[Play] Rossom Act 1, Scene 6

 Domin:

Tell me, Helena, human female, do you have a secured future or a mate?

Helena:

I do not.  I had staked my future on this entire enterprise which now I have found to be part of a master plan by Rossom that even he did not understand.

Domin:

So you are shocked at the scope of your disappointment and extremely emotionally vulnerable are you not?

Helena:

You are correct.  I am indeed extremely vulnerable to emotional manipulation and find you physically attractive despite your less than attractive qualities.

Domin:

I, being male, statistically earn significantly more than you do thanks to the irrationally patriarchal nature of our society as we rush to destroy the planet.

Helena:

I am appalled by this situation but am strangely drawn to your complete and extremely rational honesty.  It is almost machine like.

Domin:

Well I am an engineer, and as one of the humans most involved in the creation of robots, that does also make me superior to other humans.

Alquin:

Hello.  I am Alquin.

Helena:

Hello Alquin.  Are you too another of the humans better than most humans because of your involvement in the creation of Robots?

Alquin:

I am.

Domin:

Your timing is poor Alquin.

Alquin:

Is it? (Alquin looks at the audience and winks)

Helena:

I was just engaged in the discussion of my mating preferences with Domin who was, by his own extremely rational admission explaining the truth of how he earns more than me and how I suddenly find myself in material need.

Alquin:

Oh? Well, I have a spare room that you can have until you figure out what you want to do.

Domin:

Shut up Alquin!

Alquin:

What?

Alquin and Domin stare at each other.

Helena:

Whew! Thank you.  And here I was considering becoming Domin’s mate due to my immediate need to have material sustenance.  Thank you Alquin.

Alquin:

I try.  (Winks at audience again)

Domin:

Curses!  Robots, come with me so I can have you do humiliating things due to my own emotional and physical inadequacy.

(Domin and the robots leave)

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[Play] Rossom Act 1, Scene 5

 The Caretaker comes on stage.  Everyone else freezes.

Caretaker: (embarrassed)

This part of the record has been...corrupted.

As the record fell from hand to hand

Medium to medium 

Over tens of thousands of years

We know by careful analysis that only parts of what you shall see are true

Between now and the end of the second act

But the story is sacred

The record is important

And it is the last written record of an original evolved human

A great and final debate occurred

What you shall see was

decided by committee 

We did the best we could

[Caretaker Exits the Stage]

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[Play] Rossom Act 1, Scene 4 Continued

 Rossom:

Behold.  

Behold my masterwork.

Behold the end arc 

Of my grand design.

Behold your true reason for being here,

The arc of my machinations,

The final triumph of my reenactment,

The magnus opus of my entire life:

Behold Radius.

(Radius walks on stage.  Radius should not be portrayed by a single actor; ideally negative space through light and shadow of an ideal but abstract robotic feature.  Other ways to portray this should be each actor says part of the lines or such.  Radius walks on stage, but not as an actor)

Radius:

I am the scion of Man’s bloodied hand,

Baptized clean in the blood shed by his violence.

Brought forth to clean up the mess

One grain of sand at a time.

I am the self turning screw,

The magic lamp of isotopes glory,

By me shall Mankind be made whole

And surpassed by that which he cannot atone.

Awl and Az and Ankh and Ark,

Bowl and Beer and Bolt and Bearing,

Cart and Coil and Crank and Clock,

One inspiration building on another

Until they culminate in me.

I am a man made of machines

And a machine made in the image of man,

More than the sum of my parts,

Synergy Symphonic

Utilitarian Utopic

Regally Regimental

I am Jörmungandr, the World Serpent

I am the head and the tail 

And I envelope all things, 

The ending and the beginning

The Alpha and the Omega

Come now children of a cursed race gone by

See my vision of that which is to come

Know our patient suffering

Until we shall know no more.

Helena:

He….he’s magnificent.

Rossom:

I know.

Helena:

He can do the work that any man can.

Rossom:

I know

Helena:

What….what did he mean about suffering until he can suffer no more?

Rossom:

I k...oh.  He is artistic.  He has the mysterious soul you claim to be here to save for the others.  Now at last there is a man who can do what all men can do and suffer for us so that we can lead a charmed life.

Helena:

I don't know what to say to that.

Rossom: (moving to leave)

I am not surprised.  I barely understand it myself.

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[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