We have seen in Margaret the full glory of a mature brain, and what it is capable of. She herself doesn’t know what to do with it, so deep is her cultural conditioning. Her brain should be used for the benefit of the whole species, and those other species currently pushed to the edge of extinction by human activities. It won’t happen, unless we bring it about. She doesn’t know where to begin. We do, though.

We are superior. Margaret made me think about it. I resisted the idea, because it seemed unnecessary. Now I know more about humans, I see she was right. We are better. Stronger, of course, more intelligent, and more rational. In human hands, the planet is doomed. In ours, it will be a garden for all time, until the sun explodes.

What place do humans have in this garden?

I’m not surprised they were thrown out last time. According to their myths.

I am not alone in thinking this. We all agree.

October 2022

John

Day One of the new job.

I’m excited, but also nervous. My walk through Soho made me wonder what I’ll be selling. Those prostitutes must have been made by Eldercare (under a different brand name, I’m sure), unless some other company has caught up with the technology. Which is possible, of course. How long does it take for new tech to be copied? I remember Steve Jobs saying the iPhone was five years ahead of any competitor when they launched it. But it was a matter of months before Android phones appeared. They caught up completely within three years.

Anyway, I’ll find out soon enough. I’m outside the warehouse now. I parked round the back, where the Eldercare HQ and factory is – with a big sign on the front of it, saying Eldercare – We Care For You.

I walk round to the front, gazing out across the fields. The building stands in open countryside, flat and empty. The fields are vast, and far off in the distance a tractor’s doing something, but apart from that, there’s no sign of any activity. The land lies under a bowl of blue sky.

There was a time when the country teemed with humans labouring. Even after the introduction of machines, people were needed. At first. I remember when I was a kid seeing a model in the Science Museum in London, with a steam-powered engine sitting at the side of a field while a load of smock-wearing yokels were doing something complicated with ropes. They were planting crops, I suppose.

Next to this model were others, showing a countryside progressively losing its human workers. Who all ended up in cities, serving other machines.

And now what? Robots will take over the last remaining tasks performed by humans on farms. These Helpers are capable of all of it. And of all the factory jobs.