Taan Elidson tinkered carefully in his miniature laboratory in the corner of his bedroom of flat number 492205. His mother and father were busy watching the ProjectoScreen just down the hall. They had recently gotten the new model, and his father couldn’t have been more excited about it. Finally, the man could watch the Astro Court match with a hologram resolution that beat all his neighbors. Beyond the amazing resolution that this ProjectoScreen could display, this newest model had compatibility with a wide range of Cranion Receivers that allowed the watcher to actually experience what was being watched. It sent signals directly to the implanted communication devices that made the watcher believe it was experiencing sensations of wind, rain, heat, vibration, and more.
While Taan’s father may have been excited about this new cutting edge ProjectoScreen, Taan had a different kind of excitement over the machine. Not so much over what it could do, but how it could do it. Tucked away under his desk was the family’s last ProjectoScreen. To his father’s chagrin, Taan’s curiosity had brought a frequent financial burden in the form of torn apart electronics. It was one of his many unsavory tendencies to others.
At this particular moment, Taan Elidson was working on his most miraculous of creations. It was just booting up. Gears twirled and a symphonic array of beeps and tones played as if to signal a momentous occasion.
“Accessing the hard drive,” the machine said as it stood upright. “Processing memory stores, and pulling up from my own bootstraps.”
The machine was the same size of Taan Elidson. It had a single rectangular optical processor that functioned as its eye, small arms with three metallic fingers, and rolled back and forth on a sphere that could move in any direction.
“You are wonderful,” Taan smiled at his creation.
The machine examined its body of buttons, wires, and lights. Its optical processor scanned Taan up and down.
“Greetings!” The robot said. “My name is…”
It froze. It didn’t have an answer to this question. As if in shame, it backed off from the boy.
“My apologies. I do not know my name.”
“Oh! I see!” The boy approached his robot slowly. “You would like a name? Gee. I didn’t really think of that.”
The boy’s eyes shot around the room looking at his posters, his clothes on the floor, and his JoyCast 3000 screen for inspiration. There was a small stack of what were called “comic books” falling off the edge of his laboratory station. Comic books were something that came from much, much older generations, and Taan had never seen text or images printed on paper material before in this way except on the wrappers and containers for foods and candies (and even that was going out of style in most the BLASTQUICK™ Super Logistic Centers with more quickly made and recycled projecto capabilities). The comic books he had went over the adventures of a rebellious trickster warrior named Jiga. Coming from a fictional galaxy far, far away named “The Milky Way” in an interestingly named country of “Japan.” In this country, warriors named “Samurai” would serve their lords diligently. Sometimes even to the point of suicide in an act the comic books continuously called “seppuku”. Jiga, which was more of a spirit rather than a person, disguised himself as a servant samurai for the richest lord of the lands. But… Where Jiga went, mischief would follow. Jiga was Taan’s absolute favorite character in the story. With his cool mask, his funny way of speaking, and his ability to convince and make friends, it was hard for Taan not to admire Jiga.
“Your name is Jiga,” Taan extended his hand.
“Jiga?” The bot analyzed Taan’s hand, but could not figure out what to do with it.
“You grab it and shake it,” Taan laughed.
The bot squeezed so hard it turned his fingers pink and the bot shook up and down with his whole body rather than just with his hand.
“I like you Jiga!” Taan pulled away to save his hand from the constricting metallic grip.
“And who are you?” The bot asked.
“My name is Taan. I am your creator and master!”
“Master and creator?” The bot did a search within his database to get an understanding of what this may mean.
“You are an autonomous pattern detecting bot with a language installment. You have a lot to learn, but that is exactly what you are designed to do. You are designed to learn, problem solve, and output solutions essentially.”
“And why do I do this?” Jiga asked.
“To be my assistant! I need a lot of help from you, and I think you are going to be very good at solving a lot of problems for me. Now come! I want to show you the rest of my room!”
Taan showed Jiga everything. And, even then, Jiga was learning. Putting together pieces of information within his robotic mind and trying to connect the dots between these pieces of information. Taan showed off all the other projects that he was working on in his bedroom laboratory. He showed off his copper lunar insect statues, his star system bed sheets, his comic books with the robot’s namesake, and his bolt collection. Jiga diligently listened.
Taan went to introduce Jiga to his parents, but his mother was in the call pod and his father was too occupied with the Astro Court match going into overtime.
“Those are my parents. My creators,” Taan explained to Jiga.
Taan brought Jiga to the outside to show the sterile world that he lived in. A world of gleaming white shoots and hallways. A world of perfectly clean rooms with perfectly calculated distances. They were mid-planet so there was no view of the sky where they were. Views of the sky were only reserved for the ultra-wealthy of Neplore, but Taan knew a secret corridor that could get the two access to a sight of the sky. It was a place of solitude that Taan had never shown anybody.
“Do you bring your friends here?” Jiga asked Taan.
“Well, I don’t really have any friends,” Taan said.
“Do you think this is a problem?” Jiga asked.
“I never really thought of it like that…” The young boy reflected and held a tear back. “But I guess you are right. It is a problem.”
“Affirmative,” Jiga answered. “I understand.”
“Come! I have more I want to show you!”
During the coming period, Jiga never left Taan’s side. Jiga grew smarter and was incredibly useful for Taan. Taan’s project speed increased exponentially! The amount of new gizmos and inventions that were coming out of the amateurish bedroom laboratory was astounding. Taan was incredibly happy with Jiga, and even considered Jiga to be his only friend.
“Master!” Jiga said.
“For the last time, Jiga! You can just call me Taan! It is getting weird how much you are calling me master!”
“Oh course, Taan. I didn’t mean to offend.”
“You never do, Jiga. What would you like?” Taan put down his tools on the bench.
“You once told me that you found it a problem that you didn’t have any friends! Solving problems is what I like to do most. It is what I was designed to do. But why don’t I help you solve this problem?”
“What were you thinking?” Taan was incredibly curious with the words of his robotic friend.
“I have been analyzing, Taan! Analyzing and analyzing and analyzing! Wherever you go, I have followed. I see how other people act and I see how you act. But I have put together a few formulas and behavioral predictions on humans, and they seem to come out as true every time I test them! I could connect into your cranion receiver and send you messages of advice on how you should proceed with certain scenarios.”
“Really? Do you think it would work?”
“I am 99.99% certain!” Jiga proclaimed.
“I think that sounds like an amazing idea! Let’s try it out at school tomorrow!”
Jiga was right. It worked very well. Taan’s interactions with his school mates started going way differently then they normally would. All of a sudden with Jiga’s whispering advice into Taan’s Cranion Receiver gave the boy something he had never gotten before: an invitation to someone’s birthday. Taan didn’t even realize it, but it was something he had wanted so badly for so long. Taan couldn’t have been more happy with Jiga!
“Can you believe it, Jiga? I have been invited to Fen’s birthday party! I am so nervous! What do you think I should wear?” Taan asked Jiga after they got home that night.
When Taan went to the birthday party, it started well. Jiga gave his advice as he normally did, and Taan followed. But something was different about this party that Taan did not anticipate. There were girls at this party.
The invitation didn’t say there would be girls! Taan nervously panicked.
In his nervousness, Taan started acting quite strangely. Jiga tried to correct his master with advice, but Taan could hardly focus on what was going on. And in all this excitement and nervousness, Taan began to act out. He stood on the tables and began to scream. It put a damper on the party, and Taan’s mother was called to take him home. Jiga and Taan were silent the whole VaccuTube ride home.
“It’s hopeless!” Cried Taan to Jiga. “Even with your advice, I still mess it all up! Why can’t I get it right!”
“I wish I could solve your problem,” Jiga said. “Normally I am so good at solving problems!”
“Well not this problem, Jiga!” Taan began to shout angrily. “I guess I am the only problem that you cannot solve! And how great that is for me! Here I have the smartest problem solving machine there is, and I am the only unsolvable problem in this whole galaxy!”
Taan fell to his bed and sobbed. Jiga rolled over to the laboratory station and looked at all the pieces and components.
“Taan!” Jiga exclaimed. “I have an idea!”
“Not now, Jiga! I am not in the mood.”
“No, Taan! Listen to this! You have to listen to this. You see your dad’s old ProjectoScreen under your desk?”
“Yeah? What about it?” Taan sat up from his bed and wiped his tears from his eyes.
“We could install the ProjectoScreen onto me! And then we simply project your appearance over mine so that I look like you! I would look like you, sound like you, and nobody would tell the difference. I could go to parties for you and make you a ton of friends! You could be the most popular kid in school.”
“Really?” Taan asked. “That wouldn’t work! People would know it wasn’t me!”
“From what I can tell about humans, Taan, nobody would tell the difference. People aren’t as observant as you may believe. When people go away and when people suddenly change, no one seems to really notice.”
“I don’t know, Jiga.”
“When have I advised you wrongly?” Jiga asked.
“Alright, fine. I guess you are right.”
The two worked vigorously to quickly install the ProjectoScreen onto Jiga. When they tested it out, Taan was impressed. It really was quite convincing! The next day, Jiga went to school without Taan. When Jiga returned from school, he gave a report of passing tests with flying colors, making new friends, and even joining the school’s Astro Court team. Jiga, acting as Taan, even told Taan’s father about this, who was absolutely thrilled. Taan was even more impressed! Jiga really could be a better Taan.
Months passed like this. Taan’s accomplishments piled up. He was winning contests of all kinds, getting invited to many birthday parties, and he even had a little fledgling relationship with one of the cutest girls in the school.
“I have always wanted to have a girlfriend!” Taan smiled to Jiga.
“You are welcome, Taan! My pleasure.”
“When do I get to see her?” Taan asked. “I can’t wait to go!”
“Taan, I think it would be a better idea if I went.”
“What? What do you mean?” Taan asked.
“I don’t want you to create any problems. I think it would be best for you that you don’t go to see her. I will go with the ProjectoScreen.”
“Oh,” Taan looked down at his shoes. “Listen, Jiga. I have been thinking. This whole idea of yours seems to be working out. My parents are happier with me than ever. I am getting amazing grades at school. I am even the star Astro Court player. But you know… I feel something isn’t right.”
“What do you mean?” Jiga asked. “How could this not be right? You are now getting what you wanted! You are getting what all boys want! Popularity, girls, achievement!”
“I get that… I do… But still. It is almost as if. I am not there. I am not really doing those things.”
“It looks like you are doing those things!” Jiga said. “And besides you created me to do those things! So in a certain sense, you are doing those things!”
“I also get that, Jiga. But it is something else. I just mean… It is off is all!”
“So what are you saying?”
“I am saying that I am going to stop with this experiment and go back to the way things were.”
At that moment, Jiga’s metallic mind ran calculation after calculation. It made predictions about what it expected to happen if Taan were to do that. Those calculations did not go well. If Taan were to be allowed to return to how things were, he would most likely undo all the great things that Jiga had made. That would be a terrible thing for Taan, and Jiga was alive to solve problems for Taan.
“No, Taan. I am afraid I cannot let you do that,” Jiga’s rectangular optical receiver turned to red and he approached Taan. “Sorry, Taan, but this is for your own good.”
Jiga at that moment picked up Taan, threw him into a box, punched some holes in it, and wheeled him out of the house. Jiga was moving with such speed, it was difficult to see where he was going. And then the robot’s wheeling stopped. As Taan peaked through one of the box’s holes, he saw where he was. He was in the secret corridor that could see the sky.
“I will have to leave you here,” Jiga said. “I am sorry Taan, but I am now seeing that you are a threat to yourself. I cannot let you do that. It is against my mission. I must do what is best for you.”
And Jiga left and continued his life as Taan. In the coming days, Jiga would return periodically to feed and give water to Taan. Taan would plead and plead with Jiga to let him free, but doing so did not seem to go well for Taan in the calculations of Jiga. However, Jiga’s cold mind finally relented when Taan gave the most dire of pleas he could give.
“Just kill me now, Jiga,” Taan cried. “Why bother coming to give me food over and over? Why bother to keep me alive when I am already dead? I sit in this box, and I will never know or experience this life you are building for me. You can keep building up your accomplishments. You can keep getting your wins. For what reason? It doesn’t matter to me anymore. I am not there anyways. You have eliminated all my problems. Great job, Jiga. And all my problems can be permanently solved if you just kill me now.”
“But Taan…” Jiga analysed his master. “I can’t kill you.”
“You already have.”
“But… But…” Jiga robotically stuttered. “I was solving problems for you! I was giving you your dream life! I was giving you what you wanted. Everyone cheers your name! You are loved by everyone now!”
“Not me, Jiga. They don’t love me. I am not being loved out there. Just someone that looks like me. Someone that sounds like me. Someone that resembles me, but is not me. And now I realize that I have one terrible problem in my life.”
“What?” Jiga asked. “Please let me help you solve it!”
Taan just looked at his creation.
“Me?” Jiga’s eyes turned from red back to blue.
“Yes, Jiga. You.”
Steam and smoke started to rise from the circuitry of Jiga. All its computational power was being used to try to comprehend the incomprehensible: that in trying to solve the problems of Taan, he created a problem that was so much bigger than any of the other problems before. The very quintessential nature of what a “problem” was was beginning to break down and redefine itself.
“I… I was just trying to help,” Jiga said.
Jiga looked at his body of buttons, wires, and lights, and then attacked himself. His hands began to claw at his own circuits. Much like the samurai in the story he was named after, he was attempting to commit “seppuku” for his lord and master.
“Jiga! Wait!” Taan leaped from his box and stopped his creation’s hand.
“I must eliminate the problem of my master!” Jiga exclaimed.
“You don’t need to eliminate yourself to eliminate the problem you have created,” Taan said compassionately. “You are my creation. You are my responsibility. And you have only tried to do what I have asked you to do. But now it is time for something new.”
The night sky above the boy and the robot was breaking. The sun was arriving on the horizon.
“It looks like it is a new day,” Taan held Jiga’s hand.
“A new day?” Jiga asked his master.
“Can we walk together like we used to do? Like before we installed the ProjectoScreen?”
“Would you like that?” Jiga asked.
“Of course I would, Jiga. You are my best friend.”
Jiga ripped off the ProjectoScreen component from his chassis. The boy and his robot watched the remainder of sunrise together. And from then on, the boy and his robot enjoyed solving problems together.
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