We Are Not So Different We Are Not So Different
By Galaxy1001D
The author does not own "The Big O" or Paradigm City and may not make a profit from this story in any way.
Paradigm City: a city that's lost its memories. A city that's lost its soul. One could go insane thinking about it. One day, forty years ago, the city awoke to discover that it had no memories. Total amnesia. Tabla Rosa. The past was a blank slate, and humanity was going to have to begin writing on the present without knowing who we are or where we've been.
We had plenty of clues. Driver's Licenses, ID chains, library cards: They all told us what our names were and where we lived. Photographs let us confirm that these people who resembled us really were family members and not strangers that had the keys to our homes.
It appeared that before we lost the past that we had built ourselves a technological masterpiece of civilization. The problem is, whatever made us lose our memories also wiped the computers clean. Most of them didn't even come back on line, forcing us to use more archaic ways of keeping records and processing data. Even though we eventually figured out how to work our silicon-chipped number crunchers, we still use a lot of old fashioned file cabinets and paper records.
It seemed that our ancestors didn't. All recent records before the disaster were stored on computer, and nobody bothered to store important information on paper anymore. Birth records, data invoices, marriage licenses, they were all on computer. We had a devil of a time figuring out who we were and what was going on. We still haven't actually. That could drive you insane.
It is the not knowing. Not knowing who we are, who we really are, that drives a lot of us crazy. That and the nasty suspicion that we could lose our past all over again and never know why. It's harder for the old folks, the guys who remember waking up to a total blank than for us young people, but even the young aren't immune to the madness.
Memory is a funny thing, you see. You never know when they will return. Worse yet, sometimes they seem to return to people who never had them to begin with. Nobody knows why, although there are always those who are keen to guess.
And they guess very quietly.
To make matters more confusing humanity isn't alone in it's brave new world. Yes, Paradigm City seems to be the only bastion of civilization left, aside of a few rural communities who were founded by people afraid to remain in the city of amnesia, but we quickly discovered an alternate form of life that was not animal or even vegetable.
It was mineral.
Remember what I told you about the computers? It seemed that some of them were pretty darn sophisticated. Advanced and complex enough to count as life forms. Some of them legally count as sentient life forms. No, our ancestors didn't create talking toasters that would ask you if you wanted a bagel this morning. We didn't create a toilet that would give you advice on your diet to keep you regular.
We created robots. Robots and androids.
We assume we created them. Some people wonder if aliens made them. Some people wonder if the robots created themselves. We created them. I have no doubt. If there is anything I've noticed during my investigations in this insane town, it's that the human race was really into playing God in the olden days.
I've met a few mad scientists who have recovered just enough memories to be dangerous. To create new life without having to worry about biology. To fuse ceramic alloy, silicon and metal into a living creature.
Perhaps I'm overreacting. Most robots are no more alive than plants, or at the most, animals.
Some are just as real as human beings. They just don't look it.
No, they aren't our overlords. They didn't wipe our memories so they could take over the world.
They've lost their memories too, you see.
They don't know who they are. Who built them. Why they were constructed. What their purpose is. The one advantage being constructed gives them has been taken away.
Oh, you believe that being stronger, faster, more enduring and capable of logical thought are advantages? As if.
The androids, the anthropomorphic humanoid machines that count as thinking, sentient beings, have an override program that prevents them from directly attacking a human being. For the most part, anyone that knows how to cancel or eliminate this program is keeping it quiet.
The robotic denizens of our little distopia are second class citizens. Every android has the initial 'R' in front of their name. 'R' for robot.
Most androids look like robots. You'll see what looks like a crash test dummy working at the bank. You'll notice that the guy fixing your truck doesn't have a face, just two binocular lenses for eyes, microphones for ears and a speaker for a mouth. You'll see a pedestrian crossing the street who walks stiffly, or too regular and precise.
Androids grow old just like humans, so don't think that they have virtual immortality and they won't eventually outlive us. No one has the skill to flawlessly repair them anymore, so eventually any injuries or dings will catch up with them. They will wear out and go off line. That's right, they grow old and die just like a human.
As a matter of fact, our metallic friends who can rip car doors off their hinges and can survive without oxygen are in danger of going extinct. You just can't go down to the store and order a new android these days. I wonder if you ever could.
No one knows how to build them you see. It seems like every time some old codger remembers that he is a scientist who specializes in robotics and artificial intelligence he comes to a very bad end. Sometimes, an ambitious criminal gets greedy and destroys the goose that lays golden eggs. Sometimes a hidden conspiracy sends assassins. And sometimes the scientists recover enough of their lost genius to fake their deaths if the truth is discovered.
So the androids don't have any better medical care than humans do. Replacing a limb or a major component for a robot is as difficult as replacing a limb or an internal organ for a human. I knew an android pianist that tore off his own hands so they couldn't be used to interface with a giant robot body and run amuck and destroy the city. They put his hands back on and gave him new wrists, but no one has the capability to restore the old pathways that gave him a humanlike grace combined with mechanical precision.
Don't cry. He is learning new ways to control his hands. Learning to play the piano all over again. He could go professional by now.
Yes, androids are a lot like humans. So much so that destroying an android is murder, not vandalism, and abducting an android is kidnapping, not grand theft. They aren't slaves. Not legally anyway. They are people. Don't believe me? Ask your lawyer.
This sounds like a good thing, doesn't it? It sounds like humanity has a fresh start and has cast off the fear and bigotry that no doubt sent us to the brink of extinction forty years ago.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
You see, if you don't live inside the domes your rights aren't better than an android's, legally speaking. The glass ceiling exists and the poor and the mechanical need not apply.
The worst thing about androids is that they seem so incomplete. They have a 'not quite finished' air about them. The way they almost mimic an organic being but don't quite get it right. The way their body language is wrong, those of them who have body language. The way they can fit inside human clothing, but still can't pass for human.
What's the matter with that, you ask? So what? In a city without memory it's nice to know that humans are still on top, right?
You still don't get it. Remember what I said about the poor.
Most of the androids have emotion, or seem to at least. They just can't express it like a human does. See, our bodies react to our feelings and our feelings react to our bodies. That's not the case with an android. An android's heart won't race while riding a roller coaster. An android won't get short of breath when surprised or frightened. An android won't blush when in love or embarrassed.
You get the idea. So their body language is wrong. Lots of them don't have faces. This makes them great poker players, but humans who possess the courage to trust them find them aloof and distant. That's a shame, because most androids when left to their own devices become relatively benign and noble individuals.
You think I'm jealous don't you? You think I've got a problem with robots.
Robots aren't the problem.
You see, this is a city without memory. We don't have a past. A ridiculously high number of humans go insane when you consider how many humans are left after the disaster that erased the world four decades ago. We don't know who we are, what we did, what we're here for.
The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. Half the city is empty, so you can't say there are too many rats in a cage.
Do you understand yet?
The problem isn't that androids are too good. The problem isn't even that androids aren't good enough.
The problem is that androids aren't good enough and neither are we.
It would be different if androids were up on humanity's level, and that was a difficult climb, but the truth is that in the city of amnesia, humanity is incomplete. We have the 'not quite finished' vibe that we say that only androids have. We aren't any different than the androids, not in any way that counts.
And the androids are dying.
Slowly, but if things keep up the way things are going there won't be any left in another forty years.
Now do you see why I'm worried?
No Terms