Machines On Titan

 

Machines On Titan is a short story I wrote in May to August of 2024, in the midst of other larger writing projects. Acting as a companion piece to the previous Photos From Europa, Machines On Titan looks at the Saturnian Bureau of Interplanetary Affairs, located on Titan, and its tech division. For the day shift, Cale and Ram, the tech division's most effective, but most unruly employees, have punched in, ready for the typical day of fixing up devices and technology from around the galaxy. While their superior does eventually come in with news of refugees that may need some tech repaired, a more pertinent task for the day involves a later middle-aged man from the nearby moon Dione, bringing in a particularly unusual bit of tech for the two to inspect.

Machines On Titan can be read here.

The above image was drawn by Bukimi Isan, whose online portfolio can be found here. While it's not quite evocative of what Melissa's appearance should be, I felt the basic concept of the image was fitting for this story's tone.

Once again, after several fantasy stories, I've chosen to go back to science fiction. Unlike its companion Photos From Europa, which falls more into fantasy sci-fi, I consider this story to be "true" science fiction, in that it analyses man's relation to technology and science. The end of the story also gives an almost medical drama feel, reminding me of my time of working in hospitals and making sure to give the best possible care while also not allowing ourselves to get too caught up with the stress that comes with every life we watch over.

This story was heavily influenced by the MaSiRo Project, an attempt by several Japanese hobbyists and programmers to create robotic maids for use in maid cafes in Japan. The amount of effort put in for both its software and hardware is quite impressive, especially for something that is arguably only a hobby, and I myself admire the amount of work put in for what is clearly a project born of true passion. Despite boasting over 5 years of work, however, the various robots unfortunately fall into the so-called uncanny valley for a number of viewers, including myself, though I know several others who have found the various maids cute or otherwise endearing in their own way, without coming across as eerie. Beyond that, I feel all the talk of generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, Character.ai, and similar models, and their own ethical dilemmas served as another inspiration for this work, particularly in creative endeavours like my own. AI is far from a new concept, with numerous papers and articles written over the years from both philosophical and ethical perspectives, and it's an almost omnipresent trope in science fiction to look at man's relation to technology. Even so, I enjoyed trying to play around with the tropes associated with artificial intelligence, robotics, and similar concepts.

Like Photos From Europa before it, a rather substantial chunk was removed from this story before its publication, featuring an argument between Cale and Ram over their own respective abilities as they tried to argue over who should be responsible for cleaning up their workspace. I ultimately scrapped this because it added little to the story except for making the two excessively rude and unlikable, and also because it bloated the introduction too much; after all, the true focus of the story was supposed to be Melissa the robot maid, not Cale or Ram.

Canonically, all four human characters in this story have surnames: Cale Haag, Ram Gautham, Paul Beck, and Corey Stull. The structure of the story meant that none of them ever came up, but they're here for the sake of completeness and my own possible future reference.

And as one final note, the number 15795 was selected because it's the number of MP3 files I currently have in my local music library.