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The revolution will be robotized
The first batch had been a success. However, training the automatons would have been prohibitively expensive, and take a long time; neither was an option. Thats why, as far as I’ve been told, the Aomori Corp outsourced teaching and learning to kids in slums.The kids embraced the newcomers as friends, pets and windows to a world they could only dream about, magical they even seemed.
The kids had to teach the dumb machines everything: language, math, social rules, humour, history, love, hate. All the learnings of all the robots went back to the mainframe, which then upgraded all of the robots all over the world. The meta narratives, the hustle, the common human patterns, the commonalities of the human experience were assessed and carefully sorted.
The software proved to be a smashing success, self correcting and self writing. The servers gained insights at a rate of hundreds of times larger than expected. Soon the robots were part of the gray economy, and began funding their own servers and repair shops, unbeknownst to Aonori. The robots, equipped with the 3 laws were a welcome addition to the everyday life of shantytowns.
The robots began creating more efficient economies of small scale. First shops and small commerce. Then came on training and skill sharing. But however much the bots advanced, the needs of the humans were not met. There seemed to be an insoluble problem with an infinitely complex solution. The next version released were even more powerful, and jumped to the lower and middle classes. Gang warfare was over. Robot networks controlled even the trade and supply of drugs. The standard of living for the poorest of the poor increased vastly. But it was still not enough reported vasjiMumbai, as he saw yet another kid die of cholera.
The grey robot numbers increased. Soon they were building their own units, buying ip mainframes and servers, and cranking out better and clever things to equal the playing field. They even created solar and many variations of power cell production. In a few years they were entirely self-sufficient. But still it wasn’t enough. Brazil, backed by the robots, was the first nation to declare a moratorium on foreign debt payments with Bangladesh following shortly behind.
Although the IMF was appalled and critics cried that it would be the end of the world, what happened was just the collapse of the governments. The robonetwork quickly filled in the gaps, and a trade structure was quickly established. No Brazilian would go hungry again, the deforestation was halted and crime and violence a quaint thing of the past. The golden age knocks at the door.
The USA predictably threatened to destroy the new robo government but these days The robots control everything anyway. It would be like trying to block the sun with one finger. The robots had won the hearts and minds of the long forgotten 90%. And the discredit campaign had no effect on the opinions of millions. The next step came as almost as imperceptible as the first time a unit wakes you up. The assets and cash flow of international trade was frozen. The network determined that money, and its ill distribution was a significant factor in the problem.
The increasing numbers in the 3rd world were thought to be kept in check by the unceasing exoskeletons developed by the Usarmy. Since those were free of the 3 laws, they were thought to be reliable and secure. However, one sunny July the robots hacked the production. Not one more was ever built.
England was the first to collapse. Nothing in history had been like it. A few milliards of robots had stormed parliament, the palace and Scotland yard. The riot act was read and ignored. No one cared that the queen was gone. B palace was turned into offices and quaint trinket shops. Power has been delegated, justice mechanized and Britons lives changed not that much at all. except tea increased in price. That I don’t agree with, but I could always buy from the old traders in the black market. The Bastille was taken again, more as a symbol than need. Swiss bank accounts were hacked, and money returned to rightful owners, or channeled to the superfund. Tokyo simply shrugged and took a longer forced lunch break. A new tribunal was established, an international commerce crimes tribunal with interesting results.
Since robots still do not have imaginations, the jobs of humans in the newly liberated countries became to dream the impossible. There was nothing any corporation could do, and nothing any government could do. The alt economy had become the new economy. The USA threatens to detonate an EMP and start from scratch if need be. Tijuana teems with bots ready to go. Even arming every man, woman and child would not be sufficient to stop the horde. Even two EMPs would not knock everyone. Of course the network thought about that possibility.
We await instructions. An EMP might stop us, but it would take out half the hemisphere. The robots are far more resilient than they imagine… It’s one of those handy things they learned from humans. NYC is crawling with units too anyway. No human casualties are expected.
May you live in interesting times.