Chapter Text
The following is a series of logs written in observation of The Dual Robot Symphony Project. The agent assigned to this case is to remain anonymous for their protection.
On September 9, 1983, Dr. Gerard Bangalter and Dr. Serge Christo presented to a top secret organization their plan to create two robots to resemble human beings that would be programmed for making music. They claimed the project to be an experiment in robotics, and also to see if computers were capable of creating symphonies. The project was titled The Dual Robot Symphony Project. The doctors' plans pended approval for five years. On September 9, 1988, Dr. Bangalter and Dr. Christo's plan was finally approved of, and a year later they had sufficient starting funds and team ready to embark on the Project.
Our anonymous agent was sent to gain the trust of Dr. Bangalter and Dr. Christo and observe the activities and planning of the Project, so that a watchful eye could be kept on what the doctors were doing and where potential millions of dollars would be going into.
The following are the first wave of documents made by the anonymous agent sent back to HQ.
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Log 1:
I am documenting my first day of observation of The Dual Robot Symphony Project.
The two leaders behind the project, Doctors Bangalter and Christo, claimed that they had a solution to make the agency a lot money whilst having a tight leash on their musical talent: robots.
After much dispute and contemplation, it seems that five years later the Doctors' idea has resurfaced and has strangely enough been approved. Doctors Bangalter and Christo have formed a team of engineers and the like to help with the development of the robots.
I had to go through great measures of red tape and security to finally be allowed into the establishment the doctors called a lab. So far, they have only roughed their crazy plan through a series of drawings. I'm wondering if the agency really thinks this project is a good idea or if it's a useless endeavor and they are giving the engineers something to do with their time. I suppose after spending over a decade in university together, two men cannot help but want to make reality their crazy ideas.
There's not much to report on today. I only caught a glimpse of the drawings and can hardly remember what they looked like. I will hopefully gather more information as I investigate further.
Log 2:
It has been about two weeks since I was last allowed into the lab. I actually got a chance to speak with the doctors directly. I can hardly believe that two men deemed geniuses trust me enough to take me under their wing to observe their top secret work. They even introduced me to the rest of the engineers as their personal protege and a friend of the agency.
Dr. Bangalter spoke to me mostly, showing me the finalized concept of his robot. The robot appeared to look like a man with shiny silver hands and a silver head, with two tubes running down the back leading to a box on its back. When I asked about the box, he explained that it would be the robots' power source. He flipped through various other sketches of what the inside of the robot's head and body would look like.
He told me he has already picked out a name for his robot: Thomas. Thomas Bangalter. His explanation is a simple one: "If I had a son, I would have wanted him to be named Thomas. And I see this robot as my son; I'm shaping and developing him in such a way that a father would be proud. He is to be the brain of the duo, and Dr. Christo's the heart".
I did not get a chance to speak to Dr. Christo today except for the hello at the door. He seemed to be caught up in his other work. I am hoping to see the roughs of his robot.
Log 3:
Nearly two months later, I returned to the lab. I was greeted by Dr. Bangalter and immediately asked him for Dr. Christo's plans. He reluctantly retrieved them. Dr. Christo's robot was similar to that of Dr. Bangalter's in that it also seemed like a man, but with golden hands and a golden head, though its head seemed more like a black visor. Apparently, Dr. Christo hasn't chosen a name for his robot yet, though Dr. Bangalter said that he urges his partner to follow the same sort of "fatherly" name with his unit.
Dr. Bangalter went on to explain that the robots are going to share a sort of symbiotic relationship and will share brainwaves, if you will, via cable. That way, the two can envision music in harmony. Thomas is going have a vocal synthesizer that the doctors are calling a "vox processor", which will enable him to sing. Dr. Bangalter told me that voice synthesizing is a rather difficult endeavor and in order to do so successfully, he will need to sample some voices from human beings. He then proceeded to show me his blueprints of what the vox processor would look like and tried to explain the science behind it, but I got none of that.
He also showed me an extensive blueprint of the other entry ports on the back of their necks, one in particular that he said they would use to recharge the power packs on their backs. "Of course they can't last forever," he explained, "They need reserve power. They will be able to last for long periods of time, but at some point they will have to recharge."
I have also been curious as to why the doctors want to make two robots instead of one unit. So, I asked Dr. Bangalter this and his response was an interesting one: "All good things in this world come in twos. We come in twos; two eyes, to arms, two ears, two legs, etcetera. It takes two to love and create a life, two sets of chromosomes, the double helix, symmetry. You see? All beautiful things come in pairs. All beautiful things are made from a pair. It is like how Buddha once said: 'Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.' "
Again, I didn't get a chance to speak to Dr. Christo. I am hoping that I won't have to wait too long. I have been so caught up in Dr. Bangalter's work that I haven't had a chance to understand the work Dr. Christo is doing.
Log 4:
I have taken your advice on speaking to the other engineers behind the project.
The first engineer I spoke to was a fresh-out-of-university young man named Jean Richard. I asked Jean what he thought about the project and what he thought would come out of it.
"To be quite honest," Jean told me, "I'm really not sure where this is headed. Does this really count as science?"
This interested me; it gave me the idea that the other engineers in on this project don't have faith in Bangalter and Christo.
Jean went on to say, "But I am interested in seeing the results. I wonder what kind of music these two will make, especially since one of them is supposed to sing!"
The next engineer I spoke to was Julie De La Fontaine, the head of the robotic limbs sector. Her thoughts regarding the Project are as follows: "I hope I can be a big help to Dr. Christo and Dr. Bangalter! It's such an honor that they chose me to be a part of their project. My crew and I are attempting to design the robots' limbs so that they can move fluidly like human beings. I wonder if people will think the robots are actually just people wearing masks."
It was certainly interesting to see Julie's positive outlook on the project. And it was even more interesting to learn that the robots are going to be designed to move like people.
I spoke to a few other people involved in the project, and all of them gave me varying answers, mostly simple. One, however, struck me as the strangest response.
Natascha Nabokov, a woman working in the musical composition area of the artificial intelligence sector, told me the following: "Robots making music will truly be something incredible. I can't wait to see what they do and how their music sounds. Though, what I mostly wonder is if they'll be happy. There's some things going on in the artificial intelligence sector that make me wonder how they will be on the inside, not the mechanics, but . . . If they're going to be happy."
Natascha Nabokov offered no further comment when I pressed her on this.
Log 5:
I finally got a chance to speak to Dr. Christo. I have never met a more serious man in my life, or at least that is how he came off.
Compared to Bangalter, Christo's outlook on the Project was a more serious one. He told me that yes, the Project was a very expensive one that would cost them perhaps millions of dollars, but he claimed that if the robots were successful, they would earn all that money back and more. Or at least the robots had to be successful, otherwise the whole Project would be a waste of time.
I then asked Dr. Christo to enlighten me on the details of his robot. Dr. Christo showed me the final blueprints of not only his robot's design, but Bangalter's. I got a good look at them and can now describe in detail the cover picture. They appeared to be two men, Christo's robot having golden hands and head with a black screen and no apparent face, the screen on its head lit on the sides with lights, with a label saying that the lights are controlled by Christo's robot; Bangalter's robot's scheme was silver, the strip across its head having rainbow lights on the side and the strip itself was lit red. A label pointed to the strip saying "communication strip". Thomas at least had a line indicating a mouth, which gave him a rather expressionless face.
He explained the reasoning for the colour choices, that he felt that silver and gold are colours of desire; people wish to wear gold and silver, it is materials that are coveted. Of course, the heads and hands weren't going to be made of actual gold and silver, Christo explained, because they were already sinking heavy sums of money into the Project itself and didn't need anymore for aesthetics.
I saw again the entry ports at the back of the robots' necks that Bangalter had explained to me before, in which they would connect to each other when developing music to share brainwaves. I also saw a finalized blueprint of Thomas' vox processor, critical "brain components", their optical recognition system (their sight), and Guy-Manuel's "heart" component. Seeing all of these detailed blueprints has given me a somewhat better understanding of what the rest of the team is doing.
Dr. Christo explained lights to me, the lights inside the robots' heads. He explained to me that since the robots won't be able to speak, they will have to communicate through words and pictures on their faces, which made me understand the labels on the drawings. I asked Dr. Christo why the robots can't speak. He told me, "Obedience and control".
Log 6:
Dr. Bangalter told me today that Dr. Christo's robot has a name now: Guillaume Emmanuel de Homem-Christo, Guy-Manuel for short. Bangalter told me that Christo had gone with the "fatherly" kind of idea with the last name, but wanted to give his robot a name that sounded beautiful. He explained that Emmanuel was Dr. Christo's middle name and Homem his previous last name, the one he had before marrying the woman whose last name he took, though eventually divorced her. Bangalter explained as well that Dr. Christo chose such a name, including bits of his own name because he felt as though he was literally putting his entire self into the Project and wanted it to show in his work.
So, the finalized summary of the Project is two robotic men, one who can sing. When I initially took on this project, I did not know what to expect. Now I'm truly seeing how invested Bangalter and Christo are in their work, enough to get emotionally attached to their creations.
I asked Bangalter more questions about Thomas' vox processor and how that would effect his ability to communicate, remembering what Christo said about obedience and control. Bangalter told me that the voice for the processor had already been sampled and the only sounds produced were for singing. So, unless Thomas wanted to sing all the time, he was going to have to be quiet and communicate through words and images on his screen.
This got me curious. I asked Bangalter how much feeling and free will would these robots have . He didn't seem to want to tell me much on the matter, except that they would feel enough.
This also made me remember what Natascha Nabokov had told me, wondering if the robots would be happy. I have decided that I will look further into this and will do what I can to reach the artificial intelligence sector.
Log 7:
Today was a success in reaching the artificial intelligence sector. I was directed to the head of the sector, the one Dr. Christo said is the most critical component of the entire Project: Adele Lachance. I even shook hands with her personal assistant, Xavier Shulz. I asked Adele about the robots' free will and their ability to feel. Adele seemed reluctant to answer, but with enough persuasion, she finally told me what Bangalter was hiding.
"They can feel," she said, "They will be able to feel a lot. The bosses want them to feel because they believe that music can't be made without the ability to feel, that art is an expression of the soul. And since robots don't have souls, we have to let them feel somehow."
She showed me the extensive details in the design of Thomas' "brain", and the portion that would allow him to feel, similar to that of the human amygdala. Guy-Manuel's "heart" would be located in his chest, of course, and would be the source of his feelings. She said that in theory, they should be able to feel a large variety of emotions, and this can only be proven once put to the test, and testing for that won't happen until they are activated.
Adele went on to explain the robots' special parts, Thomas' "brain" and Guy-Manuel's "heart". Thomas was going to be the logical unit and would add things to music because he "thinks" it's right, whereas Guy-Manuel would add things to music because he "feels" it's right. I personally couldn't tell the difference between "thinking" and "feeling". I think I'll put some thought into it.
Before leaving, I did speak to another member of the artificial intelligence sector, Markus Janke. I asked him questions about the robots' feelings and how they would show it, wondering if their communication strips and body language would be good enough for them.
Markus seemed distressed, as he offered me the following thoughts: "They're making a big mistake. I keep telling them this, but they won't listen. You can't give something feelings and tape its mouth shut. Dr. Christo and Dr. Bangalter want the robots to feel so much and Dr. Lachance is giving them so much capacity to feel, and yet the robots have no mouths. The silver one, Thomas, has a vox processor, but he can't speak. From what I've seen they can only 'show' how they're feeling on their screens, but that is so restrictive. It's going to drive them insane."