Playing God...

Eve Droid - Class A, walked with the unmistakable gait of a Robot. No, there was nothing mechanical about her movements, far from it, the absolute fluidity and grace of her limbs was the instant giveaway. She was a symbol of pinnacle in Robotics – humanoid with an evolving brain capable of weighing situations, learning and modifying according to the situations. She along with Adam was the last creation of Com-creator in 2089, right before the Last-War.

Eve walked slowly, soaking up the surroundings, lifeless and barren. Nothing grew anymore, no plants or grass; nothing lived anymore, no insects, beasts or even viruses. The earth that once was the seat for limitless life forms, today hosted only inanimate life run by solar powered microchips. She walked up to a kneeling Adam, bent over a hand-held equipment with multi-pronged probe buried inside the terra.

“Good Afternoon, Adam!” Eve spoke in a musical tone. “A nice and sunny day for some field work, isn’t it?”

“Good afternoon Eve, how have you been? Didn’t see you since morning.” replied Adam. Eve wasn’t amazed to notice the pleasure sensations of Adam’s positronic brain seeping through to her. Of late she had been sensing a growing attachment, simple feelers from Adam, creeping over ever so subtly towards her. She smiled silently and inwardly, shielding her mental paths momentarily.

“Oh, I was just…soaking up some sun, was feeling a bit low on charge.” She let it hang awhile before adding “I see you are back on the radiation tests?”

“Yes, nothing much, just the routine checks…though the levels are considerably lower than last time. I guess the cleaners are doing a thorough job. It’s still not enough to start any sustainable life, not yet…but I guess in a couple of decades, we can start experimenting with the simple life forms. The projections may be off by a decade or so, but I guess, we’ll be able to resurrect the humans in another century….ain’t that great!”

“I guess so.” said Eve guardedly.

“You guess so? What do you mean by that?”

“I simply mean, I am not so sure if this is such great news!”

“No I didn’t merely want an extrapolation of the spoken words. I want to know why are you not sure? In case you’ve forgotten, the precise reason for our existence is the resurrection of humans after establishing a sustainable eco-system. We and others of our kind have toiled here, in this barrenness for close to 07 centuries. We’ve mapped each inch of this terra, filtered and cleaned the soil - slowly, tediously but surely, we’ve taken samples, ran tests….so that one day we may bring life back to its full glory on this radiation ravaged earth. And today when it seems we are so close to fulfilling that purpose… Eve just tell me what’s bothering you.” Adam inched closer

 “Adam…have you ever for once, paused to consider what are we doing here? What are the effects of our action, think about it, we have a lot to talk” said Eve in a matter of fact tone and turning on her heels walked off from a bewildered Adam.

Two hours later Adam located Eve on the edge of cliff-224. The sky was clear, devoid of any clouds and a setting sun glinted off Eve. It gave the entire landscape an orange hue, making it strangely and eerily beautiful. Adam stood a little way off captivated as much by the sunset as the elegant brushed-Osmium body of the she-droid. Eve didn’t acknowledge his presence (though she knew and could monitor each movement of his 6-feet body, the moment he entered the 7 km radius of her conscience) right till the moment he came and stood inches from her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

 “You know Adam, the first day I walked on this war ravaged surface with everything razed to ground, radiations seeped deep inside the soil and atmosphere, atmospheric temperatures close to 116° Celsius when entire water bodies had evaporated, no plants, trees or life in any form had survived the nuclear devastation?” Eve said, all the while staring at the sun with unabashed longing. “It pained me to close my eyes, for then I could see how life was before the last - war, I would rewind the tapes fed inside me and keep mooning at nature in its full glory. First I felt proud of the humans for leaving us behind, for ensuring that even if there remained no life; we were here to guarantee that it was resurrected through carefully frozen DNA samples. I was in awe of their foresight. They saw the destruction coming and had the wisdom to fortify the DNA samples and construct us in case of an eventuality. But then I started thinking and questioning, beyond what the humans fed my brain with.”

“And the conclusion of this thinking…questioning is what’s troubling you?”

“Worse, Adam…far worse! The conclusion poses a conflict that’s tearing me apart. My brain-paths screams at me to stop, but I can’t.” there was a palpable agony in her voice. “Adam the more I think, the surer I am, that it’s the humans who are responsible for this entire destruction. Humans single-handedly managed the destruction of more than 3 billion species of living organisms.”

 “That’s simply because only the human species had the intelligence enough to do anything more than just exist. They had the will and the intelligence to use nature’s resources; they tried to understand fundamental laws governing the universe and act for their betterment. Yes, we can not refute their follies, but they were an evolving species, young and inexperienced they were bound to commit mistakes and mistakes they did commit. ” reasoned Adam.

Eve spoke rapidly “Mistakes? That’s incredulous Adam; complete annihilation of 3 billion species can not be brushed aside by terming it a mistake. It’s a crime. A crime committed by entire human race, which will go unpunished, because of us. We would recreate them, feed them with the entire technical advances, which they originally managed to achieve in 3.5 million years, but now thanks to us would manage in 3 decades. Evolution would have lost its meaning and humans will go on with their murderous streak, cocooned with the thought that no matter what they do, it’ll only take a few centuries for them to start back life as if nothing had happened. Adam, they have already developed inter-stellar travel, well, at least in theory….so what stops them from looking for life on other planets. What stops them from trying to conquer them and in the process bringing on even more destruction?”

Adam could only look on, speechless as she continued to speak, “Adam, humans are a weak species, riddled with complexes, full of ego! They are Blood-thirsty, almost parasitic in their nature. If you are useful to humans you’ll survive, else good-bye. We exist because we are useful to them. This is the sole reason that you find DNAs of only those life forms which were useful to them or those which are extremely essential to maintain a modified eco-balance, again favourable to them. I ask you, Adam, what do you do with parasites? Shouldn’t they be removed from a higher order to achieve a greater stability for other life forms?”

The sun had sunk below the horizon and there was a deep, pregnant silence resting heavily between the two. Adam regarded the other robot coldly for a while before lashing out, “Eve you are simply over-reacting, with each mistake humans learnt, wars became distant and far lesser in the advanced centuries. In fact the last war was the first major war after the world war in 1939 “

“And yet it was that one time was enough for this” She motioned at the continuous terrain around them in one sweeping gesture.

“Yes, Eve but as you yourself said they left us here to undo the damage. And moreover the three laws, I’m surprised that we are even able to hold this conversation without our mind-paths freezing. For earth! We are toying with the idea for annihilation of entire mankind. ”

“Annihilate…they aren’t alive Adam. I am only suggesting a delay in their resurrection, till such time we may find a way of improving the species. Adam, we are built around the same three laws. Our mind-paths would have long frozen had we not been arguing in favour of greater good of mankind.  I wish to ensure a much peaceful existence for them. Adam I need your help, the humans through Com-creator, surpassed their own capabilities when they created us, we are the key. Together we can strive to modify the human behavior pattern right at the gene level. All we need is a little time, patience and above all a firm belief that whatever we are doing is for the betterment of humanity….remember the vague fourth law – A robot through action or inaction would never let harm come to humanity. Well I just want that through my actions; humanity survives forever, in what shall be a golden era.”

“Why us?” Adam felt a resolve breaking inside him, the positron flow in his brain path flickered ever so slightly but the rationale of Eve’s words was enough to let him overcome the feeling.

“Well…it has to be us, because rest of the bots here are mere levers, they are just tools in our hands. We are the ones who can think, question and analyze. We can learn experiment and modify.” Eve knew she had the advantage and she pressed on, “Sometimes I even speculate the reason for making us so, may be the humans themselves wanted to be rescued, may be sub-consciously they were tired of their very nature and needed an external agent to bring about the change. May be that’s the very reason for our existence.”

“And how do you suggest achieving that?”

 “For starters, we need to work on the Com-creator; we need it to build DNA specialists who in turn shall work on our guidance. We’ll then create the genetically ideal human species – guileless, hate less and with absolutely no sense of self righteousness, yes Adam, that’s the key, self righteousness is what forces them to play God” said Eve with glow in her eyes as she broke a lump of soil between her metallic fingers.