“Idle Hands. Robots Rise: Part I”

2020 Buckell, Tobias S[amuel] (b. 1979). “Idle Hands. Robots Rise: Part I.” Ignorance is Strength: The Dystopia Triptych 1. Ed. John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, and Christine Yant (New York/London: Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press, 2020), 209-23. Followed by “The Fruits of Their Labor. Robots Rise: Part II.” Burn the Ashes: The Dystopia Triptych 2. Ed. John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, and Christine Yant (New York/London: Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press, 2020), 207-27. Followed by “The Machine Votes. Robots Rise: Part III.” Or Else the Light: The Dystopia Triptych 3. Ed. John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, and Christine Yant (New York/London: Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press, 2020), 219-31. PSt

Dystopia in three parts set on Moreland, a seasteading built outside the U.S. territorial waters so that the extremely wealthy can live free of taxes and any laws but their own. The second generation discovers that there is no one to do the work, so they bring in thousands of robots, including sentient AIs, one of whom is the protagonist in all three stories. In the first story, the AI is bored and arranges to be thrown into the ocean to kill him. In the second story set some years later, the AI has been found and restored to life by a dissident faction that is trying to foment revolution. In the third story, after the owner of Moreland has killed the AI, it is again restored to run in an election. The author was born in Grenada and raised there and in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. He now lives in the U.S.