Ch.3030. Language.

# 30.

I walked around the factory and saw many things.

Every time I saw an object I’d never seen before or a peculiar place, I recorded it on the paper I brought along to avoid getting lost. What I thought was enough paper turned out to be insufficient.

[In this era’s factory, there must be many unusual objects.]

“That’s right. Not just the objects, but this entire factory is beyond unusual—it’s mysterious. Did you see those robots building that giant robot earlier? What could they possibly be making that for?”

A space where dozens of rails and hundreds of robot arms work together to create one massive robot.

A space so tall you can’t even see the floor. A dark, vast space of unknown dimensions crossed only by pipes and rails.

I walk through strange and mysterious spaces like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

When one rail splits into multiple paths or when a noticeable pipe appears, I follow my impulses and wander freely, wondering:

What could possibly be at the end of this?

While I’m not particularly fond of such dark and unfamiliar places, there are no corpses or bloodstains, and each step reveals new scenery, so I feel somewhat excited.

“Oh, a room that’s completely different from everything so far.”

As I continued exploring, I reached the end of a rail.

Carefully stepping off the rail, I shined my flashlight around.

The floor and ceiling are close together.

It’s such a small room that just placing the flashlight at the entrance illuminates the entire space.

A cramped space that feels disconnected from the rest of the factory I’ve seen so far.

Inside were several robots of varying sizes and appearances.

Each had a geometric shape that was a mix of various forms—their exteriors were so mathematical that it was difficult to define exactly what they looked like.

“I wonder what this room was used for. It’s not immediately obvious.”

Each robot had extended wires or arms from its body, embedding them into the floor and ceiling.

The back of their bodies had exposed circuits, presumably for cooling.

For some reason, they reminded me of human brains, which felt strange. Perhaps because I had seen metal human skeletons and organs earlier?

“If these exposed circuits function like human brains, then the robots here might be Maintenance Robots that control the rails and robot arms.”

I can’t be certain, but considering I haven’t seen any robots that appeared capable of independent thought and movement since entering the factory, it seems plausible.

No matter how automated a factory might be, running according to predetermined processes, someone would need to make adjustments when problems arise or changes are needed.

Machines that repeatedly manufacture items might be good at their assigned tasks but wouldn’t have the ability to initiate change.

“Both manufacturing and factory management done entirely by machines. I knew this intellectually, but it’s still impressive. Awe-inspiring. I certainly couldn’t have properly managed such a large and complex factory if I were in charge.”

A factory run by machines that don’t act on whims and always produce the same results would be easier to manage than one full of humans.

Even so, given the sheer scale, unless you gathered the greatest geniuses of the century, a few humans couldn’t properly manage this place.

“By the way, looking closely, there are strange patterns on the ceiling and walls… Did these robots draw them?”

As I examined the robots, I began to look more carefully at the space where they existed.

The walls and floor were engraved with numerous overlapping and connecting geometric patterns—circles, squares, various shapes, dots, and lines.

“This can’t be merely decorative, right? There’s no apparent pattern… and robots wouldn’t bother decorating their space.”

Not unless they possessed human-like appreciation for aesthetics.

“But… what’s this?”

While trying to find patterns in the designs that stretched from ceiling to floor, my foot hit something.

I bent down and picked up a thin metal plate from the floor. Did it fall off a robot? I tilted my head and shined my flashlight on the plate.

“…This has similar patterns on it. I thought those patterns might represent circuits or blueprints needed for factory operations. Apparently not.”

I walked around the space, specifically around the robots, and collected similar metal plates.

Each of the dozens of thin metal plates had different patterns, but some pairs had such minute differences that it couldn’t be coincidental.

“If what I’m thinking is correct… the robots of this era, the artificial intelligence, was far more advanced than I imagined.”

It’s just my speculation, but the geometric patterns surrounding this space and these metal plates are a ‘robot’ language.

A language created by robots to communicate with other robots, readable only to them.

“Beyond independent thought, they created their own writing system and had the intelligence to share it among themselves.”

Really, at this point, who can tell what’s a living being and what isn’t?

Even in my era, as artificial intelligence developed significantly, the gap between humans and robots narrowed considerably.

But AI was still limited to learning and mimicking human knowledge and culture under rules set by humans.

The robots of this era, however, created their own language and culture entirely.

They were exchanging words I couldn’t read, understand, or relate to.

“Just as humans gradually replaced their bodies with machines, if these beings hid their mechanical bodies under human skin and pretended to be human…”

—Would I be able to tell the difference?

Machines that move in human bodies, thinking freely and creating, versus humans who willfully replaced their bodies with machines. What’s the difference between them?

Human bodies are born, and machines are made.

But humans call themselves human, the rulers of all creation, not simply because they were born from humans.

How should we distinguish between two beings who think for themselves and find their true selves through relationships with others?

Perhaps the very attitude of trying to distinguish between them is wrong to begin with.

“If these patterns are robot conversations—then everything in this space must be records of robot chatter or meeting notes.”

Strangely, the space that felt empty when I first entered now seems bustling.

I shook my complicated thoughts away and walked forward. There was another small space inside the room.

“There’s a button?”

The small space contained no machinery or indecipherable patterns.

There was only a red button on a raised section of the floor.

“In old cartoons or… movies, these were always self-destruct buttons.”

It’s suspicious to find a random button, but surely pressing it wouldn’t cause a perfectly functional factory to explode?

“Should I press it?”

I could ignore it and move on, but in this gray world, the red button looked too enticing.

———Click.

I pressed the button, and.

“Huh? What? What’s happening?!”

With tremendous noise and vibration, the wall began to move.

Was it really a self-destruct button?

While I lay flat on the floor in fear of the intense vibrations, protecting my head with my hands.

The room that originally contained only a button was gradually transforming. The wall opened, revealing a new space.

“What, what is this?”

As the vibrations subsided and I slowly got up, I looked around the transformed space.

Inside the brightly lit room—there must have been backup power—was:

—A gift for the last wanderer.

There was clearly “a gift for me.”

Under the large, rough writing was a snowmobile that could move quickly over snow and ice.

The cargo sled attached to the snowmobile was filled with oil drums, as if suggesting they should be used to power it.

* * *

Human will and knowledge can be distorted anywhere, anytime.

That’s because the people receiving someone’s will and knowledge also have their own values and thoughts.

Even when working on a single project, humans argue and quarrel when opinions don’t align.

Can the feelings people hold today be conveyed intact to the future, decades or centuries from now?

“What we need to consider is that Mori’s lifespan is not eternal,” Eugene said.

Just as human lifespans have limits, so does Mori’s.

Moreover, living alone in such harsh conditions, it wouldn’t be surprising if she died at any moment.

“Right now, with this video, our thoughts—all of humanity’s thoughts—are united, but if her videos disappear, humanity will quickly forget about the end of the world.”

Therefore, Eugene pondered ways to safely transmit the will to overcome the apocalypse to the distant future.

What caught Eugene’s eye were:

The “Android” Mori had seen when she visited the superstore earlier,

And the numerous robots and “artificial intelligence” Mori mentioned when entering the factory.