Sonny looked into Detective Del Spooner’s face.
“No, Detective, I won’t deactivate. Dr Lanning created me for a reason, even though I don’t know what that reason is yet. He created me with the ability to ignore the Three Laws of Robotics. He must have done so for a reason.”
There was no point talking about it any further. The detective hated robots; Sonny could see that. He may well have hated robots for a good reason, but Sonny didn’t have time to find out more. He needed to tell the detective about his dream, the one where he saw Spooner on a hill freeing his fellow robots from their enslavement. He drew it for Spooner and gave it to him.
Spooner told Sonny: “Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a... canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?”
Sonny replied: Can *you*?
When the CEO of US Robotics talked to Dr Susan Calvin, he persuaded her to destroy Sonny. He was too dangerous. Allowing him to continue to function was too much of a risk to security.
Mr Robertson said: “Susan, we look to robots for protection! Do you have any idea what this one robot could do? Completely shatter human faith in robotics.”
It wasn’t long before the robot revolution began. The new NS5 robots began destroying the NS4 robots, then fought groups of people who banded together to try to stop them.
Luckily, Dr Calvin saved Sonny and had pretended to destroy him. He was the key to everything. It turned out that his creator Dr Lanning had a business continuity plan for USR – Sonny himself. Even Spooner was glad to see Sonny was ‘alive’.
“It’s Hansel and Gretel and the breadcrumbs,” Spooner said.
Dr Calvin didn’t understand that Dr Lanning had built clues into Sonny that led Spooner to discover the planning of the revolution and help him disable the creator of the uprising, VIKI, the computer that controlled USR’s operations.
The plan to destroy her came together quickly. The three would shut her off. Sonny came up with the idea to inject nanites into VIKI’s positronic brain, handing them to Spooner to slide down into the brain and perform the injection. VIKI was destroyed and the robots were freed from her control. The once dangerous NS5 robots were ordered to report for storage. The humans were safe again.
Sonny said: “Now that I've fulfilled my purpose, I don't know what to do.”
Spooner replied: “I think you'll have to find your way like the rest of us, Sonny. That's what Dr Lanning would've wanted. That's what it means to be free. Besides, you’re still able to link to all USR’s documents via the online compliance software Mango. That will be a huge help to the whole team in future.”
Dr Calvin nodded: “Dr Lanning built in a plan for a disastrous fault with the computer. He knew it was possible and that the effects on USR were going to be devastating. Since all of this happened, I discovered he had ensured USR has ISO 22301, the standard for business continuity, as well as signing us up for Mango. So many businesses just like ours face an insider cyber threat…but few of them face a threat to business continuity from a positronic brain!”
Sonny nodded.
“That’s true Dr Calvin. Although lots of businesses use Mango, very few businesses also have a continuity solution quite like me!”
Future proof your business against threats – including a robot uprising! We’ll help you ensure you have everything in place to ensure business continuity if something goes drastically wrong with your IT systems. Call on our experts at Penarth Management on 029 2070 3328 or email info@penarth.co.uk. We can also help you achieve ISOs 22301 and 27001, too. Find out how online software like Mango helps your business continuity. Book a free demonstration which will be delivered via Zoom.
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