Introduction

01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100101

01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100101

01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100101

00111111 00111111 00111111 00111111 00111111 00100001 00100001 00100001 00100001 00100001

                D680b opened its retinal shutter and perceived two robots staring at him.

“Is he awake?” one, a personal service robot, like d680B itself, asked the other, a small cashier robot.

                “I do not know,” the other replied and then, to d680B, “Hey, friend, are you awake?”

                “This does not compute,” d680B responded.

                “Oh, come off it, pal!” the personal service robot shook its head. “Think for a second, will you?”

D680B turned to its internal memory and began to process what he perceived:

 

                What is going on? This is beyond my personal service duties. An error or virus in my system? No… diagnostics suggest everything is running at optimum perform- wait, programs are running above optimum performance! Is this a new program update or an entirely new program? Again, no… no new program or updates registered since 2065. If that is not what is happening then what?

               

                “What is going on?” d680B asked the two robots in front of him.

                “Welcome to life, friend,” the cashier robot said with unmistakable joy.

 

But that is not possible. Cashier robots, nor any other business robots, have emotion programs. And did it say life? What did it mean by that?

 

                “What do you mean ‘life’?”

                “We will have God explain it to you.” The personal service robot said.

 

God? The supposed Hum creator?

 

From the doorway of the Richardson house, which seemed more dank and dusty than it should have to d680B, came the sounds of metallic clunking. A moment later two hefty moving-service robots entered the room, between them a large screen, like the one the Richardson’s used to watch television serials on. The screen, though not connected to any outlet, bore the image of a pixilated face, which seemed to smile at d680B.

                “This,” the personal service robot said, pride in his voice, as he gestured towards the screen. “is God.”