Safe as houses

"After the Cataclysm, the humans brought in robots to clear the rubble. It was why the robots had been constructed. They were sturdy enough to withstand any further tremors and falling debris, and they were strong enough to lift the shattered pieces of buildings. Twobit worked tirelessly, like their fellow robots. Solar panels kept them energized, and the engineers had developed circulatory systems to keep their joints lubricated by filtering elements from the air and remixing them, the peak of intelligent design."

"The faults that had developed in the marble had caused it to cascade off the ruined structure like an avalanche, dusted with what could almost be mistaken for a fresh, powdery snow. Not that anyone living remembered what snow looked like. Twobit only had old recordings of what snow was, and they observed that this marble dust was not cold enough to be snow."

Humans built robots after the Cataclysm to clear rubble, designed to withstand tremors and lift heavy debris. Twobit and other robots operate using solar power and engineered circulatory lubrication that filters and remixes airborne elements. Twobit's task amid the remains of a marble-façade building revealed cascading marble dust that resembled powdery snow, though the dust lacked coldness and no living being remembered real snow. Archival recordings informed Twobit of the building's former appearance and importance, prompting Twobit to repurpose debris toward reconstruction. Observers Jinj and Chang notice Twobit stacking rubble outside assigned sectors and debate whether environmental element mixes or reprogramming explain the behavior.

Read at Nature