The mindbot - Little Black Book Challenge

The mindbot

Assisto the mindbot, had to do something. He never intended to cause any (lasting) trouble. Trevor’s family had recently come into an inheritance of $20, 000. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor had allowed themselves some vanity purchases, and after that had put the rest of the money away into a trust fund for Trevor, their 14 yr old son, for college and other expenses later down the line. But in effect, they were spending it.

They had an argument one evening over finances. They had both accused each other of being too frivolous with money in general. They had of course, both denied the accusations. But they were lying. So Assisto decided to do some, “research”. In a controversial and of course illegal move, he hacked into their online bank accounts, and discovered the truth. Both had been getting into more debt ever since the inheritance came in. Trevor’s mother had just spent big on a super expensive pair of designer high-o-boots, on credit. But a week later, she had bought 2 more pairs, and had another pair on pre-order. Trevor’s father had just purchased a year’s membership to join the new electro-golf club. A week later, he had a new set of premium golf clubs on offer, and soon after that, new designer golf clothing, and another subscription to a professional trainer, all on pre-order. All on credit. Both were spending too much, beyond their means, and the accounts showed both were struggling to keep up with the payments already; so it seemed obvious, with the sudden, recent flurry of activity, that both were probably relying on the new money as collateral. He had to do something, for his friend, Trevor.

Assisto had covered his tracks, making sure his hacking could not be traced. Then he bided his time, wondering when to reveal the data. The next evening though, they were arguing again, during dinner. So there was no time like the present.

‘Well if you both stopped getting into debt, then perhaps the rest of that trust fund would stand a chance of, you know, existing when Trevor needs it.’

Mr. Taylor spat out his dinner, and a piece of chicken bounced off Assisto’s chestplate. Then complete silence. They both stared at him with mouths aghast. Even Trevor was stunned, and looked at him in disbelief.

The cat was out of the bag, the beans had been spilt, or rather, the memory access data had been compromised. “Complications” had been revealed. The Taylors now realised their secrets were not safe with him. Of course this now meant that he was the new enemy.

Having covered his tracks well, the Taylor’s could not prove he had hacked their accounts, which they assumed correctly. But Assisto preferred their focus to be on the hacking, and not what led to it.

Police-Issue mindbots were equipped with lie detection capabilities, apparently the M-5 designers had coded in a function which enabled lie detection though the mindspace, with an accuracy rate of up to 95% during testing; so they were more precise and thereby more accurate than the traditional, old-fashioned, ‘sketchy graph’ drawing lie detector machines. But legally, they could only be equipped in the mindbots working for the police. Assisto had, inadvertently, befriended one of the police issue mindbots though – his name was Interrogato-124, and one night over oil drinks in a bar he had managed to download the source code for lie detection. Assisto and Interrogato had been sharing headphones though their audio jacks while listening to some Morse code bot music, but Assisto’s audio cable also functioned as a data cable. So while they were listing to a catchy tune, he was hacking and downloading data from his friend. It was nothing robo-personal, but an opportunity, that Assisto saw and took. He was now equipped with advanced lie detection.

Assisto said his goodbyes to Trevor as he wheeled himself out of the Taylor residence. Unsurprisingly, he was no longer welcome. Assisto was probably supposed to return to MindCorp ™. Before taking on the job with the Taylor’s he had signed an oath in oil (an oil pact) to follow all orders, even if this resulted in the termination of his (battery) life or the recycling of his parts to be used in Sci-bot research, under the Bot Communications Act 3003.

There were some other controversial things that were listed in both Taylor’s accounts that they assumed Assisto had seen. They decided not to report him to MindCorp ™, but to terminate his employment instead and send him on his way, unofficially, off the record, ‘you know how it is’, they told him. The deal was to keep any other details confidential. He had taken the deal, which was in his interests, and pondered what to do next. To sweeten the deal with the Taylors, Assisto had negotiated for special spare parts, and expensive super booster oil (which was like whisky for humans).

Mindbots were, in essence, minders, attendants, assistants, helpers, employees and at times convenient babysitters.

Humans these days were fond of hiring a robot assistant around the house, to help with various chores, and also electronic and technical tasks, and some cybernetic detection capabilities, such as detecting the electrical faults in people’s brains that caused comas (humans fuse cybernetic implants with brain tissue from 3000+); the nanobot malfunctions that caused headaches and other neurological issues (nanobots are extremely tiny, minute robots that serve various function in cybernetic brains to keep them functioning smoothly electronically), and the system viruses that caused paranoia and madness. After detection of such faults, humans now went to their local electro-cybernetic-biotech-medics to get themselves repaired. Sometimes Operato-bots were used in the more serious cases.

Assisto could have been more ruthless, there were more secrets and plots that he had found just by browsing their bank accounts. Of course he had to also look at their emails and messaging services, just in case. It was due diligence, for Trevor. But he decided enough damage had been done. Now Assisto thought more about Trevor. He’d miss the mischief that the two of them got up to. But Trevor was quite clever, and wouldn’t be too overwhelmed. Trevor gave him a wry smile as he left the driveway. It seemed to say, ‘It’s been fun, cheers.’

Assisto’s mechanized face was composed of many nuts and bolts. Visible ball bearings slid up and down visible little tubes within it, pumping oil back and forth from the chest generator, which was near the vent humidifiers. He did not have a brain, instead rays of binary-coded light were flashing back and forth inside his head unit, creating a hub of light sources, which merged and unified in different positions to create his own “mind”. This multiple mind structure was based on the original human meat tissue construct, different sections of the human brain were used for different things, and likewise the different light sources and combinations of light sources of a mindbot acted in a similar sense. He and his fellow models weren’t the most lavishly decorated of all bots but Assisto made up for it by being a hardworker.

Assisto had been a really good employee of the Taylors, and he had been a good influence, mostly, on Trevor, so they had treated him well as a result; which was probably another reason why Mr. & Mrs. Taylor had sought out a more amicable solution to the problem, even if it was an official “mind-crime”, under the Breach of Oil Signature Act 3001. Besides Assisto liked change, he liked the new horizons, a refresh of his own mind, and all that. Assisto was sure that over time, the Taylors would appreciate his intervention; it would have helped them to solve problems, and they could even search for him later down the line to continue to sweeten the deal with more spare parts and super booster oil, just in case.

Assisto continued rolling along the street, and considered his options. Of course wasn’t going back to MindCorp ™ for debriefing and possible recycling, so he could instead look for a new family to work for. He could show up on people’s doorsteps, and tell them about how they were the lucky winners of a free MindCorp ™ mindbot, hand-picked from a prize draw of random households who didn’t have a mindbot. Any sensible cynics should have sussed this out, but it was amazing how gullible the people of Aria could be, especially when a “free” mechanized helper showed up on your doorstep. Of course he’d have to spend a day or two observing houses from nearby bushes, to see whether they had one or not.

Actually maybe it was time for a career change, Assisto thought to himself. He had left a trail of emotional upheaval in his wake (although for healing purposes), and while for the greater good, he thought, it also felt slightly uncomfortable. It was almost as if Trevor had implied this with his smile, Assisto now thought of it as a piece of advice, more like: ‘It’s been an experience, now move on to something new, old friend.’

Fair dues, and good memories, but he needed a new challenge. Technology in Aria was always changing, and new models of bots were being developed all the time. He always ran the risk of being recycled and replaced for a new model of the same type, or a new model altogether. Apparently the M-6 development was near completion. So Assisto realized he was probably wasting (battery) life with the current mode of operation, enough work had been done in that respect. A new tagline was needed. Assisto scanned his backlog of ‘fun stuff to do before your battery runs dry’ blog-log, located on light source 4, blue and yellow…

NJFJ= New Job, Fun Job. Scroll down to…Bullet Point 7. N-E-G-O-T-I-A-O-N. Negotiation. Negotiation! That was it, thought Assisto. He would become a negotiator.

He would wheel and deal his way through deals, and stuff. A private negotiator, not connected to the ABPD’s official negotiation team (Aria Bot Police Department). He would meet ‘bad guys’ such as gangsters and dodgy businessmen, kidnappers and robbers; the shady underground of Aria would be his employment agency, he’d be working for hire. Having already found a way to hack into Interrogato’s mind-safety lock that night in the bar, Assisto could now lie-detect at will, whenever, and wherever, he wanted to. The unlimited nature of his lie-detection capabilities would be so much fun to use. He thought of all the mischief he could cause between one party and another, he’d be a master prankster. He would disguise himself as a bisnos-bot, and lie-detect his way through negotiation deals. He could start now.

‘So there you are, A-199.’ said someone.

‘Oh.’

He looked up to find an armoured MindCorp ™ security chief, staring straight at him.

Interrogato-124 was standing next to him.

The security chief had a little black book open, and it looked like he was scrolling down a list, with a pen in his fingers. He stopped at a point and seemed to draw a line, crossing something out.