Writing Prompt #7

Ever since they released SmartHuman, the new human like robots that can do literally anything, life has gotten so much easier. But as a developer in the company, you realize that a very critical mistake was made in the inner programming of the robots…

This prompt was found on the subreddit r/writingprompts here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ghfwm5/wp_ever_since_they_released_smarthuman_the_new/

At first, I couldn’t believe it was real. I checked the coding again, but no, I was right. I frowned and leaned out from my cubicle. My chair squeaked as I leaned back.

My workmate chuckled and pulled one of their earbuds out of their ears.

“The boss is in, in case you’re wondering,” they said.

I turned and looked at them, pointing behind me at my screen.

“Did you know about this? This thing in the SmartHuman’s inner coding?” I said.

My workmate gave me a confused look and scooted their chair closer to my desk. They looked at my screen; I saw their eyes dart over the section of code I was talking about.

“That?” they said.

I nodded.

“Yeah, you didn’t know about that?”

I rolled my eyes and got up.

“Fine, ask the boss about it!” they said after me with a smirk on their face.

I walked as fast as I could down the short hall to the boss’s private desk. I knocked on the door even as I peered into the glass surrounding most of the closed office space.

She looked up from her own screen and motioned me in.

I entered, and shut the door. I tried to ignore how sweaty my hands were.

“Uh, so listen, Ms. Grinsly,” I said.

“Please, Thomas,” she said, “I told you to call me Tabitha; I don’t like such formal things.”

I nodded like an idiot.

“Right, Tabitha, sorry – anyway: I was looking at the SmartHuman’s inner coding – just running the usual check to see that it’s all working right, you know?”

Tabitha nodded, and seemed calm so far. Good.

“Well,” I continued as I tried not to run my hands through my hair like I desperately wanted to, “I was just looking at it and I noticed something uh… well, I don’t know how to put it -“

Tabitha gave me the same confused look as my workmate had.

“What is it? An error?” she asked.

“No, no,” I said, “or, well… it might be. I’m not sure, it’s… hard to really explain-“

She offered me a well-meaning smile.

“Out with it, Thomas, as best you can,” she said.

I nodded again.

“The operating parameters,” I explained, no longer able to control myself as I paced around the office, “they’re set so that-“

I stopped short.

“How experienced are you with the inner coding?”

“Enough,” Tabitha answered, “although it would help in fixing any issues we might have if you explained it simply.”

“Ok, right, simply… simply,” I said, “so, the inner coding is written with the same operating parameters as… well, humans. In other words, all SmartHumans are coded to be… as imperfect as any human.”

Tabitha looked at me, clearly expecting more.

“And?” she said.

“And? Well and why? Why make these robots that can be everyone’s personal chef or stay-at-home nanny if deep down they’re programmed to be just as imperfect as humans?” I said.

I could tell she was trying not to chuckle at me.

“I looked through all of it to be sure,” I kept on, “these things have every feature imaginable, can fulfill any job, they literally have infinite potential – but we programmed them to be able to make mistakes?”

“They can’t lie,” Tabitha said.

“What’s the point in a robot chef if it makes mistakes?” I demanded.

Tabitha laughed, and even in my frustration I knew it wasn’t a cruel one. I sighed.

“The point,” said Tabitha, “is that a SmartHuman acts like a human, is human as far as humans know. So… mistakes. Fears. Anxieties. Hesitations.”

I wrinkled my nose as a sudden thought came to me.

“Love?” I asked. “Don’t tell me these things actually-“

“Thomas, what exactly did you think SmartHumans were for?” said Tabitha, “Hadrian didn’t make them to be all-powerful, or to be the best chef on the planet – he just wanted them to be as close to humans as possible, to see if he could make something with as much potential, with all the flaws of a human.”

“Why not just… make a human?” I asked.

Tabitha raised her eyebrows.

“You know what I mean, why didn’t he just have a kid? Or adopt, raise one?”

Tabitha chuckled again.

“You know these types; Hadrian’s a good developer, and a good person – but no one with all that talent and intelligence is going to settle for less than his vision,” she said.

I sat in the chair in front of her desk and stared at nothing in particular.

“Have you ever ordered a SmartHuman for yourself?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“My sister has one,” I said, “it does all the cooking and cleaning around the house, looks after the dog.”

“And you never… noticed anything, about her SmartHuman?”

“What’s there to notice? It’s a robot, I know it’s a robot, no matter how smart. They can Turing Test it all to get the green light on roll-out, but everyone knows what they’re buying.”

Tabitha leaned forward in her chair and patted my hand.

“I know it doesn’t make sense,” she said, “but I’d rather they were closer to us than something out of all those old movies.”

I chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess it’s nice… maybe I could beat my sister’s SmartHuman in a chess match – I never even bothered to try,” I said.

“You see? It’s better that way; nothing to be scared of if it’s just as imperfect as the rest of us,” said Tabitha.

I nodded, and understood why my workmate had been so nonchalant earlier. I stood up, and felt embarrassed.

“Right,” I said, “well… thanks, Tabitha, for getting all that cleared up.”

She smiled at me.

“Always happy to help,” she said.

I started to leave.

“Oh, and Thomas?”

I turned back to look at her.

“Yeah?”

“Keep up the good work; we need sharp eyes like yours to notice those details,” she said.

I nodded.

“Will do,” I said.

I left her office and sat back down at my cubicle. I put on some music and got back to work.

A few minutes later, my workmate offered me some cookies from one of the SmartHuman bakers downstairs. I took one, and for the first time I looked at something one of these robots had made carefully. It was perfectly baked, but the smiley face drawn on in frosting was… well, imperfect. Something in the two dots that formed the eyes looked different, like someone with a shaky hand had made it. It looked like a human could have made this, not a robot with perfect precision. I felt a little better as I ate it, and the day passed by quicker than it ever had before.