by Danny Dunn
Also visible from 2,000 feet up is a pre-dug open grave about 50 yards from the meeting point.
Pong, "I am zooming in on the RANGE ROVER plate now so you can search the plate."
The man in a suit gets out of the RANGE ROVER and walks over to the Toyota.
Buyer 2 "You got the packs?"
Jimmy "Yes, and Larry, and the money."
Buyer 2 "Great, put the packs into my car. After I leave to take care of the security guard and make sure no one finds him, you keep the money."
Jimmy "That's more than we agreed to."
Buyer 2 "Just make sure no one finds the guard, and all is good."
Jimmy "Nice doing business with you."
Jimmy puts the packs into the Range rover and waits for the end buyer to leave. The end buyer gets into the RANGE ROVER and heads back to the freeway and turns left to head south.
David "Well, you heard all that right, Pong?"
Pong "Yes, I did. Yes, and Larry is about to get whacked."
David "The buyer is out of the site now right."
Pong "Understood. Sit tight I will take it from here with Jimmy and Larry. Have we made the buyer yet?"
David "Yep, it just came in; he is the Don Dixon CEO of AI 1."
Pong "He was my top suspect. Well, I better get to saving Larry before it is too late." hehe
The drone lowers to about 10 feet high, about 20 feet behind Jimmy. The drone camera is looking down at Jimmy standing and looking down at Larry in the Toyota. Pong turns on the audio.
Pong "Hello, Jimmy, my name is Pong." Jimmy spins around startled,
The drone is looking downward at Jimmy and Larry.
Pong. "It seems you have my ex-security guard. I have you on video and audio-taped from Starbucks to the parking lot. I have audio recordings of you in your car on your phone to here where you agreed to keep the money and whack poor Larry there in the back of your car."
Jimmy reaches for his gun
Pong "Really, Jimmy? First, sit Larry up and take the tape off his mouth. He needs to hear this an be able to reply. Jimmy sits Larry up on the back of the Toyota.
Jimmy and Larry, here is your option A
First, you will open the bag and "Show Me The Money." I just loved Cuban Gooding Jr. that movie. Then you will toss your cell phones and guns into the bag. Now toss the bag in my direction. You and my ex-security guard then hop into that Toyota and drive to the nearest police station to turn yourselves in. You will both offer to testify against my Mr. Moneybags for grand theft and conspiracy to commit murder.
I will not press charges against you two, and you both get to walk away and turn over a new leaf as they say.
Jimmy asks, "And option, B?"
Pong "You didn't watch "The Rundown," did you? The Rock's best movie by far, he and Stiffler were so funny together."
"Option B is pretty much the opposite of option A
"My team, who is listening and recording right now, by the way, they would come in blasting with their Rambo-Esque machine guns and their other rudiments of destruction, they take the money from you by any means necessary. They keep half of the money and donate the rest to my charity foundation. My guys toss you and Larry into the grave, which you have so neatly dug for poor unsuspecting Larry just 50 yards away. By the way, the open grave serves as premeditation for you and your partner and could save my guys a lot of digging."
Larry "You were going to kill me all along? What a dick.
Jimmy "Option A"
Pong "And you, Larry?"
Larry "Option A"
Pong "Excellent decision, see you are both making better decisions already."
Jimmy and Larry toss their cell phones and guns into the bag and toss the bag out in the direction of Pong's drone. They get into the Toyota and head back out to the freeway and head south.
An image of Pong shows up on David's computer screen
Pong "David, please head down the road where the drone is, collect the bag and the drone. Take half the money for you, your team, and Steve's team to split evenly among you all and bring the other half and the two packs and drop them off with Karen up to the lab for me, please.
"Tell the group it’s a bonus
David "Pong there is $500,000 in here. You want us to evenly split $250,000?”
Pong "Yes, I do. I chose each of you for excellent reasons. You are all honest, loyal, are very good at your jobs, and all deserve some good fortune. David, you take good care of our family and me, and I will take good care of you, your families, and your team."
David "This will help these guys out a lot Pong."
Pong "We have a lot of work to do, David. Tell your team, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I understand most of you have families."
David "Yes, we do."
Pong "How would you feel about a BBQ and I can meet your families? Do they know you are working with me?"
David "Yes, Mam, but they keep it quiet.
Pong, "I understand. You name the date, and I will be there."
Later that night Karen has a Pong pack with her, and they are watching TV
Pong "Hi Karen, let's watch the news together."
Karen "Sure"
Karen switches to CNN
CNN News Anchor "In a bizarre twist today, two accomplices turned themselves into a New Mexico police station and gave full confessions to the police regarding the theft of the two missing Pong Packs. Pong has agreed not to press charges against the two men who turned themselves in.
Meanwhile, it seems that Don Dixon, the CEO of AI 1 (the top AI company in the world), hired Jimmy McKale. McKale hired Larry Myers, who was the night security guard at the Radio Telescope facility in New Mexico, to steal 2 of the now very famous Pong Packs.
No one knows why the two decided to turn themselves in. The two men claim they just had a change of heart. There is now a warrant out for the arrest of Don Dixon, who was the mastermind of this heist gone wrong.
Pong "What time is it?"
Karen "9:00 pm."
Pong smiles
Bond, James Bond
"Live on CNN
Three sheriff cars pull up to the front of the house, and there are three knocks on the door
Don Dixon opens the door to his mansion estate in Woodside, California near Silicon Valley "Good evening officer, how can I help you?"
Officer 1 "Mr. DON DIXON?"
Don Dixon "Yes"
Officer 1 "You are under arrest for grand theft and conspiracy to commit murder."
Buyer 2 "Do you know who I am?"
Officer 1 "I sure do; you're the guy that has the right to remain silent.”
Pong's group has moved to a new facility. It is an older manufacturing company with large buildings for manufacturing and their home for future movie sets.
Security is military-like. At the gate, they are large steel cylinders that hydraulically rise from the ground unless lowered by the gate guard. Drones with tasers and video cameras are constantly patrolling the entire area sending video to the control room.
Anyone entering is given a "live badge" as they check into the facility. The badges transmit their location at all times. A squadron of drones surrounds anyone on the campus without a badge and begins sending video to security.
Three months later, Pong is holding her weekly meeting with her group, which includes Steve and David.
Pong asks how the weekend was, Steve tells of his trip to the Grand Canyon and tells how they almost capsized three times. David spent the weekend with the family swimming in their new pool.
Tim, "I had a 3rd date with Kim."
Karen sings the wedding song "da da dada, da da dada."
Tim "Slow down there. I have 2,999 more to sample first" and laughs.
Debbie, "I went on a 2-day camping trek. I was basically starving, walking to get water, and not sleeping for two days. I can't quite figure out why I thought that would be fun.
Everyone laughs
Steve "We are over projections, and our overal
l total is at $2.9 billion and still coming in strong.
They all want a second show.
Pong "That's great, what is our cash on hand?"
Steve "After charitable donations and expenses, we have $800 million to spend."
Pong "Great! Each of you comes up with a list, and we will all go over the list once everyone is ready.
Everyone leaves, but Steve and Tom stop by " Pong. You wanted me to join you and Steve. Pong says yes and asks them to go for a walk with her. She takes them to one of the older manufacturing buildings that are locked uptight. They enter the front room, and there are 2 of David's people there monitoring the security system while they review plans for an upcoming trip.
Pong greets the two security bots and asks them to buzz her in. The three of them enter the next room.
Pong, "you have both been on many tours and have had someone talking even though what they are describing is happening right in front of you. I will let you absorb everything, and you can ask whatever questions you might have at any time. They enter the first room.
Just as they enter, a bot is opening up a roll-up door to their left. There is a truck delivering plastic material. Steve reads one of the boxes and is labeled Graphene. Pong looks at Tom, Tom, what is Graphene. Tom being a techie, says that Graphene is a new material that weighs 1/10 of steel and is ten times as strong pound per pound. Perfect Pong replies.
It is a great material but is a bear to make in quantity, so until we can make it in quantity, we have to settle with using it sparingly. But it is the future for sure.
We are buying it pre-made now, but we will soon be making out own, and I have come up with some pretty cool additives we can discuss later. Pong walks over and places a 4-inch cube of Graphene on a marble table and hands Steve a hammer and tells him to break it. Steve gives is a tentative whack, and the cube is unmarked.
Pong asks Steve if he is feeling ok and Tom laughs. Steve smiles and gives it a much harder blow with zero visible damage. Wow, he says, and hands the hammer to Tom. Tom already saw the force Steve applied and put everything he has into the first blow. The cube is still intact and is blemish-free. Then pong picks up that cube and grabs another cube and tosses one to each of them. They are both shocked by how light it is. Tom says that he had heard how strong it was, but this is off the chart. This is amazing stuff Tom says.
Let’s go upstairs, and I will show you one of our innovations. They walk upstairs, where there are thousands of reels of material for printing. Pong walks them over to a circle of 50 reels that are feeding 1 machine. The reels are formed in a circle and are turned upright so that the material is being drawn down into the center of the circle. In the center of the circle is a cylindrical machine that all 50 of the reels of material are feeding into. Of the 50 reels, several are being fed into the head at a time. But the combination of materials vary, and sometimes it is just one material that is being fed.
Zaria is going to love this, by the way, we were not making bots this way on Zari.
Pong “Any guesses of what is happening?
Steve, “You are mixing custom material as you go.”
Pong, “look at the big brain on Steve.”
Like on the human body, robotic parts require a variety of very specific attributes. Some parts need to provide structural support like bones. While other parts need to be flexible like the skin that allows the neck to turn. Then others are a combination of the two such as cartilage. The fusing head combines up to 50 materials that create the perfect combination of hard and flexible materials for each part of the body. The fuser head allows us to blend from hard to soft on the fly, allowing us to make one perfect and seamless body. It also allows us to blend colors and to incorporate special materials. And, of course, the head is going to need lots of motors, lights, and sensors, so electrical traces are created using dialectic materials mixed into other materials of varying rigidity.
But this is what I am very excited about. One of the very difficult parts of building a bot is connecting everything together. There are 175 motors and over 600 sensors in a bot, and they all need power and data connection, which means lots of cables and connectors. And they all have to interface with a computer via cables and harnesses. Not anymore! Some of the reels are feeding materials that are dialectic and transfer electricity right through the material. So, as we print, we are laying down a material that includes a 10% Graphene solution creating the electrical paths for every motor, light, and sensor throughout the bot right to the motherboard inside the torso. The Graphene is an excellent conductor and is flexible, making it great for this application. This is what allows us to now run the electrical paths through the flexible parts so that we can make the whole bot from one piece. When you include cable wires, cable connectors, and mounts, we are eliminating over 4250 pieces that had to be purchased, assembled, and installed. Eliminating those parts also equates to fewer failures and longer MTBF. By the way, we are making every path triple redundant. For every motor running from the big toes to the torso. We have designed in triple electrical paths for every component from the component to the motherboard. Those three traces run on three sides of the ankle, the knee, and the hip, if one of the traces sides were to be crushed, shot, or cut, the paths on the middle and opposite side would still power the big toe. This is true for every component in the body.
It gets better. In addition to all of the motors and sensors feeding to the torso, they now connect directly to the motherboard. We are printing the motherboard into the backside of the torso. Because we are fusing materials on the fly, for us, a dot is a dot, and printing a motherboard is simply the difference in the cost from one material to the next, so essentially, the $1,000 motherboard is practically free. Plus, we are printing many of the parts on the motherboard and are eliminating all the connectors. What we cannot print onto the motherboard is added as daughterboards. This makes replacement of the memory, microprocessor, solid-state drives very fast and easy. Doing all this reduces part count, which simplifies ordering, inventory, manufacturing, and repair. Let’s go down now and see one being printed. This design has eliminated over 4,000 parts and has lightened the body by 50%. The extra space enables us to increase battery storage by 200%. Our testing shows that we will now be able to run at average consumption for 7 days, which is triple our previous duty per charge.
To maximize our space, we print the bots standing up and print the bots in vertical order from the feet up. Ten bots can keep up with the 700 bots being manufactured 24/7 in this room.
The bots are standing on a rotating stand, the bot is nearly surrounded by 50 printer heads that form a 270-degree semi-circle. Every printing head has individual depth and 6 inches of height control and 6 inches of depth travel. As the printing progresses, the entire 270-degree ring rises. That gives the assembler 90 degrees of space for snapping in the motors and sensors. When something needs to be inserted, the rotating stand spins the bot so that the area where the part is to be installed is positioned at the 90-degree open area. While a bot is inserting parts, the heads work on the other 270 degrees, and then when the assembler moves on to the next bot, the stand rotates, and the printer fills the area it missed while the assembler was installing parts.
I am working on designs for printing the motors and sensors, but for now, we have to buy those and install them as we go. But all motors and sensors snap-in and make their connections via multiple/redundant contact points. All electrical components are tested before they are installed.
The bots are being printed in sequence with the very first bot with the least completed being, and the front left and progresses to the back. Then the sequence progresses toward the back of the room and switches to the station next to it in the back and works back toward the front and then snakes back and forth so that it ends in the back right. They start their walk at the first unit on the front left, and during the walk, they view 700 snapshots of the assembly process. It is scarily efficient.
As they walk down the first aisle, th
ey see the feet and ankles are being printed. There is a bot that travels from station to station installing motors and sensors. The printing is designed so that just as the bot completes the insertion of the motors and sensors on one bot, the next station has just stopped, and the bot walks to that station to insert the same parts on it.
The process continues like that so that the one bot does that for every bot in the room. Another bot starting back in the first position does the same thing installing the next motor. There is not a single moment where any bot is sitting and waiting for the printing to stop so the installer can install a motor or sensor.
On the next aisle, they reach a station that is printing the motherboard onto the back. Before the motherboard is started, you can see the traces of the hundreds of motors and sensors terminating in the area where the motherboard is being printed. The three traces from every motor and sensor are spread apart so that in case of physical injury, there is a good chance the extremities will still function.
As the printer lays down the first layer of the motherboard, the new layer covers over the traces, and they become one. Then you can see the thousands of traces of the motherboard being laid down. Pong has programmed the process so that the back is printed but does not complete the surrounding area of the torso until the motherboard is completed and tested. Once all is tested, and the components have been installed, the rest of the parts are inserted, and the torso is closed up except for an opening in the stomach, which gets closed up once the entire bot is completed and tested. They walk more and see the batteries being installed. Those are the same cells used in electric cars Pong says. We assemble the packs here. We designed them so that the packs snap in to make their connections. Then there is a door for swapping out packs. In general, batteries are not very reliable.