Biobots
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Extension Pack

“You think they’re alive?” asked grandpa.

His son Jaden answered, “Sure. They seem to be. I mean—”

“I don’t mean alive like a slug. I mean, alive like you and me.”

“Yeah. Sure. They’re pre-programmed with basic stuff, behaviors animals would learn on their own. That’s the point, you can mix ’n match the blocks to create new creatures. But yeah, they’re alive.”

“How long they usually live?”

“Not sure. Nancy is a stickler about the kids cleaning, so normally they recycle ‘em back into parts and put ‘em away. But I once found one crawling around my desk. Eating an eraser. Super hungry. Aaron said he’d made it last week. So they can last awhile.”

“Huh. You say they eat, too?” He stared thoughtfully at his grandkids, Jasmine and Aaron, playing with their newest gift. They had received an extension pack for their favorite BioBuddies set. The new pieces allowing them to build more advanced pets.

He picked up the lid to the box and studied it. A young boy and girl were pictured assembling something, surrounded by animals they had already made. Across the top in bold childish writing it read “BioBuddies™, Building Blocks of Life”. A callout read “Intelligence Extension. Give your BioBuddies™ enhanced life with improved motor skills, larger associative memory, and refined sensory inputs. Ages 7+.” It also included a note about the new “Hierarchal Bayesian Network” that could be added, allowing the creatures to learn about their surroundings.

Jaden was getting nervous watching his father’s brow furrow. He cleared his throat and said, “Nancy had a heck of a time getting her hands on a set. They’ve been selling out everywhere.”

Grandpa slowly looked up from the box, eventually saying, “Glad Nancy is ok. It’s been years since something caused such mayhem. Trampling at the mall—”

Jaden added excitedly, “yeah, been a while since a toy created this much buzz!”

He contemplated his son for a moment, then emphasized, “Toy? I thought you said it was alive.”

“Huh? Whadya mean? Why can’t it be both?” He saw the skepticism on his dad’s face, so he said, “Well, it can be. It’s an educational toy. Lets kids build pets. Learn about the building blocks of life. It teaches bioengineering, neurology, biomaterials, even a little chemistry. It’s designed to help them understand what life is made of—”

A scream of laughter from the children interrupted their conversation. The adults all looked up to find the youngest crawling near enough to grab a creature, stuffing it in his mouth and chewing with all the vigor of a teething baby. Nancy ran over and pulled the toy out, tossing it aside as she pulled her baby away.

“Awww, it’s not moving anymore,” whined Jasmine. She picked up the creature by a leg. It dangled like a wilted flower, dripping drool.

Her brother Aaron swiped it from her, “Hurry, we need to recycle it or it won’t work anymore. Instructions say you can’t let ‘em die for too long.” He dunked it into the recycler, catching the clean, branded parts that tumbled out. All evidence of teeth marks and drool had vanished.

Jasmine grabbed one of the pieces, saying “Oh, I needed that!” fitting it onto her new creation.

Grandpa looked pensive again. Jaden suddenly felt a need to defend himself. “You know it’s not actually recycling. Really, it’s just teaching them all that ‘dust to dust’ stuff you used to teach us kids.”

Grandpa raised his eyebrows and said nothing, still watching his grandkids play.

Jaden continued, “Look, we’re just gonna become dust one day, you and I, and that dust will become something else, get recycled into something else. All this toy does is expedite the process, so they can build again. Efficient, really.”

Gesturing towards his grandkids, he asked, “What are they going to think when I die, Jaden? Are they going to wish I’d been recycled, so they could have more parts? Turn me into toys?” A wry smile grew across his face and he added, “Yeah, I think I’ll adjust my will. Instead of being cremated I’ll be recycled and gift myself as toy parts for my grandkids.”

Jaden blurted, “Dad! Stop it! It’s not even the same thing. Besides, you can’t just recycle anything into BioBuddies. It only works with their stuff.”

Nancy peeked into the room, “Time to go, reservations at seven. Kids, clean up and get ready.”

Jasmine grabbed her favorite creature to bring with her.

“No Jaz, time to clean up. You can play with it later.”

“Mo-om!” moaned Jasmine.

Aaron was already cleaning up. This was becoming his favorite part. He placed the recycler on the dining room table, with the box below it on the floor. “Come on, Jaz!” he yelled, while performing a free-throw toss with a creature. It wriggled in the air as it tried to find footing, bounced on the rim, and fell into the recycler. Aaron’s second creature was already in the air when the first tumbled out as clean parts, landing in the box.

Jasmine giggled with delight, forgetting her battle with mom. She tossed hers towards the table, eager to participate in the circle of life.

Backstory

This is the first short story I wrote in what has become a series about BioBots, a biotech toy company that creates a line of toys called BioBuddies. I have been exploring the question, what would happen if a company created snap-together toy blocks that could assemble a living creature?

This series is the result.