When is a hammer happy?
Growing up, that was Grandpa’s favorite question – especially on volunteer work projects. I remember answering that it was happiest pounding in nails. My cousin said it was hanging on the tool wall. Of course, when we asked Grandpa what his answer was, he said he didn’t know when a hammer was happy. But he followed that by saying he liked to imagine it’s just like people. Spend some days pounding nails, some sitting on a shelf, others prying up boards – a rhythm of work and rest, of continual purpose, makes it happy. The worst thing you could do is leave them alone and tell them they can’t be used for anything anymore.
People don’t understand hammers anymore, so I explain it with cars. But when I stood before Prosperity and the surplus manager asked what I was going to do with it, I could only give my grandpa’s answer.
“I don’t know, but I do know it’s happier when it’s allowed to do something.”
I was going to need a better answer than that when I came home.
He could hear it. Not even the loud clanging from the truck unloading his new friend could hide it. Aiden took a deep breath to prepare. The rhythm of his cousin’s approach told him everything.
“That’s quite the girl you got there,” Jalen said with his outdoor voice.
With the clanking machinery, most would have had trouble hearing Jalen. Most. Aiden thought Jalen’s volume was unnecessary. He released that breath and turned around to face his cousin, but knew Jalen was not quite done yet.
“Didn’t think you were into ones that big. Can’t imagine Uncle Dale would approve.”
“Ah, well, you know,” Aiden said with a click.
“I don’t, but I really should have,” Jalen said with his arms crossed.
Before Aiden could respond, he felt a tap on his shoulder. The machine was fully unloaded and the driver awaited payment. After a brief exchange of pleasantries and capital, the cousins waved the driver and semi goodbye. Free to resume their discussion, Jalen went first.
“What is this?!” Jalen said as he motioned to the grand machine.
Aiden opened his mouth to retort, but his cousin always had the faster mouth.
“I don’t care what sort of miraculous deal you got on it. This was not what you were supposed to be doing. What even happened to–”
“Twenty grand,” Aiden interrupted.
“What?” Jalen asked.
“I got it for twenty grand,” Aiden repeated.
Jalen paused for a moment.
“Still doesn’t change anything.”
“Look, I’m sorry, but–”
“Not truly sorry if there’s a ‘but’,” Jalen interrupted.
Aiden sighed, “I’ll pay my apology debts later. I couldn’t let Prosperity here go to salvage. Besides, what about that in-ground pool Madelyn wanted? I’m sure they’ll make it easy.”
“Hot tub,” Jalen corrected, “but it ought to be a good one. . . You’re willing to use this one?”
“If they’re willing,” Aiden said. He forced himself to give a cheeky smile, but the torture was evident. He continued, “Not much choice this time around. Deal of the century, but…I’ll come up with something.”
“…Speaking of which,” Jalen said motioning around with his arms to compare sizes. “Where are you going to put it?”
Even in its compact and transportable state, it was long as a ranch house, almost wider than a generous car lane, and more than a story tall. The machine itself looked crossed between the larger mobile cranes and a spider excavator, painted in the gaudy construction yellow and dark company blue. Any unfamiliar with it might assume it was a typical piece of heavy construction equipment.
“With the others. There should be enough space in the sanctuary with some minor expansion…Could you help me set up the tarps?”
“If you handle the permits for that hot tub? Deal,” Jalen said as he headed back inside the house.
Aiden followed not far behind, but his nose forced him to stop in the doorway. The smell. A horrendous stench of burned food told him where to look – the kitchen. Peering in that direction, Aiden found the fading mist of black smoke swimming along the ceiling. He looked to Jalen for an explanation, mouth agape with wordless questions. Then it clicked.
“I thought I finally fixed that one!” Aiden exclaimed.
“Nope! But if you want to taste the results, it still has a bagel loaded,” Jalen teased.
Aiden just shook his head and entered the kitchen. Dust Fox, his little vacuum robot, was still cleaning up a mess of blackened crumbs all over the floor. It seemed that Jalen and the toastbot had quite the battle. He would have to ask about it later. Briefly inspecting the novelty toaster robot, Aiden shrugged at the charred bagel, took a slice, and the two got to work. After an hour, the carport was extended with a series of tarps, poles, and bungee cords; and Prosperity was directed inside.
Looking at their work and the robot, Jalen asked one final question for the night.
“Ignoring your little mission, why risk going in on this one?”
This time, Aiden could give him a genuine smile.
“I think she’s the Prosperity.”
Cha-toofpt!
A perfectly browned and crisp set of toast launched out of the bot’s chest and onto the plate in front of Aiden. If it hadn’t been so frustrating, he would have given a eureka shout. A whole extra day of troubleshooting the darn thing. After patting it on the head, he shut it off and checked the time. It was almost 10 AM, the kids would be here any moment now. He grabbed and haphazardly munched on toast while doing a final sweep of the property to ensure everything dangerous was locked up and that most of the living space was inaccessible. Then he stood outside of the garage and waited.
It wasn’t long until the school bus pulled up. He put on a smile and waved. Aiden was never sure what the kids thought when the bus brought them to a random house near the beach. Mr. Redburn always insisted that each class enjoyed visiting the sanctuary, but it still felt weird to him.
The children dragged themselves out of the bus and shuffled into a somewhat orderly formation. Despite their sluggishness, they were by no means quiet. Plenty of low chatter between them, many still complaining they weren’t allowed to bring their phones or tablets. Their teacher was quite old-fashioned and believed that they should take pictures with their eyes and store that memory in their brains. The real reason behind this, as Aiden knew all too well, was to help the kids develop their storytelling abilities. And based on what last year’s class posted about him, not a single kid would need a recording to embarrass him on the world stage.
After some brief welcomes, Aiden led them through the garage towards the front of the house and into the viewing room. It was a simple but spacious enclosed patio, with the back and side walls painted to be as sterile and bland as possible, drawing all attention to the large and open glass wall. On the other side of this massive window was a fenced-in acre lot, which contained the starting edges of the beach. The section closest to them was covered in stone tile, though not much further from it were different sections of rubber, gravel, and sand. And out in this space were several robots; some seemed stationary while others wandered around.
Some kids immediately went for the two kiosk tablets in the front corners of the room. Others stared at the monitors above, which showed live footage of the robots further out in the yard. Most had their attention grabbed by the immediate and obvious thing in front of them - the large robotic arm not far from the window. It was the sort plenty had seen in videos of factories; a machine with a large base with a series of moving tubes ending in a clawed hand.
In this distraction, Aiden suddenly appeared in the forbidden playground with the robots. He came around and stood five feet away from the robotic arm, but still in easy full view of the class. He waved and gave a quick mic check before starting his presentation.
“Hi class!”
The kids shouted some sort of response back. It sounded mostly like hellos.
“Now that I’m over here and you’re there, I’d like to properly welcome you to the Rescued Robot Sanctuary and all our friends here! One of the first things you might be wondering is why is this a sanctuary and not like a museum or something? Which is a great question! Well, how many of you like cars?”
. . .
“Alright, alright. So tell me, which is cooler? Seeing all those cars lined up on a stage, unmoving, not doing anything? Or watching them drive around, revving their engines into nice purrs?”
. . .
“Exactly! It’s cooler to see them in action. Not only that, but I believe the cars are much happier when they’re allowed to drive sometimes rather than just sit there. Could you imagine being forced to sit on a stage, allowed to do nothing while people occasionally come by and say things about you?”
. . .
“Yeah, it would suck! So why should we treat our robots like that? Especially with how advanced some of these guys are, it would be a shame to leave them off as statuesque displays. But I hear you, enough of this drivel! You want to meet the robots! And we’ll start with this friend here! This is Stacker.”
Aiden gestured towards the robot arm, which turned towards the kids and waved in a simple jerky motion.
“Now, if you’re wondering why there’s a separation between you and Stacker, while I can stand here, that’s for your safety.”
The robotic arm moved up and down as if to nod.
“If he decided to slap me, my head would fly right off. Not that he would do so on purpose, right Stacker?”
The arm once again nodded while Aiden was looking at him. Once Aiden was looking back at the children, however, the claw shook the other way. The children snickered, but Aiden ignored it.
“His spatial awareness is limited, so he might swing where you’re standing. While I could upgrade him, I try to keep that to a minimum here at the sanctuary. I want to keep them in the state they were built in and able to continue doing what they love. And Stacker here was built to - you guessed it - stack things.”
Aiden walked off to the side and came back with a wheelbarrow. He dumped its contents of bricks and large rocks near the robot. Stacker waited for Aiden to put the wheelbarrow away and then grabbed one of the rocks, turning it over several times.
“Now, what structure should Stacker make?”
The tablet screens turned on and displayed several simple structures - a rectangular tower, a circular tower, and a dome-like hut. With little wait, the votes came in for the rectangular tower and Stacker started picking up and placing pieces. As the tower was being built, Aiden gave more background about the robot.
By the time he finished his spiel, Stacker had completed its tower. Aiden shook it to demonstrate its stability, which refused to budge. The kids shouted that he was weak or not trying, to which Stacker nodded in agreement and flexed, but Aiden moved on to the next robot. The monitor feeds switched to whatever robot he spoke about, with additional fun facts and images appearing on the tablets. After a couple more robots, he changed course.
“Now, how about a special surprise? Even Mr. Redburn doesn’t know about this one.”
Aiden did a short pause and gave Mr. Redburn a knowing look, but the teacher stared back confused. He shrugged, so Aiden resumed.
“I’ve recently obtained a new robot and they’re so big, you’ll need to come outside with me to meet them.”
The kids gave various exclamations and questions as the monitors cut camera feed and Aiden reappeared in the room with them. He gave various instructions and warnings to everyone - largely to stay in a certain line, always stay so many feet from a robot, etc. Then led them all out into the sanctuary. When they came to the extended carport, there was confusion among the kids as to why they were brought before a construction vehicle, but their teacher caught on.
“This,” Aiden began, “is Prosperity. How many of you have seen a Prosperity unit?”
. . .
“How about the EMTFs? . . . Okay, a few more familiar with the Bullies. Well, she’s sort of like those…”
Aiden proceeded to explain what Prosperity was all about. Decades back, the International Space Exploration and Colonization Project (ISECP) commissioned several companies to help develop a new construction robot. One that could survive a trip through space and harsh environments like the surface of Mars, capable of self-repair, and able to build structures for human operations with minimal supervision. The awarded design was classified as ISP-MMCT140, and five units were commissioned for the first mission. Just like the planetary rovers, a poll to name these five robots was sent out to various schools. The ISP-MMCT140-01 unit, the poster child of the operation, was christened as Prosperity. Her four other sisters were named Rosie, Ronnie, Wendy, and Elinor respectively.
Unfortunately, the Built-It Five were never sent to Mars. Due to growing concerns, the United Nations shut down all space colonization projects and banned further efforts. The ISECP was liquified soon after, allowing one of the primary contributors in designing these robots, Canary HT Inc., to reclaim them and the rights to their designs. With some minor alterations, a new line of construction robots, commonly referred to as Prosperity, was sold to the public. They were less advanced than the original five and even this new line was eventually succeeded by the now more common Bullies.
This was, in large part, due to their AI systems. Thanks to the Human Touch Act, most highly advanced AI systems were outlawed. At least any that were designed to solve problems and act independent of human control. Though the Earth-based version of the Prosperity line didn’t have the advanced degree of the Built-It Five, it was still considered too much after the act was passed. Fortunately, the law did not require any of the preexisting units with this more advanced programming to be dismantled or overwritten.
“But this one isn’t just any Prosperity unit,” Aiden explained. “I believe she is the Prosperity. The original, the 01. And there’s something fun about the originals. You can talk with them.”
As Aiden explained, the original MMTCs were like other planetary rovers and drones on the communication backend. All the communications they sent back to Earth were simple log messages. But unlike those drones, a companion program was developed. One that would translate these simpler messages into fully voiced, human-sounding conversations and vice versa. That way, any human could speak to a connected device and tell the robot what to do with no training or knowledge of the command list. It would also future proof the need for large control centers on Mars, allowing astronauts control over the robots using only their suit’s built-in comms. Though in case of emergency, there were still cabs for manual control.
“So, let’s talk to her,” Aiden said and pressed something on his watch.
A simple digital face appeared on a nearby monitor attached to the carport. The face performed a yawning, waking-up animation on the screen, with a smaller version appearing on Aiden’s watch. Prosperity was now, officially, fully booted up for the morning. Aiden couldn’t help but give a goofy smile seeing the animation play out.
The blue eyes on the screen blinked a few times before it looked around the edges of its confinement. Not the confinement of the screens themselves, though that’s how it appeared on the devices, but of the new property she was parked in.
“Are there any tasks today? Are we starting the ‘hot tub’ project?” Prosperity asked, the voice coming out of the watch.
Her synthetized voice almost sounded human. It had a few artifact noise layers on top of it to sound somewhat artificial and prevent it from being mistaken as a real person. But even this was too close for what companies would be allowed nowadays. But it was not the quality of the voice that caught Aiden off guard.
“…You were listening to that?”
The children snickered.
“Ah, I see. This upsets you. Correcting listening protocols to prevent this in future.”
“No, it–it’s fine. Just thought your transport mode turned that off.”
“The prior manager found it valuable for me to stay listening, even while in less active modes, to prevent tampering or theft.”
“That’s…smart. But, no, we aren’t doing that hot tub thing today.”
“Acknowledged. What tasks do you have for me today?”
The children were still giggling and laughing at this affair, though several were shouting different commands. Luckily, Prosperity was smart enough to know that she shouldn’t listen to the children. Aiden was her current manager, so only he could give tasks.
“Well, we have a class here today to learn all about you and the other robots here. How about you come out and show them what you look like standing up.”
“Okay.”
Prosperity backed out of the carport and then stood up. All four of its legs pulled towards its center, raising the machine to stand up in a somewhat humanoid fashion, distributing the weight among the large tires and a few supporting structures. The longer back half sitting on top of these leg portions flipped over and clamped into place on top of the vehicle cab while some large arms folded out of the side. A small rectangular head popped out of the top, her visor eyes looking down at everyone. Now that she was fully upright, Prosperity stood at two stories tall.
She waved at all the kids below inside the sanctuary fence. Her digital representation was smiling at them.
“Hello class,” she said, voice still coming through the watch.
They all screamed hello back to her.
“She can get even taller,” Aiden told them. “Even without extra parts or assistance, she can extend portions of her frame to reach several more stories. Though at those heights, she becomes stationary like some tower cranes. Plenty of other accessories too.”
“Shall I demonstrate my earth moving functions?” Prosperity asked.
“Uh,” Aiden said, thinking it over as the children shouted for her to do it. “We’ll pass for now.”
“Acknowledged. Is there any work I can perform? I see several improvements can be made to this locality.” Prosperity asked.
Aiden was, once again, taken aback. While he worked with a variety of robots, all of them were much simpler. They had a few select purposes and would only perform that. Letting them do whatever they wanted was easy – they wanted to do their limited, highly specialized, programmed functions. Giving Prosperity that same treatment, at her size and ability…
“Well…here at the sanctuary we let robots do whatever it is they want. The choice for what you do today is yours. If that’s improving the lot here, then sure, but I don’t have any materials or permits yet. If you would like to look around and give me a list, that would be great.”
“Acknowledged. Thank you, manager. Enjoy your time, children.”
“…Alright, since you’re all out here, let’s get a closer look at some of the other robots. Over here is a trio of planetary rovers. After all space exploration was banned in…”
Aiden’s voice trailed off as the group walked away. Of course, Prosperity could still hear the conversation through the watch, but she kept her focus on the new task. Upgrading this lot to better function as a live-display location for robots. As she took in the structure, she noticed a smaller robot rolling up to the fence line closest to the beach.
It was an odd-looking machine, no taller than a short human adult. It had two different containers attached to its slender frame around the base, a few smaller arms with scooping implements, and a primary arm with some sort of spray nozzle. With one of the scooping arms, it opened the latch on the gate, pushed it open, and escaped the sanctuary. It let an even smaller drone drive out as well before it closed and relocked the gate. Then the two drove further away to reach the beach proper.
Prosperity contacted her manager immediately.
“One of the other robots has escaped the premises. What should be done about this?”
If Aiden was not mid-speech about how one of the rovers was programmed with a secret mission to find cheese, he would have been startled. Instead, he quickly wrapped up this fun fact as the children started looking around to see where a robot could have escaped.
“Escaped?” Aiden repeated.
Doing a quick scan of the sanctuary himself, Aiden gave a slight chuckle.
“Oooohhh. That’s Spritz, they’ve got beach privileges. I’ve got a camera drone to keep an eye on them, but if you would like to follow, feel free. We’ll meet up with them later.”
“Acknowledged. I will observe this Spritz.”
“Have fun,” Aiden said and resumed his work with the class.
Upon approaching Spritz and its drone companion, Prosperity kept twenty feet away. She was uncertain how they would react to her presence and did not want to accidentally crush them. Or get stuck if the sand was wetter than anticipated. Scanning the beach and shore, it was empty. The only other figures were half a mile away resting in some chairs. None would come and bother them until the class arrived.