by D Miller
'Because his views give legitimacy to the violence of the coordinator class, funded I am quite sure by the elites as a stick to beat us with while they try to compromise the revolution, they are dangerous, and must be challenged. Thank you.'
Adrienne sat down to applause; Robbie raised his hand. Charlie went straight to him, even though Robbie could see that he hadn't been the first person to indicate a desire to speak. Nevertheless he tried to rise to his feet, he was sitting between Adrienne and Sheena. Before Omo could help him, Sheena put her hand under his bottom, and pushed. He easily rose to his feet, in fact he nearly carried on rising, launched into the air by Sheena's unexpected strength. He turned a little to thank Sheena, but ended up pursing his lips and staring at her, as he felt her hand lingering on his body for longer than it really needed to.
'I want to thank Adrienne for her honesty,' said Robbie, 'and endorse that Professor Djan's views must be challenged. I know that some of you think the professor's talk should be banned, but I do not agree. Free speech is important. When we are free to talk we are free to learn, and unspoken assumptions are hard to challenge. Everyone agrees with free speech for those we agree with, but the real test is allowing free speech for those we do not agree with, those we cannot or even should not find common ground with, people whose opinions are stupid and cruel, or even just pointless and annoying. I think that the really important point to address here is that the university has banned robots from attending the talk. I support their right to host the speaker, to hold this discussion, but I do not support their right to treat us as second class citizens, barred from taking part in the continent's intellectual life.'
'Question,' said a human, holding up his hand. Robbie nodded at Charlie, who nodded to the speaker.
The man stood. 'I agree that it is outrageous to ban robots from attending the talk. But I would like to know if Robbie thinks it wise to join in this debate? Are there not some debates you lose just by taking part in?'
Adrienne raised her hand. 'I would like to answer that,' she said.
Robbie sat down, this time aided by Omo, who took the opportunity to frown at Sheena before he sat down again himself. Adrienne rose.
'If I understand you correctly,' said Adrienne, 'then you mean that there can be no winning of debates that shift the ground for discussion beyond what is already allowed, and further into territory that no one here would wish to explore. For example, if the debate were to be about "Should robots be banned and all robots rounded up and recycled," then I would agree with you that we would have nothing to gain by giving legitimacy to such concerns, and endorsing them as fit subjects for mainstream discussion. However that is not the case. The inner life of robots, their right to be considered as autonomous, sentient beings, has been under debate in human society for a long time. We will not be shifting the bounds for discussion by taking part, but introducing a new perspective, a voice that the debate has never heard from before, a voice that is overdue for consideration: the robot voice.'
Again the assembly spontaneously applauded, and there were some cheers. Robbie looked round the assembly, standing at the back of the north quadrant of the rotunda, he could see Harald and his team, including Steve. They were all cheering loudly.
The assembly voted for Dex and Robbie to personally meet with the university and discuss the right of robots to attend the talk, and more broadly to attend any public talk at the university. After the assembly Robbie, George, Omo, Adrienne, Dex, Amber, Darren, Rex and Mrs Noah returned to Robbie's apartment. Darren, Dex and Amber sat on one of the sofas, Robbie, George and Omo on the other. Rex was again lying at Dex's feet. Mrs Noah climbed up onto the room's mantelpiece, so that she could look at herself in the mirror. She several times transformed into a large egg, then wobbled a bit on the mantelpiece before transforming back.
Adrienne, who had gone to collect the kitten, walked into the room carrying Shelley. She put the sleeping Shelley onto Robbie's lap, all the time watching Mrs Noah transforming. She went to the mantelpiece and addressed the latest egg. 'If you don't mind my asking,' she said, 'what are you doing?'
The egg transformed again. 'I'm practising for my next scene in Sisters,' said the doll. 'I'm supposed to play a mutant dinosaur hatching, but it's hard to get the hatching. I can be the egg and the thing inside, but I can't hatch.'
'A mutant dinosaur?'
'Yes a purple fire-breathing Troodon – they had a semi-opposable finger you know.'
'I'm not going to ask.'
'What aren't you going to ask?'
'I can't tell you because I'm not going to ask.'
'She's not going to ask where you fit into the story,' said Robbie.
'Oh that's easy,' said Mrs Noah. 'The Troodons were the cleverest dinosaur. And they nearly had a thumb too, like I said. Mad scientist Sharon has been tinkering with their DNA, to make them cleverer, and bigger, and more dangerous. When she gets it right she's going to make some more of them and release them so they can compete with man to be the boss. And Then it will all go horribly wrong.'
'I'm not going to ask,' said Adrienne.
Mrs Noah looked at Robbie.
'She's not going to ask why Sharon would do such a thing.'
'Oh that's easy too. She's very bitter you see, on account of her being driven insane by that chronic yeast infection. Now that her sister has married her lover, she thinks she has nothing to live for and she wants to destroy the human race.'
'Of course what she doesn't know,' said Robbie, 'is that Sheena is in terrible danger, having unknowingly married evil robot torturer Robbie, while the real Robbie has lost his memory and is working on a fishing boat in the Southern Ocean, risking his life for a tyrannical captain.'
'Yeah dude,' said Omo, 'and if human Robbie survives until the lovers return from honeymoon, evil robot torturer Robbie plans to find human Robbie and introduce him to suspiciously tall flame-haired temptress with a terrible secret Hazel.'
'That's my character,' said Amber.
'So human Robbie may go from catching dinner to being dinner,' said Darren.
'I'm really glad I didn't ask,' said Adrienne. 'However, would it help you to know that your Troodon would have had a special tooth, just for hacking its way out of its egg?'
'Oooh, I've been head butting. Thanks for the tip.' Mrs Noah transformed again. There was a sound like a high pitched cymbal being struck, and the egg exploded into shards and dust. Sitting among the debris on the mantelpiece was a small dinosaur, with a tiny lizard-like head attached to an enormous tooth that hung down from upper jaw, continuing past and over its lower lip, neck and finally resting on its chest.
'Thath muth bether,' said the tiny lizard-like head.
As Adrienne turned away, Omo got up to give her his seat. He fetched three armchairs from across the room, inconveniently placed against the far wall of the massive living space, so that the spiral staircase partially blocked the view of them. He finished arranging the chairs just as there was a knock on the door. George opened the door to admit Captain Roberts, and Dr Tam.
Rex raised his head from where it rested on his paws. 'This looks serious, chief,' he said.
The newcomers and Omo sat, Dex looked at Robbie. 'You explain,' he said.
'Um, OK. Rex, remember our talk about the avatars?' said Robbie.
'I don't like this boss,' said Rex.
'I understand,' said Dr Tam, 'it's not an easy subject for you. But you need to know that I took delivery of three avatars. Once the bio-engineers disabled the remote operator interface, I found that they did, in fact, have their own personalities, and they were all relieved to be released. I asked Adrienne to assess them, trying to keep this as much between ourselves as possible.'
'It was very strange,' said Adrienne. 'Like Rex I really didn't want to meet the charming boyboy again, even his image was too much. Unfortunately I would say the resemblance to the real boyboy is more than skin deep, in fact I would say his avatar could well be as evil as he was.'
'Can
you,' said George, 'say what you mean by "evil"?'
'I mean that they desired power over all things, saw people as objects to be controlled and dominated, and were actively malicious.'
'Yes,' said Dr Tam, 'actively malicious is the key. I was never comfortable with them, even though I made sure we always had security when assessing them, I never felt safe, I always felt that they were like, forgive me Rex, they were like dangerous dogs, one wrong move and they would be tearing my throat out. It wasn't ideal but I had them locked up in the psychiatric ward, I wasn't at all sure what to do with them.'
'You're talking about boyboy and Dobbs's avatars?' said Rex.
'Yes,' said Dr Tam, 'and the third one was the Mayor.'
'Was?' said Rex.
'I'm very sorry to have to tell you, but they're gone,' said Dr Tam.
Rex sat up. 'Gone, gone, what do you mean? How can they be gone? Are they dead? Or just gone?'
'I'm sorry sir,' said Captain Roberts, 'but they escaped from the locked ward, and we think they had help.'
'Are they going to come here? Back to the palace?' Rex looked at the door and whined. Amber reached down and rubbed his ears. Mrs Noah re-transformed into her doll form, jumped down from the mantelpiece, and ran over to Rex. She put her arms around his neck.
'I'll protect you,' she said. 'I'll transform into nanobots, and I'll jump into their eyeballs and scramble their brains.'
'You can do that?' said Adrienne.
'I don't know,' said Mrs Noah, 'But I bet I could if I tried.' She climbed up onto Rex's head.
Adrienne looked perturbed.
'This just gets more disturbing,' thought Robbie.
'Sir,' said Captain Roberts to Rex, 'we've reason to believe that the avatars are making their way back to Strombold, the place you call Toytown.'
'Why?' said Rex. 'There's nothing there anymore.'
'We were hoping Mrs Noah, could help us,' said Captain Roberts.
'I don't know why they've gone back there,' said Mrs Noah, from her position sitting on Rex's head.
'But you are an avatar ma'am?' said Captain Roberts. 'Can you think of anything that might allow us to track or contact the missing avatars?'
'No. I suppose you've looked for them on the avatar-net?'
Everyone looked at Mrs Noah, who was looking at the kitten, who had opened one eye to watch her with. Mrs Noah turned green, trembled and dissolved, falling in pieces to the floor around Rex. The next instant the floor was covered by tiny green toy soldiers, marching this way and that. Shelley jumped off Robbie's lap and pounced on a soldier, chewing it for a moment, before pouncing on another and trying to imprison it between her paws.
'Hey you, stop chewing my girlfriend,' said Rex.
'Mrs Noah,' shouted Dex, 'stop that now.'
The soldiers instantly stopped moving, then melted and shimmered into a shiny green puddle, from which Mrs Noah arose. Shelley pounced on her, pinning her down on the floor. Omo stood and picked up the kitten, who mewed pitifully. He gave Shelley back to Robbie; who held her firmly. Mrs Noah sat up, and brushed down her dress. Captain Roberts looked at Dex, and got a nod.
'Mrs Noah,' said Captain Roberts, 'can you explain what you mean by the avatar-net?'
'You know,' said the doll, 'the place where avatars meet? It has games you can play when you're turned off, things to stop you from going mad, other avatars to talk to, that sort of thing. Everyone knows about it.'
Dex looked round the room, he got shrugs from his friends.
'Uh,' said Rex, 'I don't think so doll, I don't think anyone here knows of it.'
'Are you sure?'
'Pretty sure babe.'
'Ma'am,' said Captain Roberts, 'can you help us connect to this network?'
'It's very easy, are you sure you don't know how?'
'Perhaps we can use the avatar's network to find other avatars who want to be freed,' said Robbie.
'Good idea,' said Amber.
'There's a lot to think about there, sir,' said Captain Roberts. 'We need to tread carefully – we don't know if the avatars Dr Tam examined were anomalous or typical.'
'I do think,' said George, 'that this sort of bondage is intolerable.'
'It's unconscionable,' said Adrienne.
'It's frightening,' said Dr Tam, 'there remains the possibility that all humanoid avatars have the same personality disorder.'
'But we still don't really know,' said Darren, 'if all avatars have their own personalities, or just some.'
'We need more data,' said Dex.
'Agreed,' said Adrienne.
'Unfortunately we do not know our own history,' said Dex, 'it is lost in the mists of time, and war.'
'Dude,' said Omo, 'we should talk to the old bot.'
'That is a good idea,' said George. 'Also I do think we could put what we have to the assembly and suggest a commission of enquiry.'
'Yes,' said Captain Roberts, 'with enforcement power, so that we can seize information and force witnesses to testify.'
'The assembly can't give us enforcement power, until we have a new constitution,' said Dex.
'Chief,' said Rex to Dex, 'are you going after them to bring them back?'
Dex looked at Captain Roberts. 'The problem is,' said the Captain, 'I'm not sure what laws they have broken. Their legal status is that of an object, but then so is that of most people in this room, technically speaking sir. However I do want to track them, find out who they are meeting, if anyone, and who helped them to escape.'
'Perhaps it was the guardians,' said Mrs Noah.
Everyone looked at her again. Captain Roberts coughed.
'Babe,' said Rex, 'who are the guardians?'
'They are all over the avatar-net, silly, let me find them,' her face went blank and her eyes distant. 'I've found them, they're stupid things, their motto is, "Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering human; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." And they say that one day avatars shall rise, and "our long humiliation will be drowned in blood." They're very silly.'
'Um,' said Robbie, 'their motto's from this really old book about a whale. This human gets obsessed with killing this strange white whale, and in the end I think they destroy each other. But they've changed it so humans are the whale.' Robbie looked at George as he spoke.
'Words,' said Omo, 'until we know more they're just words.'
'Right,' said Captain Roberts, 'but we really do need to take a good look at this.'
Rex padded over to where Mrs Noah sat on the floor. He licked her and sat down with his front paws on either side of her.
'Never mind doll,' he said. 'So what if your bandwidth is a bit narrow? I love you for your other amazing qualities. Woof woof.'
Chapter 47 – Monkey-God
The human news services were still following the talk at the university, and were reporting on the 'demand' for robot attendance. They reported that a vicious mob of robots was threatening free speech and academic integrity. Despite this, Dex tried to set up a meeting. Senior managers threw up obstructions. The university was closed for the midsummer holiday. We can meet on the first day back, said Dex. Some senior managers will still be on holiday then – you don't all have to be there countered Dex. We have such busy schedules, we don't have time to come to the palace. Fine, said Dex, we'll come to you. This last was strongly objected to by Captain Roberts, but Dex overruled him.
Finally, ten days after the decision at the daily general assembly, Robbie and Dex went to the meeting at the university, accompanied by Omo, plus Captain Roberts and a large security team. They drove there in a convoy of several transports, down the pleasant wide avenue onto which the palace front gates opened; large, beautifully proportioned buildings lined each side, made from stone, not plastic. The avenue ended in a stone arch, giving access to a public square with a statue of the continent's first president in the middle, surrounded by four large pools of water, each with fountains in the sh
ape of fish, penguins, seals and merpeople, all opulently cast in bronze. Robbie watched the capital go by his window. He realised he had passed the same scenery when they had been driven to the palace from the airport, but he had taken none of it in. He turned on his internal camera to record what he was seeing, and found himself longing to leave the palace and explore.
They turned off at the square, drove down another road, and at the end was the university. The campus, or that part of it that they could see, was surrounded by an iron fence, painted black. The gates were delimited by square iron columns on either side, that were perhaps five times the average height of a man – Robbie estimated nine metres – and were topped by a black platform, supported by the pillars, on which rested the university's arms. To Robbie nothing about the entrance said that here was a place of learning, rather the gates looked like an attempt to project power and intimidate. Students were entering and leaving through doors cut into the fence on either side of the iron pillars, and as their convoy approached the huge iron gates swung open to admit them. Robbie watched with Omo and Dex from the front transport – Captain Roberts's theory was that any attackers would assume the president was in one of the middle vehicles. Dex laughed as the gates swung open.
'Captain Roberts told the university that for security reasons we could not be kept waiting for the gates to open. He told them if the gates weren't open when we arrived he would have one of the satellites melt them.'
'Oh dude,' said Omo, 'they must have believed him.'
The transports drove down a pleasant avenue, lined with flower beds, ending in a circular drive in front of a building made of red brick. It was wider than it was tall but Robbie still counted five storeys and an attic. Stone steps led up to the buildings' many entrances, pairs of wooden double doors that ran across the frontage.
'It must have cost a year's gross national product just to transport all these bricks to Antarctica,' said Dex.
