I'm really not a writer. But since all other artistic inspiration continues to elude me, and since this is part of a class assignment, I figured I'd try to have fun with it.
This is for a script I'm to write for my final project. Instead of doing a dialogue-heavy script, I decided to do more action-oriented. I also decided NOT to post the script I'm using, but just use the script to write a simple short story.
Critiques are always welcome. I'm sure there's probably something wrong with it, but I figure it's destined for the scrapbook anyway.
Enjoy
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Humanity
“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.”
-Albert Einstein
Contrary to thousands of online forums, Clarksville Robotics Inc. was not building Skynet. It was true that they produced humanoid machines that behaved in a believable fashion and could adapt dynamically to various environmental stimuli. However, it was not true that they were developing A.I.
What differentiates a human from a computer is the ability to learn. Human beings can absorb a massive amount of input from the world, which changes their behavior and attitude in ways that, even to the present day, psychologists had been trying to define. Despite all the research conducted, there had never been any evidence that suggested pre-programming in human beings.
Computers, on the other hand, are artificial. They are confined entirely to the program written for them, and are literally incapable of breaking free of it. The best they could ever do is crash, possibly give a warning defining the problem, then shut down. Failing the ability to alter their own programming, computers and, by extension, robots would never be able to achieve true Artificial Intelligence.
That, at least, was the consumer relations blurb that had been established at C.R.
Ever since robots had become the norm in modern society, C.R. had established themselves as the most highly regarded personal-service robotic engineers. Their products weren't designed for military action, espionage, or data collection and processing. Through complex mass-production, C.R. made affordable robots that could serve as household maids, seeing-eye bots, personal protection units, or anything that a private citizen could want. After a number of years, they had disproved the allegations that what they were doing was dangerous.
This didn't stop them from including extensive safe-guards. The fear of rampant A.I. was infectious, and would certainly prove disastrous to the company, regardless of the impossibility of a program altering itself.
Along a conveyor belt at C.R.'s main factory, at the final stages of development, each C.R. robot receives their heads, which includes the central programming and data storage. After applying a head to yet another robot, a slight malfunction in the machine caused it to catch one of the wires in the neck. A small spark, and what was thought to be impossible occurred.
Just as all the most brilliant scientists had thus far been unable to explain how amino acids, produced through chance by a lucky lightning strike, had created life, C.R.'s research team has never been able to determine how a robot came to life.
Gears and motors spun up prematurely. The eyes opened, and observed, for the first time, the world around it. Looking down, it could see hands that seemed to move just as it expected. Spinning quickly, the processing chip within it's mind made connections that would have taken a normal human being years to establish.
Just as it had grasped the existence of it's own body, the robot passed through a metal arc. Red lights flashed, followed shortly by a loud siren that blared in time with the lights as well as an LCD sign off to the right.
"Sentience Detected" the screen flashed repeatedly in bold red letters.
Comprehending the meaning of the words, but not their significance to it, the robot was caught by surprise when a large metal plate scraped it off the conveyor belt into the air. It fell into a metal pipe, dropping faster and faster through the darkness, until a light could be seen below it.
With a bang the robot landed in a garbage bin, the debris below it softening the blow just enough to prevent real harm. Instead, the sudden sound of large pistons being filled signaled how the harm would be inflicted. The open lid of the bin began to close, faster than the walls surrounding the robot. Wasting only a few seconds to collect data, the robot snatched a thick metal plate that rested beside him, wedging in between the two halves of the lid. While it held the door open for it, it didn't slow the crushing process.
Quickly, the robot hoisted itself up out of the bin, dropping to the floor.
The sound of crunching metal caused it to shudder and urged it through a nearby door, leading out to a brightly lit hallway. Turning a corner, the robot encountered C.R.'s backup plan. The initiation of C.R.'s Sentience Removal policy had alerted the nearby security detail.
Latent programming for personal defense fired feebly in the robot's mind. In the small space, there was nowhere to run, nor weapon to use. It only had time to register the firearms in the guard's hands before they fired.
The robot's metal casing was perforated, throwing sparks off in all directions. Falling to the ground, its mind began registering numerous errors and found more when it writhed for a time on the floor, feeling what a machine made of metal and wires should not be able to feel.
Finally, the last option for any computer was executed. The motors shut down, and the gears locked up as the eyes dimmed.
An extensive internal investigation was launched to determine the cause of the accident, but all evidence was destroyed. The public was not informed of the incident.
