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SF Trope: Intelligent Robots
Current Event: This Arizona wildfire was predicted to go down in history as the Third Largest in that state. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43290922/ns/weather/ If it continues much longer, it may well go down as the second largest – maybe even the biggest one ever. They’ll bring in everything to stop it. Eventually, there will be robots – not humanoid ones like in I, Robot, but more like water, fire and chemical squirting tanks. Or possibly like the robots above. Of course, they’ll have to have a certain amount of autonomy. So what happens to them after the fire?
Djamel Ahmed was panting hard. Nika Novak said, “Keep moving! You’d think you were seventy-three instead of twenty-three!” Resisting the urge to pass him along the newly-wooded trail they followed in the Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area inside the Superior National Forest, she said, “What kind of evidence are you looking for,” she said, “Exactly this time, if you don’t mind.”
She pulled alongside him. After the massive fires of 2028 that left the northern part of Minnesota essentially devastated, a bioremediation team had gone in to see if they could manipulate the recovery time. The estimates at the time had given more than a century until the forest would even be capable of sustaining a few small Human settlements. Meanwhile, the main source of revenue for most of the region had been tourism. She missed Djamel’s first few words and blushing, said, “I’m sorry, my mind started to drift. I was thinking about the bioremediation team…”
“See, that’s my problem, as soon as I start talking about robots, people’s mind turn off! Everyone wants to talk about the ornate biodesigns for the new trees, and birds, and mammals, and…”
She couldn’t help but snicker. He paused to turn and scowl at her. She held up her hands, “I surrender! I surrender! I’m a roboticist, too!”
“Yeah, but you see robots as just shovels with wheels and programming! I’m thinking about some of the robots they sent up here to fight the fire…”
“Ohhhh,” she said, trying very hard to keep the sarcasm and giggle out of her voice. She swallowed hard and said, “You still don’t have any evidence for the survival of your proto-artificial-intelligences?”
He snorted, hawked phlegm, and spit, then said, “None.” He stopped, spun and said, “And if you tell anyone, I’ll…I’ll…I’ll.”
“You’ll kill me until I’m dead? Yeah, I know. But really, Djamel? How long are you going to hold onto your absurd belief?” Nika said.
“It’s not absurd, just highly unlikely.”
She couldn’t help it, she snorted, “That there are colonies of sapient machines here who survived the fire and have hidden out because they know we’ll decommission them if they show up? Come on, Djamel! What’s the actual probability? Really! Your specialty in robotics is probability – don’t tell me you haven’t done the math. I know you!”
This time, when he spun around, he was actually angry. Nika regretted pushing him, but if someone who really cared about him, if she didn’t do it, who would? She lifted her chin, staring him down, crossing her arms over her chest. She knew he wouldn’t do anything to her. He’d come out to her their freshman year, then begged her to come to countless family gatherings as his “date”. She’d done it because he’d been there for her after a particularly bad streak of poor discernment of boyfriends. But, “What’s the real probability? If you can’t tell me, who can you tell?”
He made a face, sighed, and stepping back, said, “A hundred percent.”
She used an expletive she rarely used and even though his eyes widened, he stood his ground. For a moment, she was speechless. Then she heard the sounds of an electric motor behind her. He was smiling; maybe the most joyous smile she’d ever seen on his face. She turned slowly…
Names: ♀Slovenia ; ♂ Egypt
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg
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