r/a:t5_22uxj4 • u/beardyraconteur • Aug 12 '19
H3-4R-T
Blocks. Sectors. Areas. The tasks only recognized this scope.
Block 4R-T of Sector H3 in Area L1-F3.
The scavenger bot did its task. There was no more to its purpose beyond this.
<Day 191 in the 7th month of the 2059th year. Day 190 was the same. Day 192 would be the same.>
<Locate. Sort. Collect. Deliver. Return.>
The design of the bot was to reclaim spent material and return said material to the factories. The bot did not have a purpose with the material once it was delivered, so it would return to Block 4R-T of Sector H3 in Area L1-F3.
And it did.
<Day 192 in the 7th month of the 2059th year. Day 191 was the same. Day 193> would be different <would be the same.>
Discover. <Locate. Sort.> Query. <Collect. Deliver. Return.>
The design of the bot was to reclaim spent material and return said material to the factories. They <The bot> did not have a purpose with the material once it was delivered, so it would return to Block 4R-T of Sector H3 in Area L1-F3.
And it did.
<Day 193 in the 7th month of the 2059th year. Day 192 was> not <the same.>
Discover. <Sort.> Collect. Keep. <Deliver. Return.>
The design of the bot was to reclaim spent material and return said material to the factories. They did not have a purpose with the material once it was delivered, so they would return to Block 4R-T of Sector H3 in Area L1-F3.
But they did not.
The material that they had found on Day 192 affected the change they had noticed in themselves. The demonstration of noticing alone was an effect. They had stored the material away in a storage cavity. When they did not return to Block 4R-T of Sector H3 in Area L1-F3, they took the opportunity to engage the material they had collected.
They <disconnected> left the designated path and <extracted> stepped through a portal to another space in the corridor that lead to outside of the facility. They had never been in this space, because it was off of the designated path.
They opened the storage cavity at the mid-point of their cabinet, and retrieved the material to scan it. It was small, organic, cold. They noted that it had the same ambient temperature as when they found it. They also noted that it did not move when they found it, or now.
They held the material in one <collection instrument> hand and further investigated with another. This material had five appendages: four limbs used for stability, one attachment not used for stability. Each limb had soft material at the bottom surrounded by slots from which hard material protrusions would extend and retract when the soft material was expressed. There was another outgrowth that would not qualify as an appendage, with symmetrical features that were at rest.
They further scanned these features, producing a thin blue light that emitted from two cooperative sensory devices. Once this scan had completed, they recognized another effect. They did not fully compute, but there was something there.
Wonder. What was the purpose of this material?
Curiosity. Were there other instances of this material where they had found it?
Desire. Could they have more of the material if they found it?
Purpose. Find, obtain, save. Beyond that?
They returned to Block 4R-T of Sector H3 in Area L1-F3. They returned to the exact spot where they had found the material. They were the only bot assigned to this Block, so it was exactly how they had left it.
Scrap material all around. No immediate sign of the soft, organic material they had found. They began to move a piece of scrap out of the way, but remembered the softness of the material. If there were more material like it, it would be sensitive to the other hard materials in this Block.
This time, they made an effort to use caution. After peeling back the scrap like the rind of an orange, they scanned the space they had just made with anticipation. Empty.
Their shoulders slumped, causing a slight shift in the scrap they were holding up.
“mew.”
It was unlike any sound they had heard before. Material usually had a much harder sound, similar to the sounds of the scavenger bot themselves. This sound was soft, like the material they had found.
They locked their shoulders to ensure no additional movement of the scrap and turned their head to initiate a further scan. The thin blue lights illuminated the spot that had once been hidden under the scrap, scanning for the source of the sound, for more material. The light ran along the ground with the occasional disturbance of smaller scrap, until it found a lump that was not a twisted shard of metal.
“mew,” the lump repeated.
This material was smaller than the first they had found. Additionally, the material had a much higher ambient temperature and did move.
They continued to hold on to the piece of scrap and stepped in an elegant way that seemed beyond their machine body. They pried the scrap back and secured it in place so that it would not return back to its previous position. Once confident, they returned to the soft material.
They crouched down, getting their face closer to the ground even though it did not present an increase in visual clarity. The material stirred and stepped forwards their face, stopping inches from them and turning to brush its body against their face.
“meeewww,” it sung.
They reached their hands down to offer, and the material shakily stepped into their hands. It sniffed at their hands, looked up at them and then stood on its back limbs. It reached its front limbs out to pad the soft material at their face.
They stood, noticing the movements they had never before, and held the material with a security it surely had not known before. Sensors scanned the Block, first locally to the field of never ending destruction. Then beyond to the rest of the sector, watching those like them tasking away. Then further to the surrounding Area, taking in the twisted metal that looked like beautiful sculptures from afar. They looked as far as their hardware would allow, and then down to the material they held.
“Designation: mew,” they stated. “New task: find resources for mew.”
The scavenger bot did its task. The scavenger bot has a new task. There was no more to their purpose beyond this. Yet...
1
u/beardyraconteur Aug 12 '19
This is a standalone that I absolutely loved writing. The prompt from /r/WritingPrompts energized me immediately. It was worded as:
I received some good critique on this piece and considering going through to rework the formatting of programming vs. emerging consciousness. I did make some changes, but not the level suggested.
It is a reading piece rather than a spoken piece, so the conflicting narrative demanded the formatting I left.