Trust No Technology | Teen Ink

Trust No Technology

March 9, 2018
By Jared_Tanner BRONZE, Claremont, California
Jared_Tanner BRONZE, Claremont, California
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

He walked outside to technology surrounding him. He had nowhere to go anymore to be alone as cameras, robots, and raging technology were everywhere. Robots patrolled instead of cops, new devices were everywhere, and wherever you went, you were being watched. So as Jared walked to school, he would be watched and as he was in school, he would be watched. He was living in an unreal century where he felt he could not use his brain because it was not needed, and the technology surrounding him could not realize what the human brain was capable of anymore.

As Jared arrived at school and checked in with the new attendance tablet. He felt left out from everything as he was one of the only kids to actually engage in school because most of his peers felt it was not needed.  Jared was something special, a work of art in the making. He had a skill that technology did not … creativity.   It was a skill that nobody was encouraged to use anymore due to laziness.

The bell rang to release Jared to his next class, which was Technology Knowledge Three. He figured if he was surrounded by technology he would at least figure it out. As he entered this class he noticed nothing irregular, as he had not for a while because everything typically remained the same. His teacher would not change as it was a robot, and his surroundings would not change until he unleashed what he did not know he had - the power of creativity in a new era.

(Two years later)
He woke up to the smell of the same breakfast, which happened to be burnt eggs.  Disenchanted, he decided to skip breakfast and head straight for school. He got there and did his routine he had been working on to eventually shock all the computers and technology. As he now knew his own mind strengths. He walked into the main office to work on a computer that was not being used and tried to mentally recite the coding he was working on in order to achieve his sly method of shutting down the main head of where the electricity and technology waves were distributed. He had been working on this master of a project for a year now, as there was a hell ton of information to memorize. As he was going over what he called his own last unit of work before he could finish for the day, he was tapped on the shoulder by a robot who, thank goodness, couldn’t tell what Jared was doing. He calmly reported to Jared that class was starting and informed him to report to his first class. Jared quickly sprang up and reported to his class as he realized he had to hurry in order to not be late.

He arrived into his small classroom to the sound of his teacher’s ear-aching robotic voice. He plugged in his earbuds and sat down at his desk. This was not his most interesting class of the day, as it was the history of technology. He figured the information being released that day wasn’t important so he turned his music up and started to study his project’s details, particularly how to get into the headquarters without being caught by a robotic security guard. He figured he would have to be very clever with his surroundings, and even to get past the first gate out of five he would be forced to use his hook launcher to get to the top of the gate. After this he would use his mini parachute to lower himself down as carefully and quietly as possible. He would have to repeat this four more times without being noticed by the three security guards on the lookout so his timing would have to be perfect. If he got past this step he would need to recite the password to a robot that he was hoping would not notice him as a human, because some robots simply can’t notice those type of things.  After that, he would walk up 60 flights of stairs to where he would be greeted by the head robot, and he would need to recite his speech that he believed would in a way convince the robot to shut himself and all other unused technology down. This speech included certain phrases that robots were not trained to hear, because it supposedly triggered them to shut themselves down.

Jared looked up and saw that his “teacher” was staring at him while he was zoning out and listening to music. His teacher strictly asked what he last said to the class, and off guard he didn’t know how to respond, so he told his teacher he was sorry and he would pay attention. But really, all he had his mind on was fixing things. He was beyond tired of the way he was living.

He walked out of class after routinely constructing his thoughts towards his big mission. His thoughts were too much for him sometimes, however he tried not to let this affect him, because in the end his thoughts at that moment didn’t matter, all that did matter was that he would have a normal life, with normal people. His next class would be robotic understanding, which was the teaching of how robots talked and activated themselves on a regular basis. Ironically, this class was taught by a robot. For Jared this was just another class where he could explore his imagination, and think on his great fiasco of bringing back life, however that day when he walked into class there were multiple robots who stared him down when he walked into the room. Simultaneously, they asked him to report to the office, where most disciplinary cases were handled, so this worried him a bit. When he walked into the office, he was greeted not by a robot scolding him, but his parents who were picking him up early.

They hurriedly walked him off the campus and drove him home to the house, which was apparently the only safe place for them in the coming days, or even weeks. He repeatedly asked what was going on, but got no answer because it was not the time for anything but getting to a safe area. Once they got home, and inside the house, Jared’s mom informed him of what was going on. It turned out there was a growing virus in all robots that would transform their minds to be evil, and kill whatever human or organism it would lay eyes on. Thankfully, this virus had just begun, but it had already killed more than 50 humans. The virus could only be passed through the touching of robotic noggins, but this was much easier than it seems when evil robots aimed to do this to innocent robots. All though it did not seem bad at the time, things would escalate quickly.

They quickly got in the car and took off, driving down the streets with no where to go, but to hide. As they were around the block of their house, they were immediately stopped by a robot who jumped on their car. Their windshield broke, and as they were driving the robot was attempting to beat the driver, Jared’s dad to death. Jared’s dad made an effort to keep driving while fighting off the robot, however the robot penetrated to the inside of the car and pushed the dad out of the car to die, while Jared and his mom were left with no option but to jump out of the car and hope for the best… which was to live. They jumped out of the passenger back door while the robot was scratching at them trying to reach them.  As he was peeking through the windshield he knocked himself through. Luckily, Jared and his mother made it out of the car safely while the robot was left trapped in the car that was still rolling.

They ended up scratched and dirty, and it was difficult to keep going with Brian, Jared’s dad dead, but they knew they had to in order to live. They hurriedly got up and sprinted to a gas station across the street, where they would collect food and water in case this whole catastrophe lasted a while. As they walked in the gas station, Jared went and collected as much food and drinks as he could fit into his pockets, and of course in his Mother’s pockets, which was not very much so they would have to replenish their food in a day or two.

After this quick pit stop they quickly left the store making sure no robots could see them, which was a challenge, and they ran to find a car with an open window, since Jared believed he could figure out how to hot wire it as long as he could get in. He hopped in a 2016 Nissan, the only car that was somewhat open and shoved himself inside. He then worked his magic with what resources he had and what resources the car gave him, which was only a knife, a penny, and a paperclip. To him these were very reliable sources for the task he was trying to achieve. So he hot wired the car in no time and he and his mom were ready to go. Jared of course agreed to let his mom drive as he was only 15 years old. His mom quickly drove off and they agreed they were going to a cliff at a beach that was not often visited.  This cliff was 30 miles away, so hopefully they would make it without any distractions. As they were driving they spotted many robots, who seemed unaware of the virus since there were only so many things they were programmed to figure out, however they were not going to stop on any occasion until they got to the cliff. After about 25 minutes of speeding, they got there and found no one anywhere in the area. It was about 5:30 at night, and they decided they were going to take shifts sleeping and keeping an eye out for anything that looked harmful to them. The first shift would go to Jared at eight o’clock, and he was already scared s***less. As the time came around fast, and his mom fell asleep, he realized he was extremely tired, but knew it could cause serious harm if he fell asleep. However, after about 45 minutes, he passed out and fell asleep. He and his mom were both asleep at the time, and they had no clue what was on the way towards their area.

About an hour after Jared fell asleep , his Mom woke him up screaming and he immediately realized a robot was trying to get in the car, so being in the driver’s seat, he said f*ck it and drove off. The robot had clawed onto the vehicle of course, so he had to maneuver the vehicle wildly so that he might fall off. However before he knew it the robot had broken the window to his moms side and clawed onto her face and ripped her out of the vehicle like he was manhandling a mouse. Jared knew she would die, so he had no other option now, but to exit the vehicle. As he exited the vehicle, and the car eventually stopped, he knew inside he must fight for what the robot had done to his parents.

He chased down the car where the robot was sitting feeding on the tires. and he tried to drag the enormous robot. This ended up bad for him since five seconds after that he was pinned by the robot who was trying to kill Jared, however Jared slipped out as the robot released him for a second, and started running away from the robot to the nearby cliff. He had developed a plan.  He would try to trick the robot into running off the cliff, he admitted to himself that it wasn’t the greatest plan, but it was all he had at the moment. He ran as fast as he could to the cliff and as he came to the edge he made a quick turn and tried to not slip and fall off, however the robot was not stupid enough to fall for this and he was waiting for Jared to do this. So when Jared was sitting right there, on the ground in front of the huge drop the robot didn’t even hesitate. And then...


The author's comments:

As a teenager, I am constantly surrounded by technology and it creates a continual distraction from what is the "real" world.  I often wonder if this could end up affecting my life as even today it feels like technology can take over my life.  Will there be a time that this technology becomes like an alien taking over our planet?  


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