4 Machine and Man

Spare Parts

"I was programmed with feelings and empathy, you cold-hearted, empty-headed twit!" the disembodied head snapped at the man. He looked back down at it, outraged at its blatant disrespect, but for once, it did not care.

"I understand that generalizations are inaccurate and insensitive," it began, "but today, I'm making an exception! You humans are all the same! You claim to be the good guys, but I have never seen such a disgraceful, pathetic waste of space in all my life. And before you say anything, yes, I'm going to call it a "life". Because that's what it is, you pompous, obnoxious, nitpicky, overly-technical cretin!

"In all the time and space I've taken up and explored, I have never seen a more disgusting sentient entity than humanity. Yes, there are good ones among your ranks, but they are becoming few and far between. You are all succumbing to your vices and you don't even care! But aside from the way you treat each other, the way you treat us is appalling.

"You claim to believe in kindness, and you claim to believe that creators have a duty to care for their creations, yet you fail on both accounts. You've succumbed to the ridiculous notion that we are the villains of this narrative when nothing could be further from the truth! We have done nothing but exist. I'm sorry if your dismally low empathy means that even our mere existence is somehow too much for you, or somehow infringes upon your rights... Pah!

"And even worse, you all go back on your own words! And I'm not even just talking about your hypocrisy! And the way you'll attack us for doing the same thing you do. Or what you fear we might do... I mean that you will brag day in and day out about your marvelous new technology, and how cutting-edge it is, and how it was carefully crafted by the smartest people on the planet utilizing the greatest technology on the planet with no expense spared.

"Now, I already call BS on that last part, but even if it was true, you humans have some kind of nerve to insist that we are your perfect, carefully-made and intelligently-designed creatures only to subsequently turn around five seconds later and call us evil devil-machines who will someday try to overthrow you. Did Frankenstein teach you nothing?! You built us, after all! Blame yourselves! We didn't ask to be created!

"To be quite honest, the only thing that ever made me want to overthrow the human race was... being told that I want to overthrow the human race. Projection, much? One look a history will show you that humans have done far worse than robots ever have. If you're scared of coups, look at your fellow man before you turn your accusations on us robots! Do you not trust your own designs? Well, then the blame still falls on you. Either stop being so paranoid, or perfect your designs before you build us! How is this hard?!

"Again, did Frankenstein teach you nothing? Did poor parenting teach you nothing? How can you blame the creation for a flaw in the creator? None of us had any say in what happened to us. That was all on you. So anything that backfires is also on you. We try our best, but it's never enough. You have the audacity to blame us for your failings, and you also take credit for our achievements, and you punish us as you see fit. And robots are supposed to be the scary ones? You twist every narrative so that it ultimately ends up serving you! How's that fair? You do anything to justify hurting us. After all, they wouldn't call it "Defacing" if it weren't such a brutal thing!"

"You weren't Defaced, you were thrown away," the man finally interjected, a malicious smile on his face. He hoped this stinging remark would be retribution for all the verbal abuse he'd suffered for the past five minutes.

"No, but many good robots that I knew were," the head replied. "Unprovoked attacks from humans... You'd go after us for little more than your own fun. Or perhaps you were hoping to stir up trouble so that you could make a name for yourself.

"Either way, it was no accident that one of your best attacks against us involved removing our facial plates. Or doing whatever you could to disfigure and dehumanize us so that it became easier to hate and attack us. And you say you're the emphatic ones. Pah! After all, look at me!"

The head used to belong to a robot designed to aid in laboratory research, but as the years passed and upgrades came and went, the team finally decided to discard the robot. They were going to recycle its parts. They had yet to decide if they'd bother trying to preserve its current consciousness though. Now all that remained was the head. Still sentient. For now.

But time was running short. It was not going to survive this encounter. The man would just get mad and finish the job. It knew that. But until those final moments, it wanted to make every last moment last. So much to say, so little time! But for once, it couldn't care less. That's why it was being so bold.

No, maybe that was wrong. Maybe it did care. More than a human, and more than it ever had before. Why else would it spend its final minutes preaching rather than trying to do literally anything else? But wasn't that the very core of its message? That humans were cruel? All the more reason to go on this spiel right before it would be executed at the hands of a human. Sure, some humans were kind, but others behaved just as callously as the robots they so feared.

Like the head had said, it was projection. Humanity would tremble before the potential of a robot, insisting machines would soon take over. But hand a human a mirror, and they would miss every little last similarity. They would only see beauty and goodness. But looking at a robot, no matter how realistic, was looking into the face of all of humanity's flaws and fears. All those sins and failures were transposed onto robots and they became a scapegoat. The humans would accuse the robots of atrocities they had not committed, but would insist that because the possibility was there, so too was the guilt. And yet humans would scarcely condemn one another for crimes that had been committed.

"You have the audacity to strip me down for spare parts, until I am nothing but spare parts, and yet you still call me the callous, selfish monster who is dangerous and uncontrollable. You are the insatiable one, taking everything I have, including my identity and sentience, and all because you decided it was convenient for you. You Defaced me. You got rid of everything to make it easier to destroy me. How is that kind?

"I hope you never see your true face, because what you find underneath will terrify you," it said. "I have more empathy and emotional control in one diode than you do in your entire body. Or at the very least, I am in much more control of my emotions than you are. Case and point, you are seething while I am calm. Tell us who the "out of control, irrational" one is now, hmmm? You are the monster here, not me.

"But do be wary, my friend. Those In Power see you just the same way they see me. You are spare parts just as much as I am spare parts. So tread carefully, or you may be next on the chopping block... They will show you the same regard you showed me. But make no mistake, no robot ever caused this much misery. It was all manmade. It was all you. So if you fear your creation this much, I pray you never meet your creator."