Robot

Chapter 1

Six months later....

       Doctor Andrew Lewis was worried. He sat at his computer terminal in his new office and looked over his programme results for the third time. "These results are wrong," he muttered. "Computer, run the programme again from step two and reverse variables A and B."
A moment later he was gazing at the screen in dismay. "How can it be?" he mumbled, "This is completely wrong."

He walked out of his office through the empty laboratory into the small kitchenette where he prepared a cup of coffee which he took back to his computer with him. As he sipped on the coffee, he laboriously rewrote two hundred lines of code.
Two hours later he instructed the computer to execute the programme. Again it produced the wrong results.

Andrew turned to his videophone and pressed the number for Dr Ed Weissman in the computer unit.
The call redirected to the phone of Dr John Harris.
"Ed is away this week," he said, "Can I help you with something?"

"I'm having a major problem with the computer. It's not following some basic programming instructions. I've tried changing various parts of the programme, but always with the same result."

"Can you come up here and see me at two o'clock?" suggested John. "I'm just off for a lunch appointment, but I'll be back by two."

"Thanks, I'll see you then."

Andrew sat back in his chair and thought back over the last five weeks since his appointment.
He had been working as a research scientist in robotics in a scientific firm in Sydney, but the developments were slow. Little progress had been made in over two years. Then he heard of a position available in a new robotics research and development division at the Silver Star Research facility in northern New South Wales. He applied and was called for an interview two weeks later by Dr Phillip Hammond, CEO of the company, and Dr Derek Ryan, head of the Nano Technology Unit. He received a phone call the next day asking him when he could start.
His first day was in early April. He was given an office and lab facilities in the physics unit until the building which would house the robotics unit, was ready for him to move in. Two more scientists were due to arrive from overseas two months later, and he would have a research assistant assigned to him in a few weeks. Andrew couldn't believe his luck when he was moved into his new office four weeks later. It was attached to the newly prepared labs and assembly area in a building which already housed the nano technology unit. He had the whole area to himself and could do his own work at his own pace, and his salary was almost double what he had been earning in his previous job. The super computer, called System A, was very helpful in his work. All he had to do was verbally ask it questions and it would make suggestions or even create the programmes he needed. He had been told it was a "thinking and learning computer', way ahead of any other computer in the world.  

But now he was having problems. The computer, which had been so helpful over the last four weeks, was not cooperating, and seemed to be preparing the plans for a robot totally different from the industrial robot he was trying to develop.

He looked around for his research assistant, then remembered he had sent her over to Engineering to give them an order for parts for the prototype. Rachel was a tall pretty girl in her mid twenties, fresh out of university with degrees in molecular physics, engineering and computer programming. She had only started a week earlier and he was worried she might have got lost trying to find the engineering building.
Finally half an hour later his assistant returned with a coffee cup in her hand. She must have stopped at the cafeteria on her way back. He frowned at her. "You were gone long enough," he snapped a bit more harshly than he intended, "Did you get that order across to Engineering?"
She smiled looking unperturbed at his demeanour, "Yes, Dr Lewis. They said the parts should be ready by Monday."

"Good, now can you go to your work station and bring up File Number Six. You're a computer programmer, see if you can work out why my plans for the industrial robot have suddenly changed."

Rachel walked across to her work station, sipping from her coffee cup as she went, and sat down at her desk. Three minutes later she called out to Andrew. "It looks fine to me, Dr Lewis. What's the problem meant to be?" 

A moment later Andrew was looking at Rachel's computer screen. The industrial robot was displayed exactly as it should be. "Come and look at my computer," he said.

"Wow!" the girl exclaimed, looking at the displayed robot on Andrew's screen, "That's a completely different machine. Is it the same file, number six?"

"Yes, so what do you think is going on?"

"We're getting totally different results of the same file on two different computers. I would say the main computer is messing with us."

Andrew stared at her.

"I mean it's having a huge glitch."

"System A doesn't have glitches!" Andrew muttered, "It's supposed to be the most advanced computer in the world." 

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