West of Nothing

47. World Peace

"Hey guys, you're not going to believe this!" Mason called out.

"What is it now?" Skunkworks said.

"World peace just broke out!"

Judging by the blank expressions, Mason might have announced aliens had just landed in someone's backyard—except in this case that statement might actually be true.

Mason put the newsfeed on-jumbo. A well-groomed newscaster was sitting at an information desk. On the panel behind him was a stylish rendering of either a ridiculously tall spider or a one-eyed water tower.

"An international showdown was narrowly averted today when the U.S. issued a formal apology before the United Nations. Tensions have been high since the Chinese accused the American government of deploying autonomous spy micro-robots a week ago. Having previously denied any responsibility, the White House now confirms NASA lost an unknown number of mini-probes which were designed for future space missions to the Moon, Mars and the asteroids.

"A large shipment of the mini-probes was en route to the U.S. from a factory in South Korea when the vessel capsized in rough seas. Improper stacking of shipping containers has been blamed for the accident. According to the official report, the falling motion triggered the onboard software to switch into autonomous recon mode. 'It was a bug in the programming,' said a NASA spokesperson. Distributed by strong ocean currents, the probes have been found in over a dozen countries, making their way as far inland as Arizona. In a surprising about face, the U.S. has accepted offers from China, Russia and other spacefaring nations to assist in the global search and retrieval effort. Sightings of the mini-probes, which resemble small, black spiders, have caused alarm in some coastal communities. Local and state governments are mobilizing to reassure the public. I will now read a prepared statement."

The screen switched to a static shot of the Capitol building overlaid with text.

"NASA and the U.S. government want to assure the American people that the mini-probes present no threat to human life. Repeat, the mini-probes do not present a danger to humans. However, under no circumstances should they be handled or tampered with. The mini-probes contain corrosive agents that can cause burning or irritation if they come into contact with skin. If you spot a mini-probe, keep your distance and call the number at the bottom of your screen."

Skunkworks cut the video feed. "Mini-probes my ass. Anyone else smell a cover up?"

Some while later, there arrived another pair of X-Bots, Echo and Foxtrot, bringing the total to six. These were delivered direct to the lab where a micro-surgery station had been set up. One of the X-Bots would be sacrificed and sliced up into small parts. More were on the way they were told.

"Sacrificed?" Mason said. "Do you have to put it like that? It sounds like it's going to be crucified."

"It's a lab term," Corny explained. "It means euthanize."

"That's reassuring," Mason said. "I was afraid they were going to kill it."

The third X-Bot, Charlie, was introduced into the bell with little fanfare. It didn't bother exploring but went right up to Alpha and, after making some quick twitchy eyes, performed the anal version of a Vulcan mind meld. Then it too entered a deep, meditative trance.

"Do you think your gaze tracking routine could track multiple eyes independently?" HotDamn asked. "I've prepared some new video sequences."

Already working on it, Gabby said. Give me another hour or so.

This time, when HotDamn set up the 360-degree cinema-scope, he passed out state-of-the-art VR goggles instead of the project-O-vision relics.

"Your view will be tethered to the gaze movements of the lead X-Bot. Stochastic smoothing should keep the perspective from jumping around like before. The red dot marks the focal point for Alpha, blue for Bravo, and green for Charlie. Here we go."

An hour later, Mason was rubbing his eyes and blinking away the flickering after-images. That much hadn't changed.

"What did you find out?" Doogie asked.

"It will take a while to analyze," HotDamn said. "We have three data sets to work with now. But we can already draw some broad observations. First of all, their gaze exhibits the same general patterns like scan and seek, object tracking, look ahead, and so forth. However, the more complex a scene becomes, the more they start to diverge. For example, Alpha here pays close attention to humans while Bravo is more interested in objects, especially those with irregular shapes or features. Charlie seems to favor animals. If you show them the same picture of a living room, Alpha will watch the person on the sofa, Charlie will observe the glowing lamp on the side table, while Bravo will notice the golden retriever lying on the floor."

In other words, their visual algorithms are similar but their higher order attention functions are tuned differently, Gabby explained.

"Do you think that preference is innate or acquired?" Doogie asked.

"I would go out on a limb and say acquired," HotDamn said. "Having separate low-level routines strikes me as inefficient—and the X-Bots are nothing if not efficient."

I agree, Gabby said. I think it is self-tuning based upon whatever environment they happen to find themselves in.

"So Alpha has gotten used to staring at our ugly mugs all day long while the others have been out in the wild communing with nature," HotDamn speculated. "At least that's our best theory so far. There's something else you might want to see."

He shifted to a view of the inside of the bell. One of the X-Bots was going a bit berserk, skittering back and forth and literally climbing the walls. It looked like a real spider attempting to escape a prison it could not comprehend—or could it?

"What's it responding to?" Corny asked.

"I was showing images of everyday scenes to see what features they would pick out. This one was of a garage. Even with the gaze tracking, it took me a while to pin down the specific object that caused it to freak out. It's a messy garage." He put the image on screen and zoomed in on an empty paint can with a color label that read After the Rain.

"A paint can, really?" Corny said. "That's what it's so afraid of? What could it possibly find threatening about a paint can?"

"You should try being in one," Mason quipped. But when he thought about it some more, he realized it was no joke.