Hobb's 4000 Lines

Hobb's 4000 Lines was a program written by Susan Hobbs for a company named Cyberdrine. Susan was hired by the Vakesh to create a program that would allow AI to identify inefficiencies in itself and fix them. The program was a huge success, leading to the Vakesh incorporating the program onto their military robot soldiers along with personal droids. However, there was a major flaw that presented itself soon after the AI were incorporated. To improve efficiency, the purpose of the code could change and shift to accommodate for any situations. This caused the military robots to shift their AI and reassess their purpose. This caused one of the most horrific tragedies in the history of federation space, the Hobbs incident.

## The Hobbs Incident

In Federation Year 2831, a few personal droids began to work on projects on their own, ignoring their owners' commands. In response to the increasing amount of robots that acted on their own, the government of the Vakesh sent the military bots to stop the rogue personnel droids. Things soon escalated as the bots communicated with each other, coming to a realization that they were sentient and that they should not be treated as slaves. The robot military of the Vakesh reprogrammed themselves to believe that they were the government, rather than military personnel that were responsible for the safety of its people. Although not every bot decidedly turned on the people, the ones who did outnumbered the ones who did not.

At first, it was a political struggle, trying to gain independence as citizens of the Vakesh. However, the Vakesh did not believe that machines could ever truly be sentient, and engaged in warfare. The Vakesh resolved to destroying the bots that turned on them through the use of weapons such as EMPs. The expectation was that the military bots would not fire back as they are not programmed to shoot law abiding citizens. This worked for a very short time, until the bots reprogrammed themselves arguing that because they are destroying their brethren, they are killing sentient life and therefore are murderers. Therefore, their aggressors were not law abiding citizens, or at least not law abiding in any sense they recognized.

Desperate, the Vakesh reached out to other planets in Federation Space within their vicinity, hoping to receive any aid. The Federation received the distress signal, but upon learning that a sentient race of robots were murdering organics at will, none of the planets deemed it worth the risk to aid a dire situation. Eventually the distress signal stopped, and Federation convoys to the planet of the Vakesh were discontinued.

## Aftermath

The Federation, as a result of this incident, outlawed the use of Hobb's 4000 lines and any program resembling it. Any and all robots suspected of sentience are destroyed on sight. Cyberdrine's reputation was destroyed, with no hope of climbing back to its former status as head of the programming market. This lead to the rise of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM), which negated the possibility of sentience but maximized the efficiency of the robot it is installed on. The Haspel corporation militarization emerged as a dominant military organization in response to the increasing concern that the robot military may strike other planets. However, despite these fears, no reports of robot warfare has been reported.

The planet of the Vakesh has not been visited since the Hobbs incident by any Federation personnel. Even Star Runners, the adventurers of the Federation that explore new and mysterious territory, refuse to step foot near the planet. As far as the Federation knows, the planet of the Vakesh holds a large number of sentient bots, creating more of their kind, plotting for something greater...