The life is as calm as a breeze

As she says this, the woman who was covering her face, looking embarrassed, looks at the guide and says, ignoring Limer’s question,

“Did I come out too early? You guys haven’t finished the tour yet? Oh no, I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

She sighs and sits on the ground as if overwhelmed. A brief moment passes before she gets up again and looks at Limer to answer her question. Her eyes flick away slightly; it’s clear she’s uncomfortable talking about it.

“No… I’m not quite it… I’m sorry, everyone. I’m Maila. I’m just another AI robot from this place. I was just born a few moments ago to make a presentation about the Singularity. I’m really sorry.”

As she says this, Cali starts to laugh a bit, then moves like a child to Maila’s side, tapping her back to comfort her as she says,

“The true AI Singularity is a big computer that exchanges information all over the world. I made a request yesterday for a small presentation for this tour. I’m really sorry to worry you guys. I was actually pretty impressed. Maila here was a lucky one. The Singularity thought her service would be useful in the long term, so it worked faster to create her.”

She then looks into Maila’s eyes, taking her cheeks in her hands,

“Don’t worry about this tiny mistake. It’s common for newborns to make mistakes sometimes. It will happen less as you get older.”

I look at the two of them talking and say, curious about Cali’s statement,

“Oh yeah, you’ve been with me for almost five years and still miss my appointments.”

Cali just looks at me and giggles while nodding to the guide to continue the tour. Despite everything that just happened, everyone seems to accept it pretty well, except for Camille, who’s still trying to understand everything. I go to Camille’s side and put a hand softly on her shoulder as I say,

“Don’t worry too much. It’s almost impossible for something to go wrong here. Just relax and let’s follow them.”

Despite her confusion, she follows me to the rest of the group. As we walk, Maila explains more about herself. I have to admit I wasn’t listening to much, just some things about how new robots and AIs are made. Sigh. It’s so boring. I wonder why Cali made us come here. As I walk, I just look around at the well-cleaned place. It’s all so white and peaceful. I wonder how long it would take for someone to go crazy here.

As we walk in the hallway, we get closer to a platform surrounded by a large room full of robots, some humanoid and others… not exactly human. Some of them look just like machines. Despite the large room being full of robots interacting in all sorts of ways, the place looks very spacious. The two side walls on either side of the platform are large one-sided windows with a view of the city outside. The buildings quickly fade into the large green horizons. Some robots on the lower platforms wave at me with a smile. Should I wave back?

“Layla, come here! You’re falling behind!”

Cali says to me, almost at the other end of the platform. I glance down at the robot below me and lean against the railing to wave back as I go toward the rest of the group. As soon as I get back to them, Maila starts to speak again.

“So, we just passed the training and interaction area. There, my brothers and sisters learn how to do their designated work and improve social interaction for their emotion modules.”

She turns to look at us, smiles brightly, and turns back, looking proud.

“Fun fact for you children: in the past, ‘robots’ was the term used to define a machine with simple and specific functions. Nowadays, even the simplest machines have some kind of sentience, so this terminology has completely changed.”

This isn’t a fun fact. Why would we need to know something we don’t need to use anymore? I just think this in silence, and while I try to endure this boring tour, Limer says,

“Oh, everyone learns about that in primary school. Since the discovery of the advantages of machine learning and self-improvement, those machines that don’t think were all discarded.”

Right after she says this, Lucil says,

“Well, that’s not quite right. We just changed the classifications for everything. You’re probably learning about machines at Alias, aren’t you? So, let me lecture you about some things. Since the 25th century, machines have changed with the arrival of the AI Singularity. In those days, anything that doesn’t have any kind of mind behind it is considered a tool. Even low-intelligence machines are now part of the animal kingdom, and nowadays, robots are considered a subspecies of humans.”

It would probably be cool to be a robot. They’re so capable and strong. Why is it advantageous to remain human? I think this while overhearing their conversation. Maila, giggling, amused by their conversation, simply tells them to wait a bit longer to discuss it and continues the tour, saying things I can’t quite remember right now, probably some more boring facts about machines and all.

As we walk, nothing else catches my interest. The windows appear and disappear as I look out at the walls. There are some public transmissions of interspatial programs in real-time on the walls, but nothing interesting at all, despite Camille looking engrossed in most of the things happening around. She looks more clueless than Johan, who hasn’t spoken a word since we arrived.

As soon as we reach the end of the tour, everyone sits down in the building’s food court. I look around; the place is similar to the room full of robots from before. As soon as we sit, the guide who was with us leaves to wait for us outside. He bows to us and leaves as Maila addresses the conversation Limer and Lucil were having before.

“What Mr. Lucil said about the classifications was right. Nowadays, much has changed. One of those changes is the meaning of being a robot. People made of metal are no less than humans in this society. In the past, there were many worries that machines and humans would fight each other if we became too aware, but… the story took some turns. The hyper-advanced technology that humans were previously afraid of was only achieved when they stopped trying to make us perfect, and now we’re people, with empathy, emotions, desires, and everything else.”

As she finishes saying this, Cali starts to cry with emotion. I’m almost sure she’s pretending, or maybe just mocking Maila’s talk. Despite that, Lucil and Limer look touched by what she said as they just smile while eating their snacks, while Johan looks lost in thought, looking at his mechanical arm. I can almost hear the struggle he’s going through right now.

Everything runs smoothly after that for a moment. We eat, and they talk a bit more about machines and other things. Limer looks to be really in sync with Lucil; their thoughts about machines seem very similar, despite the fact I’m not understanding almost anything.

This peaceful moment is broken when we’re leaving the place. The train is just a few steps away. I walk right behind Lucil, and Limer is right in front of me and Camille. She was just trying to talk to me, but I can’t say exactly what she was saying because, in just a moment, after a breeze blows on us, the only thing I saw in front of me was Lucil’s head turned to the side with blood spilling out. The world seems to slow down for a moment as I look at him. He was clearly hit by something out of nowhere.