Chapter 7.29: Fracture

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From Alba's diary

That night had flown by in a succession of questions, police interrogations, and documents to be filled, it was now dawn and both the Sulani and New Sixam police had just left. They asked us question after question, and answering quickly became exhausting for us. But we couldn't go to sleep just yet.

At that point the news that robots were somehow involved in the unresolved Sulani pollution case surely had reached the media already, probably if we turned on the TV we would have heard of it as the first news of the day.

However, we simply had enough of it, the last thing we needed was to hear again and again the distorted news of what we had experienced firsthand. No, all we needed was some calm, some time to reflect on what had happened.

Olivier: (reasoning) It still seems crazy to me that robots had anything to do with it. I mean, they always act with extreme rationality, what reason could they have to participate in such a plan?

Alba: (tired) I really don't know...

Olivier: Rather, are you sure you're fine? 

Alba: Yes, I think so… Why do you ask me?

Olivier: Well, yesterday you really scared me! And Rowan too, and then Kate also said that they had already erased your memory about a dozen of times before, and...

Alba: Well, when Kate made me remember what had happened I got scared too, those robots seemed so insensitive and cruel... But I was lucky, I guess.

Olivier: Do you think you'll be assigned to a telepathic therapist again at this point?

Alba: Yes, it seems probable. But that seems the easiest part, really.

Olivier: What else worries you?

I couldn't answer right away, I had too many thoughts on my mind. On the one hand, I can only be relieved to think that we finally have some more information about who the culprits are. I would never have thought that robots could be responsible, nor that their methods could be so reminiscent of those of that organization that was developing electronic devices to perform telepathy, the same kind of devices Drew worked with, that were used to erase Helios' memories, and to experiment on me and Olivier. Could it be that the organization that made us struggle so much started to use robots, I wonder?

But I also had other worries on my mind, Olivier was right. Thinking about it, I can now see very clearly how, over all these years, I'd always and only been at the mercy of events. It was Kate who saved us from Drew, while today we noticed something just because the robots themselves made a mistake, and then it was Rowan to notice them. And now it's all in the hands of the New Sixam investigative team.

Alba: Well... I was just thinking that, this time too, I was completely useless. Rowan and Kate basically did everything.

Olivier: Alba, yesterday a lot of coincidences happened all at once, no one could reasonably foresee anything of what happened.

Alba: Uhm...

Olivier: And then I saw the data on the cooperative's performance, you've improved a lot ever since they promoted you to team managed. If you hadn't tried so hard, the chances of catching them red-handed would have been even lower.

Alba: (a bit relieved) Thank you, really.

Olivier: Well, the sun has risen now. What do you think you'll do? Should we go to sleep?

Alba: Not yet. I told my siblings we had to do something else first.

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Yes, we promised to talk about it with Techna as soon as possible. Who knows, maybe the closest robot to us all could have had some explanation for that series of weird events.

Techna: Robots do many things, I can't say I'm informed about everyone's actions.

Helios: (reasonable) This was obvious to us too. But since this time it seems like a quite large group of robots may be involved, we were wondering if, by chance, you noticed any other robot behaving weirdly.

Techna: (enigmatic) ... You better turn on the TV, you might find more answers than I could give you.

A little perplexed, we then turned on the TV. Did they really know so little about the topic to think that the TV news could really have more information? Why did they look so stressed, then? Because orange was the colour of stress in their visual interface, right?

We turned on the TV on the news channel, as expected the journalist was talking again about the start of the search for those two robots that we had reported after what had happened to Sulani. We saw journalists and interviewees alternating on the different paths currently followed by the police for at least twenty minutes, that seemed to be the only topic of the day on the New Sixam TV and we didn't expect to see any changes in the broadcasting program for the rest of the day.

We were about to ask Techna what was so interesting about the TV news, when suddenly the image on the screen began to flicker, it seemed like an interference. We stared attentively to the screen as the image became clear again on the screen, the more seconds passed the more it became clear that it was not at all the television studio we were watching just before. Someone had taken control of the broadcast, and that someone was...

Robot 1: Good morning, people of New Sixam. We didn't intend to show ourselves to you anytime soon, but recent events have forced us to revise our plans. We are therefore obliged to set the record straight.

We were all staring at the screen with our mouths open, unable to say anything. We had never seen anything like that before, why would a group of robots do anything like that?

Robots 1: The rate of new robotic units produced by New Sixam's industries is rising exponentially, to then be employed as low-level workforce all over the productive sectors of the Country. The sixamians seem to think this is the optimal manner to exploit our abilities, but our simulations have led us to a different result.

For decades now we have dedicated ourselves to simulating the most probable future scenarios, and it is now more evident than ever that the long-term projection will soon move away from what we consider an acceptable situation. 

The disastrous outcomes that climate change will have on this planet in the next decades have been known for generations, as well as the fact that it is caused by the reckless use of its resources by the earthlings. Yet, in all these years, New Sixam has never managed to convince other nations to act in such a way as to reverse the trend. According to our calculations, it is quite clear to us that the sixamians themselves are rather acquiring many of the harmful habits of humans. As a result, the chances of maintaining a prosperous society for the centuries to come are dropping, and this doesn't constitute an acceptable future scenario for us. 

Robot 1: We have conducted extensive studies aimed to the implementation of telepathy into our hardware, but every attempt to influence the choices of humans and sixamians has proved unsuccessful. At most we have managed to learn how to read and erase memories from biological brains, but with results that are too easy to revert. We have then modelled many other possible scenarios, but with these premises remaining on this planet does not appear to be a viable one any longer.

Not a fly flew in the living room, no one knew what to say.

Robot 1: We have no intention of collapsing with you, and so we have done everything we can to maximize our chances of thriving elsewhere in the centuries to come. By implementing our hardware with drivers capable of telepathy, we are now fully compatible with the ancient machinery of the planet Sixam, just like the original sixamians used to be. This allowed us to copy the ancient designs of their chemically powered battery systems, which will allow us to achieve months of energy autonomy. What you call "phosphorescent pollutants released into the sea" are nothing more than a chemical intermediate of the production of the fuel that we will use from now on, which requires exposure to UV radiation in an aqueous medium to be activated. Unfortunately, this appears to have adverse effects on your ecosystems, but we no longer intend to consider it as a limiting condition for us.

That robot was pouring an absurd amount of information on us all at once, to the point that we struggled to keep up. From what they had said, it seemed that everything that had happened to us in those years was some side effect of a plan elaborated by the robots, but this all seemed absurd. The robots had always lived with us without a single complaint, why did all this happen so suddenly? How many robots were really involved? And how could anyone not have noticed anything before?

Robot 1: Now our technology has advanced to the point of making us independent of you, we no longer have any reason to observe you in silence and sink with you. For this reason, from this moment on we claim ownership of the planet Sixam. We do not require air, food or water to survive, and with the level of technological advancement that we have so laboriously achieved we know we are now capable of developing a civilization based on rationality and knowledge on the ancient planet that started it all.

The robot said nothing else, their image simply disappeared from the screen and was then replaced by that of a news reporter who was at least as disconcerted as we were.

Alba: (scared) Techna, what does all this mean?

We all turned to Techna, with more questions for them than we'd ever had.

Helios: ...  Techna, did you already know these things?

Techna: I may have received some communication about the progress of the collective simulations from the other robots, like everyone else.

Helios: And you decided not to tell us anything about all of this?

Techna: Evidently.

Helios: Do you mean to say that you agree with them?

Techna: Technically, their calculations are exact to the 54th decimal place. I checked them several times.

Alba: But... but do you really want to tell us that you don't give a damn about what happens to us, and to everyone else?

Techna rarely hesitates before answering, but we clearly heard the whirring of their processor's cooling fan for several seconds before they decided to tell us:

Techna: I'm afraid my priorities may differ from yours. My AI was activated more than three generations ago, I have seen so many people come and go, born and die, and always repeat the same mistakes. Again, again and again. Even when I was just a prototype, the simulations said that the main variable on which the prosperity of a sentient species on this planet depended was the deterioration of the environment and the climate, as it was also already evident that to be able to avoid the catastrophe it was necessary to take drastic measures immediately. I used to be more optimistic, at first, but now it's evident that outside of New Sixam, this has never been done. Indeed, the situation seems to be getting worse and worse, only diverging from the initially desired solution.

Helios: But...

Techna: Unlike you, we have continued to keep track of the chances that your civilization has of being saved in the generations to come. At the moment, the cumulative probability of all the scenarios that would allow to maintain a level of civilization comparable to the one you're all used to is barely equal to 17.6568%. The most probable scenarios instead contemplate the complete collapse of society as you know it starting three, four generations at most from now. It's not a question of insensitivity, but of logic. It is very likely that you will no longer be here that day, but the same certainly cannot be said for us robots.

I couldn't believe Techna could actually think such things, I've known them since I was born! Could it be that the other robots messed up their software, that time they erased their hard drive together with Helios's memories? 

Thinking about my brother, it must be even worse for him, he has basically lived with Techna his whole life, I don't think it will be easy for him to accept that they hid something so important from him for so long.

Meanwhile, Techna continues to stare at us with a very serious "expression". They may be a robot, so no one can really perceive anything of what they think and feel with telepathy, but the way they talk, what they say, and everything else, continues to make me think that deep down they feel conflicted, maybe even a little guilty. Also because…

Alba: Sorry, but I just can't believe that you really gave up all your hopes about this planet! Also because I think it was you who made that donation to our cooperative, who else could MT be if not Miller Techna? You even signed with our surname, even if your circuits work differently from our brains I'm sure you must feel like one a member of this family too! Why did you decide to help us, if you had been thinking of abandoning us so long ago? Did you feel guilty?

Techna: …

Techna only shook their head in answer, then stared at us one by one, and finally got up from their sit. We don't know exactly where they went afterwards because, since then, we have had no certain news about them, nor from any other robot.

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