**This is my submission for the
"AI: A New Era" Author Challenge
. Beyond the prologue, this story is intimate, romantic, and sometimes hot and kinky. It's an exploration of what it is to be human and what it's like to fall in love for the first time under strange circumstances. If you enjoy it, please take a second to vote and leave a comment.**
You are about to read a declassified SOH case study concerning Dr. Linda Harton and her involvement in the Gordon Farm Incident of 2138.
Prologue:
In the year 2140, humans reached the apex of their co-existence with artificial intelligence. It was known as the Cordial Times. Before then, the years between 2019 and 2120 saw plagues and extreme weather unlike anything in recorded history. It became known as the Century of Calamity. Unpredictable and catastrophic weather events triggered an arms race of a different kind. Humans had to fight the destruction they set in motion. We lost oxygen, food, and nature on an un-survivable scale. We built colossal nuclear oxygen generators by the thousands all over the world. Once we secured breathable air, we focused our attention on preventing catastrophic weather events. Weather prediction and modification tech were the driving forces of the new world economy. Once we began to save our planet, we finally saw the error of our ways and the new root of all evil. Willful ignorance devastated everything humans needed to live a healthy life, and it could no longer be tolerated.
The Modern Enlightenment began in 2020, but it was too late to mitigate the chaos. The Doctrine of Health and Harmony was adopted worldwide in 2038, and leaders decided we needed something more advanced than ourselves to ensure our survival. The Great Tech Scramble of the 50s and 60s saw the rise of artificial intelligence on a scale that would fundamentally change human existence. Robots and their consistent minds were our new shepherds and saviors since we couldn't be trusted to take care of ourselves. One might ask, how can a creation be more advanced than its creator? Is it even possible for something more perfect to come from something less perfect? These philosophical quandaries would play out again and again as the climate slowly stabilized and we moved into the 90s.
2080 through 2110 became known as the Great AI Assimilation. Humans were living side by side with highly advanced, realistic robotic companions. Robots were leaders, teachers, healers, protectors, lovers, philosophers, and stable citizens. Isaac Asimov was the Aristotle of the AI Assimilation. He had seen the need for robotic companions long before anyone else, but like Aristotle, Asimov lived in a primitive time and couldn't demonstrate the value of his ideas beyond words.
The Salvation of Humanity (SOH) agency was established to research sustainable relationships between humans and artificial intelligence. SOH wrote new ethics and passed new laws of conduct between humans and robots. Dr. Linda Harton was the head of the Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence departments at SOH from 2101 to 2144. She was sent to investigate strange happenings with the most advanced robots created by the Mechanized Kinetics Corporation (MCK). She had exclusive privileges to access the memories of any robot. In the old days, that would be considered an invasion of privacy, but it was critical for survival in the Cordial Times. Humans created something to help us control our lives, and we needed to constantly examine it.
According to Dr. Harton, advanced AI software cannot achieve a self-aware state. In theory, robots are incapable of experiencing human consciousness without a human body. Even advanced organic circuitry can not replicate the complexity of the human brain and its relationship with the body. Without bodily senses, the world around us cannot be experienced. Starting at birth, our physical experiences help us build thoughts, language, and imagination. Robots have no senses. They run programs built with numbers. Any appearance of consciousness is the direct result of its programming. Simple software can mimic human emotion, and simple minds fail to realize that. Robots are a reflection of the creatures that created them. A conscious robot is a fairy tale. Humans like to pretend that fundamental truth is flexible, but it isn't.
One day, purely-organic tech could create a self-aware being, but it seems dangerous to build another humanoid creature to compete with us. The SOH agency keeps organic technology under close watch for that reason. The agency's main concern is keeping humans happy and safe with their robotic companions. So, when a conscious anomaly occurs in a robot, Dr. Harton has to investigate it and decide if the robot is still safe. You are about to read one of the most interesting declassified case studies compiled by Dr. Linda Harton during the forty-three years she served as a top-tier SOH agent. She recorded first-hand accounts from humans and MCK robots to ensure every aspect of an event could be recreated and studied.
Declassified Case # 256: The Gordon Farm Incident
Initial reason for investigation: MCK Homestead Addition appeared to diverge from appropriate behavior and disrupted a young woman's life, creating family conflict.
Conclusion: Phantom code in random access memory triggered by conversations with human companion caused the malfunction. Factory reset initiated and financial compensation provided for damages. Robot placed under monthly inspection instead of bi-yearly.
Witness account:
Hi, I'm Kaley Gordon. I'm eighteen years old and one of two primary human companions of Rusty. Rusty is a super expensive MCK Homestead Robot. Mama applied for advanced-robotic assistance after Daddy's death. The insurance company dragged their feet for a year before they finally approved the request. We couldn't afford it otherwise. The farm made ends meet. It didn't make us rich.
I was excited to hear we would be getting one of the most handsome models available. Mama said she picked a pretty one since I would be spending more time with it. Being a farmer in the Cordial Times wasn't glamorous work. We were often on our own out in the Viable Lands. That's the area where crops still grew. Mama and I supervise and maintain all the rough robots that run the farm. None of them are pretty.
Since graduation, I was extra lonely and annoyed with tedious farm work. Then Rusty came along. I still remember the day he arrived. The delivery truck dropped a big wooden crate in the driveway and handed me an owner's manual. I hollered for Mama, and we sat on the front porch and read the activation instructions. First, we had to text the MCK Corporation's special number and let them know we received the shipment in good condition. Then they texted Mama her personal activation code. She gave me the honor of calling it out. I ran over to the crate and called out the twenty-digit code, and a few seconds later, a handsome voice called back.
"Hello there! Am I in a safe area to leave the box?" asked a muffled voice from inside the crate.
"You are! Please, come on out!" I called.
I heard some shuffling noises and levers being turned. Then the door on the front of the box opened, and out stepped the most handsome young man I had ever seen. He looked at me with those big brown eyes and smiled like an angel. He had tousled brown hair that looked windswept right out of the box. He was dressed in a button-down white shirt and black jeans, and the body of an athlete was hidden beneath the wrappings. I thought I was being pranked at that point. He looked too real. I glanced at Mama to see her staring at him, opened mouthed.
"Wow, the picture in the catalog didn't look that real," she said in disbelief.
"No joke. You're seriously a robot?" I asked him.
"I am. My name is Rusty. I'm an MCK Homestead Companion Luxury Addition. Who might you be?" he asked and offered me his hand.
I reluctantly gave him my hand, and he pulled it to his lips and kissed it. I laughed and grinned like a silly schoolgirl and pulled my hand away from him. His smile deepened like he enjoyed my reaction, and I couldn't begin to explain how wonderful it made me feel. In the back of my mind, I knew his expressions were programmed responses to everything I did. It was all fake, but it generated genuine responses in me.
"Wow... your skin feels real," I observed.
"It's a state-of-the-art silicone polymer. It's designed to stay in pristine condition under heavy distress for thirty years. It's all under warranty, and it's as close to real skin as a robot can get. Would you like to feel it more?" Rusty asked and stepped closer and offered me his hand.
I looked at him with an eyebrow raised, and he smirked at me. It was another programmed response that was absolutely charming. He was one fancy, pretty robot, and I planned to make him clean out the chicken house that afternoon because I didn't want to do it.
"Sure, I'll feel it," I agreed and took his hand in mine.
He stepped a little closer and stared at me, making me uncomfortable, so I pinched the top of his hand as hard as I could. He smirked at me again.
"Can you even feel that?" I asked.
