Human XP Comes in Many Varieties

"Our concept was to design a highly versatile robot—one capable of using human tools and adapting to any environment where humans worked. That way, robots could take over human jobs without needing to redesign anything else, saving enormous amounts of cost and time."

"Which robot is the one you're talking about?" Lin Feng asked.

The purpose of their visit was precisely to see this highly versatile robot, one that could use existing human tools to complete work without modifying them.

Lin Feng had been extremely surprised when Davis first reported this achievement to him.

"This one."

Ms. Rogge pointed at the spider-shaped robot beside them.

"This?"

Lin Feng walked over and stopped before the robot, studying it curiously. The spider robot had no hands; ten jointed legs supported it on the ground.

Other than lacking biological openings such as a mouth, it looked exactly like a spider.

"That's right. Its name is Moron 6739."

"Why is it called Moron?" the CIA agent asked strangely.

"Because it really is a moron."

Ms. Rogge spread her hands helplessly, then patted Moron 6739 and pointed at the CIA agent as she questioned the Intelligent AI.

"Moron 6739, what species is this gentleman?"

Rat.

Ms. Rogge said to the CIA agent, "Don't take it personally. It's a moron. We've already made 6,739 morons like this, and this one is much better than the previous ones."

Lin Feng frowned. "Can an Intelligent AI like this handle human work?"

"They're already fully capable of handling work that is highly repetitive and simple to operate."

With that, Ms. Rogge directed Moron 6739 into the testing room and had it try to build a cement-and-red-brick house in front of Lin Feng and the others.

To Lin Feng's surprise, the spider robot's ten feet could be used like human hands. And because it was mechanical, its joints could even bend and reset through 360 degrees.

Like a skilled construction worker, the spider robot laid the foundation, built the red-brick walls, and plastered cement in one smooth sequence.

"Its movements are a little sluggish..."

Lin Feng assessed the spider robot's efficiency.

Ms. Rogge explained, "That was to meet your original requirement of 'appropriately weakening the robots to prevent ETO from exploiting them to trigger riots.' But that sluggishness can be offset by working around the clock without sleep or rest."

"This thing has to stay connected to a power cable?"

The CIA agent looked at the long wire trailing from the spider robot's rear.

If the robot could not operate while carrying a mobile power source, then there was no point in designing such a robot.

After all, they could not possibly plug every robot at every construction site into a cable, could they?

What if the robots' movements tangled all the wires together?

"The energy issue still needs to be resolved. It can function normally on batteries, but for long-term work in complex environments, batteries are clearly inadequate and would also add unnecessary weight," Ms. Rogge said.

"So what are you planning to use as the energy source for these AI robots?" the CIA agent asked.

Ms. Rogge smiled slightly and revealed the solution.

"Macro Electron."

"Mr. Taylor opened up a new line of thought for us. Many things have been unable to improve their efficiency any further because of energy limitations, but once Macro Electron energy storage is realized, everything will be different."

"Energy storage generally has an upper limit. Take rechargeable batteries or lithium batteries—although even if there were no upper limit, energy leakage would still create problems such as high temperatures, strong magnetic fields, and intense gravity. But Macro Electron energy storage makes energy leakage selective, solving many problems at once."

Lin Feng reminded her, "The miniaturization of Macro Electron energy storage hasn't been developed yet."

"That isn't a problem. Large-scale energy storage has already been achieved. I believe miniaturization won't be far off."

Ms. Rogge, who had a deep understanding of cutting-edge technology, answered confidently.

The CIA agent crouched beside the spider robot to observe it, nodding as though he understood.

"No wonder it was designed so small."

"Uh... the Macro Electron energy storage isn't there. It's here." Ms. Rogge scratched her cheek awkwardly and opened a flip cover on the spider robot's rear.

"Hm?" The CIA agent froze for a moment, then pointed at the round hole on the spider robot's rear. "Then what is that opening for?"

"For people. We're also preparing to develop some... ahem, robots that fulfill people's physiological needs."

As she spoke, Ms. Rogge's cheeks reddened. She was, after all, a woman, and explaining something like this made her feel extremely awkward.

The CIA agent's expression became wonderfully complicated. Somewhat incredulous, he asked, "But aren't they spiders? Can anyone be interested in spiders?"

"You need to believe in human hormones. They're what control the human brain's operation. Once the interest is there, people won't even spare a car exhaust pipe."

Ms. Rogge answered as though it were only natural.

Ms. Rogge stepped forward and opened the middle section of the spider robot. It was also designed with a flip cover.

"This is where the AI robot's main unit is stored."

"Why is it in its belly?" Lin Feng asked.

"With the main unit centered, the transmission speed along each line can remain equal. That way, there won't be situations where signals travel quickly in some places and slowly in others. Robots aren't humans, after all—we have to consider the real-time transmission of information across the whole system," Ms. Rogge explained.

Lin Feng nodded, pondered for a moment, then asked.

"How much will it cost?"

"Seventy thousand dollars."

Lin Feng shook his head in disappointment. "No, that's too expensive."

"Then what price would satisfy you?"

"The price of an AK-47," Lin Feng said firmly.

Robots had to be cheap to be worth manufacturing. If a machine cost more than a person, they might as well clone humans on a large scale to solve the productivity problem.

"Three hundred dollars?! Th-that's far too low..."

Ms. Rogge had never imagined that Lin Feng would name such a low price. Her head immediately started hurting again.

Lin Feng shook his head. "Correction. Two hundred dollars. Someone improved the AK-47 recently—its performance stayed the same, but the manufacturing cost became even lower."

"Three hundred dollars was already impossible. Two hundred is even more impossible!" Ms. Rogge could no longer remain calm.

"Can't you just cut out the unnecessary parts?" Lin Feng asked.

Ms. Rogge explained, "The body structure isn't particularly complicated. The main issue is the sensors. The cost is high because there are so many of them, but reducing the number of sensors would mean reducing the robot's responsiveness."

Lin Feng replied, "All we need are simple laborers. As long as it doesn't affect their ability to work, reducing their responsiveness somewhat is acceptable..."

Before Lin Feng could finish, a CIA agent rushed in from outside with a phone in hand.

"Mr. Taylor! Someone calling himself 'Mozi' has come to visit you! He asked us to tell you that he is your Wallbreaker!"

What? One of his own people had arrived? That was perfect!

"You didn't make a move on him, did you?" Lin Feng asked sternly.

"No. Everyone showed restraint. He's waiting for you in the living room of your home right now."