Fortech Main Headquarters

Research and Development Lab Alpha

Ontario, Canada

17:44, May 14, 45 N.W.C.

"There's no denying you're an expert in your field; you're practically a household name." Doctor Kira spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. "But I'm not entirely sure that this new robot is a step in the right direction."

Doctor Elizabeth Donovan simply chuckled and adjusted her glasses, looking towards the center of both the room and the conversation. Doctor Kira glanced towards his counterpart, Doctor Anderson, for support.

"I have to agree," Anderson began slowly, with a slight edge of anxiety in his voice. He was still taken aback by Donovan's announcement, revolutionary as it may be. "There's just too many risks, to many unknowns. Making robots smarter is one thing, but this? You're creating opportunities for failure." As Anderson spoke, his voice became clearer and more confident. "You can't introduce something as illogical as emotion into a logic based system and expect it to act… well... logically!"

Doctor Donovan walked to the center of the room. There, locked into a storage armature in a powered down state, was her greatest creation. The first true thinking robot. It was humanoid in shape, resembling a young woman in some sort of powered armor. Its body was polished forest green, Donovan's favorite color, with silver highlights circling each joint. Its face was much more human, though; if it were powered on, if it were moving, it would be indistinguishable from a real human. She gazed into its glassy eyes for a moment, seeing a pink mechanical iris, her own reflection, and unfathomable potential.

Donovan turned back towards the two men, her eyes glowing. "Exactly."

Anderson blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Robots, as they are now, lack emotion. They grow and evolve as logic demands, regardless of the moral implications of what they may do. They have no soul."

Kira could be quiet no longer. "As was intended!" He raised his voice at his more hopeful, or perhaps naive, rival. "You're giving robots the capacity to think in ways they've never been capable of. Current robots may not be perfect, but they're enough. They're enough to follow orders without questioning their superiors. Your 'true thinking robot' will certainly bring about a robot revolution! It could lead the charge against humanity!"

The two genius roboticists looked at each other with cold eyes. They generally got along well enough, despite leading two companies that were technically rivals. But everyone has flaws, and Donovan was convinced this was one of Kira's worst; he was always treating her like she was inches away from melting her wax wings. In reality, she'd put more thought into this then he realized. "Lead the charge, or prevent it?" Donovan began. She could have made her point in just a few moments, but she wanted Kira to realize his mistake on his own. "Tell me, Doctor Kira, why did the three of us start building robots in the first place? Why do we need them?"

"Robots are necessary to do jobs that humans cannot. They are faster and more efficient, and it is easier to protect them from environments that are unlivable for humans." Kira furrowed his brows a bit. "But they still require our minds to lead them! If you give them our minds, our emotion, then there's no reason for them not to rebel!"

Donovan smiled, and Kira instantly realized he'd been cornered. "You're half right. Robot bodies are better than human ones; we've known this since the earliest days of the industrial revolution. And while a robot's positronic brain is inferior to a human's brain now, there's nothing keeping them from getting smarter than us in the future. Not a year from now, perhaps not even ten years from now, but eventually."

Anderson, ever the centrist in these debates, chose then to intervene. "Any sort of rebellion would violate the First Law. Won't the Lockout Chip prevent that?"

Donovan shook her head. "The lockout chip is a good stopgap measure, but I'm certain that any sufficiently intelligent robot, with the proper motivation, could find a way around it."

Kira flailed his arms towards Donovan in frustration. "Then why would you create a sufficiently intelligent robot? You're proving my point, here– this robot is asking for trouble!"

"No, Kira, I'm arguing against you. See, if human bodies are inferior to robot bodies, and human minds will inevitably be inferior to robot minds, then what logical reason is there for keeping humans alive? Why shouldn't the robots rebel? Not every right decision is logical, and not every wrong decision is illogical. There is no logical reason for the superior robots to keep us around once they start to out-think us. That is what the true thinking robot was built for.

"See, this prototype, and any robot that comes from its line, is not bound to pure logic. It has things other robots do not: it has morality and emotion. It has a soul. It doesn't learn how to do things more logically; it learns how to do things more organically. More human. If we treat them properly, and give them a place in our world- not as slaves or servants, but as friends? The logic won't matter then. The robots won't rebel because they won't want to. Because it would be immoral and inhumane. They'll let us live because it's the right thing to do." Donovan looked back at the prototype. "Humans are illogical by nature. If my dream is to come true, if humans and robots are to live together in peace, then robots must also be illogical to match us."

The two others were silent now. Donovan's speech had dropped on them- Kira in particular- like a ton of bricks. Anderson was the first to speak up after the silence had extended just a bit too long.

"And you're sure this will work? This robot will have a truly human mind… with all its pros and cons?"

Donovan smiled. "This is my life's work. I wouldn't show you if it wasn't ready."

Anderson looked between the two other doctors. Kira was still silent, lost in thought or perhaps frustration. Anderson made his choice.

"Ellie, you created the lockout chip. You're the one that turned those Asimovian Laws into a reality, and you're the one who programmed half the robots walking this globe. Hell, even me and Kira still use your code in our robots. If this is what you think will happen, then I support you one hundred percent. Who knows, maybe I can get a robot to replace my bitchy wife."

Anderson's sudden unprofessionalism evaporated the tense air around him. Donovan and Anderson laughed, and even Kira broke out of his stupor to chuckle at the jest. Donovan cleared tears out of her eyes and turned to Kira.

"And what about you, Kira? Are you still in denial?"

Kira crossed his arms and let out a long, slow breath. Anderson did have a point, after all; Donovan had a PhD in human psychology, and she invented robot psychology, so if anyone would know about this, it'd be her.

Still, he couldn't convince himself that he was making the right choice. He'd been put through too much to see things as optimistically as Donovan did. But then, maybe that was his problem; he'd spent so much time expecting the worst out of everything that he'd become afraid of change. He'd become paranoid, that's all it was. He was paranoid.

He locked eyes with Donovan and made his choice.

"I'm in."

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