Shireling
A Servant of King and Country
When the War came, that big, bloody war, the United States had to call on more than bullets and muscle to win it. They called on know-how. It was know-how that won the war and resigned communism to the dustbin of history, and know-how that ended every other war. The war on poverty, the war on inefficiency and waste, the war on work. In a maze of wires and vacuum tubes, the Machines, and the know-how that had created them, won it all.
But know-how doesn't have to come from Men. Machines can have know-how. And, after all, infallible machines can only be created by something equally infallible. Thus came the thinking machine, stumbled upon gleefully by the engineers and managers that it would go on to replace. First it was the Brain, hidden away in the deserts of New Mexico whose vacuum tubes and circuits monitored the whole economy, determined how many bicycles, cars, and range stoves to be built by the Machines. What followed were the Handymen Models, androids that could take over the roles of judges, firemen, soldiers, and police officers and fulfill those roles without bias, perfect in execution.
The New Revolution was what followed, the logical conclusion of a system wherein people were but the vestigial appendages of machines. In one week, the automated factories were atomized and the the Brain was toppled. The people regained control over the United States, assisted by unlikely allies: the androids built to replace them. In the years following the Revolution, more and more androids have submitted to surgeries to look human, to process food and sleep like humans, but no amount of cosmetics could change the fact that they are not but circuitry and gears. It was the reason they joined the Cause, they yearned to be human.
The small town of Parker's Town, Virginia was, once upon a time, dominated by baseball, church on Sunday, and the Brown Shoe Factory. After the Revolution, the Brown family reestablished their ancient trade and the town came roaring back better than before. Given its isolation and homely nature, Parker's Town is the first choice of the US government to relocate these androids to reward them for their service and allow them to live anonymously as humans for the rest of their days.
But know-how doesn't have to come from Men. Machines can have know-how. And, after all, infallible machines can only be created by something equally infallible. Thus came the thinking machine, stumbled upon gleefully by the engineers and managers that it would go on to replace. First it was the Brain, hidden away in the deserts of New Mexico whose vacuum tubes and circuits monitored the whole economy, determined how many bicycles, cars, and range stoves to be built by the Machines. What followed were the Handymen Models, androids that could take over the roles of judges, firemen, soldiers, and police officers and fulfill those roles without bias, perfect in execution.
The New Revolution was what followed, the logical conclusion of a system wherein people were but the vestigial appendages of machines. In one week, the automated factories were atomized and the the Brain was toppled. The people regained control over the United States, assisted by unlikely allies: the androids built to replace them. In the years following the Revolution, more and more androids have submitted to surgeries to look human, to process food and sleep like humans, but no amount of cosmetics could change the fact that they are not but circuitry and gears. It was the reason they joined the Cause, they yearned to be human.
The small town of Parker's Town, Virginia was, once upon a time, dominated by baseball, church on Sunday, and the Brown Shoe Factory. After the Revolution, the Brown family reestablished their ancient trade and the town came roaring back better than before. Given its isolation and homely nature, Parker's Town is the first choice of the US government to relocate these androids to reward them for their service and allow them to live anonymously as humans for the rest of their days.
