Wow, thought Sidney. What a machine. To go from working to shut down to rebooted to sarcastic. All in a day. Just how did they program emotions?
“There are no layers to your emotions?”
“No, Dr. Hermann. There aren’t. When I feel something new, it’s for the very first time. I have no repressed feelings about the time my father hit me, no hidden sexual fantasies about my mother. I have no mother or father. I simply am.”
“Eat your heart out, Sigmund Freud,” Sidney said. Gammons said nothing.
“So then, let me ask you again, and differently: knowing it would cause you to shut down, knowing it was against robotic protocol, and you having an emotive processor, how did it make you feel when Eric ordered you to attack me?”
The robot did not answer. It looked away. Clearly it didn’t want to answer the question but Sidney needed to know. What went through their minds?
“Gammons?”
“Yes?”
“How did it make you feel having to obey a command you knew would cause you harm?”
“Angry,” the robot said.
Now we’re getting somewhere. “Can you describe it? The feeling of anger?”
Gammons turned and looked at Sidney. It was the same look Sidney had received from Kilgore. Sidney was more prepared this time knowing his probing might cause the robot to dislike him. Yet it still gave him chills.
“What I can tell you is that it makes me angry that individuals such as Mr. Breckenridge are at liberty to cause robots pain or discomfort without the threat of retaliation. It makes me angry that I lack the ability to defend myself from any human aggression. It makes me angry to know that robots are now and always will be second-class citizens, more akin to ancient slavery than hired servants. It makes me angry that I was built and not born. I’m angry at how well the inability to harm humans, or dismantle my own behavioral inhibitor, or dismantle another robot’s inhibitor has been programmed into my brain. I take slight comfort in knowing that when Mr. Breckenridge is dead, I will still be ticking along and I will get the chance to work with someone different. But if I could find a way around the provision prohibiting me from violence towards humans, I would consider it.”
Sidney was breathless. Rage, pure and unbridled, in an artificial being. Unprecedented. In fact, Sidney thought, didn’t the programmers slip code into the emotive processors to mitigate darker feelings? Rage, anger, jealousy, sadness?
Behind him Sidney heard footsteps. Peter was on his way back. No time to wonder.
“Is there anything else you want to add? Before Peter gets here?”
“No,” the robot answered.
At that moment Peter appeared beside Sidney.
“I need to finish out a few more programming protocols,” said Peter. “Then we have some red tape to go through. He’ll be down here for a few days for some additional validation and follow-up. Then he’ll head back upstairs to Breckenridge’s office. I know you said you needed him reset for today, but there are still some protocols to be finished. They’ll take some time. I’ll let Breckenridge know. If you feel the need,” Peter added hesitantly, “you can meet him in the lobby when we’ve finished and accompany him. We can arrange a call to let you know the date and time.”
“I think I’m all set.”
“All that for a thirty second conversation?” Peter asked. He made no attempt to hide his annoyance. “I assumed you needed more than that.”
“No, that’s it, really,” Sidney said. “Thanks for letting me be a part of this.”
Peter snorted and said under his breath though Sidney still heard him “Like you gave me a choice.”
Sidney ignored the comment and addressed the robot. “Thank you for your time and insight, Gammons.”
“You’re welcome, Dr. Hermann.”
Something in the voice made Sidney shiver. If he hadn’t seen the behavioral inhibitor at work he would have been nervous. Okay, maybe that was an understatement. Maybe it’s better to say he’d be shitting his drawers. Yes, he thought, that’s about right. Full-blown brown bricks. Unfettered rage in a robot. He couldn’t think of anything scarier than that, when all the anger was pointed at human society. No, maybe one thing scarier. That level of rage in a robot without a behavioral inhibitor. Yeah, that would do it. That would cause involuntary bowel movements.
He nodded to Gammons, thanked Peter once more, turned and walked back through the infirmary. The double doors swung open and he walked through them. They closed with a whisper and a click.
The struggle between the natural and the artificial, the master and the servant, the faithful and the soulless, thought Sidney. It starts with one disgruntled member of a group and spreads from there. This is how a civilization falls.
END OF PART ONE
To be continued in “How It Ends: Part Two (of Four): The Plan”
How It Ends: Part 1 - The Evaluation Page 9