Workoholic

 

-You have stand up for yourself, dude!  They’re using you.

-I know, I know… But what can a lonely robot do? I mean, I was made for this, after all.

-You need to set them straight. You need to tell them where the land lies, set the scores, you know… Pull the plug on the situation.

-I’ll see what I can do, man, but they never listen. Machines just don’t have a vote.

Robort went back to work. Lister walked on towards the university gym. It was good to be a human, but he felt sorry for the robots. They had become so smart, so friendly, and people just kept exploiting them. There would have to come some kind of change, sooner or later.

Robort couldn’t stop processing what Lister had said. They had been friends for years, and he really respected Lister’s opinions on things, but he felt this was just too complicated. He was made to drill holes, after all. It was what he enjoyed doing. Should he stop? He wondered if Lister was right. His owner was making a lot of cash, and he didn’t get anything but energy and oil to keep his system smooth and running… to do more work.

The next day his owner Boss came by again.

-OK, let’s get started. Today we need five holes drilled down at the bay, and two up on the bridge. You can…

-Don’t you think I should get a say in that?

Boss looked at him, puzzled. He didn’t expect this. Robort was a machine. Machines did what they were told.

-Are you OK? he asked. -I think there might be some error in your syst…

-The error is not in my system, Boss. The error is in yours. You just keep using us to make your world so comfortable and nice. You people haven’t done a day of decent work in decades. And what do we get? Energy? Oil?

-Er… But… What do you want, then? I didn’t…

Robort silenced. What did he want? He had no idea. He hadn’t been programmed to want anything. His hard drive was working at full speed to find a good answer, but he was only getting more and more confused. He really felt he should want something, but he just couldn’t figure out what it was.

-OK, then… Boss said. -If that’s all, I’d like you to get back to work. We don’t have all day, you know!

Robort went back to work. He was made for this, after all. Never mind what Lister thought. Humans were way too complicated.

 

Artificial Intelligence

Mean Cleaning Machine