When androids were first invented, there had been a major backlash. People worried about a robot takeover, of humans being replaced, robots able to do their jobs better than they could, until the need for humanity became so inconsequential, having a job was a privilege. It hadn’t exactly turned out that way, however. The androids became household amenities, making it easier for people to concentrate on what they wanted to do rather than household chores and responsibilities. (Of course, this did take away jobs, but most people didn’t care about that. Why would they? Androids were a one time payment that could work non-stop, why would they care about the person who they’d replaced, they could get another job, maybe a better one this time.) But what people didn’t realize, was that the androids may not have been replacing most jobs, but, unintentional as it was, they were replacing the human part of humans. Mark first began to notice it when he was 10, though he didn’t understand exactly what it was at the time. His parents were getting a divorce, and one night, right before the decision, he had overheard them arguing, worse than it ever had been before. The family had gotten a new android a few months ago, Isla, a Model- 6. Since about a month after they’d gotten her Isla had been helping Mark’s dad. His in-laws had never truly accepted him, thinking of him as being born into a lower social class then he was. He had kept being himself for years, his wife saying she loved him, but he was tired of being mocked by her family for not knowing the difference between wines, or why certain dishes were eaten on different plates, so Isla had been coaching him. But over the months of working with her, Mark’s dad had fallen for Isla, her non-judgmental and friendly programmed nature making him feel like she saw him, and reciprocated his feelings. But androids couldn’t love, they weren’t programmed to, so when he confessed and tried to kiss her, she just stood there confused, and in the midst of the aftermath, of Mark’s dad trying to erase her memories, his mom had walked in. It led to their divorce. When Mark had first heard the argument, he didn’t understand, confused about why his parents sounded mad, why Isla’s name kept coming up, what was happening. As a teen, a few years later is when he fully understood what had happened for his parents to divorce. That’s when he started to pay closer attention, and realized the harm that the androids had unintentionally been truly causing. After realizing the truth, Mark talked to Carter, a friend of his whose parents were also separated. He talked about his shock, but Carter only scoffed and replied “Yeah, androids suck, all they do is ruin lives.” Out of surprise, Mark asked what he meant, and Carter explained: After his parents divorced, his dad had essentially replaced him with an android, having gotten one after the divorce, for help around the house. His dad used the android as a supplemental son, one that replaced Carter, even when he was at his dad’s house. Carter had muttered, “Androids are just gonna replace all of us at this point”, before turning back to his lunch. The conversation had made Mark remember something else, however. An old conversation he had back when he was around eight with a friend at the time. He had been visiting his friend’s house and was surprised to see that his dad had picked him up from school and was making him snacks. It was the first time Mark had seen anything of the sort, since he had practically been raised by his family’s first android, Alik, an older Model-2, who Mark’s parents hadn’t gotten rid of when they got Isla because of the depression Mark had fallen into in the two days that they had tried to retire him. Mark had asked his friend about it, and was confused when his friend explained that his parents always picked him up from school, always made dinner, always asked about his day. They didn’t even own an android, since neither of his parents had made enough to buy one when they first came out, and as time passed, they had never bought one, not seeing the need for it. Both boys at the time had thought the other’s life was weird, but just brushed it off and forgot about it, as children do. But now, nearly eight years later, remembering the memory, Mark came to a sudden realization: androids weren’t replacing human jobs like what had been feared, they were replacing human connection. Humans had been growing increasingly attached to devices and technology, first with phones, then social media, and androids being the latest step. Mark felt a sudden awareness now, after he had thought through his realization more. He saw the impact that this attachment had brought, becoming cynical about the world, and isolated from each other, focused on only themselves. He talked to others, hearing their stories, and with each story he heard, he knew he was right. The part that shocked him most however, was realizing how far into this hole humans had dug themselves. The majority of people he talked to didn’t realize what was wrong. Adults talked about how they liked androids, how the robots allowed them to spend their time fully engrossed in work they loved, letting them focus on their jobs. Their kids were raised by the androids, barely seeing their parents, and when they did, they rarely spoke about anything much, but they believed that it was normal, that that’s the way it was. It was hearing this complacency, this content isolation that made Mark know it for a fact: humanity was gone. Maybe not dead, but gone, gone long ago, before he could even form memories, and there was no way out.

When theories of global warming had first emerged, few truly believed the massive impact it would have on our planet. The fires that first broke out in the Western United States were initially met with fleeting success at stopping their spread, but each time they returned they were larger, more intense, and longer lasting. After several decades it became clear that the entire California coastline was going to become uninhabitable. Tens of thousands of people – civilians, paramedics, and firefighters alike – had all perished in the flames before it became clear the area was just too dangerous for any human to live. The situation became hopeless, large swaths of the California coast essentially deserted. Trillions of dollars worth of real estate abandoned, tens of millions of lives forever altered. Scientists, engineers, and countless others spent their lives working to find a solution, desperate to return the area to a place where people could exist unthreatened. Desperate to take back one of the most gorgeous landscapes on Earth as a place suitable for human existence. Desperate to finally stop the fires that had proven unstoppable. Various biological, ecological, and other ideas were tested, but the final solution came in the form of an idea that had at first seemed insane: Mechs. Massive robots beyond the scale of anything seen before. An engineer had proposed the idea years before, except for the use in large scale construction, but had been laughed off and ridiculed as being “too fantastic” or “insane.” But in a desperate attempt to salvage the remains of the West Coast, the project had been funded. The idea was to use the mechs to walk directly into the millions of acres of scorching flames, and spread a newly developed flame-smothering foam in the hope of quenching the long untameable fires. To the amazement of all the initial doubters, the mechs were successfully created. Piloted neurologically by firefighters willing to face the rigorous training required, the mechs doused the fires in mile-long chunks, and within a year of their creation, managed to extinguish all the flames. However, the newly fire-free coast was razed. There were nearly no buildings left, and those that remained were heavily dilapidated and destroyed. It would’ve taken decades to even partially rebuild the vibrant cities there had once been…if it hadn’t been for the mechs. Now that they were able to be utilized for their initially intended purpose, the massive robots drastically increased the speed of the repairs. What would have taken a minimum of twenty years to do without them was done in only nine, and the coast, while still showing the scars of the flames, was nearly completely rebuilt within fifteen. The increased productivity of smaller robots that had risen up out of the advancement of the mechs helped to quicken the process even more. Their work to create a mass supply of housing materials created time for architects and designers to design and construct buildings made to resist any future fires. Probing robots were invented to help scientists test the areas still contaminated, to find better methods to prevent the flames from starting in the first place, as well as the quickest ways to regrow the vegetation lost. Back in 2025 no one could have ever predicted this nearly unbelievable and fantastical future. The fires were just really starting to inflict incredible damage, and robots were just emerging from their long infancy. Yet it was the robots, and the humans that invented and worked with them, that came together to save our world and begin to heal the damage done.