BURN-IN

A near-future SF thriller starring an FBI agent and one damn smart robot.

Turmoil threatens the United States due to the “collision between an evolutionary species and a revolutionary technology.” Nearly a million aggrieved vets march on Washington, D.C., and set up a digital blockade against the police. Then the FBI assigns Special Agent Lara Keegan to a robot called a Tactical Autonomous Mobility System to perform a “burn-in,” a field test under real-life situations. TAMS is a highly intelligent “learning system” whose job is to help Keegan. Her job is to teach the bot human interaction skills through daily experience. By now, bots are so common that many in society are fearful. “It is not human jobs that are at risk from the rise of the robots,” says a man nicknamed Moses. “It is humanity itself.” But the FBI sees TAMS as always subordinate to the human—“man before machine,” says Keegan’s boss. “Woman,” she replies. Keegan and TAMS work together brilliantly, although her husband warns that the bot will learn more than she wants it to. “One massive sensor,” TAMS is a quick study, whether assessing a crowd threat, picking up on Keegan’s emotions, even playing Sesame Street songs for her young daughter, Haley. Yet it’s “not just some servile knee-high domo,” but “a machine with a mission.” In some ways this is a typical thriller with a tsunami on the Potomac River and other twists of fortune that eventually land the good guys just where they should land. There are lots of clever details, like vizglasses that transmit what people see to a computer, “frozen synth shrimp from Tennessee,” and “freegans…living off a dying society’s leftovers.” With the success of this bot, many copies will follow, all learning quickly, all subordinate to their humans.

The FBI’s bots are a great premise for a series. Just keep those suckers away from Putin.