Inventions in 2068

It's now 2068, and the Engineering committee has decided to create an invention show with the upcoming technology. The Droids and robots took over as soon as World War III was over. Biological Warfare does that to this planet we now call home. Not that many humans are left though. I guess the Government figured out they didn’t really need humans so much so they just had engineers build all these robots.

Most of the humans in my neighborhood had been either drafted or forced to go to the war, but I was too young according to their “standards” and someone had to watch Grandma, who at the time was 86.

I really wanted to go to this convention and I was trying to figure out a way that I could get into this event without getting caught. I finally figured out how to hack into the system. It isn't easy getting in to these events, they screen every access point. So many lasers and bracelets on all of us humans now. They track you by your digital black and blue watch now. There are no more hand dials like my grandma had. I sigh over the loss of my grandma, who died only five years ago.

I decided that if I am going to sneak in, then I need to take my digital watch off my person. This way the robots can't track me. Oh I found Grandma’s older geared watch from when she passed away! It looks old but I think the battery still works. Good thing Grandma showed me how to wind it up before she passed on.

I found the old robot that’s been sitting in the dusty basement behind a bunch of dirty boxes, lord that smell is awful. I double check to see if the old robot in the basement is still online. Good news, nope, this robot is officially offline. It looks to be roughly 2 years off line though. I’ll have to make some modifications to it.

The robot that was in the basement was in pretty bad shape though. It looked like it would barely fit my 5'2 frame, I guess it’s a good thing I’m thin. The inside of the robot shell was empty, so I took out my welding utensils and got to work on a back entrance for me to enter or in case I had to go to the bathroom. Ugh, the robot body smelled so weird. It was like rust on mold and full of cobwebs as well.

I found some air freshener that Grandma had tucked away in her cabinet. I guess she used to be called a “Pack Rat” or something, not that I know what that means. We all live pretty minimally now a days.

The head of the robot would have to fit over my long brown hair, so I decided to put it up in a bun. I put on the robot head and went to the mirror. Not too shabby I thought, , although it did look a little off. I figured I would put in some electric eyes. Good thing I kept all the Christmas lights huh? I took two off the rope of Christmas lights and wired them back in. I could see barely out of one eye. I went to the mirror again to check and it looked like I was a more of a robot of today than a robot from 2 years ago.

I decided to try my robot voice out loud to the mirror but all it came out was a soft squeak so I decided to find my dad’s old recording equipment. Where did he put that? Oh! Looks like I found it near the garage! I tried it again with the recording equipment and then made it more of a robot sound when I went on my computer and touched my dad’s recording equipment to it. I booted up the sound waves to make my voice sound much more of female robot. I think it will be successful. Dad was a Rock star of his day! Thanks Pop!

I put my suit of robot on and it fit like a glove! I even added some stickers to it to make it more of a robot of today. I’m so glad it didn’t snow today otherwise, I would have been in real trouble. The snow would have rusted my old robot suit in no time, so I had to make sure it was a nice sunny day. You never do know in New England whether it will snow or not. The robots on the news are supposed to be accurate, but once in a while you don’t get what they observed or informed you on the computer.

Now, I need to see if I can sneak in without being caught. I wait until the main guard is not at the opening and sneak in. I was able to sneak past the first robot! I can't even believe it! I guess taking my geared watch off worked. None of the robots have noticed me yet, or at least they seem to be too preoccupied with the event and monitoring all the new technology they have at all the booths.

I see so many new things, so much new technology. Is that a flying car? I heard those were coming out next year! Wow, those robots are making food now in a processor that can cook faster than a microwave like my grandma had.

That looks like melted chocolate? No, not chocolate. Must be like a brown bag of some sort? Maybe the robots are creating something for the robot schools that are coming soon? I don't think they need bagged lunches though. Oh! I think it’s a new chair that can be made from just molding plastic together. Those clever robots!

Is that supposed to be a keyboard? That is really cool! It looks like it has 8 levels and maybe a robot with eight arms can play it! Ooh and they added a disco ball to the top? Neat! More of the kids my age will be out at the club drinking virtual martinis. Yuck, virtual martinis that you can see but not taste, it shows you on your bracelet. Me? I prefer to stick to the older stuff, mostly my grandma's stash of rum that is left in the basement.

I walk around and ask some of the robots some questions about the flying car and the keyboard hoping my voice sounds as "robot" as possible so I don't get caught. They might end up putting me through more "virtual" school, blech, no thanks. This was a punishment that came along last year from our current leader in Chief, 2 years ago with humans trying to blend in with the robots. I hated it when they forced me to go last year - Ms. Alexa Robotson was a drag and I couldn't really understand her French.

I wanted to rest a little bit and I sat down on a plastic chair to go into my bag and take out two shiny needles and some yarn and find a seat to sit in to start knitting. I forget that where I am, I have a bad habit of that, Grandma always did try to keep me in check, but now that she’s gone, I get forgetful.

One of the female robots comes over to me.

"What are you doing?" Asked the Droid.

Oops, I guess I got caught.

"I'm making a knitted item with my hands". I said as robot like as I could.

"You are human" The droid was looking at my hands as I forgot that I took off my “robot gloves” so I could knit.

"Very good, you get 100 points," I said trying to get a laugh.

"I don't understand. Was that a joke?" Droid asked.

"Never mind, can I just knit a quick thing and then I swear I will go home," I said.

"Show me," The droid wanted to learn how to knit?

"It's a human thing, you wouldn't understand," I said.

"Let me try," Droid said and I didn’t want to get into further trouble, so I handed her my bag.

Okay...so I handed her my knitted item, some yarn and two needles.

Next thing I knew, all of the other robots of this huge convention were all standing around us.

"What are they doing?"

"What is knitting?"

"Alexa, what is knitting?"

"Alexa show me how to knit"

"How do you work your hands?"

"How do you get to make something from scratch?"

More robots.

More questions.

Then silence.

The piece was finished within seconds.

Then the robots all just went offline.

I fished my watch out of my purse and went home.