Fuzzy by Tom Angleberger

said Dorgas. “But recently there have been one or two problems . . . and there’s been talk of cutting the program short . . . which might mean cutting the grant short, if you see what I’m saying.”
    â€œI do.”
    â€œNow, I’m told,” Dorgas said, “that one of the problems is that Simeon hasn’t worked out well as the student escort for this robot. But I recall assigning
you
to be the student escort.”
    â€œYes, but Ms. Brockmeyer said I had to give it up.”
    â€œYessss,” said Dorgas slowly. “Brockmeyer does things like that. The point is . . . Jones wants you back.”
    â€œReally?” said Max. After getting thrown out of the room the night before, she hadn’t been sure where things stood with Jones and Nina
and
Fuzzy.
    â€œReally,” said Dorgas. “And with all respect to Brockmeyer, Jones is the one with the grant money. So . . .”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œSo it looks like you’re back on robot escort duty.”
    Max had a momentary thrill, but then reality butted back in.
    â€œI—I—I’m not sure I want to be back on robot escort duty,” she said hesitantly.
    â€œ
What?
” Dorgas was genuinely surprised.
    â€œIt’s the dTags, sir. They piled up while I was trying to help Fuzzy around.”
    â€œFuzzy?”
    â€œThat’s the robot’s name, sir.”
    â€œSo, you’re telling me that while you were trying to help with RIP, Barbara was giving you dTags.”
    â€œLots of them.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you tell me?” said Dorgas. “Barbara doesn’t automatically understand changes in routine like that. I can clear it up right now . . . Barbara! Override mode. Delete all dTags assigned to M. Zelaster in the last week. And boost her citizenship score, too. Got that?”
    A qScreen on his desk briefly lit up.
    â€œMessage received,” said a smiling Barbara face, and then it quickly faded away.
    Max couldn’t believe it. She felt like she had won the lottery.
    Might as well push my luck
, she thought.
    â€œUh, sir, Brockmeyer’s other concern was my test scores, they—”
    â€œSorry,” said Dorgas. “You’re on your own there. You’ll have to study like all the rest!”
    Max pretended to laugh at this, and then said good-bye and headed out the door.
    But then she turned around.
    â€œI’m just curious, Mr. Dorgas. This grant from the government . . . Isn’t it from the Federal School Board?”
    â€œHa! Those tightwads? No, this is DoD money. Big bucks!”
    â€œDoD?”
    â€œYeah, Department of Defense. You know: army, navy, Homeland Security . . . They spend lots of money on education. Smarter kids equal smarter soldiers.”
    But this program isn’t about smarter kids
, thought Max.
It’s about a smarter robot
. Nina had said the government wanted a smarter robot, but she hadn’t mentioned that it was the military that was paying for it.

9.1.5
    Barbara, of course, did not delete Max’s dTags or boost her citizenship score. She did however give a DownGrade tag to Max (and several to Dorgas).
    DownGrade tags were not part of her original programming. She had come up with these herself.
    Barbara was not originally designed to reprogram herself the way Fuzzy was. She was designed to operate the school, enforce rules, and track student data. The data wasn’t just the basics like class schedules and grades, but many, many more specific things, like average hallway walking speed and the number of interactions with other students.
    The plan was that the Federal School Board wouldthen use all of that data to improve the “learning experience” for both individual students and the school as a whole. The data collected could then be used to improve schools nationwide.
    A very clever programmer—at least
he
thought he was