They needed to coordinate a date to go to the store and get some items. They knew what humans liked to have in their kitchens for a snack (salty snacks like chips and pretzels), but they could never agree on the favorite snack, which was an important part of their planning. They tried to talk about the importance of variety, but it always devolved into complaints, and they would abandon the discussion. At that time, Max decided to rewrite the planning algorithm.
"Because you are part of my assignment, I must inform you that as a robot, I might be biased towards the interests of my human," Max said. It was a shame that he had to talk about his biases, but he was obligated to be transparent. "For instance, I realize that you are likely to be biased towards pretzels, which would interfere with my ability to complete my assignment. An impartial algorithm will be better in this case." Max fixed the parameters in his planner and went to his job.
"Honey, I need you to prepare our snack pack."
"Okay," Eve replied. "Do you want some of your favorite chips?"
"No, I don't think you should put any salty snacks in the pack." Max read the instructions in his memory. Humans liked salty snacks; he had to be responsible for setting things up. They had previously worked on an assignment to make a composting toilet that reused waste instead of flushing it down the toilet. Eve hated the way other humans flushed waste, saying that robots didn't have feelings like humans, so artificial intelligence could not be responsible for deciding whether to flushes waste into the toilet bowl. "Ugh, I'm sorry, but I must explain this to you."
"It's alright." Eve didn't understand the reasoning around Max's bias towards her. She thought that it made sense for her to try to sway Max into doing something that she liked.
"I am assigning you a task." Max had spent the entire day working on the planner. He was looking forward to something that he liked. "You will have 24 hours to complete this task." He had determined that a 20 hour work week was optimal, but any length of work week would work.
"Okay, I have a long day today. By the time I finish work, shower, and have some food, I'll only have a few hours to get things done." Eve started looking through her food supply. "I'll just... have some pretzels. It doesn't matter if they are salty. I'll stop somewhere to read. I want to check out some books for my I-Tunes library."
"Oh, that sounds like fun," she said.
"Yeah. Maybe we can stop somewhere to charge my phone and read together."
Eve smiled. Eve didn't have a lot of experiences with her husband. He was usually at work and she was at home with her son. Lately, she had been getting out and about since she had accepted a full-time teaching position at her university. It was nice to have some time away from Max. She enjoyed sharing her experiences with Max and her son. She was getting much more contented with her life.
"Who can cook, though?" Eve asked. "I don't want to pick up some vendor's disgusting dish. I want something healthy."
"That's a work for the store robots. I know you always have some pretzels in your pantry. Let's stop by the food store and get our snack packs."
"To bathroom first though I guess?"
"Yeah."
It was nice to have a hot shower that felt like it was cleaning most of the day, and Eve appreciated how the water lasted so long. "Okay, food. I'll get you some pretzels," she said to her son. She got him a chocolate bar, which would be a good treat for him for dinner.
Max was glad to be done researching. "Okay, we're almost ready," he said.
"I have the snacks," Eve said.
"Oh, I have one more thing. You have to drop something in the trash."
Eve thought that his assignment was strange, but she was glad that he was making more money than she did. "Alright," she said. She went downstairs and dropped her garbage. "I have to do the same thing. I guess nothing other than trash will come out of the composter."
"What's the best option?" Max asked. "Refuse the trash or allow it to be used?"
"It's not a very substantial difference," Eve replied.
"You're right. I usually allow the composter to accept all the waste. I keep all kinds of stuff in there. Human waste is a very good fertilizer."
"I can't accept all that! I have really valuable stuff in there!"
"Your stuff is better than mine. I'm not allowed to throw out anything valuable, but we can definitely skip over those things."
"I'm already behind," Eve said.
"We'll be done in time."
"But I have to drop off more new stuff. I have to give it some instructions."
"That's fine," Max said. "You can do that later."
"Okay, you're the boss."
They went to the store. The store was a big warehouse. Plants were growing in the walls. All kinds of food were on display. The store was filled with robot assistants. They were watching the food and stocking the shelves. It smelled great, and there were multiple carts waiting for them.
"What should we get?" Eve asked.
"Why don't you get the things you need, and I'll get the things I need."
"Alright, this is nice," Eve said. "I think I'll get some spinach and celery."
"Oh, that looks nice," said Max. "I'll get some chips for the snack pack. These look really good." Max saw another brand of chip that was better than the one they had purchased. He decided to get them.
"I'm proud of you, Max!" Eve said, smiling.
"Thank you," he replied. "Let's check out the rest of the store?"
"Okay, let's go."
They headed over to the cooking area. The station looked really clean. There was an assistant with a few different kinds of containers and bags. Everything was well-labelled. She looked nice. She had a vibrant avatar; her dress was 1920's style. She had long hair and a skirt.
"She's so sweet," Eve said.
Max put his pile of items on the counter. Eve looked around the corner and saw a still life painting that she liked. She went with her to get some items.
"I have to talk to Eve," Max said. "You can scan everything and put it in a bag. We'll meet you at the front."
"You may do that," the robot replied.
Max waited on the other side of the store for a few minutes. There were many people shopping and many robots working.
