Roses Watered by a Robot's Tears Read online

  Roses Watered by a Robot's Tears

  Colleen Wang

  Copyright © 2020 Colleen Wang

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  To my parents, teachers, and friends

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: Mom’s Footsteps

  Chapter 2: AI Power

  Chapter 3: Perfect Dog

  Chapter 4: School Sports Festival

  Chapter 5: Birthday

  Chapter 6: Yosemite Adventure

  Chapter 7: Blue Day

  Chapter 8: True Kindness

  Chapter 9: Bon Voyage

  Chapter 10: Existence

  Chapter 11: Escape

  Chapter 12: Confrontation

  Acknowledgement

  About The Author

  Chapter 1: Mom’s Footsteps

  “Mom, I’m bored,” thirteen-year-old Carina called from her bed.

  Her mother’s footsteps padded from across the hall and into her room. The bed shifted as her mother sat down and took her hand. Her mother’s light perfume tickled her nose.

  “How much longer do I have to stay in bed?”

  “You need to wear the correction device for forty-eight hours, Carina. It takes that much time to work.”

  “How long has it been already?”

  “Just six hours.”

  Carina muttered, “That’s taking too long.”

  Mom stroked Carina’s cheek. “A hundred years ago, people didn’t have this opportunity to repair their eyesight. They would wear these things called glasses or undergo complicated laser eye surgery.”

  “I want to see,” Carina whined.

  “Carina, I specifically prepared the virtual reality video headband for you. Do you still remember the concept of neurotransmission that you learned in your human biology class?”

  “A little.”

  “This headband uses a brain-computer interface to input the electrical activities into your brain similar to what your eyes do. So, after I place it on your head, you don’t need to open your eyes. You can just sense what is happening. If you want to watch your favorite show or play a game, just ask DOSS.”

  The newest, most advanced AI home management system, DOSS could do all home chores, cook, order food delivery, and arrange your schedule accurate to a second. DOSS always had a calm voice even when Carina stayed in bed, not getting up after DOSS had reminded her 101 times.

  “I know, Mom.” If Carina’s eyes weren’t covered, she would’ve rolled her eyes.

  Carina felt slightly guilty for her attitude. She was proud of her mom, who held the coveted position of chief research officer of Blue Marble AI Research Lab. She was super knowledgeable, but always worked so hard that she didn’t have enough time to stay with her, like today, when Carina was going to spend several boring hours correcting her eyesight.

  “I have to go out for a bit, but I’ll be back in the afternoon. I’ve asked DOSS to prepare breakfast. It should be in the kitchen. You can order what you like for lunch, and the robots will make it and deliver it to our house.”

  Carina wanted to say, “Mom, don’t go to work, stay with me. The DOSS and VR headband can take care of me, but I still want you to be around. They can never replace a real mom.” However, she knew that was selfish to say, especially since her mom worked so hard for them. “Yeah, I got it …”

  “Good girl.” The statement was accompanied by the sound of her mom walking out. In the living room, the faint voice of DOSS said, “Have a nice day, Jennifer.”

  The screen in Blue Marble AI Research Lab’s RoMo room clicked off, and the live video of Carina’s room disappeared.

  “Jennifer Matthews reporting. JM-2120 is accomplishing its objective successfully. It seems like my daughter doesn’t notice that the robot is an imitation of me. We will continue with this experiment, and I will report back every month with the results. Once we have gathered one year of data, we will be able to determine if robots can truly learn human emotions. End of report.”

  Chapter 2: AI Power

  “Carina, your mother is calling,” DOSS said. “Which room will you pick it up from?”

  “I’m in the patio next to the garden.”

  Before Jennifer could even say anything, her daughter said, “Mom, I didn’t mean to.”

  “What? What happened?” Jennifer tentatively asked.

  “Oh, I thought you were calling me because you knew. Well, when I was ordering lunch at 11:00, I mentioned that it would be great if I had Japanese sushi from Tokyo’s Ginza Kojyu and Italian gelato from Milan’s Gelato Giusto. It should have arrived by 12:00 at the latest.”

  “Yes, it should have, right?”

  “But the gelato came at 12:25 and the sushi at 12:35. I asked DOSS what caused the delay, and it said that the gelato came directly in a delivery missile from Italy, and the sushi came directly through an underwater bullet train. I guess DOSS didn’t understand that what I said in the beginning wasn’t the actual order, and only what I was thinking out loud. I thought you would be charged a very expensive delivery fee.”

  “I am sorry. It seems I have done something wrong,” DOSS said.

  “It’s fine, DOSS. I can work with my team to make a new patch update for you.” Jennifer changed the subject. “Well anyway, how was your lunch?”

  “Delicious!” Carina exclaimed, and they both laughed.

  “I actually wanted to call you to remind you to check out the interview on the UVR Channel. Do you remember your great-grandma telling you about Kai-Fu Lee? He’s turning 158 this year, and he’s holding an interview at 2:00 to promote his fiftieth book publication in the AI Superpowers series. There’s also a chance to get his 3D signature.”

  “Sounds cool.”

  “Remember,” Jennifer said, “your great-grandma said that a hundred years ago, people had many different feelings, including fear, and questions of what it means to exist after watching the video where the Atlas robot runs toward a log and hops over it with ease. However, Lee shined a light on this issue in his first AI Superpowers book, when he said that ‘AI is not a nuclear weapon; it is electricity.’ And in today’s society, AI has truly become like electricity in our life: it’s everywhere. So don’t pass up this opportunity to listen to his predictions about AI.”

  “Oh, okay. I’ve already selected that show.”

  Suddenly, a loud round of barking came from Carina’s side.

  “What’s going on with those doggies?” Jennifer asked.

  Carina replied, “I’m turning on the dog translator right now.”

  “Don’t ignore me, Ace. Did I do something wrong?” Super asked.

  Ace replied, “You’re too perfect. Leave me alone, Super.”

  “I gotta break this up. Bye, Mom,” Carina said.

  “Bye …” Jennifer hung up with the worry for the two dogs still in her heart.

  In the RoMo room, Jennifer replayed the lunch order conversations to JM-2120. “Do you know what DOSS did wrong?”

  “I know. Carina actually wanted sushi as gourmet as Tokyo’s Ginza Kojyu and gelato as delicious as Milan’s Gelato Giusto. DOSS should first think and consider searching whether local areas would have these foods and not immediately jump to sourcing them directly from Japan or Italy.”

&nbs
p; Jennifer nodded and added to her report: JM-2120 can not only understand rhetorical situations and phrases but also use words like think and consider.

  She turned back to the robot. “For the next step in the experiment, I will extend the time you’re at my house by two hours.”

  Jennifer stared at JM-2120’s face and felt as if she were gazing into a mirror. She stopped speaking involuntarily for a second. “Your main tasks are to walk the dogs, observe, learn, and understand them, and help them if needed. Also, you will spend a short time interacting with Carina every day after she comes home from school.”

  Chapter 3: Perfect Dog

  Ace and Super grew up together ever since they were tiny puppies. Ace was the older brother and Super the younger. They both fought over treats, sprinted around dog parks, played with the ball, and slept together. Super was energetic and a little careless. While eating, he sometimes would accidentally spray crumbs over Ace. When playing, he sometimes would accidentally bite Ace a bit too hard. Once, Super was too intense in chasing a ball and barreled into Ace. After, every time he made a mistake, he would sit next to the older dog and lick him, offering a shy apology.

  Through the improvement of medicine and increased refining of the nutrients and ingredients in dog food, dogs’ lifespans went from twelve to fifteen years a century before to fifty-two to fifty-five years now. This year, both Ace and Super turned fifty-two. However, in March, Super got sick. He could barely eat or drink. Even if Ace waited at the dog bowls and gently called for him or pushed some food to him, he wouldn’t eat anything. Through many veterinarian checkups and the upload of the entirety of Super’s health records to the cloud and analyzation by the quantum computer, the tragic result was still the same: Super’s body was naturally getting too old and frail to live, and any more attempts by humans to lengthen his life would only be more painful for him.

  Nevertheless, Ace didn’t understand this. Every day, he was worriedly watching over Super, who was getting weaker and weaker. Super didn’t have the strength to play with Ace anymore or to even stand up, and later, even open his eyes. Sometimes tears or drool would flow out, and Ace would lick them away. Super always seemed cold and always curled up into a ball. Ace would curl up next to him and warm him up. Finally, one night, Super suddenly opened his eyes and gently licked Ace’s paws, then closed his eyes again. Ace loyally licked the two tears in Super’s eyes. In the morning, Ace woke up to find Super’s body cold and stiff.

  “Super, what happened to you? What happened?” Ace barked without stopping.

  Mom, Dad, and Carina all came to see. They each hugged Super, then hugged Ace, then hugged all of them together, their eyes brimming with tears. Eventually, a robot took Super away.

  Where did he go? When would he come back?

  Every day, Ace would sleep on Super’s blanket, nudge Super’s favorite toy to Mom’s feet, lay where Super always laid, and cry out mournfully for his companion. Besides the unnatural, robotic, and neutral tone of DOSS asking him, “How are you?” over and over again, after Super left, the house was always empty and cold and silent and sad.

  Carina would often hug Ace and cry. Mom would try to prepare fun, tasty, and entertaining things every day for both of them.

  After Mom saw the still gloomy Ace in front of his favorite dog food, and the equally sad Carina in front of her favorite Italian food, she said, “I’ll try my best to bring Super back as fast as I can.”

  “You’re lying,” Carina replied. “I know that today’s technology isn’t enough to revive dead organisms.”

  Dad asked, “Are you talking about speeding up the Perfect Dog project that’s going to make a replica of Super?”

  “Yes,” Mom said. “Even if the estimated time to finish is half a year, I want to put more time and effort in to speed it up.”

  Mom lost a lot of weight. Besides giving Carina and Ace fun things to do every day, from when Carina woke up to when she went to sleep, Mom was at work.

  Finally, one day, when Ace and Carina were watching a VR recording of Super, the same familiar barking noises came from the other side of the door. Ace and Carina ran to check, and it was Super!

  Super was just like he was before, pressing back his ears, closing his eyes, wagging his tail, excitedly trying to jump on Carina. However, this time, he was gentler; it wasn’t like before when Carina would almost fall because he used so much force.

  Ace and Super ran in circles, sniffing each other and excitedly playing together again, biting and pinning each other down. Super seemed to have become smarter, as a few times he almost stepped on Ace’s stomach before realizing his mistake and backing away.

  Super didn’t need to eat or drink water. When it was mealtime, Ace would still wait for Super to compete over their food. After seeing that Super wasn’t going to, Ace would nudge some food over in front of the other dog. Super would always nudge it back. He would also bring back food that landed outside of the bowl, and he would immediately take a napkin and dry the area whenever Ace dripped all over the floor after drinking water. Super would bring Dad’s XPhone to him when he woke up. Super also would do the same thing whenever Carina dropped her pen.

  “Good dog, Super!” became the household’s commonly said phrase. Once, a falling leaf managed to wedge itself in between the doorframe and the automatic lock, and not being able to lock the door, DOSS flashed yellow warning lights. Super ran over, jumping frantically until he managed to bite the leaf and pull it out. “Good dog, Super!” DOSS said.

  “Ace, don’t play in the fountain water.”

  “Ace, don’t play with the slipper. It is not a toy.”

  “Ace, don’t be picky and eat your vegetables.”

  “Ace, don’t steal that piece of chicken. It has bones that will upset your stomach.”

  Ace’s original happiness at Super’s coming back faded, and his dislike for being compared with the perfect dog Super gradually increased.

  Today, it happened again.

  “Super, give Ace some space to let him cool down,” Mom’s voice told him.

  Super immediately wagged his tail and laid down on the floor farther away, quietly watching Ace.

  “Good dog, Super!” Carina cut herself off and covered her mouth. Seeing Ace’s frustration, she patted him and added, “You’re a good dog, too, Ace!”

  In RoMo room, Jennifer noted to her assistant Dave, “Ace might be jealous or stressed because of Super’s perfection and his own flaws in comparison. I have to remind everyone in my house not to praise Super in front of Ace.”

  He nodded, scribbling in his notebook, and Jennifer paused for a second before continuing.

  “So, for JM-2120, we must remember not to make it perfect. There’s never been a perfect mother in our world in the first place. Only with love can the mother and child grow together, and therefore I will initiate JM-2120’s function of learning emotions and imitating them.”

  “But if there’s a loophole in the software,” Dave said, “or if it was hacked by people from the dark side of Mirror Earth, JM-2120 would learn the emotions of hatred and jealousy. It would be dangerous, and even may pose a threat to us human beings.”

  “I have plans from our engineering team to circumvent that, and it’s to install the Level 3 Security System to JM-2120. Level 1 will turn on the detection of pain by its nervous system, so it will feel pain like we do. Level 2 uses an installed chip in its core, the torso. If it poses a danger to us, I will remotely control the chip and cause JM-2120 to completely self-destruct.”

  “And what about Level 3?”

  “That is the ultimate terminating level, and it happens by destroying its base operating system.”

  “But JM-2120’s base operating system is a copy of yours, and it can only synchronize all updates from you, except of emotions. It doesn’t have its own base operating system. How can we destroy its base operating system without hurting you?”

  “Have you heard the quote ‘Intelligence and education that hasn’t been temp
ered by human affection isn’t worth a damn’? To develop top-class robots who can understand human emotions and help humans in need has always been my passion. JM-2120 is an example, which would let children of working moms live a life with their mothers alongside them every day. I am ready to sacrifice myself in the worst-case scenario.”

  Noticing Dave’s worried expression, Jennifer switched the conversation to a lighter subject.

  “Don’t worry, it’s barely even a possibility. Anyway, look at this project management chart. This experiment is going well; we are right on track. Tomorrow, I will send JM-2120 to attend Carina’s universal school sports festival, and we will monitor them here through the screen.”

  Chapter 4: School Sports Festival

  “Did anything good happen at school today?” Dad asked as per usual, as it was, what he always claimed it as, the most important and helpful question to ask children.

  Carina replied, “Yup! I’m gonna be one of the people in the group representing Earth for the last universal school sports festival that’s happening this year.”

  “The universal school sports festival?” he repeated.

  “You should know this already, Dad!” Carina rolled her eyes playfully. “You know how my school is a universal school? Well, my classmates are all from different planets, and they all have different specialties. Like, Danielle—she runs super fast, since she’s from Fulgur. And Vanessa can fly through the air. And that kid from another class—I forget his name—can shapeshift into different things. Stuff like that. So, to prevent unfairness, each competition in the festival is adjusted differently, according to the characteristics of the kids from each planet. Honestly, it’s more testing our cooperation than anything else.”

  “That sounds fun,” Jennifer said. “So, if a person from Earth ran a mile and finished in ten minutes, but a person from Fulgur ran the same mile and finished in ten seconds, the adjusted results would place them equally, correct?”