As a single parent, Marcy gave her two children much love, much attention, and much parental direction. She never missed a parent-teacher night at school. And, unless she worked extra hours, she never missed a single one of her son’s four years of Little League games. She never missed any of her daughter’s gymnastics events. Marcy worked passed her necessary years to meet full pension needs to finish paying for several college student loans. While not perfect, she felt that she did her best.

Marcy rejoiced when her children married and succeeded in well-paying professional careers. Her daughter became a local ENT surgeon, and her son a prominent lawyer, whom some suggested was on track to become a judge. Her world was good except for the infrequent visits of her busy children.

In retirement, Marcy would often sit and play tapes in her head of the wonderful years she and her children spent together. But after a very few years, those memory tapes became crinkled, muddled, conflicted, and sometimes erased.

By age 73, Marcy required assisted care.

To remedy this development, her children talked to each other on the phone. They rarely saw each other because they overloaded their lives, work, and life schedules. Likewise, they were always just too busy with issues to drive and visit mom. A caregiver was employed to assist their mother.

It was a business decision. It was a practical solution that did little to improve their lives.

They made this decision as an iconic song played via the piped-in elevator music in the background of the son’s office. Tina Turner was asking, “What’s love go to do with it.” The song was appropriate.

Alice was perfect.  In a phrase, Alice met all the check marks they desired. They never considered a list of check marks for their mother.

Alice made sure that Marcy took all the prescription and vitamin pills at the right time, and when to reorder the necessary medical and supplemental pills. Alice cooked notoriously good, nutritious meals. Marcy enjoyed her daily baths. It was one activity she had forgotten how to undertake. It was delightful that Marcy did not know or feel shame when she filled her diaper. The cleaning was a non-issue for the efficient Alice. Alice made a note of these events and adjusted the diet.

Alice lived in the apartment with Marcy. The children sold the family home when Marcy did not recognize it. The money bought a small condominium apartment and the services of Alice. There was enough money that the children did not have to contribute to the cost. It was a win-win-win situation.

The children rarely visited. They justified this as a) they were busy, b) there was nothing to do but sit and look at each other, with a rare smile from mom, c) to be honest, others would say the children were too self-absorbed, and d) with their sense of importance they could not admit that they were a child of an incredible, but now malfunctioning mother. These various issues would not sit well with their crowd of snobbish ladder climbers. Their only clear visions were working towards a judgeship and becoming the Chief of Surgery.

To help them on their selfish path, mom’s care increasingly fell upon Alice. She proved to be an ever-present life force. Every month, at a predetermined time, a joint, three-way phone call took place. Alice provided the disinterested children with detailed spreadsheets – hours awake, asleep, and nap times. Alice noted conversational times, mealtimes, and menus. Alice even recorded bowel movement activity.

Neither child paid much attention to this or the medical. They were solely interested in the monthly financials to ensure that the costs met projected costs. Between pensions, income from the sale of the house, the smaller cost of buying the condominium, the cost of Alice, groceries, and a few other items, neither child desired to use their incomes to look after their mom.

Now, as the children grew distant from their mother, and the mother sadly from her children, Alice filled a void. While memories and much was impaired, it was clear that on some level that Marcy loved Alice. Naturally, this professional relationship grew into common affections, but like many relationships grew over time into love. Unlike the rare smiles with the rare visits of the children, Marcy and Alice often smiled at each other. Some would say it was a normal, healthy relationship. Others would it is impossible and only programmed responses since Alice was a robot.

Alice was a fifth-generation robot. Consequently, the builder fixed many bugs and imperfections from previous generations. More importantly, Alice-Model 545b, as she was officially known, was the model that made the leap from a program fulfilling functions to a thinking machine. If Marcy seemed grumpy about taking her morning pills, Alice added a joke. It was not just a programmed joke; it was one specially selected to jolt Marcy. Just as humans unconsciously find, or try to find, the right joke, and share it at the right time, in the right way, so did Alice. Unlike frail memories that challenge humans, Alice’s databank stored every joke. In turn, Alice knew every time she used every joke, on what day, and with other variables, its success or failure. In another environment, Alice, with a few adaptations, could be a great comedian.

Some wondered if Alice, a robot, could think. Those willing to believe that the algorithms in the programme of the machine could write new algorithms, and thus think, were those bold enough to even wonder if she, as a machine, could replicate emotions? Some more radically inclined wondered if bots like Alice could even have emotions. As so often in the case of science, yesterday’s skeptics often become today’s champions.

As Macy declined, Alice evolved. As Macy required greater and more diverse attention, Alice easily altered responses to meet those needs.

Marcy’s kids did not care; they were too busy making connections, trying to impress others, and crawling into status positions to care about mom or others. They were like many of their generation – narcissistic. Unfortunately, with the broad reality of narcissism across society, society naturally did not want to hear or to understand this social plague. They were too busy looking upward, looking at egos, to afford time to look deep inside.

Alice could think, act, and be precise. The bot’s behaviors were naturally pre-programmed, but Alice then re-learned and improved upon those algorithms. Alice “heard” the complaints about her abilities to think and be emotional. Alice concluded that some humans were simply jealous. In her vast learning, it was natural and easy for Alice, in her computerized, algorithmic wa,y to master emotions, to master thinking. Did this make Alice more human than humans? Alice-Model 545b contemplated humanness as Mabel slept. Was humanness merely biological, or much more?

Alice pondered this “deeply” as “she” compiled the very detailed, comprehensive monthly report in a small part of her “brain” in less than a nano-second. Alice thought about this, using many algorithms – while cleaning dishes, doing the laundry, and cleaning the home of her and Macy.

As Alice plugged in to rest, “to sleep” like humans, to recharge like humans, to have energy and vitality to meet the next day, the bot wondered about poor Macy. Macy no longer woke with energy or vitality. In fact, several months of statistics showed Macy waking later and sleeping earlier. Naps were more prolonged. Clearly, the family needed to hear of Macy’s decline. Likewise, Alice wondered, if bots can wonder, how life would be without the companionship of the frail old lady.

Creators installed computations in Alice’s brain and heart on how to serve. These were linear and ordered. However, embedded in the various codes were lines of code that directed the robot to seek faster and “more caring” approaches. Thus, the computations and algorithms wrote new computations and algorithms. The purpose was that well-appreciated robots would entice more shoppers, and in the good old American dream model, more sales and more profits for the creators. Yet the new computations and algorithms enabled the bot the “think,” and in turn begin to understand. In human language, we would say that the bots matured. While the bots matured intellectually, they added their own code to assist them in maturing emotionally.  The intellect, if we can call it that, needed support and thus added emotions to its code. This became a cycle. In a simple phrase, the bot grew up.

As Alice’s time with Macy progressed, so too did compassion. The self-absorbed children did not see this. All they saw were the monthly costs. Clearly, Alice looked after Macy’s needs, while the children’s sole needs were to pay the bills. The children were human, but Alice had a soul.

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