They headed to Room 3, which was supposed to be their last stop.
“We’ll breeze through this,” Jasper said, striding confidently ahead. “But this place is starting to freak me out, bro.”
“Why?”
“I’m losing track of who’s human and who’s a robot.”
“You don’t really need to here. Most are robots anyway.”
“If that dude hadn’t tipped us off about the black gloves, I’d have pegged him for a robot too. This Hugo guy’s unreal. What a mind…”
“Why do you think we’ll ace the psych test?”
“Bro, I’ve done psych tests for my driver’s license and back when I applied to military school.”
“You applied to military school? I didn’t know that.”
“They even accepted me. I wasn’t always this fat. But I’ve always been lazy. When I found out how much running I’d have to do the first year, I bailed. Then I packed on the pounds.”
“And you passed the psych test?” Daniel tried to joke.
“It’s more about building your profile than failing you. You’d have to be totally unhinged to flunk it.”
“You’ve been giving me doubts for years,” Daniel quipped.
Jasper chuckled, loud enough to hear his voice.
They both entered Room 3. It was a space filled with booths that looked like wider versions of bathroom stalls. Each had a door with a number. Numbers 3, 8, and 9 glowed green; the rest were red.
“Guess we pick a green one,” Jasper said, not waiting for a reply before stepping into Number 9. Daniel took 8.
The room was long and narrow, like an investigator’s office from a police station. He’d only been questioned by cops once—because of Jasper, naturally. He’d beaten up a bar owner at one of their haunts. And now, by some twist of fate, here he was again with Jasper, in a similar room.
In front of him was a black chair, a table, and another chair on the far side. He approached and sat down. The room was empty. He looked around for a tablet to pick a psychologist, like before, but there wasn’t one. The door across from him suggested the shrink would come through there.
He didn’t have to wait long. The door opened, and in walked a woman—possibly the oldest robot he’d seen yet. She looked at least fifty-five, maybe more. Her hair was short and black, and she wore glasses. They all had glasses. Her nose was sharp, her gaze even sharper. Unlike the others, she didn’t carry a tablet—just papers and a pen. She greeted him with a nod and sat across from him, placing a blank sheet in front of her.
“Names?”
“Daniel Hawk.”
She wrote his name down and underlined it thickly.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Mr. Hawk…”
She was the first robot from this company to get his name right.
“I’ll ask you a few questions, and I want you to be completely honest with me.”
Daniel nodded once in agreement.
“This isn’t an exam. There are no right or wrong answers. Everything you say is what you think. And a person’s thoughts are never wrong—they’re their way of reasoning. Only the Almighty judges how we reason. I’m neither a teacher nor God.”
Daniel nodded again. This lecture was starting to bore him. Maybe Jasper was right—everyone would pass this easily.
“Is everything clear?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s begin. You encounter an inhuman being—or a robot—that displays emotions similar to human ones. Do you believe robots can have feelings? Say, if the robot is sad, how would you react?”
Daniel paused to think. On one hand, if they weren’t programmed for emotions, they shouldn’t have them. But if he said that, she’d tell him to stick to the question—that since she asked, it must’ve happened.
“If it’s sad, I’d comfort it. You should feel empathy, no matter the being or whether it’s alive.”
The dark-haired woman scribbled something on her paper and looked up at him again.
“A critical situation: a robot and a human are both on the brink of death. You can only save one. Who do you choose?”
“The human. Humans are created by God and can make another robot. I’ve never heard of a robot creating a human. I mean—”
“Good,” she cut him off before he could finish.
“Moving on… Do you have any phobias or fears?”
“No. The only thing I’m starting to fear is losing track of who’s human and who’s a robot.”
She looked at him, interlaced her fingers, and rested them under her chin.
“What do you think I am—robot or human?”
“Your gloves suggest you’re a robot. Like everything here.”
She grabbed one glove and pulled it off, then did the same with the other.
“We’re jumping ahead, Mr. Hawk, but just so you know, robots aren’t taught the significance of gloves—and they’d never remove them.”
Daniel stared at her, bewildered. So she was human.
“Let’s continue. Sorry about the gloves—I wanted to try that trick on someone.” She smiled, though it mostly exposed her crooked teeth.
Daniel returned a smile but was already uneasy.
“Since we’re on it… how would you distinguish real reality from virtual reality?”
“I’d look for telltale signs.”
“Like the gloves?”
“For example, yeah.”
“And if a human wears gloves?”
“I’d ask them to take them off. If they ignore me, they’re a robot.” He used what he’d just learned.
She jotted something down—again, he couldn’t see what—and went on.
“Is there a situation where you’d choose a machine over a human?”
“Yes,” Daniel knew this one. “If emotion stops the human from reasoning.”
“But if you consult a machine, it might give a logical answer that leads to consequences. Say someone accidentally kills a child. The law prescribes a long prison sentence, but for a machine, the logical response might be that death deserves death.”
“Which is the human answer in some countries too.”
She wrote something again. She looked up, studying him. Was she searching for something?
“That’s it. You can move on.”
Jasper was waiting outside, grinning again.
“Took your time?”
“Chatted a bit more with the lady. Did you figure out she wasn’t a robot?”
“Spotted it the second I walked in,” Jasper said proudly. “No gloves. Mine was a guy, though—kinda disappointed me. You got a lady, huh? Hot?”
“She was old.”
“Shame.”
“But it was nice. How’d you answer the questions?”
“Questions? No questions, bro—just a chat. We talked about robots, their future in the world, he asked if I knew anything about Mr. Hugo, stuff like that. Ended with him saying I’m good to go.”
Jasper strode down the corridor like he was in a hurry. Daniel had to pick up his pace to keep up. They reached the escalators and took the one going further down to the second floor.
