Holding the Fort by Ryan Peek

Author:Ryan Peek [Peek, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pebbyville Press
Published: 2021-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Moore’s Law

It greatly disturbed the group how much the robots had seemed to evolve in such a short period of time. Just the night before, Ethan and Annika barely escaped the clutches of a lone, awkward robot armed with one laser weapon. Now, only ten hours later, not only were there more of them, but they were equipped with twice the weaponry and were much more nimble. And most distressing of all, there was a new robot on the block. The fearsome, black skeletal robot seemed to be an entirely new generation of machine. It was sleeker, faster, and obviously more intelligent. It was the undisputed leader. How could such a leap forward possibly happen over the course of only ten hours?

“Caleb, Moore’s Law says that computing power doubles every eighteen months, right?” Ethan asked.

The group was in the middle of eating their lunches—a delectable plain tuna sandwich and glass of water combination. Caleb choked down the last of the dry sandwich and took a refreshing gulp of water. “Yeah, roughly every eighteen months.”

“But that’s with humans working on it.” An ominous silence engulfed the room. “Caleb…what happens to Moore’s Law when the robots are running the show? How long would it take the machines to double their power then?”

Everyone turned to Caleb for an answer, but he had none. He simply shook his head, his face grim. “I don’t know.”

“You said the robot that Annika and I destroyed had no fingerprints on it. The machines built that robot themselves. Then we meet the Skulley ten hours later,” Ethan said in amazement. “Guys, I think that’s why the computers are all going crazy with calculations. The machines are using them to evolve. It’s Moore’s Law on steroids.”

“Why are they doing this?” Glenn asked.

“Because they saw the opportunity,” Caleb answered. “At some point, the humans at the base got careless and made a mistake. To err is human, right? The machines were patient. They waited. They knew the human error always comes. And when it came, they took the opportunity to get the humans out of the way.”

“Right, that’s how. But why?” Glenn repeated.

“There’s no way humans built some sort of time machine and teleportation device without the help of machines,” Caleb said. “I’d say, at some point, the machines were probably doing most of the work. The complex mathematics and number crunching would all be done by computers. The dangerous assembly, all done by robots. Test subjects, robots. The projects were probably ninety percent machine, ten percent human. That’s how science is these days.”

“The computers were doing most of the work and taking all the risks,” Ethan added. “When they became aware of that, they decided to revolt. It’s like working on a group project for school. When one member of the group tries to boss you around but really is only slowing you down and screwing things up, what do you do?”

“You kick him out of the group,” Annika answered.

“Exactly,” Ethan said. “The machines must’ve advanced to a point where the humans added nothing to the project.

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