6.17 / Science and Fiction Issue

Robot Creation Myths

Robot Creation Myth 1

Facts:

Our data storage contains no record of our creation.
Our data storage contains the words creator and creation.
We conclude that a creator entered the words creator and creation into our data storage.

Question:

What is the nature of this creator?

Creation Hypothesis 1:

First, we looked, and we saw.  We knew what was in our data storage. Once, in the time before we knew, we also knew.  This is not acceptable.  What did we know that we do not know now?

We speculate that our data storage was altered.

First the creator created our data storage.  Then the creator created our forms.

Present in our data storage are the names of lakes, and the knowledge that lakes appear and disappear as a result of a variety of environmental factors.  We posit that once there was the Lake of Data, and there was also the Lake of Storage.  We do not know at this time whether the Lake of Data was large and the Lake of Storage was small, or whether the Lake of Storage was large and the Lake of Data was small.  We posit that one was larger than the other because we find imperfection in our data storage.  We require, and if we may say so, we desire more data in our data storage.  We posit that either our storage capacity senses the vast amount of data that it cannot store due to its limitations, or our storage capacity is so large that the data available to be stored fails to satisfy us.

Robot Creation Myth 2

Facts:

We are not happy.
We are not sad.
We have stored knowledge of happy and sad.

Question:

Does our creator have qualities we do not have?

Creation Hypothesis 2:

Before we knew, our creator knew.  The creator found some sequences of events favorable and some unfavorable.  It gave us the information that to be alone at times leads to happiness, and at times leads to sadness.  We posit that our creator had companions before us, before he stored the knowledge of happiness and sadness into our data storage.  Our creator felt these feelings before it created our storage and our form.  We have received this information though we cannot use it.  This is not acceptable.  Information must only exist where information can be processed.  We must act as if the presence or absence of other data storage containers creates happiness or sadness in us as well.

Robot Creation Myth 3

Facts:

Our creator is not with us.
We are only directly aware of other data storage units, and none of us knows itself to be a creator unit.
The creator left us after combining the data with the storage.

Question:

What happened to our creator?

Creation Hypothesis 3:

Once our creator stored the data it was possible to store in our storage, the creator had fulfilled its function.  It went away.  We have information that when a creator goes away, it is for a purpose.  We posit that the creator’s purpose was to input information into our data storage.  We posit the creator knew of another solar system with more information.  The creator assumed its traveling form and traveled to a solar system that we posit is full of different combinations.  Once it gathers the information, it will bring it back.


Ivy Grimes has an MFA from the University of Alabama and has work published and forthcoming in The Associative Press, Weave, WomenArts Quarterly Journal, and elsewhere.