The Incidental Martian's Chronicle

A series of short articles under this title, one per episode, is presented as the work of Union Morning Post columnist "Wendy Guthly" (Guthrie?), translated into Japanese by (director) Konaka Chiaki. There is no credit for the English version transcribed below.

1. Electro Blood
2. Flesh & Stone
3. Heart Core
4. Bit of Love

Mars Environment/Current Status of Terra-forming/Prosperity of the "Second" Type/Decline of Conception

• St. Lowel City (Note 1) has no movement for female power in the society. It might appear to be more advanced than Earth but the political majority of the city is male and the mentalities of its inhabitants are as conservative as those of the pioneering men of old days.
  It has been a century since the beginning of terra-forming. It has been so successful that Earthlings now think of Mars as practically on the other side of Asia. People shouldn't forget, however, that the only habitable pace on Mars is St. Lowel City. The terra-forming process has not even reached the half-way point. Just steping out of the St. Lowel spaceport requires some kind of oxygen support and weighted shoes for gravity-control! On the other hand, we must appreciate the corporation for public development; thanks to their temperature-control, we are only slightly cold!
  The citizens of St. Lowel have almost forgotten the steady work of the corporation for public development. As always, the robot termination movement (Note 2) continues to exist and citizens without I.D.'s are illegally buying and selling the "Seconds" in the old downtown in the lower level of the city.
• Once you step into the new downtown after crossing the Big Bridge (Note 3) you may feel as if you are in London during the Tudor Era. You may be amazed at the level to which the wealthy upper classes of Mars indulge their taste for nostalgia. There are Chevys and Cadillacs from the sixties on the main road. Martians have never thought about creating their own culture, yet their desire for some of the culture they left behind resulted in the nostalgic appearance of the town.
• Three weeks ago, on my first visit to St. Lowel, I was amazed by the enormous robot population in the city.
  As I followed the news I learned the purpose and background of robots. However, I can't get used to them. On Earth the majority of robot designs are non-humanoid so they stand out. The designs of the robots of Mars are completely different.
  Robots are all over on Mars and the majority of them have faces of young girls and the figures of mature women.
  I don't have enough space in this article to go into a detailed history of the robots. The functions of first generation robots were to help with labor (they are known as "gadgets" here). Then came the second generation, standardized humanoide robots. I was amazed to learn, after coming to Mars specifically, that the "Second" type robots which were exported to Earth were designed to please as many people as possible, particularly women, who presumably would not be offended by them.
• Think about it. The face of a girl with a glamourous body; what else could these robots have been created for except to please men. However, women on Mars whose opinions have been repressed have become used to the looks of these robots.
  Recently Mars has grown to the largest supplier in the robot industry. The standard of the "Second" was originally developed by Conception, but Hu-Gite HR Company has since created a similar model to Conception's and has captured the largest share of the market. This is the history of the 1990s computer market repeating itself. Thus, we should celebrate the free market having survived up to this point, but capitalism is still a male prerogative on Mars. Every time I look at an artificial smile on a robot's face, I become concerned; when will the mentality of the people on Mars catch up to Earth's?

Note 1: St. Lowel City

This is the largest man-made city on Mars. It was developed on the bottom of the Marineris valley. The city can be divided into two sections: a new downtown, which inherits a culture of the previous century, and an old downtown, which is composed of unregistered residents. In the middle of the city, there is a large clock called Ad Tower. Since there is no sense of night and day beneath the dome, people use this clock to impart rhythm to their lives.

Note 2: The robot termination movement

The National Trust, a party to promote the nurturing of the environment, was established on Mars. They claim to support the growth of greenery on Mars, however, their real purpose is to promote "Neo-humanism" activities. Their basic agenda is terrorism against robots and promotion of the employment of human females whose jobs were taken by robots.

Note 3: Big Bridge

The highway connecting the old downtown and new downtown sections of St. Lowel City.

Shocking New Evidence Of Thirds!
More Human Than Human: Are Robots Capable of Giving Birth!?

In further regards to the likeness of the Seconds, a standard robot, (previously discussed in this column) are now quite numerous on Mars.

As an Earth-born woman, my opinions regarding the child-faced, physically mature robots known as "Seconds" may be suspect. Not everyone, after all, may necessarily see this as a bad thing.

Robots which are solely created for the purpose of security, (or & and any need for extra physical prowess) have enhanced muscular, and clearly understood, obviated attributes.

St. Lowel City relies heavily upon large numbers of robots for its daily operations. Consequently, there's an equally high number of robot crimes (*Note 1). The ironic thing is that more often than not, these crimes are not initiated by the robots themselves, but by their human accomplices. Obviously, a specialized police force is required to deal with this sort of specialized crime, and to that end the Martian Police Force formed a special task force (*Note 2), the Technological Criminal Squad or TCS.

Commanding officer Lieutenant Larry Randolph, notoriously hostile to the media, has been less than forthcoming with details of recent robot crimes, so the exact nature of the cases handled by the TCS is still unknown. Rumors accusing TCS investigations of interfering with "normal" MPD operations are rampant. Does the right hand know what the left hand is up to? Perhaps the acronym "MPD" has less in common with "Martian Police Department" and more with "Multiple Personality Disorder" than first thought.

The truly ironic thing about the recent increases in robot crimes is that it has become a rallying point for the so-called "robot rejectionists" who claim that robots are taking away the jobs of "normal" citizens. This sort of rabble-rousing activism has no place in an industrial metropolis such as St. Lowel City which depends upon robots for its very existence.

How anyone can link the "Seconds" and their beautiful smiles to a low employment rate is beyond the comprehension of this reporter. As we all know, Julia Blanshin, a real "beauty queen" not ordinarily found on Mars and one of the leading opinion-makers among the "robot rejectionists", has her own slant on the issue — one quite at odds with more traditional Earth feminists. There may be no culture unique to Mars (*Note 3) at the moment, but a value system is slowly starting to evolve, and the opinions of persons such as Ms. Blanshin will surely come to bear at some point in the future.

How will robots fit into this new society? "We're seeing 'home robotization' as the new slogan for our company's next phase of operations," says an unnamed researcher at the Hu-Gite company. But will these robots become even more human than human? The researcher thinks they will not. "I think that as time goes on, robots will start to integrate even more closely with the household itself."

It is common knowledge that the Mars Immigration Plan was conceived of and implemented for the benefit of humanity after a massive population explosion on Earth. Surely there's little sense to be found in advancing robot technology to the point where robots become more human than human. The only problem is, will the consumers who purchase these robots agree?

Note #1: "Criminal Use of Robots is on the Uprise"

The public has named it: "Marionette Terrorism"
Humans are reprogramming robots for criminal purposes.
Any success of the investigation is hampered by the fact that once the robot was recovered, they only found that its memory has been erased.

Note #2: "Special Task Force: TCS"

This Hi-tech criminal investigation team was established several years ago. Their purpose was to investigate criminal use of robots. The public has since nicknamed them "Doll Killers" in response to these activities.

Note #3: "A Brand New Culture"

Martian culture: "A combination of nostalgia and progress."
A progressive thought borne of new frontiers, yet juxtaposed against an earthen sub-conscience, imbedded within the colonists' minds.

Regarding Cyberspace

On Earth, portable accessories are manufactured by various companies, but here in St. Lowell, the models released by a manufacturer called NAVI have a veritable monopoly on the market. Despite the fact that the Martian government is free trade-orientated and may very well object PRIVATELY to the monopoly, on a civilian level, the monopoly has become a very convenient situation indeed.

Portable accessories come in various shapes and sizes, but the majority are palm-top models the functions of which are as easy to operate with a single hand as many of today's home appliances. Like it or not, the moment its palm-top portable accessories began to be used as a form of personal identification, NAVI became an indispensable part of daily life. Interestingly enough, I've personally heard from a NAVI developer that today's technology is capable of shrinking the size of portable accessories even further, although for maximum functionality, the current size is still optimum.

The company's origins date back to the United States during the 1990s, when a product called Magic Cap™ was introduced, are uncontested. It should be obvious to even casual observers that the information systems of those days — with their command architecture, languages such as Script-X, as well as vast networks such as Shangri-La which extend the globe over on communication satellites — are in fact the basis of today's technology.

In Ad Tower, at the center of St. Lowell City, the central memory server for NAVI is located. The amount of information which can be stored here might well hold the whole history of mankind, althugh even this mighty storage facility falls short when you compare it to the massive amounts of information the human brain can store (of course, in terms of memory storage capacity, the problem with the human brain is that only agiven percentage is usually used over a person's lifetime). However, if properly compressed and sorted, Ad Tower could store an individual person's memory.

Some of you may have heard of a science ficthion novel by Robert Anson Heinlein, I Will Fear No Evil, in which an aged, obscenely wealthy man reluctantly uses the body of his recently deceased secretary as a receptacle for his own memory (personality), only to ind that her own personality IS STILL THERE, even after her body's death. Unfortunately, this is not a feat which is possible given today's technology, although backing-up one's own memory is completely within the realm of possibility.

In the area formerly known as the United States of America and with the advent of the global computer network known as the "Internet," another world began to exist. Eventually, this world came to be known as "cyberspace."

In the pre-cyberspace days, life was fairly difficult, and required certain indispensable communication skills. In today's world, living without advanced communication skills is unthinkable. However, no matter how large the computer networks may beocme, or how well we may learn to navigate them, we can never TRULY enter the realm of cyberspace. For me, learning that the "Seconds" truly ARE capable of such a feat leaves me distinctly uneasy, and I can't help but think that those artificial smiles on those ladies' (and some gentlemen's) faces have begun to hold a whole new meaning…

Secrets of the Earth-Federation and Martian Governments

• It's no secret that Earth Federation Congress Chairwoman Everheart, who recently arrived on Mars, is not exactly on the best of terms with the leader of the Mars government. That she met with her fellow dignitary isn't unusual, but that she came all the way to Mars in person for the meeting was definitely something political analysts would never have predicted. One surprising outcome of the meeting was Chairwoman Everheart's proposed plan to bring a large number of female immigrants from Earth to Mars. Obviously, the Martian government is in no position to refuse a proposal from the Earth Federation Congress, but it should also be noted that by accepting, the Martian government has clearly taken a step away from its goal of becoming a sovereign nation.¹
• Did you know that in St. Lowell City, the ratio of male to female blue-collar workers is less than 9:1? Granted, one expects that there would be, at least initially, more male colonists on Mars than female, but surely one would think that after a generation or two the male-female ratio would even out. However, this is not taking into account the slower rate of growth for Mars-born citizens (i.e., "Martians") relative to their Earth-born brethren. This is a serious problem, but there's an even more grave problem which we as Martian citizens must consider. The Martian government isn't exaclty eager to reveal this, but were you aware that the percentage of Martian children who grow up to be healthy adults is a fifth that of Earth? In our schools, where one would hope to find our hope for the future, the next generation, it's becoming more and more common to spot distinctly non-healthy, even sickly children.
• This phenomenon has not escaped the notice of various doctors, who have forwarded their own hypotheses. The imperfect terraforming of our Martian environment² is responsible for the sickliness of our children, they say, claiming that despite the many steps taken to make Mars more "Earth-like,"some essential element still seems to be missing. Another concern is that despite terraforming effort, Mars may be a fundamentally unsuitable environment for humans, much less the Earth-type lifeforms they need to sustain an acceptable quality of life. And yet, despite this possible incompatibility, people have been living on Mars for 100 years, not a long time when viewed from a cosmic perspective, but a considerable span nonetheless, which leads me to hope that the doctors and scientists may be wrong. I myself have been living here in St. Lowell for six months now, and even though my initial impression of life here was colored by a resentment regarding the lack of even a concept of feminism, I have since come to understand that the people here have a desperate sort of will to not only survive, but flourish.
• As for what sort of clandestine arrangements were reached between Earth Federation Congress Chairwoman Everheart and our own Martian government, perhaps only history will reveal. Personally, it is my own desperate wish that Mars not become an Earth chattel but an independent nation. Already, we are on the verge of developing our own sense of freedoms and values. So long as these female immigrants of Earth Chairwoman Everheart's cling to their former Earth values, it will be impossible for them to understand — much less embrace — our Martian values.
• As a people, we Martians are at peace. We do not deny the occasional eruption of terrorist incidents from time to time, but these attacks do little to destroy our general harmony. Incidents such as the recent boycott among Second-type robots — who drpped what they were doing and stood stock-still staring at television monitors — is a grave problem, and yet I would still argue that as a city we are making great strides.³ It is indeed unfortunate that this is to be my last column in this publication; it saddens me very much, but I do plan to continue as a Martian immigrant journalist, continuing to provide a voice for the Martian people.
  In other words, you haven't heard the last of me yet.

NOTE 1: The formal name of the martian government is "The Provisional Martian Government under the United Nations Control." It means that it is not an independent nation. The martian government applied the same legal system of Earth, and Mars is treated as a neutral territory, just like the Antarctic Continent.

NOTE 2: Even after seventy years of labor, the Mars terraforming project is only halfway completed. Lack of necessary funds and insufficient manpower are the two reasons most often cited for the delay.

NOTE 3: This is not to forget that the manufacture of robots, which has a long history stretching back to the earliest days of terraforming, is one of our most important and fundamental industries. From a trade perspective, our industry is economically more viable than that of Earth.