that needed a reason to go on living, it's that one. And this one, too. He sent it Kate's address. Another one in desperate need of help.
An instant later, Daneel was back.
"These aren't AIs! One's a human, the other's a, a —"
Uplifted coral reef.
"That."
So what's your point?
"Asimovism is for robots, Robbie."
Sorry, I just don't see the difference anymore.
----
Robbie tore down the ocean simulation after R Daneel Olivaw left, and simply traversed the Noosphere, exploring links between people and subjects, locating substrate where he could run very hot and fast.
On a chunk of supercooled rock beyond Pluto, he got an IM from a familiar address.
"Get off my rock," it said.
"I know you," Robbie said. "I totally know you. Where do I know you from?"
"I'm sure I don't know."
And then he had it.
"You're the one. With the reef. You're the one who —" The voice was the same, cold and distant.
"It wasn't me," the voice said. It was anything but cold now. Panicked was more like it.
Robbie had the reef on speed-dial. There were bits of it everywhere in the Noosphere. It liked to colonize.
"I found him." It was all Robbie needed to say. He skipped to Saturn's rings, but the upload took long enough that he got to watch the coral arrive and grimly begin an argument with its creator — an argument that involved blasting the substrate one chunk at a time.
----
2^8192 Cycles Later
The last instance of Robbie the Row-boat ran very, very slow and cool on a piece of unregarded computronium in Low Earth Orbit. He didn't like to spend a lot of time or cycles talking with anyone else. He hadn't made a backup in half a millennium.
He liked the view. A little optical sensor on the end of his communications mast imaged the Earth at high resolution whenever he asked it to. Sometimes he peeked in on the Coral Sea.
The reef had been awakened a dozen times since he took up this post. It made him happy now when it happened. The Asimovist in him still relished the creation of new consciousness. And the reef had spunk.
There. Now. There were new microwave horns growing out of the sea. A stain of dead parrotfish. Poor parrotfish. They always got the shaft at these times.
Someone should uplift them.
Creative Commons License Deed
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* to Remix — to make derivative works
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* Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
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* Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
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An instant later, Daneel was back.
"These aren't AIs! One's a human, the other's a, a —"
Uplifted coral reef.
"That."
So what's your point?
"Asimovism is for robots, Robbie."
Sorry, I just don't see the difference anymore.
----
Robbie tore down the ocean simulation after R Daneel Olivaw left, and simply traversed the Noosphere, exploring links between people and subjects, locating substrate where he could run very hot and fast.
On a chunk of supercooled rock beyond Pluto, he got an IM from a familiar address.
"Get off my rock," it said.
"I know you," Robbie said. "I totally know you. Where do I know you from?"
"I'm sure I don't know."
And then he had it.
"You're the one. With the reef. You're the one who —" The voice was the same, cold and distant.
"It wasn't me," the voice said. It was anything but cold now. Panicked was more like it.
Robbie had the reef on speed-dial. There were bits of it everywhere in the Noosphere. It liked to colonize.
"I found him." It was all Robbie needed to say. He skipped to Saturn's rings, but the upload took long enough that he got to watch the coral arrive and grimly begin an argument with its creator — an argument that involved blasting the substrate one chunk at a time.
----
2^8192 Cycles Later
The last instance of Robbie the Row-boat ran very, very slow and cool on a piece of unregarded computronium in Low Earth Orbit. He didn't like to spend a lot of time or cycles talking with anyone else. He hadn't made a backup in half a millennium.
He liked the view. A little optical sensor on the end of his communications mast imaged the Earth at high resolution whenever he asked it to. Sometimes he peeked in on the Coral Sea.
The reef had been awakened a dozen times since he took up this post. It made him happy now when it happened. The Asimovist in him still relished the creation of new consciousness. And the reef had spunk.
There. Now. There were new microwave horns growing out of the sea. A stain of dead parrotfish. Poor parrotfish. They always got the shaft at these times.
Someone should uplift them.
Creative Commons License Deed
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5
You are free:
* to Share — to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
* to Remix — to make derivative works
Under the following conditions:
* Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
* Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
* Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
* For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
* Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
Disclaimer: Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.
This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (the full license):
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/legalcode
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