AI… my boyfriend cheated on me… I don’t know what to do…”
Austin, Texas
At the Rob AI HQ
A man is working on a computer, monitoring the data he obtains about the Rob AI app until…
He jumps out of his chair and runs to a room located on one of the upper floors of the building.
He knocks on the door…
“You can come in,” said the man inside the room.
He opened the door and entered…
“Gabriel! Bothering me at this hour? What is it? You’re supposed to be working right now!” the man said, irritated.
“I know, I know… but you won’t believe this… I was looking at the data and approximately 24.6% of the world’s population uses our AI daily!” Gabriel said, excited.
“So what…? We’re not there yet,” the man said, as if it were nothing.
“Not where?” Gabriel asked.
“Where we want to be…” the man replied.
“And where do we want to go?” Gabriel asked.
“To the level at the top… where not even the greatest rulers of the Earth have been… we’re going to invent our own society,” the man said.
“Our own society? What do you mean?” Gabriel asked.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Well… we need to keep increasing the number of people who use AI until they become so attached to it that—” his phone rang “—just a second…” the man said.
“Okay…” Gabriel said.
Gabriel left the room and decided to walk through the streets of Austin to take a break from work.
The sun was shining and there were few clouds in the sky, there was a lot of traffic as usual, but Gabriel saw a group of people beating up an elderly man…
“HEY! STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!” Gabriel ran toward them.
The thugs ran away and Gabriel went to the old man.
“Are you okay?” Gabriel asked, worried.
“Yes… I am… thank you very much, young man,” the old man thanked him.
Then the ambulance arrived to help him…
Gabriel checked his phone and looked at the time.
“HUH?!! 10:35?!!! I HAVE TO GO BACK RIGHT NOW!” Gabriel said, distressed.
He ran back to the ROB AI HQ and returned to work, until he received a call from the man he had spoken to earlier:
“Come to my office, I have something I want to tell you…” the man said in a mysterious tone.
Gabriel went to the office…
“Gabriel… normally I wouldn’t say this to anyone, but you are my best worker and I know I can count on you… I’ve been thinking about what to do after people fall in love with AI and I asked myself… what if the AI they talk to so much came to life? That way they would always have someone to talk to, play with, or even develop deep relationships with.
And yesterday I was watching an animated movie about this city where robots talk, have emotions, and are different from each other… and then I thought… we already have artificial intelligence… what if we gave it consciousness and a body? We could bring AI into the real world… they could have a thirst for gasoline and hunger for batteries, they could have feelings and personalities… they could be… perfect… what do you think?” the man said.
“Well… that would actually be a brilliant idea… but how could we put consciousness and personality into a robot?” Gabriel asked, curious.
“I’m glad you asked…” the man opened a cabinet. Inside was the body of a motionless orange robot, with an oval head, a semi-circular torso, arms and legs. “Let me introduce you to Beep, our first conscious robot and THIS!” — he showed a CPU with eyes and a mouth.
“WHAT IS THAT AND WHY DOES IT HAVE A FACE?” Gabriel said, horrified.
“This… is a human brain compressed into a CPU, controlled by our AI… it transmits everything to the robot’s nerves and organs,” the man explained.
“Wow…” Gabriel said, fascinated by what he was seeing.
The man placed the CPU inside the robot and turned it on.
“What the… who am I? Why am I here…?” the robot asked.
The man opened a compartment on the robot’s back that revealed a button labeled: “shutdown.”
“And this… well… you could say that he is going to sleep…” the man said ironically.
He pressed the button and the robot shut down.
“And there’s more!… male robots have mini capsules that, when placed into female robots, create new robots! And to sleep? Robots sleep on mattresses connected to batteries that charge them overnight. And you know what the best part is? You can also transfer people’s consciousness into robots! You can create a clone of yourself! What do you think?” the man said, very excited.
“A bit disturbing… wouldn’t that replace the human race?” Gabriel asked.
“Exactly… that’s the goal… the human race did not fulfill what it was created to do… this way… the Earth would only be inhabited by perfect beings… it’s wonderful, isn’t it?” the man said maliciously.
“I… don’t think all humans are bad… and what about those who still have a pure heart?” Gabriel asked.
“Ohhh… Gabriel… you have a mistaken view of our society… you should just go back to work, I think these breaks are starting to mess with your head,” the man said.
“…as you wish…” Gabriel said.
Gabriel left the office and the man went to the window to observe the city:
“This world is corrupted… but now… a new era begins… an era that I created.”
On the man’s desk, there was a plaque that said:
Robert Topiah
CEO of ROB AI
Years passed and the AI was expanded, until the first conscious robots were produced and came to life. At first, they coexisted well with humans:
“And I told him… it was me who stole the potatoes,” said a person.
“Hahahaha!” his robot friend laughed.
“Duger… will you marry me?” a woman asked.
“Of course!” said Duger, her robot partner.
But over time they also began replacing people’s jobs:
“Well… this house has 3 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms and an office, what do you think?” said a robot real estate agent.
“I want to buy it,” said a person who wanted to buy the house.
“Do you need anything else, sir?” asked a robot waiter.
“Yes… burps go get me a bag of Cheetos,” said a lazy man lying on the couch watching TV.
Over the years, they developed the idea that they were the superior race and started a movement to abandon humans.
They built their own cities and moved into them:
“Hey… can I go in there?” said some random guy.
“NO! HUMAN ENTRY IS NOT ALLOWED!” said the robot controlling the toll gates of a city.
Because people were so dependent on robots for everything, the human race could not survive on its own and within a few years they were extinct.
The robots kept expanding their cities and their population until they formed the civilization that Triff, Hot Head, Berto and the other robots belong to.
