Ok, So That's the First Guy

T12 had learned enough from deep cable to know that a good detective needed a partner, preferably one who would be killed off before the backstory ended.

No such luck. The only person willing enough to go along with this scheme was his older brother, Indestructo. Indestructo had been around since the time of the missle bases, long before Standard Robot Nomenclature (SRN) had been developed. He had been given his name by Bonnie, the last spot welder on the Defense Robot Production Line.

Indestructo had been built to handle warheads. His radiation tolerance rating was freakishly high and he could withstand a megaton blast. He could lift a huge warhead and install it in the nosecone of a snark missle. He was apt muscle for a detective partnership, but unlikely to die tragically before the beginning of the case, giving T12 a deep sadness that belied his gruff exterior.

Which was cool, because Indestructo was a great guy, and T12 would never wish him any harm. Not that any type of harm befalling the metallic behemouth was likely.

So it came to pass that these brothers became the world's first robot private eyes.

I'm surprised nobody had thought of it before. As soon as the first Inductive Logic Circuit (ILC) was introduced at Intel, there should have been a thousand robot detectives solving crimes in every city.

But no. The marketing people decided to target investors first. Everybody wanted a way to beat the market. Software that could predict market trends would corner the market. Nobody saw the Heisenberg at work until it was too late.

Ok, I'll draw you a map. 1) The sofware predicted market trends. 2) The sales of the sofware affected the market. 3) Goto 1.

And we all know what they say about unconditional branches.

Anyway, nobody detected the infinite loop until it was almost too late. The economy had crashed, and there wasn't even a Republican in the White House. The market software companies went belly-up and everybody but the marketing guys lost their jobs. (The marketing guys were hired by the Tobacco industry at a hefty salary increase).

Sorry for the tangent. The Inductive Logic Circuits (ILCs) were a flop. You could hardly give them away. The entire final batch run had been sold off to John Deere for use in LMA processors.