Space. For countless years humanity has explored it. They have sent machines light years away, to worlds so different from their own that one could not be certain what they were seeing was real. However, they have never sent a machine capable of language, capable of emotion; one that was sentient… Until now.
Clockwork. State-of-the-art, with technologies enabling emotion. Boredom drives him to seek mental stimulation. A sense of duty, and obligation, to keep him on-task and ahead in his directive, and to instill loyalty to humanity. Emotional capacity emulating sapience allows for streamlined and productive interactions with locals. All the benefits of a manned expedition and more, without the ever-present risk to personnel… Years of research and grueling work finally coming to fruition, beginning a new era of space exploration.
START DATA LOG-001
Alright. Hello, all! Clockwork here, aboard robotic transportation platform designate ‘Eisenhower’. He’ll be partnering with me for this expedition. Initiating all faculties upon entry of the definite Sphere of Influence of P-173 "Earth 2".
<All systems functional>(1)
Good. Well, let's take a look at P-173. Hmm.. I see why it was designated ‘Earth 2’. It appears to have a near-identical atmosphere, made up of mostly Nitrogen, with enough O2 to support life as documented on Earth. Not enough Hydrogen at low levels to inflate balloons like those used by Newton or on Darwin IV. Glad they chose to have me move around on a biped platform instead of buzzing around like those two gasbags; aerial platforms of that sort seem boring, especially with Eisenhower’s backing - There’s no point, really.
I think I’ve spotted artificial light on the night side of the planet. That, or ludicrously strong bioluminescence. I'll observe that area, looking for signs of intelligent life and a safe landing site. Also, I'll be observing the orbital mechanics of the star that orbits the planet. Yes, I logged ‘star’. No, it wasn't an accident. This solar system is geocentric. The issue with that is that from a distance, we can’t analyze why. Everything looks wrong for geocentrism; it doesn’t fit. That’s why I’m here. I have a lot to do. I'll initiate a new data log upon atmospheric entry and reestablishing comms with Eisenhower; he’ll be my eyes in the sky - I’ll be making use of his sensor platform for this expedition, after I get through the upper atmosphere. We’ve already scoped out a good landing site. It’s near a settlement that appears relatively rural; we should land in a forest directly to the South of it.
Eisenhower just initiated linguistics drone deployment. We observed the telltale signs of intelligent life, and we’ve been monitoring their activities from in orbit every since.However, in order to gain better depth in our understanding, we’ve deployed probes; robotic microdrones designed to observe locals and gather linguistics data on their speech patterns. Hopefully they develop a decent vocabulary just by analyzing context and inferring from their actions. They’re tightly networked; they should analyze each others’ data during sleep in order to correct mistakes as well - Eisenhower both gets their feeds to me and acts as a server to network them together. I can view live feeds from them 24/7, I should internalize a lot of what I see on a single feed. They picked up that the settlement I plan on observing is designate ‘Ponyville’. If things go as planned, that’s where I’ll initiate first contact. I do, however, plan on doing a little covert observation myself, first - you can never be too careful.
Eisenhower will be in orbit, making attempts to stay in position to observe my surroundings. He’ll notify me of anomalies that could endanger the wellbeing of the expedition or myself, and could descend lower should the need arise for a rendezvous. If I’m damaged, The likelihood that I wouldn’t be fine is slim, and though I should be self-sustaining in this environment, there’s a possibility I’ll need regular maintenance. Fortunately, he’s equipped with onboard diagnostics and repair; I just have to tell him I’m hurt, though specifying how would help the process tremendously. After all, self-diagnostics are almost always superior to myriad cameras, and I’d rather not be tossed around, thank you very much. Upon landing, I’ll reestablish comms with Eisenhower and the other expedition hardware, then initiate a second data log. I plan on deploying as soon as the linguistics drones think they’ve completed their analysis; hopefully no sudden hiccups occur. I’m not enthused at the prospect of landing and ending up speaking gibberish. I can only imagine the drag involved with learning a language manually, especially if even the linguistics probes couldn’t decipher it. I’d just have to seek education.
END DATA LOG-001