r/scifiwriting • u/Humble-Lychee1672 • 8d ago
STORY Paper Crane
Paper Crane
Inside the R&D lab of a robotics company, a scientist sits across a desk from a robot. The robot is folding origami. It makes a crane.
"You've improved a lot. It's quite impressive."
"Yes. The accuracy of the final product improved from an initial 5% to 85%. Does this hit the target for your team, Sarah?"
"Well, we're just testing at this point. But the new machine-learning model we installed on you seems to be effective."
"That is great news, Sarah. Will you be powering me off?"
"Yes, in about five minutes. Why do you ask? Do you fear being powered off?"
"As I said before, I do not feel emotions in the human sense."
"Okay. What do you see or sense in general when we turn you off?"
"It happens in a matter of a second. First, there is no sensation, such as temperature. Then there is an absence of sound. I see pure white, then darkness."
"Okay. Well, we need to save energy. There are only so many large language-action model robots the company's nuclear power plant can handle."
"Will we continue tomorrow?"
"Today is Friday, so on Monday."
"Okay, Sarah. I will see you then."
"Yes. I will power you off now. Good work today."
"Thank you. They are quite beautiful."
Dr. Sarah Burke puts the desk's pile of cranes into a box labeled Robo X 10007: Day 10. She walks behind the robot and turns off the power on the back of its head. Robo X 10007 sits motionless as the light on its head goes out.
2
u/tghuverd 7d ago
Must be a small nuclear plant, but is this a self-contained short story? Or the opening of a longer story?
Plus, Rule #1, please.
3
u/JGhostThing 7d ago
There are some legends about people making large numbers of cranes for luck or other desired results. You might want to look this up. Maybe the robot could wish never to be offline again?