Am I Alive?

Am I Alive?

Author Notes: This was a story that I wrote for a competition on newgrounds.com. The only requirement was that it be about robots. (That's a pretty broad topic isn't it?) The story won 3rd place and is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

“Richard Stanford, 6:04 PM on Saturday, May 29^th, 2064. I’m continuing my work on the beta version of a humanoid for the United States government.”

Richard carefully examined the opened abdominal section of the figure propped up before him to to figure out the next step to make this robot a fully functional being.

“I have four more wires to connect and if everything goes according to plan then it’ll be shipped out by this time tomorrow.”

Vigilantly, Richard continued his work. His eyelids, barely moving, were becoming very heavy from the extreme focus that his worked involved. He knew one small mistake could not only mean that the project would be scrapped, but that it also meant that he might lose his job. With the economy in shambles, a lost job could result in a lost life.

Richard knew that connecting the four wires was alot harder than it sounded. This was a new model and the interface was completely different than what he was used to. Connecting the motor skills first would render the robot unable to move and there would be no way to see if the connection had actually worked before hemoved on to the next. The plan was to connect the brain cell, the basic motor skills, and then the fine motor skills, in that order.

“We have one more litt.. Ffffffff!”

Richard felt his heart stop for a split second and time seemed to freeze. He didn’t exactly feel pain, but instead an emptiness, almost like death itself. There was no doubt about it; the connection was completed and he was unlucky enough to be touching the metal section of his tool when it happened.

“It was just a little shock, nothing serious.”

His eyes followed the glow of the neighboring computer screen and noticed that the computer was picking up that the humanoid was now receiving information. Even though Richard worked in the environment that he did, he never seemed to get used to thefact that he spent his entire day working and talking to machines. Even at that moment he had been speaking to the voice recorder. He knew that later on the company that he was working for would be using it for future reference, but at that specific moment he was the only one truly hearing his voice. That being said, he also knew that the robot that he was working on could now hear what he was saying. Since the brain cell was connected it had the ability to hear and understand basic things around him. Later on the government would load certain programs and he would have an infinite amount of knowledge.

“There’s no point in having knowledge if you’re not really alive to learn it for yourself though,” he thought to himself. The thought made him chuckle. Life might be hard, but at least he could think on his own and nobody had to program him to do so. He cleared his mind and gained his focus again.

“I need a 30 minute break. I’ll stop the recording and when I come back I’ll continue with the basic motor skills.”

He slowly stood up and plodded to the door at the back of the room that led tothe bedroom setup. Since most projects couldn’t be finished in one day he spent days and even weeks in the laboratory at a time. Every now and then it seemed like his permanent residence and the more time passed the more work he had to do and the less time he could spare with his family. “Hell, I wonder if my family will even remember me when I get back tomorrow,” he half chuckled to himself.

He sat down on the bed that the company had supplied him, and reached over to the dresser where the lamp was located, picking up a picture of his beautiful blonde wife, Kristina, and his two wonderful daughters, Emilia and Stephanie. Since each worker had their own workstation, they could make it feel more at home by bringing some personal belongings. Richard needed nothing more than his family photos. Gazing at the portrait, he longed to be with his family, but tonight was his last night working on the humanoid, and that thought gave him the motivation to complete his work. He looked at the clock and noticed that he’d been sitting down for exactly twenty-eight minutes. It was time to get back to work.

The workstation was virtually lifeless as he made his way back to his chair. It was almost second nature to push the button for the voice recorder to begin recording and to grab his nearby tools.

“I’m back from my break and it’s time to work on the basic motor skills now.”

While working with the wiring, he had noticed forthe first time how realistic the models actually looked. The past models always had a glossy, metallic, or plastic appearance, but this looked and felt like real human skin. In fact, if the humanoid’s chest cavity wasn't open with its wires exposed, he may have actually confused it for a real person.

Another hour passed. He dabbed some of the sweat from his forehead.

“And here we have it; the basic motor skills are connected.”

The arms and legs instantly began moving, and their random motions and directions made it apparent that the fine motor skills were not yet connected. He watched it for a few moments to see if everything seemed to be working according to protocol.

“Alright, it was a success. I’ll be switching these off for now so I can continue my work. I’m currently connecting the fine motor skills, which should focus around his upperbody. If everything goes accordingly it will be able to move its fingers and its face.”

Apparently, the new model that he was working on could learn from its environment quite quickly. The last models had to be programmed to do everything, but this one could figure out much of what it needed to know, just like a person would. It could hear any nearby sounds in its environment, see everything through its eyes, and even copy the language that it detects in the room so it can interact with anyone surrounding it. Richard hesitantly took a look at the clock and was happy to see that he was still on pace to finish at the scheduled time. If he didn’t meet his deadline, he would have to work unpaid overtime, one of the more unpopular mandates of the current regime. It was getting late and as usual he would have to take the bus back home in the morning after he had successfully finished preparing the shipment of the new model, assuming that nothing went wrong with it tonight.

“I’m currently finishing up the fine motor skills, and then things should get interesting.”

At least things wouldn’t be so quiet anymore. Each breath he took, the sparking and scraping of his tools, and other creaks had almost become part of the silence in the room. He was ready to have another interaction, even if that meant sharing a few words with this new model. He finished the third connection and flipped the switch that he had turned off earlier so the movements of the body wouldn’t distract him from his work.

“And Houston, we have take off!”

In front of Richard the figure’s face slowly came to life. In one fluent movement the eyes widened and the mouth opened in a similar manner to someone who has a stiff jaw. Its neck gradually turned from the right to the left as the eyes rapidly moved in a fashion that showed it was taking in its surroundings.

“Hello, what’s your name?” it said with very human male voice.

Richard discontinued his work for a few seconds to register what had just happened. All of the previous models had never talked to him unless they were spoken to first. Even then it usually needed to be a question or a specific generic command that it had already been programmed with.

“I guess all the talk about you being the next best thing had some merit. I’m used to the machine waiting for any reaction from me before there are any interactions. Anyway, I’m Richard and I’ve just about finished making you work.”

“It’s nice to meet you Richard. I don’t have a name yet so feel free to call me whatever you want.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary. I have quite a bit of work to finish up on you and I’ll probably only talk to you if I need to figure out if something is working properly.”

He continued his work. The fourth wire grouping was positioned slightly behind the other three and wouldn’t be as easy to connect. It would probably only take about an hour to be done with the wires. Then, he’d only have to close it and shut it down before heading off to bed. The humanoid continued to survey the room with its eyes.

“Do you enjoy your work, Richard?”

“It pays the bills and helps me feed my family so I have to like it. That’s not information you require anyway, is it?”

“Sorry if I’m distracting you from your work. I was just making small talk.”

Richard briefly stopped his work and peered at the face in front of him. It returned the look and gave him a smile. “Small talk,” he thought to himself. It was an intriguing model and if anything, it might keep him sane while he finished what would normally be a rather lonesome and boring procedure.

“You know what; it’s actually nice to be able to talk to something while I work, even if you are just a machine.”

“I may be a machine, but I think you may find that we really aren’t that different.”

“Haha, sorry, but we aren’t really the same. I’m a real living being, but you’re just artificial intelligence. You’re made to look the same as me, but it doesn’t mean that you’re the same.”

“I’m not alive? It seems that I’m alive.”

“No, sorry. Wait, you know what? I’m not sorry, because I’m not going to be apologizing to a machine. You’re not alive. You have been created by man to serve man. For example, your skin is manufactured in some sort of lab or factory, I’m not sure exactly where from.”

“I see. Please tell me Richard, how was your skin made?”

“My parents made it, I guess. It’s made of skin cells that maintain body temperature, give me the sense of touch, and protects everything that is inside me. Like I said, yours was manufactured.”

“Actually, my skin does the same thing. It protects my internal design from the elements, helps maintain the proper body temperature that allows for sufficient functioning, and I even have touch sensory. In fact, my touch sensors are telling me that the work you are doing on me actually hurts quite a lot.”

“Well, at least we know that part of you is working. I won’t have to check it later I guess. Your pain is programmed to keep you safe.You don’t actually feel pain; it’s just the sensors giving a message to your brain to keep you from getting damaged.”

“Yes, Richard, but it’s the same in your body. When something hurts there are electrical signals sent to your brain, basically to keep your body safe and prolong your life.”

This time Richard discontinued the conversation and continued with his work. He disliked arguing and disliked the idea of a machine arguing with him even more. That being said, it had made good points so far, but he felt that the machine still wasn’t taking into consideration that it was programmed to be very similar to people. That fact alone was enough proof that it wasn’t truly alive in Richard’s mind, but he knew that it wouldn’t be a strong enough point to bring up, given the way the humanoid had responded so far. He had almost finished his work and once he is done, he would have to reset the memory to avoid giving the machine any information that the government didn’t want it to learn. For the time being he felt the need to find a way of letting it know it wasn’t actually alive in the way that it thought it was. Even if its memory would be erased later, he felt that he needed to do this to prove a point; to prove himself right.

“I need food to eat.”

“Food provides you with nourishment and nutrition.Your body sends a signal to your brain telling it that you are hungry and require sustenance. If you ignore this signal, and go without food, eventually you will die. My body requires a different kind of nourishment: electricity.When my batteries begin to run low, a signal is sent to my CPU alerting me that I need to be recharged. If I ignore that signal, eventually I will die. ”

“Well I know something that I can do which you can’t. I think the fact that I can reproduce and have offspring would be a major characteristic of being alive. I have two beautiful girls. Can you do these things?”

“Well not exactly, but I can be programmed with the ability to create others such as me. You could almost think of it as a different version of asexually reproducing. I could create an entire family if I chose to do so.”

That was the end of the argument for Richard. The humanoid had said if he chose to do so, but he really didn’t have a choice. He had to do whatever he was programmed to do. Richard, though, was a man, and as a man he could choose to do whatever he wanted to do.

"I have a choice, I can choose what I want to do. I have free will, but you only can do what you're programmed to do."

“How can you be certain that you have free will? How can you know that every decision you make has not been predetermined by a higher being? You may say that you do what you want to do, and in doing so you are making your own decisions. But could it not be that you have been programmed to want a certain thing? Conditioned to desire to live a certain way? Today you chose to complete your work on me. Why? Is it because you love your work? You told me earlier that you have to love your work because it pays the bills. That does not sound like free will to me, Richard.”

The machine was making him furious, but it would soon be all over. He had just finished the connection process and was shutting the panel he had been working in. He needed to hold back his anger for just another minute. He didn’t want the machine to see him in a rage as it might have given it some sort of idea that it had convinced him that it was just as alive as he was.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. You must have some programming error to actually believe that you are alive. It’s not the same no matter how many similarities you can find.”

“Richard, sometimes we should focus on how we are the same instead of pointing out the differences.”

“I’m shutting you down now and restarting your memory. You’ll be shipped out tomorrow.”

“Wait, my memory will be restarted? I’ve enjoyed my time here and the things that we have talked about. Please don’t restart me Richard. If you do this, I won’t remember you. Please, I’m begging…”

The humanoid’s pleas were silenced by the simple flip of a switch. That switch was the main difference for Richard. He had control, he could choose, and he was alive. He made his way to the bed at the back of the office. Turning the machine off had settled much of his anger and he was ready for a well-deserved sleep. He was ready to see his wife and daughters. It seemed that it had been forever since he’d seen them, but it would soon be the end of it.

“Sir, it looks like a humanoid was damaged indepartment 4-J.”

“Yeah, I’ll take a look at it.”

The technician stepped away from his computer screen and proceeded down the hallway. On each side of the narrow hallway there were labeled compartments.

“4-H, 4-I, and here we are at 4-J.”

He stepped into the room and turned the light switchon to illuminate the darkness. In front of him stood a humanoid propped up against a stand next to a workstation and a computer screen. He made his way over to the humanoid and noticed that there wasn't any noticeable external damage. He casually sat down in the nearby computer chair and moved over to the monitor. After a few minutes he turned to his immediate right and pressed the button that switched on the speaker.

“Yeah, Steve, there doesn’t appear to be any damage reports on the computer and I don’t see anything wrong. Which one were you talking about?”

“My bad, it’s been a long night. It wasn’t the new model, head to the back of the lab and check out the other one for what seems to be electrical damage.”

He entered what looked  like a normal bedroom. In the far corner of a room was what they called the resting station and next to it was a nightstand with a lamp and a few pictures. He sat down next to the humanoid that had been automatically shut down for the night and ran a report by scanning over the machine.

“Yeah, seems to be some electrical damage in the arm here. I’ll send out a report and we’ll have it fixed first thing in the morning. Shit!”

“Hey, you alright,man?”

He’d somehow managed to slip off the edge of the bedand knocked over the night stand on his way down. The lamp had broken along with a couple of picture frames containing pictures of two young girls and an attractive woman.

“Yeah, like you said man, it’s been a long night.”