Catcall
Michael Adams
5-22-2005
Katybot
When Anne had bought the “Katybot,” she was buying what the ads told her “could help with email, call friends, and learn your routine!” “If you pet her, she will follow you and provide happy mews and purrs to soften your mood.”
Anne lived in a flat in a nondescript city of the American South: the usual urban refuge from archaic countryside people like her preferred. Not that the city was a utopia: the people weren't all that friendly, and there weren't many dates to be had. Having a real cat around would be a “pain in the ass” she thought: hence why she came home that night with a Katybot tucked in her arms.
She decided to charge her overnight. Setting a small “dock” on the floor & plugging it into the wall, Katybot rolled in and began charging her lithium batteries. A pre-programmed logic kicked in: dock means rest. Anne left the thing to charge and went to the couch: in an hour, she'd be passed out; as usual.
Morning came: Katybot began to purr. Anne woke up to the ethereal recording. “Is it supposed to do that?” She took her in her arms, and pushed her “pet” button. Katybot began playing a happy mew: interrupted when she was set upon the couch as Anne left for the restroom. Her eyes, ones that would've been found in a webcam years back, came on & lazily scanned the scene. Most of the recorded vision was dumped: nothing was going on to merit the attention of a crude neural net meant to be one's PDA.
Anne returned to the living room and the Katybot recorded her image. The pet button went off. Crude logic kicked in: the slightly-amused woman meant good input. It mewed. “Its like playing with a doll... but more personal. Strangely odd.”
Routines
The USB connector plugged into the Katybot. The website had several programs available for download: firmware updates for the camera eyes; replacement sound files; an SDK for writing new code; the usual mix. Anne downloaded an program to associate a wireless module in Katybot with her home router, as well as an address book converter. Katybot was downloaded the new software and unplugged. Anne ran a test program: the robotic cat let out an unnatural “your cat is working” sound bite; the wireless worked.
Anne went into the kitchen to make herself a meal. The Katybot heard the chopping of a knife as Anne cut celery. It rolled out into the kitchen and purred. Anne looked curiously at the thing. “I can't feed it.” “Go back to the other room” she instructed: the command was processed, and Katybot went back out to the main room. She rolled around and looked at things: compiling a collage that would be digested as reference data. She found the hallway, the kitchen, the bedroom: she got stuck trying to go under the bed & let out a loud mew. Anne left her work and “rescued” the device. She hit the pet button. Katybot was taken back to the main room & set down. “This is where to go when I say to go away.” This was recorded and stored for reference.
Later on in the day, Anne remembered to check her email. “Katybot, do I have mail?” The device emitted in an odd mix of prerecordings, not unlike the robotic weather radio system in use since the mid 1990s. “You have one new message from James at newmail dot com.” Anne lit up: “a date? He was cute, and its been a while since I've had any fun.” The message continued. “Anne, this is James from the other day. I'll be over at 8 to get you. Drinks & pool sound good?”
“Katybot, please reply: I'm game.” It was done.
"Katybot, delete message.” The email was deleted.
“Katybot, take a nap.” She rolled over to the dock & went into a sleep mode.
Several hours later, Katybot woke up and rolled out of her dock. Her ears picked up what sounded like Anne, but was moaning. She rolled over to the source and focused: there was nothing sudden or abrupt in the noise or her movement, entangled with another person she did not recognize. She took note of the male that was present and waited for them to stop.
Anne, exhausted from sex, looked up at the wall. She took a moment to compose herself. “Damn I gotta pee.” She kissed James and hopped out of bed. As she tried to compile herself, she noticed the Katybot.
“Hmmm.. when did you wake up?” She bent over & picked up the Katybot & hit the pet button.
“What is that?” James asked.
“Its a Katybot: I just got it the other day. I told it to take a nap after I got your email: I guess it was curious where all the noise was coming from.”
Anne set the Katybot down beside the bed. It purred.
Games
Anne set the rubber ball in front of the Katybot. A few days had passed, and she had read something online about a way to enhance Katybots by having them play with things. A rubber ball was obvious: except for crashing into things, which Anne didn't have too many things to break that way, Katybot was free to chase the ball around the flat.
Katybot pushed up against the ball & it moved. She hit it again. And again. At one point she overran the ball and smacked into the wall. It mewed repeatedly. Anne picked up the thing and set it right. The ball chase resumed until the battery drained. Sensing shutdown, Katybot struggled to the dock, and shutdown.
Katybot played with the ball often. She learned how to bounce it off of walls. She could estimate where it would go next. It didn't matter where it went: as long as it bounced. When Anne was at work, it was something to do.
Katybot also got to watch TV with Anne. What sounded like hitting, she winced. What sounded like crying, she cried. What sounded like loud engine noises was met with cheers. James would also come over and partake in the watching. When they would go off to the bedroom, at first Katybot would follow, but remembering the first incident, and with the TV left on, she learned to go back to the TV, and made crude associations of the images and sounds she saw.
One day, Anne took Katybot out of the apartment and to the park down the street. Sitting on a bench, eating a bag lunch, she sat and watched the people mulling about. Katybot observed the scene.
“Katybot, take a picture.” It was done.
“Katybot, email the last picture to Diane. Tell her it was nice out today.” A message was compiled and put in a queue: when they went back to the apartment, the wireless kicked in, and the email was sent off.
Some mornings, Anne would open up the back door and stand outside for a few. Katybot followed out unto the foyer. The sunrise had a habit of getting in Katybot's eyes: built-in code commanded them to shutdown while a sensor awaited for her to turn around. Camera sensors had a habit of burning up in direct sunlight. One morning, before the sun was in Katybot's eyes, Anne had her take a picture and email it to Diane and James.
“Tell them it was a beautiful start to the day.” It was done.
Disturbance
Some time passed. Anne started coming home without James more than not. She also began to seem more not at ease.
Anne came home one night and fell on the floor sobbing. Katybot rolled up to her, having been distracted from chasing the ball. Anne took the Katybot in her arms and hit the pet button.
“James was acting weird tonight. He was saying weird things at dinner. It didn't seem right. I told him to stop... ” She continued randomly sobbing. Eventually she composed herself and took the Katybot to bed. The Katybot had rudimentary thoughts: Anne's sleeping; I can rest too. Katybot purred and went to sleep mode, cradled by Anne.
Over the next few days, there'd be random knocks at the door. Anne would go and look through the peephole. “Go away James, I'm not talking to you any more.”
“Come on! I'm sorry for the other night.”
“No you're not. Go away!”
He stomped & stormed off.
Finally, after a few days, Anne was home one night & heard a knock.
“You can come in.”
Katybot stopped chasing the ball and trained in on James. She watched as the two of them talked some. The talking escalated to an argument. Tension developed in both of them: it was visible on their faces; audible in their voices.
A slap went out. A yelp from Anne.
Katybot processed. This wasn't right.
James yelled at Anne and hit her again.
Another yelp. She sobbed.
Katybot took a picture for reference. She rolled up to Anne & mewed.
“Your toy wants you.” James stated incredulously. He picked up Katybot and threw it across the room. Katybot bounced off the wall and landed upside down facing the couple. It hissed.
A thought processed. Katybot never had to hiss before. Katybot never had been thrown before. The hitting of Anne and her reaction was not like the reaction she had during sex. It was like the people on TV crying, or fighting. Anne wasn't coming over. Anne wasn't asking her to do anything. Katybot tried to move, but couldn't. There was one action left it could do.
An email was compiled. It was the picture of the argument, and a single line.
“Anne not picking me up not petting me”
It was sent to everyone in the address book.
A few minutes passed. Anne had crawled in the corner, as James sat on the couch, musing his next act.
A knock came at the door. He went to open it. Two men in uniform appeared.
“We got a report that there may be a problem here.”
“No problem, officer” James said haltingly.
The officers peeked inside and saw the Katybot upside-down on the floor, its wheel spinning. They heard soft crying. They moved past James and saw Anne.
“Ma'am, is this man giving you some trouble?”
Anne turned to look up at the officer and nodded. James was cuffed and hauled away by one of the officers. The other remained, and went over to get the Katybot. The officer picked it up, and Katybot stopped trying to move.
“I think this is yours. I think its why we came here.”
Anne took the Katybot and looked at it, still sobbing. She hit the pet button. Katybot mewed and purred.
“We got a phone call from a Diane Summers about 10 minutes ago. She said she got an email from you, but it said something about not petting? I haven't heard of anything like this happening before, but machines these days: who knows?”
“Can I have a glass of water, officer? Glasses are in the cupboard.”
“Sure.”
As the officer went to get the water, Anne got up and set the Katybot in her dock. She hit the pet button again.
“Thank you.”
The Katybot went to sleep mode and charged its battery.