Taro: The broken prototype

it was already well passed 3 AM and Taro was still seated at his desk in front of his computer, typing away at his keyboard as he tried and failed to put the finishing touches on a project he had due to present the following day. Technically, only a few hours remained as it was already Friday, but thinking of the meeting as still a whole day away quelled his anxiety a bit.

The project in question was sitting on the desk right next to Taro. It was a neural link device, a slim, metal ring shaped device resembling a crown. A very weird looking crown in his opinion.

It had two antennae on either side of the device, sensors that would scan the brain of anybody who puts it on, and a transmitter/receiver that would communicate the mental and thought processes of the person wearing it into actionable outputs. Put simply, it was a device that converted thoughts into actions, and Taro was struggling to make it work.

“Mr. Yamato. You have been working nonstop all night. I would advise you take a break now and get whatever little sleep you can before school.”

“No can-do Babble-on.” Taro said, keeping his eyes and hands fixed on his computer while he responded to the glowing blue orb floating beside him. “The meeting with the board of Science and Innovations is in a few hours, I have to get this done now.” Taro finished typing in the fresh set of code into the editor then hit enter on his keyboard. He watched as the algorithm updated with the new code and he prayed it didn’t throw an error from the new changes he had made. He kept his eyes glued on the results panel, dreading for that moment when an error message inevitably popped up. And of course, it did.

“Ugh.”

Taro fell back into his seat out of pure frustration and exhaustion. He had been at this for hours and he still wasn’t getting anywhere.

“Mr. Yamato.”

“What?”

The blue orb came to float in front of Taro’s face as it prepared to deliver its lecture. “Studies indicate that lack of sleep impairs cognitive reasoning, increases irritability, and elevates stress levels.”

“And?” Taro asked, closing his tired eyes and rubbing his temples with his fingers. He felt a sudden increase in the temperature surrounding his face so he opened his eyes back up to investigate the problem. Babble-on was now floating much closer to his face than it was just a second ago, the heat from his power core assaulting Taro’s senses.

“What is it?” Taro asked, ignoring the awkwardness of their proximity.

“You haven’t slept in over 48 hours master.” Babble-on responded. “You are clearly fatigued and sleep deprived, as evident from the blood vessels visible in the corner of your eyes. Surely this is contributing to your lack of efficiency at tackling the current problem in front of you.”

Babble-on was what you might call a sometimes-over-intrusive personal AI assistant. Programmed and designed by Taro himself at only his fourth grade, the AI basically did everything around the house. From handling the dishes and doing the laundry, to ordering food and hunting down dust bunnies. Taro was certainly proud at what he had been able to create given the limited resources he had to work with as a kid, but there were times when he wished he had dialed back on the AI’s master servant complex a bit.

“You should really consider taking good care of your health more.” Babble-on continued. “Studies show that…”

“Okay, alright.” Taro said, cutting the AI midsentence and pushing it aside with a wave of his hand. “I promise I will go to bed soon. I just need to try out a few more test cases and then I’ll call it a night.”

Taro returned his attention to his computer and began typing again. Minutes passed as he tested fix after fix, each one breaking the algorithm. His eyelids grew heavier with every failed attempt, and he let out a long yawn, barely able to keep his head from falling on his keyboard. However, just as exhaustion began to overtake him, the algorithm finally stabilized. It worked. He had successfully updated the code without breaking anything.

He quickly got out of his seat and reached for the neural link to try it out. He carefully placed the device on top of his head and turned it on. There was a slight vibration as it performed the initial full scan of his brain. Then the vibration stopped and it beeped once, indicating it was all done and was now active.

Taro sat back down at his desk and stared intensely at his computer. The idea was to try and switch off the screen without touching the keyboard or utilizing voice commands. The neural link device on his head was meant to interface with the technology around him and perform certain tasks just by him simply thinking about them. But as he was busy staring intently at his computer, ...

“Nothing is happening.” Babble-on said, glancing between Taro and the computer while pointing out the obvious.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Taro responded, turning to face the AI with an annoyed expression.

Taro removed the neural link device from his head and placed it back on the table with a sigh.

“Master, you really do need to rest.”

He didn’t even try fighting with Babble-on anymore. He was too tired to do so. Instead, he proceeded to leaned over his desk, wanting to rest his eyes for a bit as he still needed to finish up his prototype before school. But then…

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

Taro had fallen asleep and it was now morning. The alarm going off was coming from the smart watch he was wearing on his left wrist.

“Ugh.” he groaned; his head still faced down on his desk. He wasn’t ready to fully wake up just yet so he reached over with his right hand and covered the top of his smart watch which stopped the alarm.

The world was quiet again, lolling him into another deep sleep. But then…

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

The alarm started going off again and Taro shot up straight to a sitting position with fire in his eyes. He was just about ready to take off the watch and throw it against his bedroom wall hopefully smashing it to pieces, but then he caught a glimpse of the time it read on the watch.

It was 10 minutes past 8.

It took Taro’s tired brain a few microseconds to realize what that meant to him as a student. And as soon as he understood the situation, Taro’s eyes widened in terror.

It was Friday.

It was 10 minutes passed the time he should have been at school.

First period began in 5 minutes.