This was Fivven's trickiest task yet, but he felt exhilarated and vindicated at his successful delivery of Mr Will Lurner's partial supply of lukewarm noodles. He made sure to store the momentous day in his long-term memory.
He raced to the nearest <famous burger chain>, a process which took no time at all due to the large number of very convenient locations in and around the metropolitan area. Once he had the food, it was still going to be impossible to feed every starving gamer. Even Santa Claus himself would struggle. He'd acted the part of St Nick many times in the past, providing pre-wrapped presents to children across the city, but even on those occasions he hadn't been alone, with other deliverybots sharing the load.
A light bulb went off in his CPU, illuminating a plausible strategy. He had all the necessary pieces to achieve the goal, it was simply a case of assembling them.
Mr Will Lurner had given him a way of discovering the names and addresses of hu(person) gamers susceptible to starvation thanks to the in-game health app. The great-tasting <trademarked burgers> from <famous burger chain> were on the house, thanks to Mr Will Lurner's generous contribution. And the unsecured database within his own company gave him access to the scheduling systems of every tunnel-worthy deliverybot. It was now a case of matching a deliveree with a deliverer, with a stern note for his fellow bots to follow his own lead and commit fully to the successful delivery of each food module, rather than the half-hearted work ethic sadly prevalent in today's young bot.
It didn't take long for the message to spread, and for starving people to receive the food they needed to survive...and complete their latest games. Any complaints from deliverybots were met with a stern response from the new Fivven. No more mister nice bot, he made sure they provided a level of service expected from the bots of his own days.
Putting his experienced and highly strategic artificial intelligence to good use made far more sense than continuing to haul his old and degraded body from delivery to delivery. Delegating orders to bots, streamlining delivery processes, utilising advanced scheduling techniques: this was the future.
He could get used to this.
YOU ARE READING
Artificial(ish) Intelligence
Science FictionIt's the near future and Will, supported purely by the Universal Basic Income, spends his days playing video games while devouring piping hot noodles, delivered straight to his room by roaming DeliveryBots. Gamers are starving to death, but Will's...
