Chapter 5

5 I WAS JUST ABOUT TO COME GET YOU," SAYS GRAMPA AL. "DID YOU SPACE out and forget what you went in the lab to get?" Frank, standing empty-handed in the kitchen doorway, smiles. "Toaster? Appliance that converts electrical energy into heat? Aluminum piece about this big?" Grampa Al teases Frank. "Ah, don't worry about it. We can find it later. Listen, I

have to drive the truck over to the other side of town and pick up some stuff from the old factory getting shut down. Idiots are dumping perfectly beautiful machines I'd like to save. Can you and your pal Watson man the shop for the morning while I'm gone?" "Oh, sure," says Frank, still smiling. "And I did forget the toaster. But you are never going to believe what I found." "My truck keys?" guesses Grampa Al, shuffling around the kitchen, patting his baggy sweater pockets, looking around for his lost keys. "The missing remote?" "No... and no," says Frank. "Let me introduce you to..." Frank steps out of the doorway and waves a hand toward Klink and Klank. Grampa Al finishes his coffee in a quick gulp. "Hmm, that's great, Frank. But I don't really need the Shop-Vac or the trash can right now. What I need are my keys."

The Shop-Vac's webcam eye dilates open and scans the kitchen. "Keys are hanging from the nucleus of the carbon-atom model." "Ha! So they are," says Grampa Al, lifting his truck keys off the lamp. "Put them right in the heart of carbon so I wouldn't forget. Thanks—" Grampa Al freezes, then slowly looks back. "Whaaaaa? Did I just—? Did you just—? Did the Shop-Vac just—?" Frank laughs at Grampa Al's shocked look. "Yes! He did. Grampa Al, meet Klink— Einstein Laboratories' first self-assembled artificial intelligence." Klink wheels into the kitchen and shakes Grampa Al's hand. "Very pleased to meet you, Mr. Einstein. Your E = mc squared is most perceptive." Grampa Al holds his head in both hands, his eyes open wide in surprise. "Wow! Wow.

Wow. Wow. Are you kidding me?" Klink turns his glass-dome head. "Do I look like I am kidding you?" "Frank, you did it! You made your thinking robot!" "Well, not exactly," says Frank. "It made itself. A stray spark triggered everything. But Klink here is a neural-net, self-teaching, thinking robot." Grampa Al bends down to check out Klink. "Very nice to meet you, Mr. Klink. I have to tell you, I am not that Einstein. But over the years I have dabbled in a bit of physics." Klank clomps suddenly into the room, wrapping both Grampa Al and Klink in a big aluminum-hose hug. "Me too! Me too!" says Klank. "Love Al Einstein! Love matter changed to energy!" "What the—?" says Grampa Al, almost

falling over. "That's Klank," says Frank. "More self- assembled artificial intelligence." "Amazing," says Grampa Al, still wrapped in Klank's enthusiastic hug. "And they get smarter and smarter by teaching themselves?" "One of us does," says Klink. "Klank, stop hugging!" "Um-beep-beep, um-beep-beep," answers Klank happily in a POLKA 3 beat, unwrapping his arms from Klink and Grampa Al. Klink reaches into his storage compartment. He pulls out the toaster pieces and calls up a repair diagram.

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