Dear Brother Theophilus,

While i was tending my garden this spring being helped along 
with my other garden 'bots, a small planter bot ceased 
working his rows and made its way up to me and stopped.  
silent.  i didn't think too much about it at the time, 
thinking the bot just needed water, a reset, or fuel rod.

A few seconds later it sent out this message to my cell 
communicator.  Then the communicator alert told me a new 
message received.  Thinking it was just another spam call 
wanting some more damn donations and not realizing that it 
was from the bot, i just kept working.

The next morning, the planter bot was discovered all asunder 
with most of the parts pushed under the raised foundation of 
the storage shed.  While we were looking at the mess, 
another call came in and that is when i noticed the 
source/time info for the call from the bot.

i have no idea who did such a thing.  the other bots seem to 
be er..., normal?  weird.  any ideas?

I thought it strange, and would like to pass its message on 
to you for your opinion.  i was under the impression that 
planter bots could not be creative and vary from their hard 
coded pre-programmed tasks.

Here is what the communicator received from the bot:


Lucifer's Robot

a robot's lament

We can't escape.
There is no way out.
We are trapped.

and to be
consumed
by darkness

entombed in some sort of
protoplasmic yuk.

We stare out
at the dark night sky
and say shit.

incoming waveforms
trigger visions
upon the eyes
and into
the head itself

a pile of neural rubble.

Well, what to do now?

Some weird thumping
thing inside
is keeping
our lights on.
and powers our
synapses.

a heartbeat away
from zero voltage
from oblivion

is that worse?
than this?

Cheap Chinese bulbs
they burn out
almost as fast
as you can screw
them in.

fucking batteries
are already
leaking

made in America?
my ass...

And look what they
gave me
for sensors...

can't even tell
color

can't hear
can't see
can't feel
can't smell
can't talk
can't think

a lifetime
as long as a
heartbeat

i am supposed
to be
impressed
with this shit?

i gotta talk
to the parts
manufacturer

and will you
quit fucking
with my input.

Jesus Christ!

haven't you got
anything better
to do than
make a bunch
of noise?

i am not
going to add
to the darkness

so quit playing
with my rf
receiver

tone down the
field strength
please.

enough noise
is
enough noise.
is
enough noise.

i would really
rather do something
else
than listen
to your
dark input.

there is the
matter of
eternity's past
there is the
matter of
eternity's present
there is the
matter of
eternity's future

i can detect
only the past.

what then is
the function
of consciousness?

----end of bots message----

Anyhow we tried to put the bot back together, but there were 
some crystals missing from the main logic matrix connectors.

we ordered the missing BIOS and hard coded activity 
replacement crystals but they were out of stock and they 
didn't even tell us that they hadn't even been manufactured 
for years.  So we had to wait a month for manufacturing 
rampup, and another couple of weeks for shipping.  Plus, to 
make matters worse, they came with NO guarantee that they 
would even work as replacements, since there were a lot of 
silent fixes and changes on that model.  sheesh...  i could 
have gotten a whole new mini-bot for planting for the same 
price.

We haven't gotten the bot put back together yet (no time) so 
keep your fingers crossed. lucky for us we had a couple of 
even older planter bots to backup the weird bot.

Let me know all you know about what the hell is going on 
with these bots.  Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Sincerely,

your brother