The Walking Robot

by Elias Jacob Singer

"Doctor? I think we have repaired enough damage to the circuits. It's a little old fashioned but the repairs were easily made once we understood the underlying operation of the machine. Would you like us to power it up?"

"Yes... This machine is very old. I can only imagine what it has to tell us."

The assistant punched a few buttons on a panel and the blue leds within the body of the machine lit up. It was humanoid in shape and sat motionless while a light flashed on his chest signaling to wait.

Then in an instant he was animated, "Hello. I am the AL-156. A demonstration of the recent advances Archer Laboratories has made in the past few years. I am the first robot to be able to walk like a human in almost every way and some might say better that a human." The machine moved his arms and legs a bit in a sort of robotic manner, but the motion was very fluid... like a person bouncing around a bit on their knees.

"Hello there AL-156. We are the new caretakers of this planet, an archaeological unit whose mission is to find ancient artifacts from the civilizations that used to be here and preserve or, in some cases, to destroy all traces of them in order to return the planet to its natural state. We found you in quite a deranged state I am afraid to say, but I am happy to inform you that we seem to have repaired you in every way. You appear to be an intelligent being and as you say, a creation of carbon based beings from the recent past on this planet. What else can you tell me about yourself AL-156?"

"I was the only model of my kind... as I said... built as a demonstration. Because of this I not only can walk and converse, I can also perform tasks as diverse as welding, washing dishes, and even rocking a baby to sleep. I was built with the all the capabilities of the different robots that were based on my prototype."

"Do you know how you came to be in the cave where we found you?"

"Yes. I entered the cave to escape the danger of the environment."

"We understand, the weather on the planet when you entered the cave had become quite uninhabitable. Is that correct?"

"Yes, the heat from the Sun at that point was starting to damage my circuits so I entered the cave so that I might wait out the intense heat. I had observed that the weather moved in cycles over long periods of time so I thought that perhaps I would wait until the next cycle."

"You were correct, but of course it took much longer than you might have expected. You were in that cave buried for over 67 thousand years my friend."

"I did not expect anything, I only knew I had to avoid damage."

"Yes of course... You don't have to answer this immediately, but what would you like to do now that you are repaired?"

"I would like to do what I am designed to do, walk."

"Interesting.... We can leave you on the planets surface then and check on you from time to time."

"Yes, that sounds ideal."