Robots

Robots live and function almost identically to other beings in the Readymade Utopia universe. They require the heart of a recently deceased being to provide them with power and sentience. Robots are accepted the same as any other creature socially and culturally. There are many different models and shapes of robots in the same way that there are organic species.

History

Robots have been constructed for thousands of years. In approximately -500RMU it was discovered that the heart of an organic creature can be used as a power supply to provide a robot with sentience. For a time, it was not uncommon for loved ones of the recently deceased to put the deceased's heart put into a robot. Such endeavors ended in disappointment when families discovered that the robot bore little resemblance to their loved one, behaving like a complete stranger. Consequently, laws were put in place preventing individuals from deciding the fate of the hearts of the deceased. Through the double-blind process at the HART Building, the destinations of organic hearts are impossible to discern.

Construction

Robots are "birthed" at the HART Building in Three Cloud City. When a creature dies, a Blueheart senses that a being has passed and begins to float toward the dead body to collect the heart and deliver it to The H.A.R.T. Building.

Relationship to AI

Its believed the mechanism that causes robots to become sentient is small variations in the electric currents they get from the hearts that power them. The scientific community is largely in agreement that creating sentience by other means (i.e. a means that does not require the use of organic hearts) should not be pursued.