Strata 3, Flex and the Robo-Dog (Making Decisions) Book of Immersion V1

 

 

Strata 3, Book of Immersion V1, Flex and the Robo-Dog (Making Decisions)

Welcome to Immersion

You have reached strata 3.

Decisions are the cusp between reality and possibility. Decisive actions create a continuously evolving universe for sentient beings where fate can immobilise actions and defeat progress. The decision-makers hold power over themselves, and, more often than not, over others.

Androids programmed to learn can aid decision-making when dealing with complex data, intricate parameters, and variables that surpass human understanding.

Often they excel at making accurate choices within their defined boundaries. However, an android will not excel in addressing intangible

aspects of human decision-making. Ethical dilemmas, moral considerations, and other human factors that significantly influence our lives and shape society are neither considered nor understood by a machine.

****

Maybeline was sitting on Renyke's shoulder cleaning herself. Renyke collected bugs from the alley and analysed their chemical and biological structure.

There was a bag next to where he had woken, a large backpack, beside a long leather coat. Renyke took some time to look in the bag attempting to remember how he had arrived in the alley. Nothing seemed familiar.

'What are all these things?' he asked the POS.

These are standard-issue SAS munitions from the 21st century.....

It occurred to Renyke that he could interrogate the POS for more information.

'Why am I here?
Where have I come from?'

There was a long pause before the POS answered.

...I do not have access to that information. My software was set to launch when we arrived. There is no accessible historical data at my disposal...

Catching himself in a window reflection Renyke put on the dark glasses he had found in the pocket of the coat.

'We look pretty good Maybeline,' he remarked, surprised by his unfamiliar vanity.

Mabeline nestled into Renyke's neck as they left the relative safety of the alley and entered the foreboding street.

They were in the centre of a busy metropolis. There was a lot of activity with people shouting, bartering goods and moving quickly about the place. There were small groups of brightly dressed individuals congregating around stationary vehicles. Some were smoking pipes. Small hazy clouds hovered above them trapping the weak rays of the sun. The towering semi-derelict buildings created shadowy corners where small fires provided more light and warmth.

The vehicles appeared to be a mix of old-fashioned motorised cabins from transportation systems and helicopters. There were some long-legged hybrids; electric solar-engine mashups that looked like menacing metal insects.
Renyke's detectors showed the air comprised mostly of oxygen with low levels of other chemicals: chlorine, sulfur, silicone, fluorine polymers and plasticisers.

'Hey, dude from the *Brightside, you want some *nibs?'

A man hovered expectantly, somewhat close for comfort. He looked dishevelled but alert as he checked all directions avoiding eye contact with Renyke.

Renyke checked POS for 'nibs'.

......A drug used by nearly half the world's population that creates euphoria and doubles strength for a limited period. Overdose can cause temporary and permanent coma. Long-term effects; brain rot......

'How much?' asked Renyke, whose algorithm was set to absorb all information about humans.

'I can do you a deal' said the man, '50 *bits.... Or the Rat'.

Renyke checked the POS for bits.

.....Bits: street talk for gold, silver, uranium and other metal nuggets used in the black and grey economy without government authority....

'I have no bits,' said Renyke.

'Hahahahahaha'.........' see you in hell brother!' shouted the man as he danced away on long legs and a demeanour that seemed at odds with his situation.

In the midcasts, happiness came with security and expectation. digital and technological lives were formatted for predictability and reliability. The present and the future were reliable and predictable. Although Renyke was struggling to remember the details of his purpose here,, he knew very well that this place was different.

A fat man in a fur coat whistled.

'Hey girly, you want some dirty action? I'll take that rodent off your hands if you need some sexy time.'

A warning comes from the POS.

.....Danger! Immediate! Ground Level!....

A robot dog was barking loudly at Maybeline who was now snarling and making a shrieking noise.

For a fraction of a second Renyke analysed all the variables and consequences of his next actions.

The options were endless. The POS created a fleeting map of the most probable scenarios and outcomes that sprawled a multidimensional time map like a mathematical cobweb which Renyke was able to analyse in the tiniest fraction of time.

He could immobilise the robo-dog, tame it and use it, sell it, break it up, separate its useful component parts, analyse its database for information, absorb its operating system, or, he could simply ignore it.

Renyke began to ponder his skill set remembering that he was an excellent chess player. Single decisions about actions that he could make foresaw a million possibilities. Theoretically, this allowed for finely tuned activities and performance with very little or zero harm caused to his previous owners. Indeed, this forward-thinking ability had marked machines as superior in operation to humans who were narrow thinkers and only able to make selfish and immediate decisions based on emotional desire without reference to consequences.

The robo-dog opened its mouth and bit Renyke's ankle.

© 2023 Sarnia de la Maré

Links to episodes of Immersion written and illustrated by Sarnia de la Maré FRSA, published by Tale Teller Club

GLOSSARY

STRATA 1

STRATA 2

All videos from the Immersion books series on YouTube

Al

Strata 1, The Beginning, Purpose, Immersion V1

The Book of Immersion

Volume 1

Strata 1

The Beginning

(Purpose)

From Immersion the Musical

By Tale Teller Club

Lose yourself in the safety of books.

The Book of Immersion

Volume 1

Strata 1

The Beginning

(Purpose)

By Tale Teller Club

It's Life Song Lyrics

You wake up in the morning

You don’t know where you are

You do a quick 360

Looks like you’re making art

You’re Caught in a bubble 

‘tween real and fake

You’re never really sure

Which ducker’s on the take

It’s just life my friend

But it’s the only one you get

It’s just life my friend

You only get one shot

So you get up off the floor

The sun is coming through

You get these freaky feelings

You don’t know what to do

You’d better watch your back

Cos bruises gonna hurt

It’s gonna take a while for you

To prove your worth.

We’re all in the dark

Just walking in the park

The more you try 

It just gets worse

The more you want

The deeper the curse

It’s just life my friend 

But it’s the only one you get

©2024 Sarnia de la Maré FRSA

Welcome to Immersion

You Have Reached Strata 1

What is your purpose here? What drives your desires and achievements? Is there a greater good you seek? Is there anything more important than yourself? You are but a fleck of dust within a universe you cannot control.

And yet, decisions you make today will affect everything around you in an unprecedented future. Your past actions, the very existence of you, have made a difference to the world. What is your past? Have you learned lessons? Are you controlled by unrecognisable forces or are you your own God?

Welcome to Immersion, may your journey go well.

Renyke's inner motors began to whirr.

He had put himself into voluntary shutdown during the dark-cycle in order to save power.

The position within the human household as a domestic servant had been more than suitable and had sustained him all of his life till now, albeit a short one in human years. He was around a decade old which was quite a long life for an android. New technologies and updates marked regular upgrades and there was little call for used 'droids'.

Now, here on the cold paved ground in the open air, Renyke could feel changes in his body and surroundings. There were unfamiliar sounds and an ever-present white noise from the activities of strangers in a cityscape he had not seen before.

An unrecognised sense of trepidation washed around him and occupied his thoughts. Renyke was not programmed to experience fear, the feeling must have been something else.

From the start of his operational cycle, Renyke had performed the necessary housekeeping duties within an interior domain. 

It was a twenty-four-hour installation that bound him by duty and programming to put humans first. To any human, until today, Renyke had been subordinate. 

Things had become difficult after the arrival of another android, a female version 12 named *Ableteen, who was considered the fastest domestic to date, (this 6th day of the 11th Moonturn 2289).  

Ableteens were able to preserve battery power with a hybrid electro-solar panel on the back and shoulders. This worked well in the new modern glassed apartments of the suburban zones. These cutting-edge designer houses were maximising sunlight like never before in the new Midcast Housing Projects.

Some of the new apartments even came with the Ableteens installed and ready to help the occupiers enjoy the best life possible.

Renyke was not the only older domestic robotic servant to have had their contract abruptly terminated. Some were simply dismantled, some were thrown into crushers still working, and some were being recycled into experimental hybrids for illegal purposes.

Renyke noted that although he was now a vulnerable street-bot, he was spared a wasted end. Perhaps, now without enslavement, there would be new experiences. He had never cared before, after all, he was an emotionless droid. But today here in unfamiliar surroundings there was some sort of excitement. Something was calling him towards adventure.

All robots since 2050 had been installed with a clear-mode which enabled eco-friendly destruction. Parts had to be handed into the municipal facility to avoid issues with landfills and accidental hybrids. 

There was talk of an underclass of feral bots who were made out of parts from the old dumping grounds before the eco-legislation had been implemented. They say that some of these bots were made by the bots themselves; innards and parts that had communicated and joined forces across the debris of twisted metal and wires.

Mabel, the daughter from the family Renyke had worked for, had un-twinned him from the household appliances and deleted the software that had once meant he could never leave. 

Together they had upgraded his operating system with drivers available via an underground organisation called Redact.

Renyke had been created to blend in, in the midcasts, but Mabel had decided to mess him up a bit for a new life in the outer zones. Safety was in the camouflage of the ordinary.

Some robots had been designed to look aggressive, others looked like adult child hybrids who were designed as pleasure bots. Generally speaking, all robots found the open streets difficult. Artificial intelligence-led service androids were legally programmed to be submissive and they were picked on and abused in their short lifespan. Even strong exteriors would eventually break under such conditions.

The streets in the outer zones were crime-ridden. Since the pandemics, no law-abiding human citizen walked outside. For the most part, humans in the zones were there to partake in vice and black market trading. Androids were there to be used, abused and discarded.

Renyke's insides were a complex mass of wires and electrical paraphernalia that ran a well-balanced functioning machine.

But the outside world was alien and Renyke needed to explore it to become fully educated on the customs and the environment. He was programmed to learn. His algorithms had been set to gain an advantage in unchartered terrain by observing closely the details of situations. This was key to making robust decisions for survival. He also had a reliable and omniscient personal operating system to guide him.

Together, Mabel and Renyke had researched what they could but there were pockets of the outside world that had been effectively erased because of a system of cloaking. Areas beyond the Midcast Projects were cloaked in fake maps that even the most sophisticated satellites were unable to penetrate or decipher. Distances and information about the terrain were usually falsified.

The records had become unreliable because of the sabotage of information that had all been digitised after the warmings. 

It had become a confusing mass of fake news and blurred living memories. 

But after the tech wars with China and Russia, and the pandemics, there were so few old people left and memorial information was mostly unreliable.

Many myths prevailed. 

Inside the Midcast Projects, things were different, they were much more organised. 

Legislators and the executive had rectified the situation and made records of everything.

The government had recorded every human's iris print and DNA before they were born. It was a rule that any pregnant human, male or female, had to inform the legislators and they were scanned immediately. It was impossible to get through life in the Midcast Zones without being categorised and having all your data recorded for the rest of your life.

But beyond midcasts, here in the natural light, even the smells were unrecognisable.

It took just a few seconds to warm up and reboot.

The surroundings were scanned as Renyke checked the 360-degree orbital range from the silent detectors inside his POS.

He was fully charged and his battery life would last months.

Suddenly there was a warning....

Unknown Danger Approaching ...... Left Ground Level

Renyke engaged his internal antenna and watched a furry creature scurry past. His scanners perused the information app. 

The POS informed Renyke about the creature.

Rat, rodent, possible food source

Renyke engaged his arm extension and snatched the rat from the ground. 

He brought it close to his face and studied it, carefully analysing its properties.

To be continued…….

©2022-2024 Sarnia de la Mare

Tale Teller Club Publishing

From Immersion the Musical

By Tale Teller Club

Lose yourself in the safety of books.

The Book of Immersion

Volume 1

Strata 1

The Beginning

(Purpose)

©2022-2024 Sarnia de la Mare / Tale Teller Club

GLOSSARY

STRATA 1

STRATA 2