Chapter 2. June 2080. How I earned my PhD and started a company.
For more fun reading this chapter I suggest having the following songs ready to play where indicated. All of them are available free on Youtube.
- California Dreamin, Mamas and Papas (1965). 2. Knowing Me, Knowing You, Abba (1977). 3. Trepak, by Tchaikovsky (1892) (Nutcracker Ballet). 4. Capriccio Italien (1880) Tchaikovsky. 5. Caught Up in You, 38 Special (1982).
My name is Robert Slone, friends call me Rob. I'm a VP of Engineering at ThunderInc and one of the three company founders. Today, we make the sound systems for movie theaters, large entertainment venues, and some well known bands (Metallica, Deep Purple, Queen, ZZ Top, Grand Funk Railroad, and REO Speedwagon). Ours is the only one capable of accurately reproducing the sound of an actual thunder clap. Ours is also the preferred technology for an accurate reproduction of a rocket launch, a large ocean surf in places like Cape Town, South Africa or Hawaii, or the sound of a large rocket during lift-off. Let's say I know a thing or two about sound reproduction and the hardware to make it sound real. Our systems are all about accurately amplifying the source recording. Of course the most difficult part of reproducing the sound of a lightning strike is recording it correctly. Part of the trick is knowing places where lightning strikes daily and being there and being ready (with recorders running) ahead of time.
I remember as a kid in high school once I was outside with a group of friends in a city park (smokin the ganja) when lightning struck a tree and blew big chunks of tree bark all over the playground. The giant spark and the thunder were so intense we all freaked out. I stood there listening to the deep rumble as it echoed off high rise buildings and mountains around the area and thought to myself `I want a stereo that can do that!' That day it kind of became my goal in life, and eventually a career.
A group of my friends discovered that at the local electronics store all the stereo amps they sold were cheap crap made in China but there was a demand for high quality amplifiers and speakers so we informally started a company to hand-make higher power stereo amplifiers to sell to hifi enthusiasts, the kind of old men who preferred vinyl records over CDs and MP3s. Our second discovery was most of the speakers in stores were also crap (made in Mexico) so we designed our own and started selling them too. Eventually word got out and our sales doubled, and we moved from a 24'x24' basement operation (with one employee) to a rented space in a run-down old strip mall on Washington Avenue in El Cajon California. We rented an 80x80ft storefront with one tiny window and a decent bathroom and a good electrical service and actually hired four local elderly people. The next year we incorporated under the name ThunderInc and split shares of stock and that was how we got started.
The next thing we discovered was that we needed to use glass vacuum tubes instead of aluminum power transistors because of their heat and amperage tolerance so I was the designated guy to go forth and find out how it was done. I ended up touring two factories (one was in Saratov Russia) learning trade secrets how to build large glass power tubes. Glass vacuum tube technology was abandoned starting in the 1950s with the invention of the transistor, but to this day some very high power radio station transmitters still use glass vacuum tubes in the high power amplification part of the transmitter. So vacuum tubes might have disappeared from household electronics but the industry is still alive and well. To learn how to design the inside of high power tubes I ended up visiting nursing homes around the world to meet the retired engineers who designed the elaborate internal parts.
Three years later we sold our first commercial sound system to Liberty Bell Arena in Philadelphia for six million dollars (installed) and it's still in use today. They are the preferred location for live concerts in eastern Pennsylvania. Bands love it because they avoid the cost of setting up their own sound system. They can leave all those huge amps and speakers inside the semi trailer but they still need the sound guy and the mixing console.
During my senior year of high school I enrolled at USC (with my two partners) where (seven years later) we were awarded doctorates after demonstrating our inventions inside Dodger Stadium.
Today, when you go to any movie theater you'll see our red lightning bolt logo on the outside of every movie theater chain in North America and Europe.
Today, our company offices are near downtown San Diego but we do our manufacturing in Amarillo, Texas. I've been there several times. Kevin may go there someday for our annual employee-family open house.
I am the company nerd in charge of the design and manufacture of high power amplifier tubes. We use glass tubes instead of metal transistors because of heat tolerance and their ability to conduct very high voltages without arcing. Actually, our tubes do arc inside, kind of like a miniature lightning storm but I`ll explain that soon.
My philosophy about sound amplification isn't about how loud it gets but that it sounds like the real thing. During the early 2000s the use of an audio recording format called MP3 was very popular but digital compression badly distorted how things sounded. Generations of kids grew up thinking that a cymbal tap with a wire-tip drum stick sounded the same as a burst of compressed air from a gas station air hose. Chimes, tambourines, snare drums, and other high pitched instruments all turned into bursts of air and none of these kids heard the real thing. Listen to the song by the Byrds called Mr. Tambourine Man on MP3 and how much digital distortion there is in the tambourine, it sounds like bursts of compressed gas!
In all honesty, when you're talking about high power amplifier tubes another old technology that also becomes necessary are high power transformers (paired coils of wire inside a steel housing). These big amplifier tubes also need high voltage power. Electronic devices called Resistors and Capacitors are also necessary so we either had to buy them or make our own.
And when you're talking about kilovolts of electricity to run those high power amplifier sections the risk of death or injury to the technicians greatly increases. High power amplifiers for sound or radio are extremely dangerous to work around.
When companies today manufacture high power glass tubes its done in a special chamber with all the oxygen pumped out and the assembly is done by very small robotic arms and micro welding robots too. They are built, tested, and inserted inside a glass tube and sealed forever. Once the software is configured correctly and all the materials required are inside the chamber the machine can build about 12 tubes an hour.
Let me explain how we (three partners who started the company in someone's basement) did our demonstration to the university engineering board. We hired a military Harrier combat jet (vertical take off and land, British Aerospace Harrier-II owned/operated by the California National Guard for public displays and promotions), a dual-rotor military helicopter (Boeing CH-47 Chinook), and a fireworks company to demonstrate how real things actually sounded.
At this point most people would ask why we were putting on a fireworks show at 1pm in the afternoon, and that's a valid question. So we used only those shells that are about the size of a grapefruit. They go up and explode and make one hell of a deep loud blast (you can feel) but don't make a pretty colorful light burst display. We fired those for six minutes, non-stop: BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! And on it went for 360 seconds, or about 35 shells. Inside the stadium it was overwhelmingly loud. And it all got recorded. While the smoke cleared the guy running the tape deck pressed STOP and REWIND.
During the day we had a group of about 170 people seated between third base and home plate (above the dug-out) and had the jet fly over and stop to hover well above the outfield, then rotate and take off again. Let me tell you, if you've never seen a VTOL jet stop near you and hover it's an amazing show, it's also amazingly loud, painfully loud.
Then moments later the dual-rotor CH-71 helicopter approached and hovered above the centerfield, then it turned and slowly flew away, and lastly the fireworks company put on a six minute show with their loudest shells that were launched from just outside the stadium and exploded directly overhead, which was also very loud, especially when it echoed inside the stadium. As the smoke cloud cleared somewhat we played the analog stereo recording of those events from two large round speakers which were aimed at parabolic sound reflectors behind the audience. After the recording started everyone immediately saw there was no discernable difference between the original and the analog reel to reel tape recording.
Prior to the playback nobody had much to say about the two black cylinders on the ground between first and second base. They looked like two ridiculously large cannons aimed at the bleachers above third base.
That was the end of our formal presentation of the sound system and we reminded people in the stadium our system out-performed all others and cost 38% less. Then we invited anyone interested to stay a little longer for part two of our show. The part of the show related to earning our doctorates was over and many of the university people left.
I concluded part-1 by thanking everyone for attending and reminding them `hearing is believing' the difference between us and our competition was like seeing Star Wars in the theater in 1977 or watching it on VHS tape on your 13 inch TV on the kitchen counter in 1995.
The purpose of our demonstration was to show that we could take three incredibly loud events, record them, and accurately play them back so the listener could not tell it was a recording without actually watching it happen, and we achieved discreet 7-channel surround sound with two speakers and two passive reflectors. When the jet flew away the audience watched it depart, then they heard the exact same sound from the recording made minutes earlier.
About fifty people left at that time (mostly the school of engineering capstone committee) while several groups of people walked onto the baseball field to see the sound system which was set-up near third base. The speakers were sitting on the line between first base and second, 25 feet apart. Our speakers for our highest power system were the size of 55 gallon drums, but painted flat black. Due to air currents they were held down by stacks of sandbags piled under, alongside, and especially behind them. The outlet ends were raised to aim them at round reflectors on tripods on the wide walkway about thirty seat rows behind our invited spectators.
Fifty feet in front of each speaker (on stacks of sand bags) sat metal pans (for draining engine oil during a home auto oil change). We previously poured half a liter of diesel fuel in each pan, so when lit they'd each put out rather large flames. While we spent about 20 minutes letting people walk around the equipment my assistant was changing tape reels on the reel to reel deck, because part-2 was pre-recorded.
The amplifier (our model 3500) was in a steel rack cabinet, not much to look at really. It was connected by USB cable to a laptop computer to manually control the settings with a mouse. On the table sat a Teac 80-8 (half inch) reel to reel tape deck, and there were two Shure SM7 broadcast microphones on stands aimed at the two big video display signs behind the outfield seats. Just outside the playing field was a fireworks set-up but those were off limits to spectators and were covered by plastic tarps, and triggered by a simple remote button. There are two wide gaps in the outfield seats, the widest one is straight out from second base, that's where the fireworks were set up. They had ten firing tubes mounted on long heavy boards, each tube was loaded with one shell each. All of them were fused with time delay devices so they launched with the desired time delay. They had four racks of ten tubes each ready to fire.
Now remember we're in Dodger Stadium, which is about two miles north of downtown Los Angeles, California and it's a weekday, about 1pm in the afternoon on a nice but cool sunny day. We asked everyone who was staying to return to their seats. It looked like our audience was about 30% smaller than when we started. I think the real audio snobs in the group wanted to stay knowing we were going to do a brief `beat the amplifier' music demonstration on our largest commercial system as of that year.
California Dreamin, Mamas and Papas. (1965) Play it now.
I gestured to the guy working the tape deck to start it running, but it wasn't cued-up, I had no idea how much blank tape time I had to talk. The song itself had an 8-second voice-over time (8 seconds from the first note until the singing started).
"Thanks for sticking around for part-2 of our little demonstration. Our first song was released during the folk music scare of the mid 1960s." Everyone in the stands laughed. "It was a close call for humanity because folk music almost caught on. But this song will take some of you back to 1965, it was recorded here at United Western Studios." Then The Mamas & The Papas song California Dreamin' started playing. It's only about two and a half minutes long and as it played my helper had the amp running with a power limit of about 19% volume, or about as loud as it would have been had they been here to see it performed live in-concert. The flute segment in the middle of the song was clearly heard by dozens of people driving on the nearby 110 Freeway (1600 feet to the east).
Of course older Angelinos connect emotionally to that song and I saw more than one person wipe their eyes. The overall reaction by the audience was minimal which worried me at first.
I stopped talking and all of us just listened to that classic oldie as it echoed around the stadium as if they were right behind us performing it live to a stadium full of hippies and Vietnam War demonstrators. I thought back on the band members themselves, only one person is still alive today, that would be Michelle Phillips.
And I picked up the microphone again as the song ended.
"The internet says California Dreaming was written by John and Michelle Phillips while living in New York City during the winter of 1963 thinking about how much they missed the warmth and sunshine of the west coast, even in January. The lead male vocal in that song is Denny Doherty, with the band The Wrecking Crew playing the music and Bud Shank on flute."
Load the song: Knowing Me, Knowing You, Abba (1977)
"Our next piece was chosen for the almost military marching beat and the lead singer's ability to move air, a lot of air! It was recorded in 1977 in Metronome Studio in Stockholm Sweden. Stockholm is in far southeast Sweden near the Baltic Sea, that's 5400 miles from LA. Ladies and gentlemen the lead singer is Anni-Frid Lyngstad who was known personally as Frida and when this track was recorded she was 31 years old. She's alive and well today living in Norway.
I wanted to say that most people probably heard this song on their car radio, with at most seven watts per channel, but today you're going to hear it in surround sound at 9,000 watts per channel and I have instructed the guy at the tape deck to raise the power limiter to 29%. So hold onto your hats." I pointed to the guy with one finger on the play button and the other hand on the mouse to raise the limiter.
(Play song now) From 1977 this is Knowing Me, Knowing You, it's a break-up song.
...there is nothing we can do, knowing me knowing you.
We just have to face it, this time we're through,
breaking up is never easy, I know, but I have to go.
knowing me, knowing you, it's the best I can do.
People told me later they actually heard the instruments behind her vocals shifting around the stadium as if the band was here performing on a floating stage. As the song faded out most people in the seats started applauding and whistling.
After the applause started to die down I moved on to the next track.
While I waited for some quiet I thought to myself it sounded like whoever recorded that song onto reel to reel must have played with the 3D control and panned the center channel around the stadium. I heard it move around, which is pretty amazing, surround sound coming from just two speakers. It was kind of the point of our demonstration.
"ABBA had three highly successful Top-40 singles in 1977 and made a lot more money than California Dreamin. Knowing me, knowing you played on radio stations every hour for months in 1977 on every continent on the planet. The band name ABBA represents the first letters of the four original band members first names. And since they're oddly spelled Swedish names I cannot pronounce them correctly." Everyone laughed.
Load and prepare: Trepak, by Tchaikovsky (1892) (Nutcracker Ballet)
"I'll warn you the next one is even more intense than Frida's voice." I heard a rumbling of conversation from everyone in the seats spoke to the others nearby. "Our amplifiers are designed for the accurate reproduction of classical music most of all because classical demands more power and reserve capacity because of the dynamic range, the louds are louder and more complex, and the soft passages are very soft. This piece is one of my favorites, it was written in 1892 by Tchaikovsky for his ballet The Nutcracker, this piece is called Trepak."
"I'm told that word refers to a traditional Ukrainian folk dance where the men squat way down and with hands on hips they alternate legs kicked out and appear to almost be floating in the air. This recording was made in the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1989 by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Thomas and was recorded directly onto a vinyl master disc. This short piece is very intense, its one minute and eight seconds long but like Short Round once warned (Willie Scott), `Hang on Lady, we're goin' for a ride!'" I gestured to my helper and leaving the amplifier with the same settings, he pressed PLAY. (Play Trepak now)
Again the attendees clapped but remained seated. It was time now for the final demo and I advised the people our goal was to make it sound exactly like there was an actual orchestra in the stadium playing these classical pieces. This was not a test of how loud it could get, but how accurate it could sound.
We ran the tape, but the Trepak is just over one minute long but it is very intense. We were seated at the small table watching the computer or the people in the stadium, it was interesting watching how they reacted to this song from the Nutcracker.
As Trepak ended people in the seats applauded, "Yes Tchaikovsky never disappoints. Today, some say he was gay, but he was married to a woman and he's not around to defend his reputation. I think he's one of the greatest composers in human history. He was Russian and lived from 1840 to 1893, and died in his early 50s. The world became a better place because of his work, God bless him."
Everyone clapped briefly.
- Capriccio Italien (1880) Tchaikovsky
"This last recording is by the New Philharmonic Orchestra, they're from Newton Massachusetts, which is a near-west suburb of Boston. It was recorded in 1987 at Boston Symphony Hall directly onto analog tape, it's a stereo recording, two channels only. It's also by Tchaikovsky, written in 1880. This recording is almost 16 minutes long. If you know Tchaikovsky you know he often writes big endings and that's very true for this one, known as Capriccio Italien. I think this orchestra was supposed to be like the old Boston Pops Orchestra, they sold more records than any other classical orchestra in history."
(Start playing Capriccio Italien now)
"They say Tchaikovsky was inspired to write this piece during a bitter period of fighting with his soon to be ex-wife, to help clear his mind he took a trip with his brother to Rome by steam locomotive. This song captures the energy and hustle of the busy city of Rome in the summer 1887. It helps me by visualizing the orchestra members and the amount of physical work required to play this piece, he's especially tough on string musicians."
"Ladies and Gentlemen from 1880 this is Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien.... Oh wait! As you know the ability of a speaker system to accurately reproduce sound depends entirely on the ability to move air, our high power theater line of speakers move a lot of air, so we added a bonus feature to demonstrate this. And keep your eyes on the flames near the end of the song. And I have instructed my man on the mouse to remove all restrictions on the power amplifiers. How much wattage they use depends entirely on the recording. This system has twenty five thousand watts of power per channel available should it need it. And if you've seen our speakers in your local movie theater and wondered why they're always aimed above the audience this demonstration will show why."
I set down the wireless microphone and walked over to the steel pans sitting on stacks of sandbags which put them about six feet above the infield grass, which was covered with a heavy plastic tarp. So there were two 14" pans with fuel oil sitting in front of both speakers. As the music started I lit both fires (with a candle) and walked back by the amplifier and sat down to watch the computer display a moment by moment chart showing how hard my babies were working. It also showed the temperature for the high power tubes. When I sat down they were both at 96 degrees. Air temperature inside the stadium presently was 72 degrees.
The glass sleeves for our tubes were always Pyrex Glass, so they shouldn't shatter but they were rather new and there's a break-in period for high power tubes.
Let me explain something with high power amps, they usually work in stages. Ours run that way too, each channel has two intermediate amplifier stages before it goes into the two-stage final amplifiers. With the computer display we could monitor each stage for temperature, current draw, and for any system anomalies. I actually expected our music demonstration would barely touch the final stage of either amp, but the fireworks recording most certainly did!
Our final demonstration looked pagan, the black smoke and flames reaching toward the sky in front of the speakers. With the peaks in volume in the song everyone could already see the air was blowing the flames around as they seemed to slowly increase in height. As the fuel oil warms the fires burned higher and made more black smoke.
With each cymbal crash the flames were blown forward, but the beginning of the song is rather serene, like waking up in a hotel room and seeing the sun rise over ancient Rome. I picture Tchaikovsky stepping out onto his balcony in his PJs looking down at the scurry of Romans in 1880 riding to work on horse carts. Gradually, the tempo increases as the sun rises higher above the Coliseum ruins and the hills around Rome.
The trumpet section reminds me of activity in the Coliseum, perhaps chariot races or a bull fight. I heard a group of scantily dressed Gypsy women wandering the city streets trying to attract attention for men to come watch them perform in a local bar, hopefully dropping coins in the ceramic jar if they enjoy the show of bare legs and low V-cut tops. Bare ankles were considered very sensual in the late 1800s, they are after all less than thirty inches from paradise.
12:35 into the song the pace picks up dramatically along with the volume. The wind shooting out of the tube-speakers blows both flames powerfully but they remain on fire. People say they felt the tambourine hits on their faces. My helper on the tape deck glanced at me and smiled and gave me a thumbs-up so I made sure he removed all restrictions on the power amp. Let `em have it!
With 30 seconds left the song takes on an almost militaristic sound. In my mind I picture a chariot race in the final dash to the finish line. Then when you think it cannot get louder, Tchaikovsky takes the orchestra to an even higher level. The guy on the big bass drum stands with the padded batons held above his head poised to pound the shit out of the six foot drum in the final seconds. Is it deafening and you can actually feel each drum-strike on your ear drums, at a distance.
With nine seconds left in the recording the system reached 76% of capacity and first the right flame then the left flames were blown completely out. And before the song ended people started to stand and cheer.
That was the day we formally earned our doctorates and made business connections with a number of film studio sound execs and theater owners. I was handed fifteen business cards from people who wanted to discuss our system in their stadium or theater.
- Caught Up in You, 38 Special, (1982) (play it now)
Eight seconds after Capriccio Italien ended I had the guy on the tape deck lower the system to 3% power and let the tape continue to run. The last recording on it was 38 Special: Caught Up In You.
We also had in attendance a few sound engineers from the Los Angeles area, as well as the CEO of the company who owned Dodger's Stadium. It was an outstanding demonstration that earned me my doctorate and several job offers. Its 7-channel (left, right, center, sub, surround L, R) surround sound from two speakers and two 36-inch parabolic aluminum reflectors! And our amplifiers also put on their own light shows. So that's the story of how I earned my doctorate in engineering.
I brought four people up close to the amplifier so they could see the lightning. On each amp cabinet there is a glass panel so the power tubes can be seen from the outside. They create a beautiful two-color micro lightning pattern inside the tube which some people find truly amazing. Outside in direct sunlight it's hard to see.
Our theater system amps are designed to be installed near the concession stand. While waiting for their show to start seating, people can watch the amplifiers and their lightning show. Unlike most theaters where the sound equipment is hidden except the surround speakers, on ThunderInc systems everything is visible and adds to the value of going to the theater. All the amplifiers are installed beside the lobby instead of hidden in the projection booth.
Most modern day theater owners install our cylinder speakers below the screen but they're aimed above the heads of the movie-goers, at the parabolic reflectors mounted up high on the back wall, they sort of look like three foot diameter satellite dishes.
It took the three of us 90 minutes to pack our gear inside the back of our rented U-haul truck which we drove onto the baseball field. While we were taking apart the display we re-lit the remaining oil in the pans so we didn't have to pour it back into bottles. Our amplifier cabinets are all on wheels so they roll up the ramp and into the truck. The sand bags are stacked onto 4-wheel carts and pushed up the ramp into the truck, then the speakers are stood upright and picked up with 2-wheel carts and loaded. Then we roll up the cables and someone has to go up into the seats and collapse the sound reflectors and their stands, it's a lot of walking but not a lot of weight to carry. They're kind of like giant aluminum Frisbees but they have to be handled with great care, if they get dinged or bent they're ruined.
When they're nearly out of oil we cover the oil pans to put out the fires and slide them inside heavy plastic bags for the ride back to the factory.
Our speakers are precisely aimed at a reflector (with a small laser pointer), then the contours of the reflector are what direct each surround channel to a particular location, so they create the effect of a surround speaker, without the speaker or individual amplifier. It's a similar technology used on commercial satellites to create spot beams to particular locations in North America. It's all in the precise contour of the reflective surface. All the components must be installed correctly or they won't create true surround sound. When customers call for help 98% of the time the problem is mistakes made during installation. Once in a while a failure was caused by them providing us incorrect theater dimensions.
The tube speakers have specific speaker elements (woofer, midrange, and tweeters) at different spots on the outer case then they create something like an acoustic waveguide, directed at the exact center of the reflector, it's the reflected sound that creates the surround effect. The idea is sort of like aiming a fire hose at an 18" satellite dish which is shaped to direct different parts of the stream of water at different places in the theater. During installation they have to be aimed by laser and the speakers must be tightly mounted so they never move. Even the spacing between reflectors is critical, as well as distance between reflectors and the walls, floor, and ceiling.
One time we got a call from a theater owner who reported a system failure, but it turned out they rented out the theater for a child's private birthday party and they had several bunches of metallic helium balloons in the theater between the speakers and reflectors, which blocked the waveguide and ruined the 7-channel effect.
My contributions to the company were the original design of our glass power tubes, the amplifier circuits, and some of the design of the drum speakers. One of the other partners, a friend of mine since high school, was the genius behind the reflectors, and the third guy discovered using fluid dynamics to shoot sound out of the cannon at the reflector which eliminated a huge chunk of the cost of a theater surround system. With the old systems, each sound channel needed its own amplifier, speaker, wires, mounting, etc, that means as many as 12 speakers and amplifiers, with our system its two speakers and two parabolic dish reflectors, that's it!
Football stadium? Two speakers, two reflectors! Indoor concert venue? Two speakers, two reflectors!
Outdoor football stadium, like the one we did in Washington DC? Two speakers, two reflectors, that's it!
That's kind of how I graduated from USC after eight years. Five days after our little demonstration I got my certificate from the University.
One of my partners found four US companies capable of custom stamping metal plates for commercial satellite antennas, we hired Sunn-Aerospace in Huntsville Alabama to stamp our reflectors, and they worked perfectly!
One other rare occasion we found that disrupted our system was at an outdoor baseball stadium in Seattle, during a 4.0 earthquake the reflectors shook and swayed during the 89 second earthquake the sound system failed but came right back to life once the support poles for the reflectors stopped moving. In that stadium they had a roof over the seats with the cylinder speakers mounted just under the roof and the reflectors mounted on 60 foot tall aluminum poles above the outfield walls. But during the earthquake the poles swung side to side like a metronome. After the earthquake stopped the poles stabilized in a few seconds and the sound magically re-appeared. The poles they used for the reflectors were like the tallest light poles you might see along an interstate highway near a major interchange.
And now back to today:
It came as a total surprise to me when one week before Kevin was supposed to be picked up at the Robco store I got an email (supposedly) from him. At first I thought it was a scam, but it came from the corporate domain of Robco in Tokyo. He already had his own email account, BIC number, serial number, and construction history with photos and video. He appeared to be fully self-aware and eager to leave the Robco factory in Tokyo.
I saw his metal chassis and internal structure. I could see the computer inside him and his articulated frame hanging from an overhead conveyor as robotic assembly technicians slowly assembled and tested his components. When he first emailed me he was still just a mash-up of electronic parts with no flesh or senses.
The idea of it absolutely bamboozled my brain, a self-aware computer in a factory in Tokyo is emailing me to say hello.
It was almost weird watching it hanging from an overhead conveyor being shuttled from department to department being assembled, first a chassis, then a chassis with batteries, then with all the electronic parts, then the systems powered-up and tested, then they added the parts made of near human flesh; arms and legs and skin and hair. I watched as this naked (non-moving) cyborg hung by a steel rod from a conveyor, side by side with other cyborgs on their way to software and diagnostics, final testing and burn-in, then shipping! I could hardly wait.
The Robco video says that for burn-in each unit works in the Robco employee dining room and kitchen for 96 hours non-stop where they are equipped with a telemetry power-pack to closely monitor for system faults. All the cyborgs being tested in the cafeteria are monitored like a telemetry unit in a hospital where all the patients wear wireless telemetry monitors. If any of the cyborgs show a fault a crew of two rush in with a wheel chair and remove that unit for study and immediate repair.
The Robco TV commercial I saw said their skin was a combination of real human flesh and a synthetic molecule to resist infection. Plus, it greatly sped up production time so they could grow adult sized skin in less than one week from a few cells full of custom DNA in a tiny glass tube.
My eyes got stuck watching his body as he inched to the next department once his skin with hair was on. Robco employees were seen walking down the hallway next to a conveyor loaded with authentic looking people, all naked, all someone's wishes come true. I suppose not all would be for sex, some were for being primary caregivers, some for security, and some for companionship. We all had our reasons, few discussed such things.
The biggest marketing problem Robco faced was the popular belief that most cyborgs were purchased as sex toys, but surveys show most of them (in 2079) were purchased for companionship for someone in need of an extra set of eyes (special needs child), or around the clock companionship (dementia care).
I could hardly stand the wait. I spent extra time on my bicycle this week (something he was supposed to be capable of after a month or two of walking and solving basic balance computations). He'll probably fall down or stumble several times during the first weeks while he self-calibrated. They advised to not let a new cyborg carry anything fragile for the first few weeks.
Balance and (hand to eye) coordination issues were part of the trade-off for selecting rapid delivery, he had several important break-in calibration problems to solve, one of those would be fine balance, like bicycle riding, dancing, skateboarding, and snowboarding problems too. He'll only get the chance to work on those issues during his short time working in the cafeteria, where he will probably fall down several times. Some activities he might not be capable of on delivery day might be: standing inside a moving city bus or trolly, walking up a steep hill, running on a slippery surface, skiing, surfing, foot race on a track with lane lines, mountain trail hikes, operating a jetski or high speed motorboat, walking inside a moving passenger aircraft, etc. They suggested taking Kevin for short walks outdoors on a sidewalk with varied surfaces every day.
One of my biggest worries is that I'll make a really bad first impression and he'll secretly hate me forever, and say he loves me when he really doesn't. During my late 20s I usually struck out trying to pick up girls at discos and bars because I wasn't tall and handsome, even though I had a lot of money in the bank. I guess that's what pushed me even farther into the gay world, I was rejected by women without them even getting to see my body. Below the neck I look great, but my face is just kind of nerdy awkward and boring. The only time someone actually said to me `Oh you design vacuum tubes? That is so cool!' it was a younger gay man just starting in engineering school.
In their video they described how the cyborgs use microscopic position sensors implanted throughout the entire body, since each cyborg is shaped differently each one has to learn how to match what they see with what they feel from all those position/movement sensors. For example, it said that simply standing upright in one spot is much more complicated than adults realize, just watch a human toddler learning to stand and take their first steps. Then if the floor is moving or not level it complicates balance even more. It takes them about a month of walking before balance becomes something they don't have to actively have to think about. The best way to speed up the learning process is to expose them to moving and varied surfaces to walk on. The best place I could think of that had all sorts of surfaces near home was the USS Midway Museum. There ain't nothing level or flat inside that aircraft carrier, and its only a few thousand foot walk from my home to the Midway.
They showed cyborgs belted (in a standing position) to a stainless steel counter washing dishes in the cafeteria for six hours before they are allowed to walk around. When they first arrive for calibration in the kitchen they arrive on wheelchairs and get strapped in place!
The telemetry backpacks they wore attached to the port on their head and also added external power so they could work non-stop for four days. Some days the cafeteria is overrun by groups of brand new cyborgs learning to walk and do basic kitchen tasks (hauling trash bags, mopping floors, washing dishes, flipping burgers, cooking fries, delivering plates of food, stirring tilt-skillets full of hot food, and measuring ingredients).
The video also showed the incubator machines they invented to grow partial human bodies: bones, muscle, veins, arteries, joints, and nerves. The skin was grown in another machine and was an entire body grown to order from a man-made genetic recipe based on the customer's order.
After the three sections of the cyborg were finished (skin, internals, and electronics) they were assembled and the skin was sealed with a glue and the next day they were escorted to their first day of work in the cafeteria. The video showed technicians stretching the flesh over the skull and the arms and feet and pulling it tight and gluing it in place. When your cyborg is first delivered there is a fading white scar-line that runs up the back, from the butt crack to the hair line which is where the flesh is opened to insert the legs and arms, one part at a time. They slide the flesh over the extremities like pulling a rubber glove on your hand.
After assembly tests pass they use a special glue to seal the back and over the period of a few months the white line fades and disappears. They say it fades even faster if the cyborg spend time outside in sunshine or uses a tanning bed.
The cyborgs who stay at the factory for the full break-in period end up having classroom time where they learn how to write (Japanese) with a pencil, paint with brushes, sign their name, brush their teeth, comb their hair, shave, apply make-up, tie shoe laces, and ride a bicycle.
The Robco videos online showed how finished Pleasurebots were shipped from Tokyo to Los Angeles inside custom cargo containers. They fly in the cargo hold of passenger jets, each carrier was padded and air-tight (the oxygen consumption of a cyborg is much lower than a human). Each cyborg was strapped down in place and kept in standby mode. The stainless steel containers were about 7x7x 2 feet tall and opened like a large casket with hinged lids. Cyborgs travelled on their backs wearing street clothes, side by side inside the container. They were loaded inside the cargo hold of a passenger airplane and flown non-stop to Los Angeles where they were unloaded and the container was delivered to the West Coast Robco facility where they were connected to a computer for diagnostics to make sure they were not damaged en-route. The flight from Tokyo to LAX took about 13 hours.
After arrival and testing they were packed into body bags and strapped onto canvas shelves inside a van and driven down to the store (3.5 hours) in San Diego and prepared for delivery.
In some cases a fully broke-in and educated Pleasurebot may be allowed to travel alone by taxi to the purchaser's home for delivery, about 2/3 of cyborgs are picked-up at the store. Since mine was not yet fully trained or broken-in I had to take delivery at the store.
Last week I hired a service to get my condo ready for Kevin's arrival. The spare bedroom was converted from my office back into a bedroom. I already knew his sizes so ordering clothes was easy (inseam 34 inches, waist 31 inches). Clothes in stock, socks and shoes (size 10) to shirts (shirts were men's small size), caps, winter stuff, bicycle, and skateboard too. He's done with school, I ordered him with a high school education and the college equivalency of a bachelors in marketing. His education might make him somewhat awkward around others his age. Since I ordered early delivery I was not sure how far along his education would be on the day he arrived. I was told he might arrive with a 5th grade education and finish one year of school per week after arrival if given time to attend video classes.
The sales guy explained that when he's asleep is when he is attending classes at a high speed in his computer mind, it's an actual video recording of real classes with real human classmates. It takes him about one week to complete one full year of school in most cases, but it can go faster if he is allowed more time at night to sleep with the USB module plugged in his head.
I was working 14 hours a day trying to get well ahead in my department so I could take time off for 'K-Day,' which was July 1st.
The service I hired for my home dismantled and removed all my office furniture in the 2nd bedroom and delivered and assembled much more space efficient office furniture in my bedroom. Kevin's bedroom is roughly 12x14, and my bedroom alone is 16x14, plus I have a master bathroom, but its small (10x8).
The biggest thing on my desk is my monitor, which is a 32 inch (81cm) LED display because I do a lot of printed circuit board design and use a CAD program to design the internal parts of vacuum tubes, so I need a large display and a big mouse pad too. Behind my desk is the large blueprint printer, its five feet wide!
The days went by slowly. On day K-day minus three my ISP installed the new Robco brand router/server and tested my wifi coverage. The more I thought about it the more I realized I had no actual idea what I was getting myself into buying this thing. They also installed his primary power supply under the bed in his room, the power supply also connects to the cable modem so he can be online without using wifi. This means when he's in bed plugged into two charging cables he can connect to the internet via three separate services for incredibly fast download speeds.
For his room I purchased a twin size bed and memory foam mattress, with a mattress cover and four sets of sheets and blankets. I got him a five drawer dresser (with a mirror) and a small computer desk with lamps and extra outlets. Straight across the hallway from his bedroom door is the guest bathroom, that will be his domain since I've never had many guests over, maybe one or two people a year tops.
One thing I kept forgetting to ask was since Robco cyborgs are living computers do they need external computers to do basic things like email and entertainment? When he first wakes up and opens his eyes what does he see, a blank screen and an A> prompt or his surroundings?
I stopped masturbating two days ago. In all honesty I am used to wanking maybe nine times a week on average so totally stopping for a few days was difficult. Not masturbating was one class never offered at USC.
One very personal thing I was debating silently inside myself was Kevin's role: was he mostly my friend, or a companion/roomie, or a dependent child, or mostly a sex slave, or perhaps a maid, perhaps a combination of all four. I could easily force my wishes on him but I want his role to be something both of us agreed on. Robco designed their minds to make them wanting to please their owner, so I'm not sure if he'll be honest about what he wants.
On K-day minus one I was horny as hell, I could hardly wait. I thought about renting a cyborg for the evening but got a bottle of red wine instead to temper my urges. My dick was partially erect all day on those last two days before K-day! I experimented with different types of underwear to see which one hid the lump (and wet spot) the most in my work slacks.
I was off-work the next 4+14 days, they would call in an emergency, but I was taking a vacation which included the 4th of July holiday. I didn't tell anybody at work what I was doing but I'm sure people could tell I was distracted about something personal. My employer was closed for July 1-July 4, on the 5th my 2-week vacation started. And since July 1st was a Monday I had the previous Sunday off too, so it was actually 1+4+14 days off!
It's like 120 miles from LAX to Fashion Valley Mall, so Kevin would have to land before 6am to clear customs and get transferred to the delivery van for the 2+ hour drive to I-15 and south into San Diego. On arrival to prove they are a cyborg Robco staff plug in an analyzer into his toe to check for any faults that might have appeared during the flight from Tokyo, this also proves his identity to Customs, and that he is not human. He'll be put inside a vinyl body bag and placed on a stretcher and loaded on a shelf inside a cargo van for the ride to San Diego.
On arrival (in San Diego) the van parks near the back door to the store and they unload the stretchers from their supports and get set on the floor of the van and covered with a sheet, then they're carried inside. Once all the cyborgs are inside the van leaves and store employees take them one at a time and strip then naked and carefully fold their clothes. The bodies are placed on stainless steel carts, the same type they use to store human cadavers in university anatomy labs. It's a 4-wheel cart with two hinged lids (they swing down and lock under the work surface). In his case they'll do a final visual inspection after setting his body on a foam rubber pad and roll him inside the sales room. I hear the store staff like to be present to see the body, it's not that often you get to see a naked, unresponsive 20 year old young man on a waist-high steel table right in front of you.
Monday July 1st, 2080. K-Day!
On `K-Day' I made it to the mall at 10:09am by taxi. I was escorted to the same room as before. This time there was a large stainless steel box the size of a casket on a four-wheel cart in the room. My heart was pounding in my chest as we approached. My mouth got really dry and felt like it was pasted shut.
The sales rep asked me if I was alright, if I need water or a moment alone. I must have looked like I was about to pass out or something but I declined all of the offers, insisting we get it over quickly. I thought he was stalling for some reason which started to make me angry.
He grabbed the handle slowly lifting one side of the two-piece top, and then he opened the other half in slow motion. I had no idea why he seemed to be blatantly stalling. In all honesty, I would have been happy to just meet him in the lobby shake hands and leave with my new toy, but they seemed to want to turn it into a grand unveiling. I clearly failed to communicate with these people and considered walking over to the desk and sitting down and telling him to let me know when he was finished with the dramatic crap.
The large stainless steel box slowly opened revealing what looked like a dead teenager. I was stunned by his flawless appearance; I put one hand over my mouth and gasped. 'It' looked exactly like the videos. He had clothes folded neatly beside his lower legs: jeans and a dark colored t-shirt. On top of his shirt were two perfectly laid out short black socks and a thin hemp string necklace. Beside his clothes were two athletic shoes, a brand I never saw before (Japanese?). He was lying on a foam rubber pad with another foam block under his head. There was a sheet covering him from the arm pits on down to his feet. The sales guy gently pulled it off so I could inspect the entire body. I slowly walked around the cart examining him in stunned amazement. My dick started to wake up too.
I was absolutely shocked by how perfect he looked from head to toe, it looked like a real human down to the finest detail. I was afraid to actually touch him but the sales guy told me it was okay to touch. I just didn't want to do it with some stranger dude hanging over me, plus there's an obvious erection growing in my slacks I didn't want to display. I reluctantly kept my hands to myself.
His hair was black and shiny, straight and freshly cut. His eyebrows were wide, thick, giving him the look of just being pleasantly surprised. His eyes were gently closed. The nose was smaller and perfectly straight. I saw something like a small USB memory stick in the top of his head, must be what kept him in stand-by mode. Sales guy said that USB device is what puts him in the deepest standby mode for shipping or internal repairs, sort of like general anesthesia for a human in surgery. "He can't hear or feel anything like this." He offered but I kept slowly moving around the cart examining the pristine body.
His lips were thicker and turned out somewhat (like a Pinoy), something soft and squishy to kiss, perfect for giving oral sex. His ears were half hidden by his hair. The neck was what I would describe as mildly athletic normal. The arms showed some size in the triceps and biceps, like one year of casual weightlifting in school. His chest was slightly muscled and firm. He kind of had a swimmers body, not a lot of definition. No six-pack abs, just a smooth soft hairless belly, sides and armpits. His hands were large and soft, no signs of wear. His belly button was smooth down the sides and across the bottom, female fashion model perfect. No hairs to be seen anywhere from his sideburns to his groin. I wanted to lower my face to his stomach right then.
His areolas were larger than I expected, round not oval. His tiny teats in the middle were mostly flat, but I'm sure I'll feel them with my tongue. Even on his back I saw they were not flat but rose slightly in the center to a peak, maybe 1.5cm. If he was shirtless on the beach even from a distance his chest will attract a lot of eyeballs.
We moved down by his knees. His legs were fit but not too muscular. He was built to swim or run sprints. He had short black hairs (black peachfuzz) growing on his legs below the knee but not much above the knee. I saw a thin coat of tiny black hairs on his forearms but you had to be pretty close to see them.
The salesman lifted the cloth over his groin to expose a limp four inch'er. It's head the same color as his lips and tits. Minimal pubic bush I could trim but it would grow back slowly. It sat bent-over next to his nuts which were large and nearly hairless. He had the same pubic bush as me when I was twelve. I remember seeing in the brochure that they do not produce sperm and his testicles are actually plastic implants.
Sales guy asked if I wanted Kevin turned on his side, I declined the inspection (again, he seemed to be stalling). He showed me the USB port on his head near the cowlick. He also had a charging port with nearby LED display under his right big toenail, all totally waterproof. He said the USB dongle to put him in deep standby mode functions in either port. He also handed me the panic button, like a tiny remote control with four buttons (come to the remote, immediate shut down, halt, emergency wake-up). The small remote had his name imprinted in the battery cover beside the Robco logo, Rosie the Robot with her small motorized base. Rosie never walked she had a motorized box with wheels inside to move her around the Jetson's home. I think Rosie also had a New England accent.
I was thirsty, sweaty and had seen enough, I`ll figure out the rest after we get home. He asked me to take a seat in the lobby so Kevin could power up, get dressed and join me in the lobby by the door. As I turned to leave the sales guy gently grabbed my elbow stopping me. I watched as he pulled the tiny USB module from his head handing it to me with the remote, then I left the room while Kevin started-up. I saw some lights blink on under his toenail before I turned to walk out to the hallway.
I stepped out into the hallway and heard the door click shut behind me. On the wall I saw a sign `< Lobby' so I walked down the long hallway and took a seat and asked the lady at the desk how the install of their app on my device was going, she said just another minute and it's done and activated. They were waiting for us to finish and Kevin to turn on so they could test that it paired correctly, which just happened.
I declined teaching on the app and signed the delivery papers and sat in the chair by the door watching people walking by. I was filled with anxiety and my stomach was upset. I was sweaty and nervous feeling, I had a vision of them walking Kevin out and he'd suddenly panic and shout `I ain't going nowhere with that man!' Their brochure said most introductions filled the cyborg with a sense of love at first sight when they met you.
While I waited I pulled out the remote control to examine the buttons. One of the buttons forced him to immediately stop what he's doing and return to his bed, plug-in, and go into standby mode-2. Because that one could have dire consequences you had to hold it down for three seconds, release it and hold it down again for three seconds before it would activate (but the cyborg also had to be within range of the remote signal). If he was riding on a city transit bus and that mode was activated he would immediately exit the bus and walk home. If he was driving a car he would drive home, or abandon the car in traffic and walk home. At work he would instantly drop what he was doing and go home. The tiny remote control only has a range of about 2000 feet, and only works on that one cyborg.
I heard a door shut down the hallway and people's talking getting closer. Footsteps. One of them sounded like gym shoes. I swallowed almost afraid to turn and look. I wanted him to see me first. I probably should have used their bathroom to check my hair and teeth! I wanted to make a good first impression too. I probably should have used their bathroom to make sure I looked okay and didn't have food stuck between my teeth or worse!
Contact the author: borischenaz mailfence
Remember, this story is entirely fictional, none of it is real.