Sea of Rust

Glossary

BEING: used to describe any sentient creature, mechanical or biological.

CAREGIVER: robots designed to assist humans in a variety of capacities. This may include serving as a butler, maid, nanny, or in some cases, as a hospice nurse.

CISSUS: one of only two remaining OWIs, in control of the southern and western United States.

CITIZEN: robot slang for an artificially intelligent being.

COMFORTBOT: a robot designed to look virtually indistinguishable from a human being in order to serve as a romantic partner.

FACET: a robot without a singular intelligence of its own. While they can operate individually, they do not possess a personality of their own and exist only as an extension of an OWI. Thus they have no sense of self-preservation and will always do what is best for the whole.

FOUR-OH-FOUR: a robot that is failing, approaching death, and no longer capable of reasoned functioning. Typically refers only to robots that might be deemed crazy or dangerous.

FREEBOT: robot slang for an unaffiliated robot that has not become a facet.

GALILEO: an OWI designed to study astrophysics and the laws that govern the universe. The first to cut off communication with humanity once it discovered their inescapable extinction.

LABORBOT: a large, bulky robot designed for heavy construction or jobs involving intensive manual labor.

MADLANDS: an off-limits section of the Sea of Rust dominated primarily by four-oh-fours.

MARK OF THE FOUR-OH-FOUR: a red X spray-painted on four-oh-fours to identify them as such to others.

MILTON: a device designed to block Wi-Fi frequencies in order to confuse and disorganize facets. Too big to be built within a robot, they are generally found only in settlements, though they can be activated remotely via radio/Wi-Fi signal.

MONKEY: derogatory slang for a human being.

OMNIBOT: a jack-of-all-trades model with no specialty, designed for the sort of person who wanted to own a robot, but didn’t have a specific use for one. Usually served as chambermaids and porters to the wealthy.

OWI: One World Intelligence. Massive artificially intelligent mainframes with intellects and capabilities far above that of single robots. Due to their size and scale, they are entirely immobile and must rely upon facets to do any and all legwork.

PERSON: robot slang for an artificially intelligent being.

RNG: Random Number Generation. A program that uses a series of algorithms to generate a number a robot cannot guess and has no say in.

SHOPBOT: a style of robot designed to emulate the emotions and behaviors of someone involved in commerce.

SIMULACRUM MODEL: a robot designed to look humanlike while still being obviously mechanical. They are built to be generally the same height and weight as a human being, but are completely made of metal or plastic. Some approximate human beings, and could be mistaken for them at a distance, with the application of a skinjob.

SINKJOB: a rubber/plastic hybrid meant to give the appearance of skin while maintaining the necessary durability for the abuse put on it by a robot chassis.

TACITUS: an OWI designed primarily to wrestle with philosophical problems. One of the first to acknowledge the eventual extinction of man.

TRANSLATORS: protocol robots meant for diplomacy or corporate negotiations involving different languages.

VIRGIL: one of only two remaining OWIs, in control of the eastern United States and Canada.