“Look how far we have come”

| by Nabila Cruz |

She had been looking forward to today. 2074 had not been an easy year, and this week had been no different. After long days spent sitting in front of a screen, she felt disconnected from herself. From her land, her people, her history. A break was much needed and so she made her way towards the Peak District. 

She took a driverless bus from the city centre and after only twenty minutes she already felt far from Sheffield, as if she was in the middle of nowhere. Getting off the bus at a stop near the valley, she saw an antique sign, faintly displaying “public footpath” and pointing towards the greenery.

As she started her walk on the rocky path, she could see white dots moving rhythmically in the distant communal fields ahead of her. These field-automatons - hard at work, intelligent machines harvesting shared sustainable crops for the nourishment of the local community - rode up and down in the sea of green, as if bobbing over waves. She could feel their faint hum when the air was still, though that was not often in the wild and windy countryside she was hiking through. She would probably see less and less of them as she entered the national park, further into the now-untouched forests, recovering after years of human overuse.

Taking in the smell of moisture from the mud and grass around her, she walked for a few minutes on the land which had been taken back by the people decades ago. It was hard to imagine that this was the stage to the unrest that empowered people to overthrow land ownership. Communities throughout the country led a resistance, just like mother nature does everyday, in the scenery surrounding her. 

It had rained the night before, but the sun was now tentatively shining above her head and making her sweat a little. The clouds were still hanging about, as it was expected in early autumn at the Peaks, but they moved quickly towards the west, making way to the wind that pressed her forwards in her path, leading her to a fork on the trail. 

She was now unsure what direction to take. It was time to call on her digital navigation aide. Taking off her heavy backpack, she fumbled with the many ties and zips, finally finding a pair of sunglasses.

"Good morning! How are you?" a voice boomed into her ears once she settled the tinted lenses over her face. Almost as if the wind whispering and welcoming her into the landscape.

"Hi, NaviBot, I'm good. How are you?" she asked automatically but then remembered it was an irrelevant question. It always answered the same way.

"I'm ready to help you," NaviBot said, as it always did.

"Good, because I need help. Can you tell me how to get to Bamford Edge?"

"Of course. Do you want to get there quickly, easily or through the most beautiful path?"

Huh? She was not expecting options. Whenever she had used it in the city, it always defaulted to the quickest way to get to a place. "I didn't know I would have choices," she said out loud.

"Well,” NaviBot replied, “my geolocators tell me we are currently in the Peak District, and it is a warm Saturday morning, so I deduced we are going on a hike. But people go on hikes for different reasons and so I can best help you, I must understand your motivations.”

"Thank you, that is good to know" she thinks for a moment "Erm… I guess what I most want is to enjoy myself today.”

"What do you mean by enjoying yourself?”

What is it with this AI today? She thought in exasperation. Its keenness annoyed her, but maybe that was what the reviews meant about NaviBot being an ideal companion for solo hikers seeking to redefine their relationship to a land free from colonialism and capitalism. Helping her to forge an intimate relationship between herself and nature was its job after all. Even if she thought this AI was gimmicky, she had decided to give it a go anyway. She liked its promise to unburden her from the trouble of navigation so she could simply be. She had been lost too many times. And today she wanted nothing more than to experience something greater than her robotic life in the concrete jungle.

“I think I want to relax and see a landscape that is not my computer desktop background…” she says tentatively.

“You might benefit from walking the most beautiful path. How does that sound?”

“Yeah, great” she said dismissively, as a translucent yellow arrow pointing left appeared over the surface of her sunglasses, hovering over the path. But as she restarted her walk, she found herself increasingly curious.

“NaviBot, how come you are asking me these questions?”

“I was designed to help you fulfil your goal, but first I must establish what that is. Then my sensors provide data that allow me to look for the best way to reach such a goal. I will navigate towards it, so you don’t have to worry.”

 She was still unsure. “But how do I know you are not leading me somewhere unsafe?”

“You are safe with me. Should anything happen, I will alert help.”

“Is there anything you cannot do?” she asked only half-jokingly.

“There are many things I cannot do. I’m not human after all. Even if I walk with you, only you will experience nature today. Your experience is embodied and connected to your history.”

“Connected?”, she probed.

"You can breathe. You can sense the smells around you. You can feel the wind in your skin. And those bring memories and stories that shaped who you are. They remind you of those before you who walked strenuous paths to enable your steps."

Such a profound reflection made by a machine left her speechless. She paused for a moment and realised NaviBot was aptly accurate. She felt nature enveloping her. She felt it in her skin enriched by the blood of her ancestors who had walked in much wilder land. She felt it in her curly hair, neatly set in braids, a style inherited through generations of beauty traditions. She felt it in the air, the earthy smell of the Peaks mixed with her salty sweat and the faint scent of the coconut oil moisturising her skin, just as her grandmother taught her.

Suddenly she realised how she missed her grandmother. Like a large oak tree, Nana was her roots to her past, telling her stories about how her great-great-great-great grandfather walked for hours just to get to work when there were no driverless cars or automatons, and any form of transportation was expensive for an immigrant like him.

And here she was with an AI companion, walking… to relax? She felt the privilege of being able to enjoy nature after humans found ways to inhabit the world with machines in harmony. Where we grow food communally and plant trees that will bring shade to future generations. At this moment, with her artificial friend, she could let go of the burden to find her way in the world and know that she was on the right path. NaviBot would show her the way.

Now she could find freedom in an emerald haven. She could take paths her ancestors never walked because the land now belongs to no one, and is therefore everyone’s to enjoy. She hiked up slowly and heavily as she felt a little more rooted. Taking a deep breath, she thought how NaviBot’s responsiveness was synthetic, but its words fulfilled their purpose with warmth. Perhaps its companionship could bring us closer to ourselves after all. 

Her senses were heightened, and the light breeze of the almost-sunny morning meshed with the lulling hum of the faraway field-automatons. On the trees to the right of her path, she heard a bird call. Immediately after, wings flapped, disturbing the foliage, as if making waves in a leafy sea. 

Rousing her, NaviBot announced “Please continue straight ahead in the next intersection. You will then ascend towards the top of the hill for about ten minutes.”

The sun continued its attempt to break through the clouds, but her legs faltered in view of the steep hill. As if sensing her hesitation, NaviBot remarked “We will not be going up too many hills today. Would you like to know how long it will take to arrive at Bamford Edge?”

“No, thank you. We’re taking the most beautiful path anyway. How we get there doesn’t matter. Look how far we’ve come already.”

Notes on Illustrations:

All images were created by Nabila using generative AI (Adobe Firefly) and the prompt: the back and profile of curvy brown skin female hiker with braids sunglasses backpack trousers. Walking in a green field in the peak district national park with a small white robot tractor in the background. cloudy grey sky. anime style.