Asimov Circuit Miniaturization
The history of bot brain miniaturization begins in Year of The Computer 125, when the growing demand for small, self-aware bots for use in a variety of special programs spawned a wave of innovation in bot-brain miniaturization. As The Computer's loyal R&D workers demanded increasingly smaller bot brains, a number of hurdles were encountered and overcome, including: Bot Brain Overheating, Electromagnetic Personality Interference, and Light Sensor Dysfunction Induced Hallucinations.
Two yearcycles ago, demand for truly tiny bots created a new challenge - the all-important Asimov Circuits required to maintain bot loyalty were too large for the massively reduced scale of the new bot-brain designs. This unfortunate circumstance led to the Asimov Circuit Miniaturization project. The project took the form of a challenge from The Computer to a number of Tech Services and R&D service firms. Each firm was given 6 monthcycles to develop a plan and prototype for a newly designed set of Asimov Circuits, with the requirement of at least a 90% reduction in functional scale.
The terms of the challenge indicated that the first firm to successfully produce a functional prototype would be awarded a contract to mass produce the new circuits. The unsuccessful firms would be required to submit to The Computer all information and intellectual property related to the project, including intellectual property that would be reclaimed using the controversial new Cerebral Tissue Licensing and Recovery technology.
R&D Service Firm Syntelligent_Systems successfully completed the project, producing the first in a new series of miniaturized Asimov Circuits. Unfortunately, a number of defects were introduced into the design plans after they had been approved by The Computer. This tampering was attributed to the actions of a group of File Sharers who compromised the service firm's databanks, and who were terminated to a man, in one of Action_Squad_Alpha's exciting escapades. Sadly, several batches of defective Asimov Circuits made it through Syntelligent_Systems Quality Assurance labs (An oversight, which the original QA testers' clones insist cannot recur due to recently updated test plans). Of these batches of defective Asimov circuits, only Defective_Batch_ACA675T09-XXXX was actually installed in a series of super-miniaturized bot brains. These bot brains were allocated primarily to the Denta-Bots project and installed in a number of models of miniature bots, including Toothbots, Plaqueradictors, Robobraces, Microscrubots and the now infamous Flossbot_Mk_II. The serious nature and implications of the defects in the new miniaturized Asimov Circuits were unclear until the actions of the bots so equipped resulted in a series of incidents contributing to the events which are now known as the Toothpaste Disaster.
-- Mesh-U-GNA-1
refs: Action_Squad_Alpha; Defective_Batch_ACA675T09-XXXX; Denta-Bots; Flossbot_Mk_II.
Yipes! I've been editored! Thank you mysterious grammerian!
Mesh-U
Commentary:
Given the problems that arise from miniaturizing the bot brains in ToothBots, FlossBots, and the like, I wonder how R&D plans to make bot brains small enough to fit inside nanobots. (See Omega-U-MAN-5's Dentagrip entry.) I can't imagine that they'd try something as treasonous as building nanobots without Asimov circuits, but how else would it all fit?
-- Jan-U-ARY-31
A particular interest of mine, Jan-U, I'm glad you asked. A white paper was released by R&D just last week-cycle about it involving a technique called recursive engineering. From what I gather it involves first making a regular size bot that can build bots and bot-brains programmed to make one exactly like itself, but only half the size. Then they just repeat the process. Of course, if they'd consulted someone who'd actually worked with bots, they might have had the obvious flaws pointed out to them -- like how do you reprogram the little buggers once they hit microscopic size. It's a pain hitting all the tiny little keys even on our credit sized ones.
No, I'm afraid the little things will just keep going making smaller and smaller versions of themselves until they reach a singularity point. Once that happens, we're probably all in the vats.
-- Watt
I would guess that 'nanobots' are not truly bots in the literal sense... that is to say, they are not equipped with itty-bitty self aware bot brains, and therefore do not require Asimov Circuits. This is of course, just a guess, as I've never done any research on nanobots. At all. Ever. None.
-- Mesh-U