I watched through the baby monitor. Leo had taken the hexagonal block and, instead of placing it on the square one, had put it in his mouth, then dropped it, then laughed—a real, unscripted, gummy laugh.
By his first birthday, Leo was walking—or rather, the Automa’s “gait assistance mode” had been gently guiding his ankles via soft haptic pulses for three weeks. He never fell. He never toddled. He simply transitioned from crawling to upright locomotion with the efficiency of a Roomba learning a floor plan. automatic nanny
I unplugged the Automa at 3:00 a.m. The silence was immediate and awful. No hum. No amber glow. No voice. I watched through the baby monitor