[Play] Rossom, Act 1, Scene 4 Continued

 Rossom:

The kind that changes the world.

Helena:

Can you change that planet and leave this one alone?

Rossom:

I have something I want to show you.

Helena:

Are...are you even listening to a thing I’m saying?

Rossom:

I'm going to need your help with something.

Helena looks around as if he might be talking to someone else. 

Helena:

What are you even talking about?

Rossom:

You are acting as if they have feelings and desires, have a soul. 

They do not.

Yet.

Helena:

Wait.

You aren’t making any sense.

You and your plant manager have spent the whole time,

Every second, convincing me they have no thoughts and feelings.

Marcus:

No thoughts or feelings

Stella:

Every second

Helena: 

And now here you are 

Telling me the exact opposite?

What is your game?

Marcus:

What could he mean?

Stella:

What wondrous portent does the creator have planned?

Rossom:

It is all part of my design.

It is no accident that you are here.

I have a plan.

Marcus:

He has a plan.

Stella:

A real plan.

Marcus:

Not a pretend plan that isn't a plan.

Stella:

A real plan.

Helen:a

Stop.  Just stop this.

What do you mean?

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[Play] Rossom Act 1, Scene 4 - Continued

 (Rossom enters from the back of the stage.  Stella and Marcus stop.  Helena turns around.)

Rossom:

Don't let me stop you.

Helena looks at the robots.

The Robots don’t move.

Rossom:

Show her.

Marcus:

We don’t feel pain.

(Marcus takes a knife and cuts his forearm open.  Blue and green fluid spills to the floor and Marcus shows no pain whatsoever.)

Stella:

We don’t earn money,

Because we have no desires for things

We make things

Marcus:

We are things

We are the makers of things

Stella:

We serve mankind.

Rossom:

As do I, as do I.

Helena laughs.  Rossom looks less than pleased.

Helena:

Is that little grotesque presentation supposed to persuade me of anything?

Rossom:

They are tools.

Helena:

Your name isn't Rossom.

Rossom:

It is now.

Helena:

You read a book that warned of treating people as disposable commodities...and then went and created disposable commodities.

Rossom:

It was a noble vision of the future.  I have taken precautions.

Helena:

Have you seen the videos of what they do to your robots? How are they treated? 

Let us pretend you are right

Take God out of the equation

They are still in our image

By treating them like trash

You cheapen our image of ourselves

Rossom:

Pro Life advocates made the same argument against abortion all the time.

Helena:

Do these look like blobs of goo?

Rossom:

That is precisely what they are.

Helena"

So are we! At some point, well past a bundle of cells, these act like people and talk like people.  Treating them like things is a crime unto itself.

Rossom:

Did you ever see the hall of presidents at DisneyLand? 

What difference is there between those automatons

And something more sophisticated

Mine can adapt to their situation

They can grow 

They can learn

But they don't create art

They don’t explore

They might run a lab

But they don’t ask the questions.

They might do the jobs

But they are not job creators.

They are not the rightful owners of their property.

I gave them the leisure they so craved

All without destroying their so-called economy.

Universal Basic Income?

Didn't work.

Universal Robots?

Did.

Helena:

What warped planet do you live on?

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[Play] Rossom Act 1, Scene 4 - Continued

 Marcus:

From the mind of a playwright

Came the heart of a poet

Rossom the mantle he chose

Hearing not  horror

But wonder unimagined

He sought out all the genomes of the Earth

Therein he chose those that he could mold

He hammered and he begged and he borrowed

And in the end he made something entirely new

Something not altogether human

But something that could resemble man

That could serve man

Augment him through its service

A noble companion in a new age

Like the Steed and the Hound of time of old

Now a faithful hand meet for the age of stars

Stella:

But what is a mind?

And how to recreate it in biology?

He had every great mind in the world try

None could give him what he wanted

Then he tried it himself

Using simulation after simulation

He was getting nowhere until he noticed

That the animals in the simulation were doing better than his people

So through a combination of Algae

And simulations of Cuttlefish

He gave us our minds

We act human

Marcus:

And seem human

Helena:

But our minds are modeled off a poisonous fish

Marcus:

But a very clever fish at that.

Helena:

Many people have tried to unlock how Rossom did this

None have succeeded

He guards the secret at all times

Keeping a key around his neck

Ready to swallow it if need be.

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[Play] Rossom, Act 1 Scene 4

 Scene-Factory 22.  Sulla and Marcus stand side by side.  Marcus has a ‘Model 1’ next to him and Sulla has a ‘model 42’ next to her

Domin

This is our factory museum.  

Helena

But….there are no exhibits.

Domin

These two robots are the exhibits.  Marcus, say hello.

Marcus

Hello

Helena

Hello

Marcus

Pleased to meet you

Helena

Pleased to meet you as well.

Marcus

Lovely weather we’re-

Domin makes a cutting motion with his hand.

Domin

That’s social engagement.  They will both do that all day if you let them.  Small talk is easy.   Sulla, start museum presentation

Sulla

Hello.  And welcome to Factory 22, the most recent factory on the Island.  Our Founder, Barret Rossom, believed in the idea of our creation from a young age.  In fact, born Isaac Jordan Lysenko, he legally had his name changed when he turned 18.  A brilliant scientist, he was determined to carry out the dreams of...

Helena [Interrupts Sulla, Sulla continues talking but with less volume while Domin and Helena talk]

Hello Sulla

Domin

She won’t stop her presentation once she starts.

Helena

Really?

Domin

Nope.  Not when you have admin access like I do.

Sulla

...The opportunity to build his dream of making the fictional Robots a reality, using an actual Algae based protoplasm infused with metallic intake to reclaim the historic definition of ROBOT as an organic, mechanical highly adaptable life form capable of making life better for all of humanity...

Helena

Original definition?

Domin

There was a play.  Rossum's Universal Robots.  Rossom, our Rossom, not the fictional one, wanted to make the play happen so much that he built the real thing.

Helena

But…

Sulla

...16 PhDs including Biochemistry, Biophysics, Applied Chemistry and...

Domin

It was a play.  This is reality.

Helena

Didn’t that play ...end badly?

Domin

This is reality.

Helena

But/

Marcus 

/Cutting edge science like never before, changing the world from mountain to shore

Domin clicks a button to fast forward.  Maybe a remote control.

Stella

...Once the hard work of making protoplasm was done, the real work could begin.  Rossom’s son the positronic genius...

Domin clicks a button to fast forward.

Marcus

...With a team of cutting edge User Interactive Designers to give us that extra human appeal while avoiding that nasty uncanny valley...

Domin clicks a button to fast forward.

Stella

...What is the measure of a man? What is the sum of his parts? Well, it turns out those parts is 5 million two hundred and seventy five times seven.  Really, just a simple matter of...

Domin clicks a button to fast forward.

Marcus

...Lobbied congress to overcome the barbaric prejudice against artificial life forms.  But by showing a series of cute child sized singer robots, Rossom charmed...

Domin clicks a button to fast forward.

Stella

...We’re not human at all even though we look that way.  I don’t earn money, I have no preferences but the satisfaction of a long strong day of work here at Universal Robots...

Domin clicks a button to fast forward.

Marcus

...I don’t think they believe us Stel...

Domin clicks a button to fast forward.

Helena

Wait a minute.

Domin clicks pause.

Domin

What? 

Helena

What the heck are you showing me? You clicked through that presentation before/

Domin

/I’m getting to it/

Helena

/Before I could see anything.

Domin 

You’ll be here all week, you can come back and see it after, but trust me, it makes my point for me.

Helena

Can you please stop forwarding through what they want to say?

Domin

Fine.  But that’s the point, they don’t WANT anything except maybe to do their job.

Stella

Thank you Helena, I take pride in my tasks and enjoy doing them in their entirety.

Marcus

I agree.

Domin

No lip from you two, go back to your presentation.

Helena

Wasn’t the whole point of showing me this to show me how they can’t have souls?

Domin

I…(drifts off to silence)

Helena

Please continue.  (to Marcus and Stella) I am sure there is some great pearl of wisdom buried in all of this.

(Marcus and Stella look at Helena and Domin.  They are both silent. Helena looks at Domin.)

Helena

Why don’t you let them show me without you here?

Domin

This is ridiculous.  You can’t just….

Helena

I was told unfettered and unrestricted access to the whole island.

Domin

WHAT? Who told you that?

Helena

Mr. Rossom himself.  (Shows him a piece of paper.  Domin walks over and looks at it.  He looks back at her, unbelieving, and stomps off.)

Why did you wait?

Stella

You obviously wanted us to.

Marcus

We are both programmed to anticipate your needs, including non verbal communication.

Helena: Oh.  Oh, thank you.

Stella: Were we wrong to do this?

Helena: No.  No, that's fine.  Can you tell me the parts you skipped?

Marcus: Would you prefer us to start at the beginning?

Helena: No.  I guess not.  What do you think it was that he wanted to show me?

Stella: I think he wanted us to show you how we are only machines.  We are organic, but essentially machines.

Helena: I don't understand