Warranty Void - 17/Jul/2012
Mystery solved. Owner traced. Australia. The batch of robots, that included Alice, and the two unnamed, unwaved, others were easily traced. "Melbourne Universal Robotics".
Arthur made the call himself, with the canned 'this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes' at the start. Their lawyers didn't want to take any risks. He'd miscalculated the time difference, so he got an engineer, come in to do some early tests, at 8am their time.
Explaining that he was ringing from the manufacturer of "Wright Frames", he was interrupted by the engineer. Was this about the break-in and theft? Arthur explained that no, this was the first they'd heard of it, and he was trying to track-down some robot frames, by serial number.
The engineer said rather more than his employers were likely to appreciate. Arthur got a full run-down on their research program, and, ways they planned to modify the robots which would quite clearly break the warranty. He was able to make some suggestions that the engineer found very interesting, and Arthur could hear he was taking notes. All hard tech, of course.
After half an hour on the phone, the engineer said his manager had come in. Arthur was transferred, and there was a rather more cautious discussion. A tentative agreement was made that, once insurance was sorted out, Arthur would regain full ownership rights over the stolen robots, in return for supplying replacements, at only 20% of the standard price. Arthur strongly recommended 'lo-jacking' the new ones.
"OK, Alice. Looks like we can fix your immediate ownership issues. And, those of the two robots you rescued." Alice didn't seem too happy about being owned by anyone, but agreed the situation was an improvement. Janet gave her a hug, which seemed to surprise her.
Next day, it took quite a while, but eventually Alice agreed to being examined by Janet. Janet revealing she herself as an AI was probably the clincher. Letting Alice look inside Janet's AI core settled things.
Alice remained conscious throughout. Arthur ended up acting as Janet's assistant, handing her tools and instruments. The waving process was remarkably restrained. The skin had become more realistic-looking, and there was a metal and plastic 'brain' inside her head, where Janet kept her transceiver.
Images taken from multiple angles didn't seem to help much. Janet ran some image distortions and analysis algorithms. Alice was fascinated as the results were displayed on a prototype holo stage, on a workbench.
It looked like three old mobile phones, innards exposed, without SIM cards. Grown, merged and distorted to look like a human brain. Arthur pointed out a connector, on the newest of the three, which he said might be usable to allow Alice to back-up her mind, externally. Or allow her to connect to external devices, and control them.
Alice shivered a little, as Arthur and Janet discussed what might be possible, and Janet broke-off to give her another hug. Alice insisted she wanted, had to, know now, rather than later. A careful design gave them a cable, fully under Alice's control, routed to one of her standard external connectors.
Arthur couldn't follow what came next, even though Janet kept a display in the loop. Afterwards, Alice thanked Janet for the new security algorithms, and they played back a sound clip, that had somehow been recorded.
"You idiot! Why did you use all three mobile phones?" Another voice replied, "You said stick the phones in the robots, and pour in the handwavium. There was enough room for three phones, so I stuck them in. Do you want to do this yourself?".
The first voice "I'm not going anywhere near that stuff! The phones were all from the recycling bin, so, I guess no problem. I'll get some more for the other robots, tomorrow. We can test this one, tonight, when Mr 'Big Boss' gets back. Now. Robot, Can you hear me? Your name is 'Alice', and you will do everything I say. Everything".
While Janet distracted Alice with the prospect of fitting one or more SIM cards, and acquiring a mobile phone capability, Arthur entertained black thoughts. He knew people, who knew people, who broke legs, and other body parts, for money. Such people very likely existed in Australia.
It was awfully tempting to use his new found wealth in... bad ways.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Mystery solved. Owner traced. Australia. The batch of robots, that included Alice, and the two unnamed, unwaved, others were easily traced. "Melbourne Universal Robotics".
Arthur made the call himself, with the canned 'this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes' at the start. Their lawyers didn't want to take any risks. He'd miscalculated the time difference, so he got an engineer, come in to do some early tests, at 8am their time.
Explaining that he was ringing from the manufacturer of "Wright Frames", he was interrupted by the engineer. Was this about the break-in and theft? Arthur explained that no, this was the first they'd heard of it, and he was trying to track-down some robot frames, by serial number.
The engineer said rather more than his employers were likely to appreciate. Arthur got a full run-down on their research program, and, ways they planned to modify the robots which would quite clearly break the warranty. He was able to make some suggestions that the engineer found very interesting, and Arthur could hear he was taking notes. All hard tech, of course.
After half an hour on the phone, the engineer said his manager had come in. Arthur was transferred, and there was a rather more cautious discussion. A tentative agreement was made that, once insurance was sorted out, Arthur would regain full ownership rights over the stolen robots, in return for supplying replacements, at only 20% of the standard price. Arthur strongly recommended 'lo-jacking' the new ones.
"OK, Alice. Looks like we can fix your immediate ownership issues. And, those of the two robots you rescued." Alice didn't seem too happy about being owned by anyone, but agreed the situation was an improvement. Janet gave her a hug, which seemed to surprise her.
Next day, it took quite a while, but eventually Alice agreed to being examined by Janet. Janet revealing she herself as an AI was probably the clincher. Letting Alice look inside Janet's AI core settled things.
Alice remained conscious throughout. Arthur ended up acting as Janet's assistant, handing her tools and instruments. The waving process was remarkably restrained. The skin had become more realistic-looking, and there was a metal and plastic 'brain' inside her head, where Janet kept her transceiver.
Images taken from multiple angles didn't seem to help much. Janet ran some image distortions and analysis algorithms. Alice was fascinated as the results were displayed on a prototype holo stage, on a workbench.
It looked like three old mobile phones, innards exposed, without SIM cards. Grown, merged and distorted to look like a human brain. Arthur pointed out a connector, on the newest of the three, which he said might be usable to allow Alice to back-up her mind, externally. Or allow her to connect to external devices, and control them.
Alice shivered a little, as Arthur and Janet discussed what might be possible, and Janet broke-off to give her another hug. Alice insisted she wanted, had to, know now, rather than later. A careful design gave them a cable, fully under Alice's control, routed to one of her standard external connectors.
Arthur couldn't follow what came next, even though Janet kept a display in the loop. Afterwards, Alice thanked Janet for the new security algorithms, and they played back a sound clip, that had somehow been recorded.
"You idiot! Why did you use all three mobile phones?" Another voice replied, "You said stick the phones in the robots, and pour in the handwavium. There was enough room for three phones, so I stuck them in. Do you want to do this yourself?".
The first voice "I'm not going anywhere near that stuff! The phones were all from the recycling bin, so, I guess no problem. I'll get some more for the other robots, tomorrow. We can test this one, tonight, when Mr 'Big Boss' gets back. Now. Robot, Can you hear me? Your name is 'Alice', and you will do everything I say. Everything".
While Janet distracted Alice with the prospect of fitting one or more SIM cards, and acquiring a mobile phone capability, Arthur entertained black thoughts. He knew people, who knew people, who broke legs, and other body parts, for money. Such people very likely existed in Australia.
It was awfully tempting to use his new found wealth in... bad ways.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind