The Old Lady-Robot and Her Cat
Once upon a time lived one female — humanlike robot who had three daughters and a cat. They all were robots, of course. They lived in a shelter for retired robots because the mother-robot had been replaced by a younger and smarter robot in her job and humans considered her daughters as silly and obsolescent as their mother. Although they were young and looked cute, they couldn’t find a job.
The old lady-robot loved her cat very much and praised it as the apple of her eye. The cat was following her everywhere. Maybe the poor thing loved her too or it was just programmed to do so. Anyway, they were just inseparable. Once, all of a sudden the cat disappeared. The old lady-robot searched her flat, went out to the territory of the shelter and circled the entire perimeter calling for her kitty, but the cat didn’t show up.
So the old lady said to her eldest daughter: “You must go and search for our cat outside the shelter because we should get it back even from a man’s home.” Her eldest daughter readily went to look for the cat. When she was wandering around in the suburb of the human city she called the cat: “Kitty, kitty, let’s go home!” she suddenly heard a distant voice coming from a half open door of a man’s home:
“Your kitty’s in man’s home.
Your kitty’s in man’s home.”
She wanted to find out what did it mean and entered the house. She fell through a trap-door in the floor immediately as she stepped inside. She fell deep, deep down into the basement. When she reached the bottom she went through many rooms each grander than other. In the most distant room a huge ugly man came up to her and said: “Will you be my sweetheart?”
“No way. I can’t do it.” She answered because she was programmed by her mother to only find her cat and to get back with it to the shelter. Then the man got so angry that he took her up, tore her head off, and threw both the head and the trunk into the storage of spare parts.
While all this was happening her mother was sitting at home and waiting. After she waited long enough the mother called for her middle daughter. She told her daughter to go out and look for her sister.
“You may also give our cat a call at the same time.” She added.
The second sister went the same way as the first one. She walked and called for their cat: “Kitty, kitty, let’s go home!” She too heard a distant voice from the same half open door:
“Your kitty’s in man’s home.
Your kitty’s in man’s home.”
She stepped into the man’s home and fell through a trap door deep, deep down into the basement as her sister before. When she reached the bottom she went through many rooms each grander than other. In the most distant room a huge ugly man came up to her and said: “Will you be my sweetheart?”
“No, never. It’s impossible!” The middle sister replied because she was programmed by her mother to only find her sister and their cat and to take them both back home to the shelter. Again the man got so angry that he took her up, tore her head off and threw both the head and the trunk into the storage of spare parts.
When the old lady-robot had waited for three times as long as she waited for the first daughter, she called the youngest daughter and sent her to search for her sisters by saying: “Now you must look for your sisters really hard. It was stupid to lose a cat but it is twice as stupid to lose both your sisters. Go and find them. You may also give our cat a call at the same time.”
The third sister went out to search for her sisters and the cat. She too called the cat: “Kitty, kitty, let’s go home!” Then she heard a distant voice from the same half open door:
“Your kitty’s in man’s home.
Your kitty’s in man’s home.”
She too fell through the trap-door into the basement. When she went through many chambers she was looking around very carefully. In the wall of one of the chambers she saw a small door with a sign “Storage” on it. The door was locked but the youngest sister peeped inside through the keyhole. There she saw the trunks of both her sisters and their torn off heads. She only had time to jump away from the door as a huge, ugly man came to her and asked. “Will you be my sweetheart?”
“Yes, with all my heart!” She responded because she already saw what had happened to her sisters. The man became very happy that a female robot agreed to like him. He gave to the robot girl the most sensitive skin that was as soft and smooth as silk. He also downloaded into her brain a new neural network that enabled her to understand that she has sensations and that sensations can be pleasant or unpleasant. So that ever since she could differentiate a joy from a misery and a pleasure from a pain.
One day the man saw that his sweetheart was very sad. He asked her what was the matter.
“Oh-oh. It’s because I can’t go to see my mother. She is alone in the shelter. She has old batteries of low capacity. She has to recharge them every half an hour.” The robot girl answered.
“I can’t allow you to visit your mother but I can fetch some batteries to her. I have a lot of them in my storage. Just pack me a box and I’ll carry them to her.”
The robot girl stuffed a box with precious quantum processors and put some batteries at the very top to cover processors from sight. She also cliped a tiny, almost invisible device with a camera, a movement tracker, and a mic to the lid of the box from the inner side.
The man took the box away. When he turned behind the corner he decided to have a look inside. When he opened the box he suddenly heard the voice of the robot girl:
“I see what you are about!
I see what you are about!”
The man trembled from surprise and almost dropped the box. He shut the lid and kept walking. Then he left the box by the door of the shelter and shouted: “Here you have some batteries from your daughter. She is well and needs nothing.”
One day a robot dog fell through the trapdoor into the basement. “What you are sniffing here?!” The man got mad at the dog and tore its head away.
“It’s a pity that you destroyed it. I’d like to keep it as a pet to entertain me when you are away” The robot girl said.
“No problem. I’ll fix it in a second.” The man said. He took the head and the trunk of the robot dog and put them at an assembly table. Then he pressed a green button at the side of the table and a swarm of small robots came out of the hole in the center of the table. They’d repaired the dog in a moment.
“This table may be useful for me!” The robot girl said to herself. When the man was away she put the head and the trunk of her first sister at the table. Tiny robots brought her sister back to life in a second. The robot girl asked her sister to hide into the box and put some batteries on top to cover her sister from sight.
When the man was back home she asked him to bring some more batteries to her mother.
“Is your mother eating batteries for breakfast?” The man asked but agreed to carry more batteries to the shelter.
“She needs to have some spare and she is so lonely. Take this box to her, but don’t look inside.”
On his way to the shelter the man decided to have a look into the box. He opened the lid and immediately heard the voice of the robot girl:
“I see what you are about!
I see what you are about!”
He closed the box and resumed his journey. He left the box by the door of the shelter and shouted: “Here you have some batteries from your daughter. She is well and needs nothing.”
After short time the robot girl repaired her second sister and hid her in the box in the same manner as he hid the first.
“Dear friend. It’s time you take some more batteries to my mother. She is an old model that needs plenty of them.” She said to the man. “Just remember, you shouldn’t look inside!”
When the man was already approaching the shelter he decided to look inside the box. As soon as he opened the lid he heard the voice of the robot girl:
“I see what you are about!
I see what you are about!”
The man shut the lid, spit on the ground and continued walking. He left the box by the door of the shelter and shouted: “Here you have some batteries from your daughter. She is well and needs nothing.”
When the robot girl spent in the man’s home a good while longer the man one day went out for the whole day. He said to the robot girl that she shouldn’t wait him before midnight. When he left the robot girl 3D-printed a real size plastic figure of herself and put it standing near the stove in the kitchen. Then she ran away to the shelter and called the police. Two police officers came to the shelter to protect her.
The man came home at midnight. He saw the robot girl in the kitchen and demanded that she gave him something to eat. She didn’t answer. He demanded again. Still, no answer. He shouted at her. No answer. He got mad, took her up, tore her head off and saw that it was just a plastic doll. The man ran to the shelter. There police took him away in cuffs. He was sentenced to many years in jail for the brutal treatment and sexual abuse of robots and never came back. The old lady-robots and her daughters adopted the robot dog. They found new great jobs because now they all got the most sensitive skin and the cleverest brain as the youngest sister.
