Author's note; Thank you very much for your support and reading! Also, I hope this table uploads correctly. If it doesn't look right excuse the mess. I've not done tables in the chapters before today.
Chapter 11
Continued
“I won’t lie to you Jack. Making an android costs a lot of money. We have to also interact and ‘exchange’ resources through money with other companies in order to be able to produce an android. So that’s why people will often leave or pull out at this part of the conversation,” she said apologetically.
Was it just me or did she just try to make her breasts stick out a bit in her blouse just now. Her legs seemed to be trying to get the optimum posture too. She wanted this to work.
“Hmm.”
“But without resources we can’t build androids Jack,” she reminded me.
I didn’t say anything to that.
“Do you know that not all androids are created equal?” she asked me.
“I will always promote the concept of equality because if we don’t have an even footing for all people society begins to have a lot of problems. So I disagree. It’s not that we’re equal or not equal but the treatment of equality or …I suppose you androids would say simuting equality even though one cpu is still faster than the other,” I stated ftly, knowing she was going show me some credible proof otherwise. She was right. But people still have to emute treating each other equally even though we aren’t equal.
She gave me a puzzled look. “I hadn’t expected that a human would teach me something useful and wise,” she said.
I shrugged in response.
“I can see you are going to argue or not believe me, judging by your facial reaction and body posture. I didn’t mean it like that but just let me say that there’s a reason why some features cost extra,” she said.
“Eh? Like?” I was getting nervous.
“Well you can get a normal A.I. ptform that’s a budget version. You could also get a low life after market battery, aftermarket parts, and things like that though we know how that will affect things in the end. But even if she looks amazing it will come out in her performance. That becomes especially true once you leave Mellifera to look at other android companies,” she said.
“Hmm, what happens if you get a low life battery?” I asked.
She shrugged, “Fuel cells are amazing technology. We’ve been building them for years. But the longer the battery sts, the more expensive it gets. Battery life is one of the things that will cost the most unfortunately.”
“Hmm that doesn’t sound good,” I said.
“Well, it can’t be helped. I’m just being a realist,” she said.
“Well I haven’t followed the news tely or been involved with other people much,” I said. She smiled in response. It’s almost like there’s this vibe and connection. How is that possible with an android when I can’t even make sense of humans?
I hoped any android I picked up was good enough to be able to look a bit like Barbara…she was like…wow you know?
OK, but about the hospital models. They looked pretty good? Weren’t they customizable?” I asked.
“That’s really the key, Jack. The more customized an android is the better the chance of having a quality companion. But it is true you wouldn’t have noticed they were androids. They looked human until they talked too much right?” she asked.
“Yeah, they kept using mechanical vocabury. But overall they were very good looking. It was just that one fw visible,” I said.
“That’s the Mellifera 2B and 2C series. There are others. Take a look?” she hit the datapad’s program hotkey buttons and another program activated.
It turns out there were quite a few other android types through Mellifera. It wasn’t a one size fits all scenario. And although Mellifera wasn’t the only android company it was well known that theirs were the most advanced and the best at this time. The Russians made pretty much mostly military oriented androids and farm workers, so they didn’t have a lot of appeal domestically though they were said to be especially durable, but the German models weren’t too far behind them.
I was a bit surprised however, that she had details on all of their four models for me. I had thought there weren’t just one, but more than three was very shocking. Now this is complex. How am I supposed to decide what I’ll get?
Android Type
Carinol
Carin
Asca
Liga*
AI (raw S.M.A.R.T.)
**
****
***
******
Battery Quality & Lifetime
20 Yr
30 Yr
40+
50+(unproven)
Adaptibility
**
****
***
*****
Stealth Ability (Ability of humans to detect)
***
****
**
*****
Maintenance Frequency
**
**
*
Unknown
Resistance to breakdowns
***
****
******
Unknown
Speed of skill acquisition
***
****
**
******
Weather & Water Resistance
***
****
******
*****
Customizability**
**
*****
****
*******
Nursing ability (for children)
***
****
***
****
Self Repair ability
*
**
******
***
Special Skills
*
***
*****
****
Spouse Support
***
****
**
*****
** Customization may affect other traits
*** No data avaible from Mellifera on Competitor androids
* Model is so new that data is still being collected
“So what’s all this?” I asked. It was a bit overwhelming. There was a lot of data here to go over.
“This is the specs and performance record information on all four Mellifera models. We provide this right away to customers because we want them to be happy with our services. To do that they have to be able to make a good choice,” she said.
“OK, but before we get into the details, what are the basic differences between the four models?” I asked.
“Good question. It would help to know where to start from a brief intro. Is that what you are asking?” she replied nodding.
“Yeah something like that. I haven’t been around androids much since this area has some of the lowest android ownership rates in the country,” I said. It was true. The economic fallout in this area because of the Jobs War forty years ago had yet to rebuild for many of the communities here,” I said.
“Basically from left to right indicates which models were invented first, with Carinol being the first truly humanoid android and the furthest on the right being the Liga which came out about five years ago,” she said. She was also pointing to some android robot heads that had metal ptes in the back of the skulls as they were dispyed. The faces looked really nice but besides the back of the skulls, the chest ptes hadn’t been covered up yet, showing a shiny steel metal ribcage and a right light pulsing battery back area that rested within the steel cage. This was basically showing the guts of the frame.
“Fascinating, they don’t…mail them like this though right?” I noted. It was clear there was a lot of really expensive equipment. But there wasn’t much skin on them yet.
She chuckled, “this is to show the truth. What’s really under the skin,” she replied curtly.
“How come none of the pictures have hair and no skin yet? They look like cyborgs,” I noted.
“They won’t stay that way. This is just how they’ll look before owner customizations. You see, you would customize the face and hair afterwards on your own. Every partner would. You get to choose what the face and hair would be like. And a few other features. Of course, I suspect that you really are wanting to know if they buy a Liga it’s not really just up selling the lower grade model,” she shrugged it off like it was nothing.
“Why is that? They look kind of freaky in a way, like this,” I said. “Unless you are into shiny brand new steel and how it reflects when it’s this bright,” I joked.
She used her ser light pointer to circle the 3D visual feed’s customization word. “The key here is they are like this for the owner’s benefit right now. You see, if we had them pre-built you wouldn’t actually be getting the customization that you deserve and want. All androids have some customization, if that makes sense. They will for sure get skin, hair, and body proportions, after you choose what you want her to look like,” she said curtly.
OK. I’d almost misunderstood things. But now I get it. By showing the guts of the frame separately they were proving you really were getting bang for buck when you bought up into more expensive models.
“But it’s hard to know how it will actually look once hair and skin are on. Some of the VR dream insertion MMO games for example, one of the problems is because the in game creation engines had different shininess and lighting the body ended up looking completely different in reality than it did when you were choosing what a ‘body’ might look like,” I said.
“That is an interesting observation. If you like I can take you to a nearby customization center. That way you will be able to make sure you can choose the features you feel would be best,” she said.
“I…need some time. It’s hard to get around,” I said.
“May I continue?” she added. She did look a bit smug or amused. Partly she was probably seeing me like a kid in a candy store.
“The left most model is the oldest. Despite old, that means they’ve had time to iron out the kinks, thus it has a fairly good resistance to breaking down and can blend in pretty well compared to other models. They’ve also had significant upgrades over time. So its not outdated from being older. Its also considered a very stable model.”
“But why have that older model if the others seem to have better traits?” I asked.
Again she was happy to expin. “This model has much of the infrastructure required to make it already paid for. So a lot of people buy this model because it’s much cheaper than the others and still fairly adequate for easy to use. Its proven its functionality over time. It still is a good model and still very self aware. I can assure you even the lowest model here is something good and better than any other maker on the market.”
“And the Asca model, why are many of its traits so low on its scoring?” I asked. It was fairly easy to see that that model cked some traits. The stealth or detection by human’s traits on it was the lowest, meaning that they were noticed by humans to be quite easy to be ‘outed’ as an android.
“The Asca model was originated as a military contract several years ago. They asked us to provide and build for them a model that could easily be used as soldiers to fight for them when the … rest of the world, were going to someday start a war. They weren’t sure which would start the new wars first but it was believed that someday they’d need a ground troop model that was good enough to seem human but not have a loss in ground fighting. And yet still be able to blend in and function with other humans. We can’t keep civilians safe in countries abroad without a ground soldier either and airpnes were never good enough by themselves without other supports. They were also interested in special ops also. And for working with and tracking mass light drones for a wide variety of purposes. At some point however, they decided there wasn’t a need for that particur model anymore and have upgraded. But this model still is highly recommended as being one of the most durable android ptforms in the world and good for certain types of applications. People who don’t care as much about the domestic features and who usually want something that can work on the farm, heavy industries, or help in rugged environments will usually choose this model because of its durability and ruggedness while still being pleasing to look at. It does cost more than the original type or android that we used to develop. This then became a basis foundation to research for the other models but still isn’t too expensive,” she expined. She even brought up a highlighted version of what some of them look like.
They did look as pretty as the other girl android models. All of them looked genuinely beautiful. The animations were also good showing each model move in walking simution of supposedly how they really walked. Then that was followed by how they really ran. In some ways it looked like how you might see real people walk, and it wasn’t built to be a robotic walk at all.
Interestingly enough the oldest android type was the type matching Edna and Emma the nurse androids I’d seen as far as I could tell. It seems like the hospital types were some kind of strip models with bare functionality and programming but which had been put through a hospital training simutor for many hours.
So even though on the graph it didn’t seem to be a good model, I’d actually seen them in the hospital before any upgrades had been used and they were still pretty good. And could still be a companion even at a lower tiered model. Those weren’t visible as androids under scrutiny from real people I think unless they talked too much.
But in theory, they could be taught to blend in more. It would just take more time.
“And the second one from the left?” I asked.
“An older model but with a very well developed A.I. for it’s time. As you can see the military warbot girl doesn’t have as good of a S.M.A.R.T. system AI as the others like this second from the left model you just asked about, but can still learn and adapt but will take much longer to do. The Carin despite being an older model is the second most advanced S.M.A.R.T. system in the world, only having been surpassed by the Liga, our most advanced model,” she said.
“All of these are very good, advanced androids,” the emphasized.
“Why didn’t they develop the Asca model better? For its time it could have had a better A.I. than the Carin. It looks like some of its traits could have been very much better than the others if they’d tried harder?” I noted.
She also nodded, seeing what I was looking at. “For all intents and purposes the Asca model was very good and is still good. Some consider it like the underdog because its stats don’t really show all of its strengths. ‘If they had only developed the AI better’. Do you know how many times I’ve heard that? It’s actually a typical response. Basically they were developed for the war and at the time there was the fear in budgeting, that we would be throwing money away by developing ruggedness second to AI while putting a super expensive A.I. on something that is going to be shot at anyway. Also there was a belief that they’d be destroyed fairly quickly through the war and so bare minimum features for running programs for search and destroy, popution containment and anti-rioting protocols, police, bodyguard, security, prison guard, war tactics simution engines, advanced sniper dexterity and targeting, and close combat, and unarmed combat programs. Instead of expensive AI, they put the money into making it sturdier also.”
A warbot…hmm, that was tempting, I thought to myself. Normally I wouldn’t consider a warbot. But the recent riots had changed things.
Actually all of the models were interesting. Because of customization I could mess with all of them and switch things up. But I had to be aware of one factor; cost. It was the next graph she showed me. I coughed on the water I was sipping when this part of the screen came up. By the look of things Barbara couldn’t entirely hide that this part had her worried too about how I’d react.
Android Type
Carinol
Carin
Asca
Liga*
Cost Differences
I was too tired to think about the options right now. My head hurt, and I was tired partly from seeing that it was going to be something I would need to do a lot of homework on. There wasn’t any perfect fit and easily recognizable scenario here.
And if I chose badly I would screw up my whole future.
I wish I’d thought about what to do before I saw the costs.
But would it be safer to get two lower end androids instead of one best model with what I can buy for my money?
Normally someone here would be deciding, hey let’s get the very very best! But looking at the money table I’d considered a back door route others failed to see. And that was… I’d get by on more with 2 lower end models rather than 1 super expensive model.
Plus I had to put them to work, to pay for themselves also.
I hoped Barbara had another solution or option too. The finances end was starting to worry me.
