Page 11 of Chaos Theory

ELEVEN

‘How are you going?’ Jen asks as Kobi and I shuffle into her office.

‘Good!’ I say brightly. ‘Kobi has something he wants to say to you. And something to give you, don’t you, Kobi?’

The robot moves over to Jen’s workstation and awkwardly deposits an ice-cold can of Diet Coke on the edge of her desk.

‘DC Jen, please accept this small token in atonement for my temporary lapse of judgement on Monday,’ he says.

Jen squints up at him.

‘We’re sorry,’ I say. ‘We’ve kept this can in the freezer for two hours. How’s the website?’

She reaches for the can, presses it to her cheek. ‘Ooh, that is cold. Nice one.’ She points to her screen. ‘We’re getting there.’

I exhale. ‘Good, good. Josh from RoboTron came in yesterday for a check-in. And we went for a drink actually.’

She looks up from her computer. ‘Really?’ She pops the can open, gulps, gasps. ‘ So good. That seems a little unorthodox, mate. Still, I hear he’s gorgeous.’

I wonder who she’s heard that from. I’m also very aware of Kobi hearing and possibly recording everything we say and, worse, reporting it all back to Josh.

But I can’t leave him anywhere unsupervised.

I decide to communicate with Jen in code.

Kobi might understand computer languages, but let’s see if he speaks woman .

I slink into a chair in front of the desk, lower my voice.

‘Jen, that’s probably not appropriate.’

She laughs. ‘Listen, mate, it’s probably more appropriate than what you’re doing with…you know who. At least this guy isn’t your colleague. What’s he like, anyway? Tell me everything.’

‘He’s…’ I search for the right words. To be honest, my mind is still spinning from last night. And it’s nothing to do with the alcohol I consumed. ‘He’s…kind of overwhelming, I suppose. But possibly in a good way. I don’t think I’ve met anyone like him. He’s just so… so… American .’

Jen’s eyebrows rise. ‘What does that mean? I honestly can’t tell if you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing.’

‘You know. Confident. Sure of himself. Upbeat .’

‘He sounds terrible,’ she says, and we both laugh. ‘But the real question is…does he fit the formula?’

I groan, regretting my triumphant sharing of ‘the formula’ with Jen on Monday morning. My life was so much less complicated last week. And it’s only Wednesday.

‘Jen, this is different. The formula only applies to dates. This was very much not a date.’

She sighs, glugs more cola. ‘Ah, you’re no fun. Okay then, what’d he say about that fella?’ She nods to indicate Kobi. I can tell he’s scanning the room but at least he’s not trying to connect to anything.

‘Just what a great opportunity it was. This is a new industry, with all sorts of great jobs opening up.’

She points towards Kobi with both hands. ‘That’s what I said!’

‘He wants me to enrol in an online course. Something at MIT.’

‘Robot Relationship Management?’ Her eyes widen. ‘Mate, that’s a great course. I’ve been looking into it myself. It has a module by Professor Mimi Lee.’

‘Who? ’

‘Hang on.’ She swivels her chair so she can scan the bookshelf behind her desk. ‘Here it is!’ She tosses a heavy book to me.

I catch it, read the cover aloud. ‘ Coding Behaviour: The Brave New World of Ethical Programming . What’s this all about?’

‘Borrow it, mate. In a nutshell, she says that the new generation of workplace robots are heavily influenced by the people around them. They basically copy the behaviour of their work colleagues. So the people making industrial robots need to be “ethical programmers”. They need to programme good behaviour into the robots from the outset, like a parent raising a child to have a moral code – pun intended. The implications are really interesting.’

‘They are?’

‘Think about it. Take Kobi here. He’s kind of a blank slate, right?

Every interaction shapes him in some way.

Which means, Maeve, you have a chance to turn Kobi here into whatever you want him to be.

’ She looks at her computer screen, sighs, puts down the can.

‘Well, whatever JP wants him to be, I suppose.’