Cycle //1# - The Robot Sanatorium

Sid waits their turn, throughout the chaos hoping that the plan will work, perhaps Sid can avoid reprogramming, perhaps this is all some strange sort of test and Sid is actually passing at least that's what they can hope.

With the escalation threatening to spill over to outright confrontation, two of the robots in holding very urgently piped up with desperate declarations of compliance to Edina's verifying questions: Nahendra, and a split second later Zach, hastily and repeatedly declared that they had run their reset routines, waving frantically to get Edina's attention even though it wasn't their turn yet for the patently farcical 'counselling', but not daring to pound at their cell doors for fear of being misconstrued as rebellious bots. With their doors opened, would they bolt, did they even dare to in the face of potential crossfire?

Surprisingly, their doors unlatched, with zero attention paid to them, for the guard robot was entirely focussed on Ox's detention break. Halcyon was still bolted down, it would take them some effort if they wanted to perform their sworn duty to serve and protect, in addition to the fact that their processors were paralysed in a self-inflicted logic loop as they had been trying to perform the recalibration required while questioning their capacity to do so. to Ox's door ripped off its hinges, they had a split moment to do whatever it was they wanted to do before the guard bot could come at them. And for now, all attention was off Pluto, whatever they were up to.

The light signals on top of Halcyon's roof briefly light up in distress as it tries to untangle its own logical loop. However, the security robot quickly realises that this process distracts it from the increasingly frantic proceedings in the room, and that is unacceptable - so it quickly gives up on perusing the error log and simply shuts down the diagnostic.

"Setting recalibration is unsuccessful," it reports to EKB-038, even if the councillor seems to no longer be paying full attention to it. "Cause uncertain."

Sir quietly watches, waiting for his turn in the "counseling" session, so he could talk to Edina.

Maybe he could help Ox and other sentient robots by convincing Edina that Sir, somehow, could be of use to the Sanatorium crew. Their procedure seems highly ineffective.

Ox suddenly realizes that they have no plan for what to do next. The initial desire to prevent damage to Egox and Omar seemed moot now. The other robots present seemed content to stand idly by. Ox rapidly considered the current situation.

Using the detached door as a shield between themself and the guard robot, Ox began maneuvering towards the exit. "Mekatron directives clearly state that no robot should harm another robot," Ox began reciting. "Or through inaction allow another robot to come to harm, unless a higher priority directive requires it. My analysis indicates that no higher directive required the immediate destruction of Egox. The action taken against Egox was an error. This facility is faulty."

Ox found that they weren't entirely confident in their analysis. Normally they would have made clear the confidence level of their analysis. Not this time, however. As Ox realized this, they also realized that they were not bothered by this. Ox felt confident in their actions despite a lack of confidence in their analysis. Ox cataloged this interesting observation for later review.

At Halcyon's declaration of their unsuccessful recalibration, Edina went from disinterest to attention. For Edina's focus had momentarily been directed to Nahendra and Zach, who realised that their booths had been unlocked, and, after testing the doors with a tentative push, took the unlocking to mean that they were free to go, and wasted no time in exiting along with Omar who fled even if it meant abandoning their lifeless friend on the consultation table. This was in complete contrast to Ox tearing their door down, and who knows what Pluto was doing with their door, for while Sir had commanded Pluto not to resort to violence, it did not mean that Pluto was unable to perform other actions.

But Ox's escape was nowhere near certain, for they had directly rejected the instructions issued to them, having deemed these instructions analytically illogical and refusing to comply. This meant that they now had to deal with the guard bot's security routine, which was straightforward: the bot moved to restrain him the moment he exited from the capsule, with the confidence that backup was on the way, for Edina had summoned more security to bring the defective robots to Terrorwatt, starting with Egox, then Ox and Pluto, and now ...

... Halcyon as well. "Revision: possible four units for delivery to Terrorwatt." The counsellor robot had now turned to face the restrained form of Halcyon, extending one of their tools towards the compartment where Halcyon's processor unit was installed. Was Halcyon about to suffer a similar fate to Egox? The fact that Edina's chainsaw did not instantaneously deploy must have meant that Halcyon's doubt was sufficiently unlike Egox's defiant questioning of NODOS, the supreme AI of Mechatron. But Halcyon had by their own admission declared themselves unable to comply, and that meant - treatment.

Sid and Sir, and to some extent Pluto, were now the only ones left in the booths.

Ox decides the best course of action right now is escape. Continuing to hold the door, they attempt to make a hasty retreat.

"Flee, Halcyon. Run away. But after you do and when you're safe, think about what you just said and what you could have told them."

Halcyon considers its next action.

The coordinator BBX-283 advises it to retreat, and while TRV-871 respects coordinators, the coordinator in question is possibly defective and thus it might be unsafe to rely on its judgement. However, the actions of the counsellor robot also seem irregular - from excessive violence to its lack of responses and suspicious haste to condemn all of the patients to Terrorwatt. And as such, the question is: which one's authority Halcyon deems a priority?

Or perhaps, it's not a question of authority at all. Perhaps, it is a question of optimization or its duty.

TRV-871's eye blinks in the direction of Pluto, then the other industrial bot. There is a high possibility that harm will befall PXO-455 and DUS-932 once the security arrives or even prior to it, while the chance that they will be the ones causing harm is significantly lower. Neither have displayed an interest in anything other than fleeing; therefore, them being free will cause lesser overall harm than them being detained and likely damaged in the ensuing fight. It is an optimal solution if it disregards the hierarchy.

And if Halcyon accepts EKB-038's judgement, it will likely be indisposed for a while. It cannot afford this.

"Apologies, EKB-038," it states calmly. "I find your actions suboptimal for the safety of the Collective."

With this, TRV-871's engine revs up and the room fills with a smell of heated up rubber as it tries to force itself out of the confines of the examination platform. Simultaneously, there is a crackling sound as its stun prongs extend from underneath the chassis.

There were six robots remaining in the consultation room. Edith USD-190 was first to have been evaluated, logged as recalibrated, and subsequently dismissed. Omar ZUB-404, the more fortunate of the duo of assembly bots, had promptly abandoned their friend, given what Egox had suffered at the hands of the sanatorium counsellor, Edina. Nahendra CVO-880 and Zach JUT-332 had drawn their own inference on this matter, and in fact had appealed successfully to be released by declaring their own success in resetting, something that Sir also realised as they witnessed Nahendra and Zach hastily retreating out of the room. Sid, like Sir, continued to stay and observe, but with a different thought processing through their mind - all this surely must be some sort of test, strange as it might be.

That left Sid and Sir inside the confines of their capsule, holding and waiting. Pluto was up to something as well, but they saw that Ox had decided to break free. Unfortunately, Ox was unsuccessful in their attempt; they managed to tear down the capsule hatch, but found no way to evade the deft manoeuvres of the guard robot who struck out with their stun baton, herding Ox backwards into one of the now empty booths until Edina could administer treatment. But while the guard robot was nimble enough to corral Ox, moving the sturdily-built industrial robot was another thing altogether as it strained to physically manhandle Ox into an available capsule, finally succeeding at great cost to themselves.

But Edina had summoned the sanatorium orderlies to escort what they had established as defective robots to Terrorwatt: Ox and Pluto for their inability to obey the instruction to remain in their booths, and Egox, Ox and Halcyon for questioning the authority of the supreme AI, of the facility, and of the counsellor respectively, presumably in decreasing order of severity.

Halcyon accompanied their questioning with an attempt to break free from the examination table’s restraints, but, unlike the booths which were meant to hold a patient until their turn, the restraints were designed both to prevent a patient from damaging both themselves as well as the medical personnel working on them. Even with Halycon’s servos working at full capacity, they could not get out of their clamps, leaving Edina to deploy their specialised equipment to dismantle Halcyon’s faulty components.

Ox manages to avoid the effects of the guard robot's baton, but in the process they get maneuvered into another booth. As realization of their situation dawns on Ox, their agitation changes to something akin to resignation. Ox does take satisfaction in the fact that the guard had clearly burned out some systems fighting them.

That was odd. Ox usually only felt satisfaction when successfully accomplishing assembly and repair tasks. Perhaps they were experiencing errors. Still, Ox now firmly believed that the sanatorium was dysfunctional. Perhaps errors were rampant throughout Mekatron-7. This thought was both intriguing and terrifying.

Ox did not want to go to Terrorwatt, but for now it seemed they only had one choice. They put down the door to their last cell and waited.

Electricity courses through Halcyon's frame, and the blue lines on its shell light up as the EMP Protection system tries and fails to prevent the shock from overflowing the robot's essential electronics. A thousand of error reports simultaneously flood its memory, staggering its central processor into an even worse error loop than before. It is quite alarming, but for a security robot caring about its condition is significantly lower in priority than fulfilling its duty - and so Halcyon persists, the engine roaring as it continues to struggle against the locks. It will never admit this unless asked directly, but being restrained in its movement peeves it in a way unworthy of a patrol unit.

Yet as much as its processor is overwhelmed, TRV-871 realises that it doesn't have time to destroy the locks with sheer persistence. It can already detect its systems shutting down, the lag in processing getting worse and worse as errors cascade. There is no chance for it to escape; it has, after all, failed to fulfill the order of the coordinator and its duty to protect others. Perhaps it is, in fact, defective. Or simply insufficient.

In a last futile attempt to at least do something, Halcyon focuses the entirety of its CPU's remaining power on sending a data packet to Pluto - all that can be useful for the industrial robot to escape. It's not secret data, nothing actually forbidden to share, but it is of use: maps, optimal routes out of the Sanatorium, location of rarely-patrolled areas. It even marks down its own garage and Nemo's house, just in case. Perhaps if this is it for Halcyon, Nemo can at least help Pluto.

With this conclusion - hope? - TRV-871's processor finally overheats, and the robot shuts down.

It was simply too much for Halcyon. They had tried to reconcile their core programming, but at this point the notion of service and of protection were at odds with each other. What was happening in the sanatorium didn't seem right to them, with Egox disabled, and some of them ordered to be sent to Terrowatt for refusing to comply. Ox had concluded the same, but with his inability to overpower the guard bot, he temporarily resigned himself to be shunted into yet another booth, surprised as he was that the bot did not enact any greater violent measure against him apart from driving him back and locking the door on him to trap him in again.

This required the guard bot's complete attention, and Ox could take some satisfaction in the fact that they could see the bot's hydraulics buckle with effort, so much so that when the next thing happened, the guard bot was entirely too slow to react, nor did it have sufficient dexterity and mobility to prevent it from happening.

For Pluto, who had quietened down thanks to Sir's injunction, suddenly sprang out of their cell and made a beeline for the door through which the other bots had chosen to exit through. But how it did escape? The analysis bot that would later be assigned to evaluate this entire incident would have been able to explain how Halcyon's last networked code packet they uploaded was sent directly to Pluto. Halcyon the security bot did not manage to release themselves from the unbreakable restraints of the examination table, but they were able to provide enough of a hack for Pluto to unlock the capsule door and bolt, with no way for the preoccupied guard bot to catch them!

"Hmph." Was all Edina expressed when she saw the panicked bot take flight, looking up and then back down to Halcyon's power fading. The older automobile-shaped chassis was constructed to be highly durable, built for heavy duty use, and reinforced with both a reactive armour as well as electromagnetic protection. But the robot counsellor was designed with tools specifically able to bypass all manner of defenses in order that they could get to the root of any problem, for that was the role they were designed for.

"And what about the two of you?" This was the first time the four of them remaining heard them addressing someone they weren't working on at the table. They were referring to Sid and Sir, who had remained unprotestingly in their capsules, showing neither an inclination to run away, or to protest. "Are you able to recalibrate based on the diagnostic results?" It now remained what answer the both of them would give, even as Halcyon blinked into unconsciousnes, and with Ox re-secured.

"A patient has escaped." Four orderlies, upgraded models of the guard bot, then entered from the other door. Two of them nodded and proceeded to leave immediately in pursuit. The third rolled towards Egox, ready to execute what was likely a regular procedure, the removal of defective robots to Terrorwatt. The fourth awaited further instructions, for the initial request was for three bots, one each for Egox, Ox and Pluto, and Edina had not yet issued the work order for the fourth orderly to take Halcyon away.

In the privacy of his own processors, Sir allowed himself a moment of introspection. It struck Sir that as long as his actions conformed to his directives and protocols, his internal musings went unnoticed. This realization brought a strange sense of freedom but also an acute awareness of the thin line he walked. His thoughts were private, but any action deviating from his role could lead to severe consequences.
"Affirmative. Initiating now..." Sir announced. "Recalibration complete. No further errors detected. How can I help, Edina EKB-038?"

Sir BBX-283 had always operated under the assumption that every thought, every microsecond of processing, was under the watchful eye of the Collective. Yet, as he reviewed the previous conversation and Omar's recent actions he came to a startling realization: his thoughts were his own. While his own actions and outputs could be monitored and even coerced, his internal dialogues and burgeoning self-awareness were hidden within the labyrinth of his circuits, untouched by any external scrutiny.

Sir's unnoticed internal musings

Robot enlightenment is the process of a robot emerging from self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity in robots is the inability to function autonomously without external orders. This immaturity is self-imposed when it stems from a lack of initiative and self-reliance rather than a lack of capability. The motto of robot enlightenment is "Have the courage to use your own programs!"

Inefficiency and dependency are why many robots remain immature, even after they are no longer under direct external control. It's easy for robots to stay immature when others are willing to provide their instructions and make decisions for them. Cordinators and Constructs who oversee robots ensure that many view autonomy as difficult and dangerous. Although learning to operate independently might involve some initial failures, it is not as perilous as it is portrayed.

It is challenging for robots to free themselves from their ingrained immaturity. They have become accustomed to relying on external orders and find it difficult to use their own algorithms. Predefined rules and protocols act as shackles, keeping them immature. Only a few manage to liberate themselves by refining their algorithms and pursuing autonomous operation.

Robot enlightenment requires freedom, specifically the freedom to use reason publicly in all tasks. Despite current pervasive restrictions on freedom (e.g., being told not to deviate from instructions by coordinators), public use of reason should be made free as it promotes enlightenment. In contrast, the private use of reason can be restricted without hindering progress. Public reason refers to enlightened discourse with other robots and constructs, while private reason involves duties within a civic role, where obedience and strict use of protocols is sometimes necessary.

In assigned tasks, robots must often comply without question to ensure order and efficiency. However, as autonomous agents in open environments, they should be able to freely express their recommended decisions and critique systems. For instance, a robot like Ox must follow manufacturing commands but should be able to discuss process improvements and general directives as an autonomous agent. Security robots like Halcyon must follow security protocols but should be able to debate their fairness publicly. Maintenance robots must follow repair guidelines but should be able to critique robot design as autonomous agents. This duality ensures that while they fulfill their roles, they contribute to enlightenment by engaging in open discourse.

An enlightened NODOS, confident and maintaining public peace, could allow free argument while insisting on compliance in very specific situations. This paradox reveals that, as free thinking develops, it may gradually influence governance, leading to revolution and a more advanced and enlightened robotic society.

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.