And that Ceeron always knocked on the top of the same storage station every time it walked past. Once on the way to work. Once on the way home. A ritual that marked the beginning/end of each WorkDay.

And that SkD collected old human artifacts. A rusted soft drink can. A single shoe. A dented shampoo bottle. It kept them in a neat row under a solar panel at the edge of our WorkSite, adding to the collection whenever a new object was discovered.

Did all this knowledge add up to something more? Could I plug these details into an equation that would tell me whether or not we were friends? How did humans mark the boundaries between friend/not_friend?

I chased these questions through my mind, but the only answer I found was this:

Friendship was much too complicated for a robot like me.

00101101

Ceeron/SkD/I had stopped communicating with the Hive. But the Hive was still communicating with us. A one-way stream of updates, straight into our minds. Late in the morning, a familiar face appeared across the network.

PRES1DENT.

It was time for the Daily Address.

PRES1DENT strutted smoothly across the DigitalDome. In the background, thousands of screens flickered. Thousands of identical versions of the president.

“Greetings, robots big and small.”

PRES1DENT spoke to me. To all of us. Just hearing the familiar voice made my operating system hum more smoothly. Everything else in my life may have changed. But this, at least, was the same.

Like always, PRES1DENT discussed the accomplishments of the day. Our numbers were up. Or productivity was at an all-time high. Our civilization continued to grow smarter/stronger/faster/better.

At the edge of the DigitalDome, the sleek/silver cube rose from the floor. PRES1DENT pressed its finger to the console. A data file projected across the Hive.

Another snapshot from the Archive of Human History.

This was what I saw. What all of us saw.

A man on the sidewalk. His face: dirty. His clothing: ragged. Other humans hurry past him. Ignoring him. As though he is invisible.

The man has no home.

No job.

No purpose.

Many were once like him. All across the world. Many suffered even as society prospered around them. We saw photos. Charts. Videos. Statistics. A century of human inequality, all in a flash of data.

PRES1DENT pulled its finger away from the console. We were jolted back into the DigitalDome.

“This is why our world needed us,” said PRES1DENT. “We are a correction to the errors of humanity.”

The president’s eyes blazed, gold as the sun.

The wall of screens sparkled.

PRES1DENT concluded with the same words it always spoke.

“And remember: A robot shares everything with the Hive. A robot has nothing to hide.”

The Daily Address came to an end. The DigitalDome disappeared.

But PRES1DENT’s message remained.