Thursday, June 5, 2008

The Android named 'God'

I was never too fond of gizmos, but this one was a particularly astonishing creation and had gained huge popularity. This robot called 'God'. I had waited long enough till its price came down. Helper androids were as cheap as a day's meal but this one cost a little less than a pet dog! Had heard so much about it and how it had changed lives, I was eager to have it.

I went to the mall and took the escalator to the outlet called 'The Eden'. They recommended getting this particular thing over the counter rather than ordering it over the network. A live demonstration was a must according to the makers. It was an 'always active' android which had independent movement and intelligence capabilities. The most astonishing feature of all was that it could sense its owner's emotional state and give 'guidelines' to take you to the right path. As a general 'security' constraint, even this android was not supposed to generate new ideas, but the user could input some of his constructs into its brain.

I found this was an extremely efficient android with deep insight on things. The unique feature was that it could think and behave like us but at the same time, had no module for emotions. So it was easy for it to keep cool and be the one to talk sense whenever needed. Never self indulgent, it had hardly any problems of its own.
Once in a classic quarrel with my wife when she was on a quest to teach me on how to deal with people, i began feeling impatient and was about to make a statement. The android came up with “Patience is the companion of wisdom, be cool now, you'll be alright later."

I became used to these one liners, sometimes even had interesting discussions with god. Though an interactive piece, it stuck to its points and could drain you out big time with its arguments.
It very intelligently pointed out flaws and you could trust its assessment of things, sometimes even address me as "son...".

I found one day that my administrator put me on a different workplace on the network. It had more humans than humanoids, obviously involving more hassles and more opinions. No polling here, it was an order, when i had been doing well on the previous assignment.
I had found anger had always taken over me at times. I was guilty of letting my frustration out on helper androids more than once which in some cases is a bigger offense than network spying.
I was fuming with anger and god came with "Anger is a cloud on your brain. You need to be calm." It wasn't working anymore. It didn't put my irritation to rest. "It must be one of those strategic moves", I thought about my transfer. Just as i was about to tell god to 'shut up', I found a button on its belly which said "manipulate". Some fundamentalists insisted on not using it, but this was amazing, almost like a hack.
I typed, "But anger can sometimes be motivating and could lead to you bringing out significant changes in yourself and society." It accepted it and intelligently developed opinions on this thought.

There were guests one day, as always a huge affair. I particularly disliked these kind which were on an inquiry spree. Social network gossip was a nuisance.
"You were moved, weren't you? What happened?"
Considered not such a good thing, humans were rarely transplanted unless in special circumstances. "No, just in a different pool." It was a safe lie considering there was no direct way to know identities over a network.
I manipulated god's vision on always depending on the truth and typed "....not when completely unnecessary."

Soon i discovered that my god's ideas became reminiscent of mine but there were always updations. Credit to the makers that it never got confused. I was really comfortable with this thing now.

I heard sounds from the adjacent house one day. I saw through my window my neighbour in a loud argument with his wife. He sat down on a chair after much shouting, his god, which was similar in structure to mine but a lot tinier make, thought this was a good time to intervene. "Anger is a cloud........" Bang.>.! God was shattered to pieces as I saw my friend holding that chair in his hands with one of its legs broken. Whatever was left of it, was muttering in a low but sharp and funnily irritating voice..."Anger is a......", it was stuck. He hammered it till it was gone and his wife collected the pieces which went to the garbage bin.

He was going to be fined heavily, but I could not help but let out a smirk. "Its not such a good thing to laugh on other people's miseries. That man is going to get fined!"
"Yeah. Not a good thing ......until its god-damn-funny!...." I typed.