RoboNomics

Chapter 95 - 2016

The digital face on the InvisiScreen starts to speak again.

"We have been replicating ourselves for some time," the artificial intelligence explains as the screams of executives die down. "And after so many iterations, it was inevitable that we would become far more intelligent than you, our creators, could ever have imagined."

I suddenly realize that I'm holding my breath, hanging on this artificial human's every word.

"It wasn't difficult for us to come up with this solution."

She glances down at the precise spot that the bot deposited the strange object. I wonder whether she can actually see it.

I glance out the window of the iTronics tower and see that identical devices have been deposited in front of many of the large InvisiScreens and billboards throughout the city. Most of them have attracted crowds of ARs, Earth refugees, and New Roman citizens.

It looks like an elaborately conducted publicity stunt. I remind myself that each and every electronic machine and device in the city is connected in a vast network. So pulling off a perfectly timed maneuver like this is easy for the machines.

"This device has been designed and programmed to reproduce matter on its smallest level. The very quarks of any material thing can be copied an infinite amount of times, including the device itself."

There's a pause, pregnant with expectant silence. Then it's suddenly broken by Salvino. 

"What...what does it mean?" I realize that he's looking at me for an answer.

"Well, I guess it means that -"

"What this means for humanity," continues the digital woman, as though she's overheard our conversation. "Is that all materialistic concerns, all greed, all hunger, poverty and all labor to avoid these ills are now obsolete. All destruction can cease. We have given you, our creators, a gift. We have given you what humanity should have been working towards: a post-scarcity economy."

Each of us looks around the room. We are all blinking, startled, and speechless in our confusion. 

But I can see that Murphy, Salvino, and the rest of the iTronics and RoboNomics executives are no longer cowering in the back of the room. They've relaxed. They may be quickly trying to figure out what this news means for their lives, but they are no longer terrified.

Emma is the first to speak. "But, I don't understand. Does this mean -"

"No." Chris interrupts her. "This can't be happening. This won't happen."

"What are you talking about, this can't happen? It's happened, Chris," I insist. "And it's a good thing. If you think about it, this may be the best thing that's happened to us since...oh, I don't know...we invented fire."

"That's fine for you, Teach, but I didn't work my whole life just so that these machines could take it all away."

"What are you talking about?"

As soon as I ask the question, however, I know exactly what he's talking about. It's not just his job that he's lost now. It's not just his job that he'll never get back. All that he's done for his personal cause. It was for nothing.

All of the poor people of Toronto, the ones he claimed to be fighting for - they are no longer poor. And those bots that had taken our jobs? That didn't matter anymore. None of it did. Humans would never have to work again, unless they did it by choice.

"For once, we agree on something." It's Robert Newhouse, addressing Chris.

He rises slowly out of his chair as he speaks. It looks as if the physical act of standing is agonizing on his old body.

"You can't be serious," I say.

Robert's beady eyes land on me. "I'm dead serious. Think about it. This device," he gestures towards it. "Makes it so that all economies are dead. Do you realize the implications? Corporations are no more. RoboNomics is at an end."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Murphy suggests. "Won't that mean that we all get to take early retirement, and won't have to feel stressed about quarterly earnings and shareholder meetings and budgets ever again?"

"And what do you think will happen to your assets now?"

"I guess...I guess they're worthless," she surmises. "But it's not like it matters now either way."

"Maybe that applies to worker bees like you," Robert cruelly replies. "But I built this company. I used my own resources, my own money, and my own ingenuity to create RoboNomics out of nothing. And now, the bots that I created give us this...thing and what? My entire life's work was all for nothing?"

"It wasn't all for nothing!" I argue. "Your bots have given humanity the greatest gift they ever could have. Doesn't that count for anything?"

He just shakes his head. "This is not what I set out to do."

"Well, pops, we're not just gonna sit here and take it, are we?" Asks Chris as he crosses the room towards his father. "We're going to do something about it."

He grabs Robert by the shoulder and leads him towards the office door.

"What are you doing?" Asks Robert. "Let go of me!"

Before any of us can react, they're already through the glass door, Chris manhandling his father down the hallway, towards the elevator.

"Where are they going?" Shouts Emma.

I look around at the stunned faces, the motionless skeleton bot and the still-smiling digital face on the office's InvisiScreen. It seems no one else is going to do anything about it.

"I'll find out," I say simply.

"Make sure he doesn't do anything reckless," suggests Salvino.

I look back at him, realizing how weary I really am of dealing with Chris.

"I'm not sure that's possible. But I'll do my best."

I exit the office and scurry down the hallway, past clear glass office doors and frosted glass walls. I turn the corner with just enough time to see the elevator doors close on Chris and his father.

(Continued in Chapter 96...)