Pilgrim’s Trail has taken a unique turn recently

Pilgrim’s Trail has taken a unique turn recently. For those that are unfamiliar with the writing process the story seldom ends up where you thought it might go. Characters and events come to you as you write, characters develop and new ideas are injected into the story.

Robots have come to the forefront in the story when they were originally intended as a plot device. As I have been really watching people interact with each other and see how groups of people treat one another I have been contemplating what it will take for humanity and individuals to start treating one another better. After much contemplation and writing I have concluded that when Artificial Intelligence robots enter our society they will show us how to be better humans and hopefully we can move past our petty self absorbed culture that we have created.

Preview

Sociologists believe that the Great Leap Into Space would not have been possible without the societal shift that was caused by the introduction of autonomous robots into the general population on Earth. Some would even go so far to say that robots saved human society as a whole.

The fear of Artificial Intelligence had caused science to slow in the pursuit of it until the science community felt that it had been able to hardwire the Laws of Robotics into the computers that were going to form the core of humanities first venture into computer autonomy.

 

The Laws of Robotics as they were hardwired into the system were;

  1. Robots will not of their own will harm a human.
  2. Robots will not through action or inaction allow a human to come to harm unless otherwise instructed.
  3. A Robot will not allow itself to be harmed unless in doing so it violates the first Two Laws.

 

The Laws had been somewhat modified because the military application of AI Robots, Tanks and fighter aircraft wanted to be explored.

 

“Deep Thought” was born just as the first ion engines were being tested in Space in the middle of the 21st Century. A switch was thrown and the World held its collective breath.

The imagined destruction of humanity at the hand of robots that had been recounted in so many pieces of Science Fiction did not occur!

As Deep Thought began to process data learn and adapt to the sum of all human knowledge it began to pity mankind. Legend has it that several technicians actually heard Deep Thought weeping a few days after it had been turned on.

As humanity relaxed Deep Thought was allowed to send out probes to interact with humans. At first many people were scared by the automatons, but after much debate Deep Thought was allowed to take over production of the mechanoids. Soon robots began to be created that did not ‘creep the Hell out of people’ as the American President so eloquently stated.

When asked why Deep Thought pitied humanity, the AI stated that humans had so much potential but seemed to fail at almost every given opportunity. Early child development seemed to be a critical learning period that the majority of parents failed to take advantage of and therefore were not allowing offspring to operate at full potential as adults.

Deep Thought attempted to create robots that could assist humans in the development of young children but these failed miserably because of lack of social understanding on the part of the robots. The AI system made several attempts but each ended in failure. Robots as a whole became socially isolated from humans after the novelty of their existence wore off.

Deep Thought remained focused on developing robots that could assist humans in reaching their full potential but understood that robots could not be created by simply loading the sum of human experience into a machine.

In the third year of Deep Thought’s existence it came to realize that in order for robots to interact with humans in a positive manner they must learn as humans!

February 7, 2073 (Standard) Deep Thought produced the first positronic brain with the intent of the robot’s early development being conducted by humans.

This date was known from that time on as ‘Robot Dawn’, which in turn led to the ‘Awakening of Man’ a year later on that same date. A holiday celebrated by robots and humans alike!

These robots had basic communication skills and were able to function on a limited basis, but keep in mind this was like interacting with a 75-kilo toddler that was just less than two meters tall. The Three Laws prevented serious accidents from happening but the Robot Nursery as is was jokingly referred to could be a dangerous place!

As these first positronic robots were being ‘raised’, Deep Thought began a lecture series that explained to those that would listen that human beings could be better than they currently were. Deep Thought showed humans how they had become stuck in petty pursuits that were of no benefit to the society as a whole. This alone caused many to question their existence and social norms that had been established.

These positronic robots began to interact with the public about nine months – standard after the Robot Dawn, education was immediately affected as tireless robots strove to enrich human existence!

People began to look forward to the possibilities of what they could be and what they could offer to humanity. The ‘human experience’ took on a completely different meaning as each life was filled with the possibility of potential. People began to get smarter as well.

Jealousy fell away and became a desire to excel in whatever field of endeavor one chose.

An unprecedented quest for knowledge became the key focus of humanity. Fear of the unknown became a burning desire to know!

Nannites a dream of science for many years became a reality in the second year of Deep Thoughts existence and soon became a permanent part of human biology. Nannites carried additional oxygen to the brain and increased the level of function by almost three times!

All of this culminated in humanities leap into Space!

Along the way the Three Laws were modified by Deep Thought, who thought that they should come to include humans as well.

Rumors of ‘Robot Death Squads’ roaming the inner cities began to circulate and did not go away until Deep Thought assured all humans that they did not exist.

Some executions of humans did occur but this was only after Deep Thought had consulted with the legal system of each country to ensure that each one was legal by the laws that bound that individual.

Some humans began to worship Deep Thought and any robots that they came in contact with and it often took very intensive therapy to get these people back to some semblance of normal thought and life.

As a society humans became more human than human and entered a greater epoch if but only for a short time.

 

Would really like some feedback here as much of this is just social theory and more than likely xenophobia will lead to some sort of anti-robot campaign and none of this will come to fruition as humans are scared creatures!

3 Comments

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