Automaton – Chapter THREE

I controlled Temple in the sense that she hadn’t free will, but Temple also controlled me. I felt mostly well for serving her and I felt I was really needed. That controlled me because I had to take care of her. I felt I had a purpose in someone’s life. A life made of electrons travelling in wires and a life made of reading and writing data, yet it appeared to me as a life just enough real to make me feel complete, recognized and happy. I belonged much more to her than she belonged to me.

I may have been wrong in a lot of things before, but decisions are decisions, and they brought me to the place that I am today and they made me the person I am today. The little secret I told my ex-friend Abbey actually escalated to unseen heights. Abbey knew a friend that knew a journalist that knew the Director of the Science Tomorrow TV Channel and guess what, he invited me to a talk-show about, nothing more, nothing less, AdBots. When the man told me, by phone, that he wanted me and Temple on their prime-time talk show, I froze.

“Mr. Alexander Everett, are you still there?” The Director asked. “You don’t have to decide just now. Call us if you want to come over here.”

“Isn’t there a problem, you know, she being Japanese?”

“Well, technically, it is legal to own a Japanese AdBot but not to be caught smuggling one. On any case, you must have all the documentation.”

“I got it.”

“Then it’s fine.”

After I hung up, all the questions I wanted to make, came up. What was the tone of the interview? Would they make fun of me? Would they try to trick Temple into saying something silly? But the idea was so tempting. So I accepted the invitation, blinded perhaps by expectations of fame. I was completely unaware of the damage done.

The show itself wasn’t bad, actually it was really good. They knew they were tampering with a taboo and brought another proponent of AdBots – Dr. Oshii Hayashi – roboticist and philosopher from the Humanoid Robotics Institute. But also brought two detractors – Dr. Patricia Teagan – anthropologist and feminist, and Gabriel Arlington, one I wish I didn’t meet – God’s Left Hand Representative.

Before we started recording, Gabriel was the first one to break the ice.

“They’re three and we’re only two, it seems we are at a disadvantage here.” He scorned.

“The other one is a bot. It doesn’t count.” said Dave, the host of the show.

“Huh! What?” The horror on Gabriel’s face was evident as he stared at Temple sitting quietly on her chair.

“Do we have ‘go’?” asked Dave to the producer. People in the audience were still looking for places to sit.

“No go. Wait a couple minutes.”

We grew silent and tension overcame the group. Dr. Patricia Teagan wasn’t happy too to know that the gorgeous woman in front of her was a bot.

So I started a conversation with Temple.

“You are going to be on the TV. If you look directly at the cameras you will be looking at thousands of viewers across the country.”

“I like to be seen.”

Dr. Oshii Hayashi then turned to her and asked “What’s your name?”

“Temple.”

“That’s a nice name.”

“Thank you.”

“Yuri, Temple? Directive 2501?”

“It is not installed.” She replied.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Dr. Oshii then whispered “Just making sure you haven’t installed Fight-or-Flight.”

“Relax Dr. Oshii. She’s not going to kill anyone.”

“That guy from God’s Left Hand can be obnoxious. I don’t need FOF routines to make me want to kill him.”

We laughed, but afterwards I confirmed he was right. Gabriel Arlington was too sure of himself. “God this and God that”, I wanted to tell him ‘frak your God’ but Dr. Oshii came with a more elaborate and educated reply, he said “God is not yours, nor you are His incarnation, so you cannot put words in His mouth. Also, your Bible does speak of the value of life, but what it does not speak, is about the value of technology.”

“But it does.” said Gabriel. “But it does! Let me remind you the Tower of Babel. All the technology used by men to reach the heavens was useless, and you are the same. You’re trying to reach heaven. I’m not the one trying to incarnate God here! One day you will realize that that thing you have there is a mistake. And it will be too late when you do.” Gabriel then turned to Temple “Tell me Temple, are you the usurper of the throne of God?”

She stayed still for a moment, processing his question and then said to him “I am told that I am divine many times. So I do not think of myself as an usurper of God’s role, but as being from God.”

“You will burn in hell and…”

“OK! OK! Thank you for your opinion Mr. Arlington. Hum…” Dave interrupted “… Dr. Patricia Teagan what is your opinion on this matter?”

“To be sincere, I’m not much religious and I’m not completely against AdBots. They can be very helpful, but I am against any form of love bots. While it makes sense that humans would make this possible some day, you know, because we always lived in a world ruled by men. In Antiquity we had slave girls, which unfortunately still exist in some parts of the world. We had prostitutes. We had inflatable plastic dolls, we had silicone dolls, and we still have because RealBots Inc. still manufacture them. At some point in history someone would think that robots could improve the whole scene. It is a way to vent their frustrations and all that. Do you agree with me Alex? I’m not saying something completely absurd, am I?”

“I am inclined to agree with you on that.”

“Exactly. But my point is that on the long run, the bots might make men soft. I mean that if they don’t need to prove themselves worthy to women and therefore would not choose a real woman, they would hinder our capability of reproduction and of natural selection. AdBots can become a threat to real women and to a woman’s role in society. Imagine if every man now would decide they wouldn’t need women, it would be catastrophic.”

“I think that’s far-fetched Doctor Teagan. We can also make AdBots that look like men and you don’t see anyone complaining that a man’s role in society is jeopardized.” said Oshii.

“Temple is not a Stepford wife…” I said.

“I’m not saying it is. I’m just saying that you chose a bot because you think that impressing women is too much trouble…”

“Alex chose a bot…” intervened Gabriel, “because he’s a loser. Not all men are losers…”

“CUT! Frigging CUT!” said the producer walking enraged to the set. “You can’t say that shit on my show!”

“But it’s the truth.”

“I don’t give a damn about the truth! It’s my show and you can’t directly attack my guests! This is a serious show, not some third rate late hour trash! OK?!”

Some warm words crossed the set on that day, but the producer didn’t want a flame war going around, so he cut all the insults between me and Gabriel. Next we talked about the recent aggressions to bots from GLH but he said those were individual decisions, the head of the GLH did not command anyone to destroy robots.

But one of the worst questions for me came from Dave: “Why did you choose to love a bot?” Every time I see myself replying to this question in the recording of the show, I feel horrible.

“I didn’t really have a choice.” I replied. “I lived until last year with my mother, plus I never really had close friends. All my friends go away at some point. I must say that I always feel used, both by men and women, but especially women. On the top of that, in what concerns love affairs, I have always been rejected. I can’t really tell you if I’ve been rejected because I’m ugly… I don’t know. I don’t really have that much money and I’m insecure and chaotic. There is always something that girls don’t like about me and I was tired of always getting the same response. I’ll choose a bot any day. Temple doesn’t whine about her overweight, she doesn’t laugh at my mistakes nor does she makes sexist remarks. A lot of women make absurd sexist remarks these days.”

“…As I said…” commented Dr. Teagan “you are too soft. Love is like a battlefield, they say, and you need to fight for it.”

“I don’t like war, it’s stupid. If my kind is doomed to disappear by natural selection, so be it.”

“They also say the future belongs to the strong and dumb.” replied Dr. Oshii.

The last question was for Temple, that one I liked. Dave asked, “Temple, how do you feel about Alex?”

“Alex completes me.”

I just giggled at the same time that Gabriel Arlington looked away filled with disgust.

Then it all sort of ended. Dave asked Temple off the record “Temple, did you like being in the TV?”

“Yes, I spoke to whomever paid attention.”

Then we parted ways and I exited the building with Temple. Outside, the evening was quite warm and pleasant. Temple’s battery was almost depleted, but there was enough energy to get to the car. I was really happy about how the show turned out and at least Temple was not ridiculed. I opened the door on her side as I heard footsteps in the alleyway. While I turned around to open the door on the driver’s side, I heard Temple say: “Hello, what’s your name?” I just lifted my eyes to see a big man with a sledgehammer. I never even had time to scream. He hit Temple in the head and I jumped over the hood to try to rip the man apart with my own hands, but he just punched me. I felt so powerless yet so full of energy. I saw through the corner of my eyes that there were two police officers coming from the other side of the street.

“Police! Police!” I shouted and I pulled Temple up to help her stand on her feet.

The man with the sledgehammer didn’t move because I was in front of Temple, almost shielding her with my body. I defied him, shouting and asking what the hell he wanted.

It was then that I heard two gunshots, one to the head, one to the back and I felt Temple involuntarily hugging me from behind. The man with the sledgehammer and the police immediately ran away and I was just left there with Temple, almost dead on my arms. There were no sounds and no words on her mouth. Nothing.

It all sort of ended. I was in full denial trying to hit her chest so that it could magically return to life, but there was no life left in Temple.

The anger rose through me, giving enough strength to drag her to the car. Afterward, I drove insanely fast to Ken’s place. He was already in bed and I had to wake him up. While Ken opened her perforated back plate, I just couldn’t stop crying. I could not accept she was dead and I had hope that Ken would fix her.

“Both components can be replaced, but you cannot bring back her memories.” he finally said.

“How much for the new components?”

“Geez… an engine and a full memory block… I have to bring them from Japan and it’s not like Galatea Robots will just sell them to me. Probably… hum… ten thousand dollars for scavenged components.”

“It’s too damn high!”

“I’m sorry Alex. I risk jail for this.”

I sat. Almost defeated. “I could save money… but she won’t return anyway.”

“The new memory will be blank. You could give her a new name.”

“I wanted Temple.”

“I understand how you feel Alex.”

“Just close her.” I said with my hands over my face. “I guess I’ll have to call it a day.”

“Why don’t you come over tomorrow and have lunch with us?”

“Thank you, but I want to be alone.”

“Take care. Don’t do anything stupid.”

I still tried to fight for the truth, but there were never a real effort from the authorities to find the culprits. Another TV show about AdBots was produced, creating more awareness of their existence. Unfortunately, the only justice my Temple got was an ephemerous headline in some newspaper. If you hit a girl, it’s a crime, but if you kill a bot, they call it vandalism!

I still keep her body in the original coffin and just built a headstone with her name, build and death dates. I’ll leave you to guess how much grief I felt over four full months.

Temple was much more real than any woman I’ve ever met and I got from her all that I could ever hope for, and believe me that it wasn’t that much. Any women could easily replace Temple. It wasn’t the perfect body that made Temple. It helped a lot, of course, but it wasn’t just the warm body and the hot sex, it was the company and the silly memories we had together. She wasn’t that smart and couldn’t cook or do the laundry. Did that matter? No.

I’m currently saving money to build a new Temple, but now that I see these events from a cold distance, maybe I should accept that she is gone for good. One must lose something very dear to understand that he does not possess and never possessed anything at all. Nature itself, possesses all Men and Women with a heart of fire and a hand of iron. Life didn’t found her way asking permission to exist, it found her way kicking, screaming, loving, killing, giving and taking and being strange.

Nevertheless, my days of escaping reality will probably not be over anytime soon. Escaping reality is a survival trait and one of the few things that can keep me going. Society will deny people like me, but having Temple worked towards my happiness, and I’m not ashamed of that.

~THE END~