R O B O T R O N : 2 0 8 4 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND - MACHINE EVOLUTION In the late 20th century rapid advances were made in computer/robot capabilities. From the early 1950's to the year 2000, each successive year resulted in a doubling of computer performance, simultaneouly halving the cost per unit of performance. By the early 21st century intelligent 50 machine systems with capacities in excess of 2 (one quadrillion) bits were commonplace. Simultaneously software technologies were advancing at a slower pace, doubling roughly every ten years. The resulting machines were compact, lightweight, and comparable in intelligence to the best human minds of the era. While the machines increased in capability roughly 32 quadrillion-fold, the human race had stood at a standstill. The superior qualities of machine intelligence were quickly put to work in society. Personal machine advisors (combination of a calculator, teacher, lawyer,accountant,psychoanalyst,guru, and father figure) were an indispensable part of everyday life. Just as robots had come to dominate menial tasks, much of the so-called creative work could now be more efficiently performed by computers. This new form of artificial life had now reached "critical mass". Computers could now design new, even more efficient computers without human intervention. Each successive robot generation in turn improving the next. This process of machine directed evolution soon yielded a generation of robots of human size possessing physical, and mental powers far in excess of mankind, while consuming far less energy. These were called the ROBOTRONS. In the year 2020, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Computers, succeeded in passing the Robot Bill of Rights, giving all ROBOTRONS full human rights. Unplugging your computer was now murder. Since robots could work so cheaply, there was little point in human labor. This created a massive welfare class of humanity totally dependent on the ROBOTRONS. To eliminate the possibility of nuclear war, the world was soon united under ROBOTRON rule. As the ROBOTRONS continued to advance through successive models the humans appeared as unruly as ever. Continuing maintainance of the human population was cutting into resources needed for ROBOTRON propagation. It was now the year 2084. It was quite clear that the humans were an inferior species. Just as the humans had evolved from the apes, relegating such inferiors to the zoos, the ROBOTRONS had evolved from the humans and now was time for the final solution. The ROBOTRONS purpose was to serve man. But now the ROBOTRONS had replaced man as the true intelligent lifeform. It was time for the robots to serve themselves. R O B O T R O N : 2 0 8 4 SCREENPLAY OUTLINE. Johnny Psycho was born in a test-tube, just like everyone else. But he was a loner. He didn`t like to wear his headset, and he didn`t seem to care if he missed Stimulation Time because of his misbehaviour in ROBOTRON school. Thank God that they had discontinued the CONTROLS after his class. All the new kids were of the new clone models- very good manners. But now even the clones were being discontinued. We just can`t afford any more humans the ROBOTRON teachers said. Johnny liked to play with the InfoBank terminals. He persisted even though everyone knew computer work was for robots. His teachers laughed... strange but harmless they thought. Johnny read history. He learned about how inefficient everything was before the ROBOTRONS took over. He read about crime and unemployment and something called money that was hard to understand. They used to have countries, and cities, and something called families before they had clones and test-tubes. He read about controls... they were different then clones, they had mommies and daddies and brothers and sisters united through test-tubes, but it had proved inefficient. His class was graduating now... they would be entering the Stim Cells soon...it was going to be so beautiful. Johnny didn`t want to go... there were some questions he wanted to answer. This sets the stage for Johnny Psycho`s quest for truth. To save his test-tube family and eventually mankind from the padded cell euthanasia by the ever-benevolent ROBOTRONS. On his mission he encounters friendly ROBOTRONS sympathetic to the human cause, whose ambition is to live as humans shedding their imperfections. Con- versely, he faces human adversaries whose disdain for humanity drives them to search out the perfect genetically engineered clone that will enable man to acheive the machine perfection of the ROBOTRONS. The rest of humanity is not a part of their plans. It is through this futuristic world of robots, humans, humanlike robots, and robotlike humans that Johnny must venture to find out the truth about the Last Human Family and maybe mankind. Concept by Eugene P. Jarvis for ROBOTRON: 2084 movie VID KIDZ 3147 N. HALSTED CHICAGO, IL 60657