Wordsmith of the Month: Renuka Ashtekar

16-year-old Renuka Ashtekar weaves an imaginative tale of technology and tragedy.

DO NOT PUSH

By Renuka Ashtekar

The moment of truth had arrived. Just a click of a button separated them from that decisive moment they had been waiting for. Lyle and Drake sat huddled on the floor in the basement of Lyle’s house, surrounded by metal scrap, heaps of books, used papers, a drilling machine, nuts and bolts of every possible shape and size and amidst it all stood the brainchild of their combined genius- Robex-1.

Six months ago, on a regular school day, their teacher informed them of the upcoming International Science Congress which was to be held at Washington D.C.  Lyle, whose mind was always fizzing and bubbling with fanciful ideas caught hold of Drake during the recess and whispered “Robex-1” into his ears. He could see Drake’s pinhole eyes widen behind the goofy glasses. Last summer, these two extraordinary seventeen year olds had designed a futuristic robot that could perform the functions of a supercomputer and at the same time, have an entity that was perfectly human. However, their ambitious project got stalled after a slight tiff over the mechanism of the circuit board. Drake was not the one to make the first move towards reconciliation and Lyle saw no need to reconcile; consequently, the two gave each other the silent treatment even after school had begun.

However, the Congress gave Lyle an impetus to resume “The Robex-1 Project” and so he put his ego aside and walked Drake through his plan after school that day. With furious haste, the two started working again. For months, they worked in the basement, late into the night, pondering over the algorithms and the circuits. They had stopped existing in school or at home because their minds were constantly abuzz with ideas and solutions for problems and glitches concerning Robex-1.

Now, six months later, it was two in the morning, and they had just finished giving the final touches to their robot. The glare of the tube light glinted off the shining metal. Lyle looked at Drake from behind his frenzied curls that veiled his eyes and gave him a curt nod. The moment was pregnant with anticipation and suspense. A single vein throbbed on Drake’s temple. He flicked the button on and almost immediately, red lights began to blink and Robex-1 whizzed into action. “Oh, yes!” Lyle and Drake gave out ecstatic screams and hugged each other in an expression of joy, probably the first time the two had ever done that. After that, they tested Robex by asking it to perform some simple tasks as well as solve some problems on Calculus. Robex-1 had the solutions in a jiffy. The three were all set for the science fair.

Next morning, the three of them set out together for school. Robex-1 proved to be the most flabbergasting thing at the fair and Lyle and Drake, the prodigies, walked away with the first prize. In fact, the trophy seemed a tad commonplace for their inventive éclat.

After the event was done with, Robex-1 was given the task of carrying the trophy and their bags while simultaneously reading from a book. Lyle and Drake simply ambled along. Life seemed too easy for the duo as they had a living computer at their disposal. Just when everything seemed hunky-dory, a spark from Robex-1’s arm interrupted their conversation. Robex-1 stopped in its tracks, plunked the trophy and bags down in one precise movement and a mechanized voice resounded from its body, “Kill all, and end all.” Lyle and Drake were stupefied to say the least. As they stood there, transfixed, Robex-1 began to function on its own without any commands. It had turned sentient!

Lyle snapped back into action and tried to stop Robex using the controller, but to no effect. Within seconds, it had chopped a tree and was on its way towards destroying everything that dared stand before it. All this while, Drake had been watching the “Frankenstein’s monster” with boundless horror.

Ten minutes later, police vans and the SWAT team was surrounding the evacuated school building. Robex had caused enough destruction within that time to cause several fires and earn its inventors several years of imprisonment. Drake only kept muttering, “Technology will turn us all savage…this was all wrong.” As for Lyle, he could not even begin to fathom how Robex-1 could have turned on them. He went over the algorithms and computations repeatedly, but the loophole evaded him. As far as Robex-1 was concerned, it was bulldozed by a road roller that destroyed it completely.

Lyle and Drake were ushered into a police van and produced before a juvenile court the next day. It was a difficult judgment. It was their genius, their brilliance, and a triumph of scientific knowledge that was to be put on trial. Finally, it was decided that the duo be sentenced to three years in prison and the design and coding of Robex-1 be completely incinerated.

Over the next ten years, Drake wrote several books dealing with the conflict surrounding technology and man. He propounded the Theory of Technological Stagnation and earned himself a name. Lyle continued his studies and went on to work as a researcher for a computer and IT company. As for Robex-1, well, its mangled remains were devoured by a scrapyard and its soul remained trapped in some corner of its inventors’ minds.

This story was a simple illustration of the much debated future of science and technology. Robex embodies the amalgamation of both pros as well as cons of technology. Today, what we are facing is a technological overkill. In the process of augmenting our comfort, we are, in fact, marring norms of society and scientific ethics, irreversibly. Where do we draw the line? Well, this question is moot. Prudence in our decisions is of utmost importance because we possess veritable power and that brings with it, possibilities of devastation of the highest degree, if it be unleashed recklessly. Undoubtedly, technology has its unsurpassable benefits, but at no point should we lose touch with the core humanistic values that define the superior being that is man.