Somehow she managed to unlock her wrist from its current position. The harsh cold metal around her wrist was comforting for some reason. Its tailored elegance reminded her of the swivel of the combination lock on a bank vault and how that 360 degree circle could hold back the world. It was several lifetimes that had brought her awake in this darkness. The moon had passed over seemingly milleniums ago and maybe she had missed the birth and death of the stars and the blackness above her head was the aftermath of their passing. The air was cold and life had been sucked from the wind and it just hung like a heavy smoke over a burnt skillet of eggs. She tried to put her hand on floor so she could sit upright against the grainy cement wall but something heavy was preventing this action. She tried to move it but its weight was seemingly nailed to the floor and her eyes hadn't adjusted enough to the dark to see what thing held her limb in its tight grip. She cursed and something cursed back; a voice so refreshingly akin to her own that she thought the echo of her voice in her lungs had a wireless external speaker bluetoothed to her ear. And then it moved...
Dr. Kim Loging came awake as she heard the scream and the subject hit the floor. She told one of the medical assistants to zoom in on the subject and check for vitals. Fortunately the prisoner had simply fainted and would be awakened momentarily. She had spent years researching artificial intelligience and the years of dreams and nightmares and labs and long nights away from her family had yielded one of humanity's greatest achievements. She had won a Nobel Prize years earlier for the development of androids and the extensive technology that allowed these human-like robots to mimic humans. The next big hurdle facing the free world was how to harness this massive find into a sustainable application that would revolutionize some part of human existence. In this feat Dr. Loging had leaped past her colleagues once again. Her current project was a lifetime contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and there her android technology was in full throttle. Most prisoners that entered any penal system were never really rehabilitated; they were in reality given access to a vast pool of criminal knowledge in which to hone and improve their criminal skills. Most came out far more intelligent about a variety of ways to commit successful crimes that they could have never imagined before they entered the gates of any "rock." Dr. Loging's work promised to change all of that. She had developed a unique inexpensive way to create a working android for every prisoner. This android was designed to be exclusive to each prisoner and bond with that prisoner. This bonding fed information about the prisoner's thoughts and developments and also gave the prisoner a "twin" to express themselves and that had similar thoughts and aspirations. These androids were designed to be empathetic to the plight of its twin, but also subtly and persistently encourage a change in criminal behavior. As the humans locked in 8 by 8 cells craved human contact not of the criminal variety, the android provided a confidant and a listening ear. Prisoners were handcuffed to their android for the most of the day and allowed only to be uncuffed at night to sleep. The android went everywhere they went. The android also prevented violence in the prisoner by limiting the most basic tool for violence - an arm and a hand. The android could be activated at any moment to subdue its twin if violence erupted. This virtually eliminated the need for hundreds of guards and cut costs dramatically. New prisoners like the bank robber she was watching in the intro room were given a few days to get adjusted to being chained to the androids. The rehabilitation rate of prisoners since the project started 7 years ago was 99%. The days of prison counselors and indirect programs to change prison culture was a thing of the past. Guards, riot forces once reigned supreme. And then there were androids...
Dr. Kim Loging came awake as she heard the scream and the subject hit the floor. She told one of the medical assistants to zoom in on the subject and check for vitals. Fortunately the prisoner had simply fainted and would be awakened momentarily. She had spent years researching artificial intelligience and the years of dreams and nightmares and labs and long nights away from her family had yielded one of humanity's greatest achievements. She had won a Nobel Prize years earlier for the development of androids and the extensive technology that allowed these human-like robots to mimic humans. The next big hurdle facing the free world was how to harness this massive find into a sustainable application that would revolutionize some part of human existence. In this feat Dr. Loging had leaped past her colleagues once again. Her current project was a lifetime contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and there her android technology was in full throttle. Most prisoners that entered any penal system were never really rehabilitated; they were in reality given access to a vast pool of criminal knowledge in which to hone and improve their criminal skills. Most came out far more intelligent about a variety of ways to commit successful crimes that they could have never imagined before they entered the gates of any "rock." Dr. Loging's work promised to change all of that. She had developed a unique inexpensive way to create a working android for every prisoner. This android was designed to be exclusive to each prisoner and bond with that prisoner. This bonding fed information about the prisoner's thoughts and developments and also gave the prisoner a "twin" to express themselves and that had similar thoughts and aspirations. These androids were designed to be empathetic to the plight of its twin, but also subtly and persistently encourage a change in criminal behavior. As the humans locked in 8 by 8 cells craved human contact not of the criminal variety, the android provided a confidant and a listening ear. Prisoners were handcuffed to their android for the most of the day and allowed only to be uncuffed at night to sleep. The android went everywhere they went. The android also prevented violence in the prisoner by limiting the most basic tool for violence - an arm and a hand. The android could be activated at any moment to subdue its twin if violence erupted. This virtually eliminated the need for hundreds of guards and cut costs dramatically. New prisoners like the bank robber she was watching in the intro room were given a few days to get adjusted to being chained to the androids. The rehabilitation rate of prisoners since the project started 7 years ago was 99%. The days of prison counselors and indirect programs to change prison culture was a thing of the past. Guards, riot forces once reigned supreme. And then there were androids...
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