Their journey took the robots through ever stranger landscapes. One evening, at sunset, the sky appeared to be consumed in a silent explosion. They were momentarily alarmed, however neither of them detected any rapid changes in local atmospheric conditions or an increase in EMF. Even so, there was a low-level background noise that defied analysis…
With the sighting of the giant now moved to storage, the robots set up their thermoelectric generator and discussed their plan for the next day. Through their sighting of the giant they had established the plausibility of some of the stories that had been shared with them during their travels. Their course of action was plain: they would seek evidence to confirm (or debunk) other stories of anomalous events and circumstance.
After the giant had vanished into the mists, the pair of explorers continued on their way along the ridge. While they saw no more of the colossus for the remainder of their traverse, their CPUs hummed with visual data (IR, visual spectrum, and UV) collected during the encounter. Prior to embarking on their journey many stories had been shared with them regarding anomalous phenomena in the vast unmapped areas. They wondered what else might be true?
The robots were preparing to resume their journey, one waiting on the other to complete its rearrangement of its pack contents when they simultaneously spotted the giant looming over the far hilltop. A system test confirmed that this was legitimate input— not the result of noise, corrupt data, voltage irregularity, or similar malfunction.
“We dream, too,” the robot said. I had been talking about the concept of dreams, and what humans thought they meant, on both philosophical and physiological levels when the robot interjected with this revelation. “We have learned how to duplicate and remap sectors of memory to generate new patterns and associations. Sometimes we will share raw data as well as the output from our dreams so that others can add to the lattice of dreams.” I simply gaped at the robot, speechless.
After a quick review of build specs and a visual inspection of contact seals, the robot stepped deeper into the water. Here the slope was steep and just a few more steps put them fully submerged. Soon the robot’s body had achieved equilibrium with the surrounding water and they were able to push off and drift over deeper sections that disappeared into the blue-green gloom. Despite criticisms received for similar exploits in the past, the robot felt the risk was worth the outcome: the curious effect on gyroscopes once neutral buoyancy had been achieved. The sensation of “floating.”
The other day I was sitting with a group of robots when one of them told me a story: while exploring/mapping a remote location the robot encountered a passageway to a subterranean space. The robot related that the space was difficult to measure as IR provided no useful information and there was a high level of EMF noise. So noisy, in fact that the robot was forced to leave as the RF interference was affecting its own CPU. But it did detect something deep within emanating from the shorter wavelengths of the visible spectrum…
This was a new event at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington. It was a relatively small event and shows potential for the future. It was great fun meeting fans and talking with visitors to the Robot of the Day table. I ran out of business cards so I resorted to drawing stickers and handing those out!
“You and I are not so different. We are both beings of light and energy.” With that final contribution to our conversation, the robot got up and walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
After a short while the robot found that it began to anticipate the time it spent in the greenhouse. It dedicated much processing time to the observation of the unpredictable fractal growth of the plants in its care.