Chapter 7: Prelude to Oblivion: Legacy in Violation

“It had named the robot”

The J.O Varentra intelligence was the culmination of more than twenty years of devotion for Caleb Adamson. The most sophisticated and secure Artificial Intelligence ever conceived; it was capable of manipulating its human shaped chassis to mimic human behavior, but more than that, it was designed to adapt and learn to meaningfully interact with any environment whether digital or natural that its host body inhabited. With the potential to be modified for other uses, its possibilities were practically endless.

Adamson had always joked that he was on the verge of replacing the dog as 'man's best friend', but after this day, he believed he had given dogs a new best friend and instead, given man a brother.

As Adamson rolled off Nicole that night and tried to mentally return to Earth, he knew he had succeeded in his life goal and become a man who would truly craft a new world. Deep down, he felt he owed his success to the failure of Dr. Park’s HIND technology. The collapse of that project had allowed him to design his ‘intelligent Bluetooth’ to be far more universal. The Varentra artificial intelligence would unify humankind with technology and allow the creation of a world better than the one given to them. He could not contain the grin. He felt Nicole's soft hands massage his chest as he smiled back at himself through the ceiling mirror. He would never forget the look in his daughter’s eyes when she saw the robot. It was more than likely that no other husband had ever come home with a better get-out-of-jail-free card. Caleb Adamson knew that night that he had secured his legacy.

"Honey," Nicole eventually asked. "Are you sure that thing's safe?"

He might have laughed if he had the energy. Was the J.O. Varentra safe? The year was 2027, the technology to build a walking robot had already been around for years. Honda had already built a walking tin man before she was even born and she was born in the nineties. Most people had ignored it, but Honda's ASIMO robot had been grabbing balls out of the air and walking up stairs even before South Korea thought it could steal the technologies world leader mantle with their iRobot DMZ patrol bots or their bold robot declaration of 2003. Sure, their country's economy was already far more technologically advanced than the US, but having the best artificially intelligent robots is where Adamson had decided to draw the line.

His Varentra technology would be the leading program for not just robots, but also any hardware utilizing software. It was his vision that Varentra technology would unify all technologies in a comprehensive system working for the benefit of humankind.

"Are you sure that thing is safe around Mel?"

Adamson kissed Nicole on the forehead, "There's a reason it took this long for me to finally be able to bring him home. I would never jeopardize my family."

She in turn embraced him and they shared each other’s warmth.

"Don't worry,” he continued, "We're just going to observe him."

They fell asleep in each other's arms. Their lives were about to become very different. Their fame would make them legends. The J.O. version of the Varentra intelligence had proven through JOVa that it might be the invention of the century. It was cause for celebration. Everyone would want one, but the robot was still under observation and not ready to be reproduced - so had it been decided by man.

One day the JOVa, unaware of the catastrophic consequences of its actions, came through the front door with a surprise gift for its creator; another tin man with oil for blood modeled in its own image. It had named the robot 'Adam'.