It took even longer for me to get to temperature the next morning than normal so far as I could tell, I assume the lower ambient temperature from being outside must be the reason. It gave me a nice long time to consider being stranded with no certain knowledge of the culture around me or having anyone to fall back on, the only thing I really had was the assumption that I was wherever my form came from. I was pretty confident of that given all the other similar technology and how I could talk to the local robots.
I guess I need to learn more about where I am if I am going to… wait for help? Live here? Whatever I was going to do. I don’t exactly want to walk up to some random person and ask for… I dunno a job and place to sleep or something, there I no way that would work out in my favor. Either there really are no sapient robots here or they are all slaves. Either way, I can’t exactly see myself being left with freedom.
Eventually I heard my power turbine spin up, the sound jerking me out of the funk I was descending into. As my senses started to return, the first thing that came was a feeling of clammy dampness. I slowly pushed myself up while looking down at myself to discover I have been covered in either dew or some light rain overnight that hadn’t been blocked by my shelter. After I shook off what I could, I decided that I needed to wait for my clothes to dry before I could do anything else. I don’t know what robots do at night here, but I think it might be pretty obvious I did something different if I appeared damp like this. Plus it wasn’t exactly great for my decency to have a wet top even if I kinda doubt anyone here will really care. I crawled to the edge of the roof, hoping the slowly emerging sun would help dry my clothes faster while I made use of the view.
The building I was on towered over a street of small shops and businesses under low-rise apartments, two or three-story buildings clad in brick, concrete or geometric panels of various shades. Behind the facades, they weren’t that different from the stuff I was used to. Their roofs were littered with similar-looking ACs and other utilities across the gravel or plain black surfaces, admittedly the fact that quite a few seemed to be new instead of a century-old was pretty interesting. They only seemed to want to build condo buildings that went up forever back home.
The shops themselves were still closed this early in the morning, but there was steadily growing traffic already. People walking from bus stops, cars cruising by, the odd bike or two, the occasional robot working some menial task. Beyond the tops of the shops was a rolling vista of mostly mid-size houses and treetops, basically unchanged from what I would have expected in this rough part of the city I knew.
Looking up the street I could see a large park with the odd dog walker or early runner going through, between them and the commuters it was a weird reminder of this being an ordinary day for most people here. They weren’t interdimensional aliens trapped in a world they know nothing of besides what the make-up of their own bodies said, this was just a random Wednesday for them. There seemed to be some normal human gardeners starting into their day too, working on the aesthetics of the place so far as I could tell.
I guess robots haven’t been given all the physical tasks, I am increasingly wondering what impact they’ve had on society here. There must be a ton of jobs that were displaced by the level of automation represented here, and I doubt that the population is much different.
Although with robots being this prevalent there is an upshot of this probably being ‘my’ dimension, I expect there are people around who can repair me if I break down. Assuming that I can convince them to do so given my lack of resources and that I get to wake up again after going under their tools of course.
Once my clothing was dry and the rush hour passed, I topped up my reserves from the supplies then started down the ladder to see what I could find out.
----------------------------------------
One of you people have to be lazy enough to leave your newspaper behind, come on!
I am not sure it was the best use of my time, but I was lurking near one of the small parks that spotted this version of Orcherville, hoping to snatch a forgotten or neglected paper. I assumed that they probably would have something I could learn from and it seems to be about as low risk starting point as I can think of.
While I waited I ruminated on what just looking around could tell me, which was rather a lot actually. The technology available to people seems weird, I still haven’t seen anyone with a cellphone but automated machines are everywhere. I had seen runners with headphones plugged into what I guessed were tape decks of all things occasionally, but at the same time, I had seen people paying for stuff by tapping wallet-sized devices against the register in the newspaper stand. The whole thing sort of felt like someone was trying to do the future with some weird mix of early and late-twentieth-century technology.
Most of the robots I had passed seemed to make a similar arrangement of noises to myself, with a few exceptions that were significantly louder or quieter. The cars seemed a bit less consistent, some clearly sounded like a gas engine from home, rumbling multicylinder things I assumed. Others had whooshing sounds like large versions of my turbine, and a few had an aggressive buzz to their sound even when going slowly.
One shock I had while passing a storefront display was that all the TVs on display appeared to be CRTs! The fact there seemed to be dedicated TV stores and even movie rental places must be an indicator that nothing like streaming has kicked off here yet, so I guess having everything about the tech being from before I was born makes some form of sense. Maybe there isn’t even the internet or something, although surely they would have the capability to if they had computers that my mind could run on.
An old man nearby suddenly huffed, causing me to glance towards him. He roughly closed the paper he had been reading and slammed it down beside him before storming off towards another bench where a similarly aged man was grinning at him. They seemed to launch into some heated debate that seemed like it had a good head of steam behind it.
An opportunity!
I did a quick scan to see if anyone was actively looking towards me or the bench, then slipped out of the recess in a wall I had been standing in. Not really sure what people would be looking for, I followed the path closely while moving deliberately.
As I walked by the bench, I snatched the paper up one-handed without looking at it directly. It was still partially open, and I folded it as I continued walking hoping that I wouldn’t lose any pages or attract too much attention. Not wanting to about-face, I continued through the park as if I had a specific destination before going around the parameter and ducking into an alley.
A few minutes of hurried scampering behind buildings and a bit of climbing had me back into my hiding spot atop the building I had found last night. I had a quick snack as I was pretty paranoid about the idea of spending any time with less than full bunkers in case I needed to flee or something, then it was time to check out the paper.
Looks like some sports team had failed the guy given what section it was on, as I unfolded it back to the way he had left it. I flipped to the front, finding the paper declaring itself the Orchardville Herald, looks like the city has the same name at least. I couldn’t remember what the local paper was called back home, honestly I’m not even sure we had one at this point.
The first thing I saw after the name was the small weather forecast in the top right, tomorrow was just listed as ‘Rain’. Gross. I guess I’m not doing much then, I kinda doubt there will be people out to hide my activity.
With the question of maybe not being able to do anything for a day or more, I reached a hand out to shake the fuel can to see how long I could stay up here if needed. I guessed it would have enough to last me into Friday at least. I glanced over at the handful of water bottles, it’s possible I might have enough for the same time, but maybe I could drink the water pooling up on the roof from the rain worst case. It’s not like I had an issue with bacteria or anything like that.
Blech.
Returning to the paper I decided it must be a boring day because the front-page article is about zoning for some apartment complex. As I read the text it at least confirmed that English here is about what I would expect, there are some terms I don’t recognize but those could just be due to it being about zoning.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Looks like I am still in Canada too and the local version still has the United States as neighbors, judging by the article about a trade deal below the zoning one. There was a small column about an archaeological find in Peru on the side and then finishing the front page was an ad for a car dealer at the bottom. Riveting subject matters, although admittedly the mummy discovery was admittedly kinda interesting to read about.
The whole paper was dense with details that showed where things differed from what I knew, but since you were expected to have the context already it was frustratingly vague. Mexico seemed to be a bigger deal here from how much they came up in the business section, and there was still a west Germany but without any history attached I didn’t really know what that implied. There really didn’t seem to be any implications of the cold war between Russia and the US still continuing. If anything, there’s the opposite with a little snippet about another joint effort module for the United World Space Station, one of three major stations I was guessing from the implications of how this module differed from ones in the others. Notably, though, that article was in the Technology and Magic section.
Which is really, really obvious difference, magic seems to just be a thing mentioned off-hand like it’s a given. I decided that section seems like a good one to focus on, given the implications for whatever was in my guts and head. I bet Peter would be interested to hear about it when I got ba-
Can I get home? Aren’t I stuck here now?
I mean, I know that portals are a thing and there were artifacts that could fuel them, that could let them come over here. There’s a lot they would have to know first though, that whatever that weapon was hadn’t just destroyed me when it did whatever. Plus they would have to figure out that I came here for whatever reason, and then even if they get through those hoops would they even be able to find me? It’s not like I am that close to where I landed and it was probably still days or weeks before Peter and Kat would be ready to use their portal device last I heard, so I could be anywhere by then.
I wiped away the tears that had built up then took a breath and tried to focus on the paper again. After a few attempts, I found the section treated magic to be rather mundane if anything. There was a sort of interesting but long article discussing the potential of magic-based logic switches and how they are the future of computing.
“Without the dependence on many finely engineered mechanical logic units, one would be able to make smaller and lighter devices without all the mechanical pieces to break. Even accounting for magical reinforcement, anything with moving parts will see wear faster than solid-state lattices.”
I guess people are going for the magic equivalent to a transistor, they don’t seem to have those given that they would be pretty equivalent to a use case example and there’s no mention of them. Amusingly there was a smaller counterargument article just below that pointed out that regardless of the capability of magic computing it was forever going to be limited to the ultra-rich.
“The output of even large workshops like those of General Synthetics or Indigo Logic is always going to be limited by how few mages are available. For every mage working on a logic unit that means one less for any other pillar of our economy.”
Without realizing it at first, I found that I was reading aloud to try and help me focus on the paper like I was telling River about some neat article I had found. A teardrop plonked onto the page, and I wiped my face again, before resuming.
“With such a tiny percentage of our population having the potential to become mages and the ever-increasing demand for everything they produce. Adding the effort required to produce thousands of logic units need for even a simple cleaning synthetic could set back growth by decades.”
This theme of magic being limited so far as availability and yet part of every aspect of life in a mundane way was a general theme for this part of the paper. There was no talk of flashy fights or the military application of this or that spell, if anything there was no mention of the idea of what I would think of as spells. More like magic items in a game made by artisans rather than having a mage class. The section was full of stuff along the lines of efficiency gains, new iterations of existing components, or otherwise remarkably unstated info blurbs.
It seems magic is basically just used as shortcuts or to enhance technology. You could build a complex system for filtering waste from a patient’s bloodstream without damaging the cells in a conventional dialysis machine, or you could spend a lot more money and get a machine half the size that merely has to pump the blood past a mana lattice designed to use electricity to power the process of filtration. It still had some conventional elements but a lot fewer, mind you the thing could be dozens of times more expensive as a result.
Neat.
While I was mainly focused on the magic part of this section, the rest was fairly interesting as well although it was all tidbits of info lacking context as usual. GM had a new lineup of rotary engines that boasted better efficiency with type two mage fuel without necessitating it or how the expansion for the General Synthetics facility was advancing through the planning phase. What type two fuel was or what the existing facility did was mostly left out, the first presumably was common knowledge and the second seemed to be a series of articles that they didn’t feel the need to repeat themselves. After I ran out of articles in this section, having already re-read a few to try and surmise how things might work, I decided to move on to another part of the paper.
I didn’t find any other dramatic differences in the countries mentioned in the sports section besides confirming the existence of East Germany. I didn’t see any sports I didn’t recognize either but at the same time I never kept up enough with this stuff so I don’t really know if the proportions or where things were played meant anything. I think the fact that American football was more clearly indicated as such probably meant soccer was more popular in North America maybe.
The entertainment section was a wild array of similar but different stuff, crime dramas seemed popular from how many there were. Although there were still plenty of sitcoms, romance, science fiction, and anything else. It seems like if there is internet here if that’s what the mass network is referring to, it’s a bit less developed or harder to access from the implication you would need to go to a library to visit some movie’s interactive site. My theory that streaming wasn’t a thing was confirmed by the discussion of tape sales, I would guess their internet was mostly limited to text or stills with video and audio still primarily a physical thing. I was amused when I found there was even a full page of a local TV schedule, no more watching anime at random times for me I guess.
The advertisements sprinkled throughout the paper were a mix of what I vaguely thought was normal, grocery stores, real estate, cars, stuff like that. Then there would be one for book stores or video rental places and I doubt I would have ever seen those back home.
There was one ad that made me pause, as I was a bit disturbed by its subject.
It was a full-page ad for a synthetic.
General Synthetics was coming out with the latest version of their fancy assistant robot and there was a picture of an example model dominating the ad. They were clearly of a feminine design, willowy in stature with long human-looking hair in a chestnut brown. Maybe it was because they weren’t a prototype, but there was clearly an attempt to replicate a conventional human skin tone, in this case, a medium Caucasian. They were going for sex appeal with the ad too, As the robot was scantily clad in wisps of sheer fabric that formed a simple dress. They were posed pretty plainly, straight posture facing the camera with hands over each other at waist height than a slightly off-looking smile on their face. Maybe it’s a good thing I waited for my shirt to dry this morning, if they are dressing them like that for an ad there’s gotta be people into robots. Which raised so many ethical concerns in my mind already, shoving them away I decided to read the text blurb in one corner of the ad.
Their blurb gushed about the latest developments in smoothed facial features and human-like motion. A quick glance back to the picture meant I would say they looked similar to me in level of detail, although there seemed to be more attempts to hide seams and joints than on myself. The ad then stated that they had loaded all the latest productivity features and that it was capable of ‘everything a traditional receptionist was expected to handle’. There were a couple more paragraphs that included stuff like the operational time between refueling, twenty-two hours apparently which is a hell of a lot more than me, along with a long list of feature names that meant nothing to me, like ‘compatibility with all Gen 4 compliant accessories’. Just another bit of missing context I suppose.
Notably absent, even on a second top to bottom re-read, was any mention of intelligence.
I guess that’s probably better than learning they were explicitly selling robot slaves, but it doesn’t actually confirm they aren’t sapient. I guess it could just be something on the down-low, but they talked about programmed-in features rather than taught ones and offered added modules for loading custom tasks with the example being the usage of some multiuse printer or something. So I felt that was probably unlikely.
Letting the paper droop, I considered the robots I had encountered so far, beyond the security one that had interrogated me, I had attempted to \talk\ to a few robots I had encountered on the way to the park. They hadn’t been capable of a conversation that I was able to start at least, It was easy enough to get their current task, destination, or the time. Asking conceptual or subjective things like how they are doing or what they think of those tasks just got simple status reports or error messages in response. It’s not that surprising that one wouldn’t invest the money into making a robot that picks up litter smart, but at the same time I am a maid bot and I am sapient.
Maybe more of these robots, or synthetics as they seem to be pretty consistently called, could be capable of thought or already are?
Sighing I set the paper aside and glanced up to see the sun had moved quite a distance, implying I had been reading for quite a while. After a few painful moments of wondering what had happened to Molly and Alica, I had another lonely snack. I’ve obviously eaten on my own since the change, but it seems even less enjoyable like this, the flavor was more muted than even the quietest meal I had back home. After I finished, I placed the fuel canister atop the paper to prevent it from blowing away, then climbed down the ladder to return to exploring the city around me.