RoboNomics

Chapter 89 - 2016

"Merging?" I ask. "You can't be serious."

"They're going to make a single robotics monopoly. How could I have been so stupid?" Chris asks no one in particular. "This is what they wanted all along. They have no intention of helping the people they left down there on Earth. They never did. This way, they can control everything. A perfect corporatocracy that can --"

"Control everything? Corporatocracy?" Matt interrupts and looks over at me. "He's kidding, right?"

"You really that naive?" Chris almost growls at Matt.

"I just doubt that's what they intended."

"The new company will hold sway over every machine in the city. Just think about it: the robots run everyone's lives here. The iTronics-RoboNomics merger will mean that everything will be regulated and controlled by a very small number of private interests. Like my father." 

He turns to look at me. I see in his eyes that a thought is dawning on him. "Like you."

"Are you kidding? I knew nothing about this!"

He takes a step towards me. "I believe you."

"You...you do?"

"I'm not surprised you never heard about this back room deal. You thought you could use your power to help people, Teach? Get real. You're an outsider. You always will be. Doesn't matter who your father was. Trust me - you don't know these people. I do. And I know they'll never let you in. Not really."

My gaze falls to the floor. If what he was saying was true, it would mean that the people left on Earth would never be saved. It means that no matter how hard I fight against the executives, they would never allow me to set up my Foundation for Earth.

I thought back to when I first arrived in New Rome, when Austin and I were required to undergo medical screening. I remember how scared I was, thinking that my hacker past would be found out. In the end, it was through humans that my secret was uncovered.

But what about the other citizens of New Rome? No doubt the wealthy denizens of Mars happily agreed to the screening. But that means iTronics has all of their medical information.

Automated machines were so embedded in the life of New Romans that likely one company, or the other, possessed all the details of everyone's lives. And now there would be one single entity that would have its hands in everyone's pockets.

I could see why Chris was so worried. Maybe it was unlikely that a robotics corporation would care about politics. Perhaps everything would be fine if we did nothing. But as things stood, no one knew how to reprogram the bots. And I remember the saying about absolute power corrupting absolutely. The merger was a dangerous proposition heading towards potentially violent machines.

"You think they're going to bring the people you care about to safety?" Chris asks me, echoing my thoughts. "All they care about is keeping this place safe from the rest of us. Earth is just a farm to them, a factory: a thing to be harvested for what they need. To them, it's disposable."

"But, we can't just let them -" I start, but he cuts me off.

"Look...I know what you're thinking. But they're not without weakness."

"What are you talking about?" Asks Matt. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Because of the merger," Chris replies. "They wouldn't be doing this if each company were fine of its own. I don't know," he starts talking more to himself than to us. "Maybe, somehow, they know what I've done. Maybe someone tipped them off, told them that there are ARs on this planet. Doesn't matter." He looks at the two of us. "What matters is that you find the weakness now, before they merge."

"Are you kidding?" I say. "iTronics uses a system that I've never worked with before. I'd never even seen a quantum computer before I came to New Rome."

"But he did." Chris gestures at Matt. "Look, we don't have time to debate. Just find me a way to take them down."

He stalks out the door without another word.

#

At first, it's slow going. Matt explains quantum computing to me, but for someone used to static code, it's all very confusing. As I stare at the command screen, projected onto the wall above our work stations, lines of code flicker from state to state in an instant, adapting to novel situations in real time. The machines now have the shortest learning curve I've ever seen.

But slowly, my skills come back to me. I remember the bots I used to tinker with. Lily, my neighbour, and her befuddled HomeBot. Teach: the I.I.U. that took my job.

As my skills comes back to me, I can pick out the similarities in the code in front of me. They are few but they are regular and predictable.

It's an entirely different artificial beast, built by the machines themselves on an entirely different platform. But eventually I can see what's changed. And it's a pattern.

I also remember how it felt back then. The relative simplicity of those machines and of my life. I can still recall the particular smell of Toronto.

Has it really been this long? Has it been five years since my life made sense? I wish I could go back there, to that place and that time.

I wish none of this had ever happened. I wish I was still a teacher, that my day involved dealing with children, locked in my innocence. I wish I didn't know what awful things can happen to people. The horrible things I'd allowed to happen to my friends.

And then, as waves of guilt overwhelm me not for the first time, I see it. I have to look twice, just to be sure.

"Psst...Matt," I hiss at him hoarsely. "You have to see this."

He looks up and I point to the screen. He gets up out his tall, thin chair stiffly and shuffles towards me.

I know why. We've been sitting here for days, not even given breaks when we eat. Shari and Joe bring in our meals and we eat them as we work.

Matt looks about as stiff as I feel. He squints at the code that I've been working on. I see him trying to work out just what he's looking at.

"Is that what I think it is?" He asks as understanding dawns.

"Yeah," I say. "It just might be our ticket out of here."

"But how can we --"

"Look, I know these guys. They don't know what they're talking about when it comes to coding. Don't you want to get out of here?"

"But won't they know something's up? Won't they figure we did this?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'm just willing to bet on their stupidity."

"I guess you're right," he concedes. "Besides, what else could they do to us? We're already locked in here."

"Yeah. But I'm not afraid for us. If they found out what we know, I'd be more afraid of what they would do to people not in this room."

(Continued in Chapter 90...)