Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears by William Hertling Page B
Book: Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears by William Hertling
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Authors: William Hertling
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last resort, the robot was armed with two hundred 10mm, body-armor piercing rounds that were more compact than traditional rifle rounds, yet powerful enough to stop anyone they hit.
In theory, all of this would be under the control of a trained iRobot handler. The handlers had a central location from which they monitored defensive robots around the world for a variety of civilian customers. Bill had seen videos, and it was not dissimilar to what contracted security companies did for old fashioned corporate security, except that the handlers were mostly pimple-faced kids who looked like they spent most of their time playing video games.
When the robots sounded the alarm, the handlers could take immediate action from their remote location to deter the pirates. That was the normal course of action, and it didn’t scare Bill too badly. Knowing that there was a human being on the other end of the camera, well that wasn’t too bad, even if they were teenage video gamers.
Bill took his hand away from the metal casing of the bot and stepped back. If an iRobot handler didn’t take control of the robot — if their signal were actively jammed, if increment weather interfered with that signal, or if the handlers were swamped with too many simultaneous intrusions, well, in that case, the robots could act on their own.
Bill remembered the protocol. If the robots detected an intrusion, and the handlers didn’t take control, and the robots hadn’t been put in stand-by mode, and any would-be attackers didn’t back down, then the robots operated in autonomous mode. They’d broadcast a verbal alarm, escalation to non-lethal measures, and if all else failed, start shooting. The robots would coordinate together to cover all aspects of the deck and back each other up. Thinking through all of that, Bill was practically freaking out now that he was standing next to one of them. He backed further away, and carefully avoided the business end of the robot’s armament.
With one eye on them the entire time, Bill hastily finished his inspection of ODC #4. He boarded the helicopter, running the last few steps, and signaled for the pilot to take off. Only once they were in the air did he relax just a bit.
As the pilot circled back toward land, Bill watched the sea for some evidence of the underwater robots, but he couldn’t spot anything under the chop. The underwater robots used sonar to detect boats approaching the offshore data center. They would broadcast across all radio spectrums to warn the boats off. They would share intelligence data with the on deck robots. They too had weapons. Each had two torpedos that could sink a boat, and as a last resort, the submersible robots themselves could attach to the hull of a boat, either to track the boat or blow it up.
If the deck robots were unnerving, well, at least they could be seen. The thought of the hidden underwater robots brought back terrifying childhood memories of seeing the movie Jaws. The photos he’d seen of them, with side-mounted torpedos and maneuvering fins, only strengthened the fear. Bill made a mental point to ensure he would never take a boat to visit the ODCs.
At least the offshore data center deployments were back on track. The team had agreed that with the new hardened units and robotics defenses in place, further pirate attacks were unlikely to be successful. Bill had six teams working overtime through the Christmas holiday to deploy additional ODCs that were waiting in storage, pending a resolution to the piracy issues. Getting those ODCs deployed would put the master rollout plan back on track.
* * *
Off the coast of India
Prateet said a silent prayer before he boarded the data center. His company was under contract to Avogadro to service this floating data center, one of the four original prototypes. He always found it unnerving to visit the unmanned high tech island. Although he wasn’t an excessively superstitious man, he always thought the computers here were
In theory, all of this would be under the control of a trained iRobot handler. The handlers had a central location from which they monitored defensive robots around the world for a variety of civilian customers. Bill had seen videos, and it was not dissimilar to what contracted security companies did for old fashioned corporate security, except that the handlers were mostly pimple-faced kids who looked like they spent most of their time playing video games.
When the robots sounded the alarm, the handlers could take immediate action from their remote location to deter the pirates. That was the normal course of action, and it didn’t scare Bill too badly. Knowing that there was a human being on the other end of the camera, well that wasn’t too bad, even if they were teenage video gamers.
Bill took his hand away from the metal casing of the bot and stepped back. If an iRobot handler didn’t take control of the robot — if their signal were actively jammed, if increment weather interfered with that signal, or if the handlers were swamped with too many simultaneous intrusions, well, in that case, the robots could act on their own.
Bill remembered the protocol. If the robots detected an intrusion, and the handlers didn’t take control, and the robots hadn’t been put in stand-by mode, and any would-be attackers didn’t back down, then the robots operated in autonomous mode. They’d broadcast a verbal alarm, escalation to non-lethal measures, and if all else failed, start shooting. The robots would coordinate together to cover all aspects of the deck and back each other up. Thinking through all of that, Bill was practically freaking out now that he was standing next to one of them. He backed further away, and carefully avoided the business end of the robot’s armament.
With one eye on them the entire time, Bill hastily finished his inspection of ODC #4. He boarded the helicopter, running the last few steps, and signaled for the pilot to take off. Only once they were in the air did he relax just a bit.
As the pilot circled back toward land, Bill watched the sea for some evidence of the underwater robots, but he couldn’t spot anything under the chop. The underwater robots used sonar to detect boats approaching the offshore data center. They would broadcast across all radio spectrums to warn the boats off. They would share intelligence data with the on deck robots. They too had weapons. Each had two torpedos that could sink a boat, and as a last resort, the submersible robots themselves could attach to the hull of a boat, either to track the boat or blow it up.
If the deck robots were unnerving, well, at least they could be seen. The thought of the hidden underwater robots brought back terrifying childhood memories of seeing the movie Jaws. The photos he’d seen of them, with side-mounted torpedos and maneuvering fins, only strengthened the fear. Bill made a mental point to ensure he would never take a boat to visit the ODCs.
At least the offshore data center deployments were back on track. The team had agreed that with the new hardened units and robotics defenses in place, further pirate attacks were unlikely to be successful. Bill had six teams working overtime through the Christmas holiday to deploy additional ODCs that were waiting in storage, pending a resolution to the piracy issues. Getting those ODCs deployed would put the master rollout plan back on track.
* * *
Off the coast of India
Prateet said a silent prayer before he boarded the data center. His company was under contract to Avogadro to service this floating data center, one of the four original prototypes. He always found it unnerving to visit the unmanned high tech island. Although he wasn’t an excessively superstitious man, he always thought the computers here were
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