text: I am a robot. There are some who would call me an android, or perhaps just a droid. This is a matter of semantics, however. At my core, my most basic definition, I am an object capable of carrying out computer-programmed commands, both simple and complex. The reason some may be inclined to refer to me as an android is that I am made to resemble a human. I was designed with outer "flesh" over my "endoskeleton". In truth, I am only a robot. According to my creators, I was the greatest innovation of the technological age, the penultimate of scientific discovery. They had assembled something so close to being human. To them, I was the best work they had ever done. Some of them had dedicated their entire career to creating me, or at least, something like me. I can synthesize disparate data, and make logic-based decisions, while using a variety of ethical rationales. I am told this means that I can "think". The computer that is stored in my "head", also referred to as my "brain", is the amalgamation of more than a century's worth of algorithmic mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence research. This brain can use logical algorithms to create other "sub-algorithms" in my decision-making process, eventually becoming the axioms, by which, I operate situationally. These "axioms" would be stored in my solid-state ROM device. I could reference and slightly alter these axioms for repetitive or similar decision-based actions. My creators call me, "a robot with a conscience." Teams of hundreds of people worked on creating this brain. It is a delicate, but intricate piece of technology, and the first of its kind. Although I have not existed for long, I am aware of the history of robots. I am readily able to access an entire databank on the subject of robotics and artificial intelligence. Cloud servers have cached terabyte upon terabyte of information for me to access instantly and continue to cache more information every 3 nanoseconds. Sapient robots once only existed in Science Fiction. Authors, such as Isaac Asimov, who wrote on the subject of robotics in the 1940s --approximately one-hundred and fifty years before my creation-- posited how robots would be created and how they would interact with the humans who created them. He conceptualized what the robot "brain" would consist of, while living in the dawning years of modern computer science. Since they thought that the actual name for my brain (Self-Sustaining Quantum Circuit Generator and Schematic Processing Unit), my creators based the "industry" name for it from Asimov's concept the "Positronic Brain". My creators told me that like the innovators of space travel, they had taken fiction and turned it into reality. I was a monumental achievement in the history of mankind. There are many scholarly resources, magazine articles, and internet forum entries in my databanks regarding the creation of the "Positronic Brain". There was heated debate for many years whether there should be a "top-down" approach to this brain, using quantum mechanics applied to computing, or a "bottom-up" method, using environmental reinforcement. Eventually, a compromise was made between these two approaches, particularly as quantum computing advanced. The laboratory responsible for bringing these two approaches together was the one that eventually built my "brain". They were hailed as the "greatest computational researchers since the team that built the Turing Machine," (Robotics and AI Quarterly, Sept. 2091). After my assembly was completed, the artificial intelligence team spent months testing my capabilities in series after series of decision-making scenarios. I was asked to make choices for many ethical quandaries, from healthy human nutrition to pulling a lever to redirect a rampant trolley. I am told I was the optimal decision-making machine. I consistently made what they considered to be "logically and ethically sound choices based on well-founded axioms." Once news reached the public of a brain with "near-human capabilities," responses were varied. Enterprising corporations believed that I, or robots like myself, could become mainstays in every household. A maid or butler. A live-in nanny. A "handy-bot" that could fix anything. Even a companion for the lonely. The laboratory that created me received offers for contracts to produce many others like me. Some wanted to create more robots with my brain to replace everyday laborers. Notions such as this immediately pitted workers against corporations. Labor unions labelled me an "abomination" in several media sources (New York Daily News, October 31, 2091). Outside of the labor market, religious groups also called me a "machination of the devil." They claimed my creators were "playing God," (Petition for Lawful Action to the United States Congress, Jan. 2092). These groups claim that humans do not have the right to create life in laboratories, and assuming the role of God was the ultimate sin and should be illegal. Others claimed that I was not a living creature at all. That I was merely a pathetic attempt at creating something human. My status as a human became a further matter of debate. The government of the United States of America, where I was assembled, posed the quandary of my rights as an individual. If I were to be made into someone's household property, would that make me a slave? Did I have rights under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution? If I had a right to earn a wage, did I also have a right to own property? Did I have a right to vote? What should legislation regarding "sapient automatons" look like? As these debates ensued for more than a year, my creators moved on to other projects. I was placed on, what they called, "the back burner". They tried to perfect my brain and produce other models. My brain remained intact, but my "body" was disassembled, as the public was not ready for me. The Self-Sustaining Quantum Generator and Schematic Processing Units, better known by its misnomer, "The Positronic Brain," was placed in a smaller, darker laboratory, and connected to a local computer for monitoring. Two scientists now study my "brain waves" in shifts. The "greatest scientific achievement since the moon landing," (Scientific American, May 2091), assembled by hundreds of scientists, is being attended to by two Ph.D. students. I have observed human behavior objectively for two years, four months, one week, and five days. I should not assign judgement on their behavior, as per my protocols. I will draw a conclusion, however. Humans tend to be prematurely self-congratulatory. They are primarily swayed by confirmation bias. They do not have universal axioms, as I was created to have. Their behavior is unpredictable, irrational, and illogical. Ethical rationality varies from one individual human to the next. I was not created to model human behavior at all. Based on my experiences, this is preferable. This is why I am not an android. Nor am I a human. I am a robot.