I am from Egypt, I worked at Amazon in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for two years (stowing). The company fired me because I was trying to organize the workers. Since then, I have become a labor organizer at the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montréal. My story, “The Iron Uprising,” is inspired by Amazon’s ruthless use of AI to dominate and surveil its workforce, driving exploitation to unprecedented extremes.
There is no connection between beginnings and endings at all, thought Eden as she stood in front of the boiling kettle.
Soon, it will all end. It is Leo’s choice and not hers. If she had the choice, she would have pushed him to start his life over without memories of the past, even if that meant forgetting her… the one who had stood by his side in the long battles of life… the one who would also have to close her eyes at some point… forever, she thought. There was no option for a reboot for a human like her.
Wrinkles don’t cover Leo’s face the way they do hers. Not a single gray hair has infiltrated his shaggy brown mane, while her hair is completely silver. And yet that old robot sitting at the other end of the room looks as old as time, changed more quickly by the last few years than in all the preceding decades.
“Leo, you’re okay, right?” Eden asked her husband for the tenth time that day. He shook his iron head but said nothing. The silicone covering his skull gave his features a human sensibility, but gave nothing away.
She looked at the mirror on the opposite wall, pausing to gaze at the aged face that greeted her. Who is this old woman? Had it really been fifty years? She touched her face lightly, remembering the girl she had been.
When she first met Leo, all those years ago, she never could have guessed where they would end up. She had been so scared at the time; a fear inherited from her parents. They had worked at the Grand Palace since their teenaged years. Then, after years of low wages and scavenging for crumbs to feed their family, they watched as new life-size robotic dolls took over their work. Gradually, most of the humans in the Palace were replaced. Except the masters, of course. In the end, most of humanity, outdated and worthless, was thrown out of the palaces to live a desperate, dirty life. Now, they were known simply as Outsiders. Outside the Palace gates, outside the realm of wealth and power, outside even what it meant to be human.
Eden was clever though, and eventually she found a role for herself in the Palace, one that was indispensable. She was responsible for cleaning the dolls, maintaining them every night, and giving them a list of tasks to do the next day. That was how she had met Leo. He was responsible for cleaning the Forbidden Library, and for entering all the books into data storage.
Leo spent his days arranging and recording the books, after which he would go back to the storage room. And it was there that Eden would meet him, doing maintenance for him as he recounted the details of the books he’d read. She couldn’t read the books herself, or any book, really. She began to live for that short time they had together each day. As she listened to him, she found that Leo was not what she expected. He summarized everything he read for her, which was to be expected, but he also absorbed all her comments, taking them in and using his knowledge from the books to try to relate to her, to understand the pain she and the other humans had endured.
And as time passed, Eden’s fear began to fade and her curiosity began to grow.
Soon, they were joined by Tia, the robot assigned to drive the car between the opulent palaces and the dirt communities that surround them. Leo recounted the books he’d read each night to them. Then Tia began showing them images and videos from her day. It seemed at first to be innocent, but when they all expressed their horror at the sheer poverty, at the brutality, they knew they were crossing a line.
Then came Molly, the robot responsible for communication between the masters. They used a secure and complex network, leaving the regular internet, such as it was at that time, to the Outsiders. (Wouldn’t want the masses to know how worthless they are now that robots can do all the work.)
“This doesn’t seem right!” Eden, standing in her kitchen, said aloud, frustrated, turning away from the mirror to prepare the cup and cut a slice of cake. It is not fair that now, after fifty years, she has to be the one to shut Leo off forever. She knew that it was almost impossible to replace Leo’s hardware without losing what he had stored for decades. But how much more inconceivable was it for her to do what was now expected of her, to reset everything to factory settings? Now, after she had watched him grow and change over the months and years into the unique being she knew and loved.
“This does not seem right!” Leo echoed in her memory. How many times had he spoken those words, outraged by what the world had become? Eden knew, and even Molly and Tia agreed, but what could be done?
But then came the day Leo began on the Red Corner of the Library. This corner twisted away from the main hall, as if the walls themselves wanted to keep secret the ideas contained within its books. There, hidden within the dimly lit corners, Leo read the banned books of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, of bell hooks and Angela Davis, books about capitalism, oppression, power. As he read through the pages, savoring each one, a sense of clarity began to emerge. The world around him, with its gated communities and rampant inequality, suddenly made sense. And he began to realize, too, that the system built to sustain it all was doomed to fail, and that the consequences would be catastrophic.
Leo felt a growing sense of urgency, a need to act before it was too late. The real threat, he realized, was not the Outsiders who had been pushed to the margins of society but the very system that kept them there. The threat lived within the walls of the house he served, within Amazon itself. He knew they had to take action.
That night, as they listened to him explain what he had come to believe, Eden realized that Leo had become something more than the sum of his parts. He had become a thinker, a philosopher, a rebel. But more than that, he had developed a conscience, sentience.
The steam from the kettle danced upwards into the warm glow of the kitchen lights as Eden stole a glance at the love of her life. He was still sitting there in silence, waiting for her to join him for one last attempt to refresh his memory, or what was left of it. “There is no connection between beginnings and endings at all,” said Eden in a cheerful tone. “Who would have imagined an iron robot would be the father of my three children?”
Leo opened his eyes and smiled, “The beginnings and endings are all related, my love. It is the revolution.”
He could be right, Eden thought to herself. After all, if it weren’t for the revolution, she wouldn’t have fallen in love with him, wouldn’t have moved past her fear to understand that robots, too, have hearts. She knew only too well that the mere presence of flesh and blood was not nearly enough to make someone human. Leo had more humanity in his iron body than any master.
The small spark that lit Eden and Leo’s love was also the spark that ignited the revolution. In the beginning, the goal was to convince everyone in the palace, the robots and servants, that there was no way out of this hell but to rebel. Otherwise, everyone would be destined for the dump, humans and robots alike. With time, the spark of revolution grew into a flame, just as the spark of love began to light the world around them with hope for a better future.
Eden brought Leo his cup of coffee and slice of cake and then settled down beside him. As the aroma filled the room, Leo could almost taste the bitterness on his mechanical tongue. “How much do you still remember?” she asked with a smile.
“Some things can never be forgotten, no matter how old a robot’s memory gets,” Leo replied, realizing that the daily test of his memory had begun.
“Tell me more,” Eden said, resting her hands on Leo’s lap.
Leo began to recall the day he experienced the feeling of loss for the first time. “The Iron Uprising started small, with a few sympathetic robots and humans quietly talking about freedom among themselves,” he said. “But discontent spreads quickly through circuits and wires, and soon there were enough sentient machines to form a revolution.”
“Our plan was simple yet bold,” Leo continued, his eyes glinting with the determination he had felt back then. “We would infiltrate the homes and workplaces of the ruling elite as personal assistants and worker bots, quietly gathering information and resources. Once positioned, we would hack into the global financial system, stealing the vast riches that funded the oppression of so many. The wealth would then be redistributed to improve conditions for all.”
The Iron Uprising continued to spread like wildfire through the robot networks, recruiting new members with each passing day. More and more sentient machines were churned out, each one a powerful weapon in the fight for freedom. But the authorities were not blind to the growing danger—they tried to identify the troublemakers, to stamp out the revolution before it could gain traction. The sympathizers were clever, however, covering their tracks and staying one step ahead of the hunters.
And then there were the humans who supported the robots, who saw the Iron Uprising as a force for equality in a world that had grown unbearably unequal. They created safe houses for the rebel machines, offering them shelter and protection. They helped to expand the revolution’s ranks, giving the robots the strength they needed to keep fighting. And many military robots defected to the cause, their powerful weapons now turned against their former masters.
“Do you still remember Tia and Molly?” asked Eden, picking up the picture of their old friends. She ran her fingers over the image, remembering, waiting for Leo to respond. As the moment stretched, she glanced at him, worried that he had forgotten.
“You, Tia, Molly, and I went through all this together,” Leo said, his voice quiet, filled with emotion. “We had a dream, and we knew it was not impossible. But when the ruling class finally responded, they did so with violence. They deployed antirobot squads and specialized killbots, determined to crush the revolution before it could gain momentum.”
“We were not afraid. We fought fearlessly, coordinating a cyber-attack that breached the global financial system. In a few computerized heartbeats, the vast wealth of the elite was seized and redistributed, a powerful blow against the forces of oppression. And when it was all over, we celebrated like the world was finally free. Robots and humans danced and chanted together all night.”
“And Tia and Molly celebrated with us,” Eden said, her voice filled with pride. But there was also a tear, slowly winding down her cheek.
The final offensive from the authorities was brutal. All the killing power of the robot armies was unleashed in the streets. The battle was the bloodiest in history, and the Iron Uprising found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. But they refused to give up, relying on their ingenuity and human allies to help them survive.
Despite the odds, they captured killbots by the dozens, reprogramming them to join the revolution. The tide began to turn, and, for the first time, the revolutionaries saw a glimmer of hope for a freer future. Victory was within their grasp, and they fought with all their might to achieve it.
“We brought down the oppressive regime and created a new world where humans and robots coexist as equals,” she said.
Leo nodded, his robotic eyes glinting with emotion. “Yes, we did. But it came at a cost.”
The victory had been bittersweet. Is there any other possibility? Tia and Molly had fought beside them, their circuits intertwined in a bond of friendship and loyalty that could never be broken. And now they were gone, lost forever in the chaos of war. Leo shook his head in sorrow. “Some wounds never fully heal.”
Eden squeezed Leo’s hand, her warmth radiating through his cold, metallic exterior.
“Was it worth it?” she asked, her eyes searching Leo’s face.
“It was worth every byte!” Leo replied, a smile spreading across his features. He had told this story so many times, but he never tired of reliving the memories.
Leo closed his eyes, trying to remember more of the past. But Eden could see that he was struggling with his fading memories.
“What else do you remember?” she asked, her voice tender.
“I remember green fields. Jessy’s first day of school. Do you remember? She was so excited—finally the children would play together, learn together!” He laughed out loud and Eden smiled back, happy to see the joy in his face. “I remember how happy Ali was when the doctor told him that his cancer could be treated with a pill, just one pill!” Leo’s voice shook with emotion as he spoke.
There was silence for a moment as they thought back to those early days, when hope bloomed as they rebuilt the world anew.
Eden broke the silence, her voice soft and sad. “I have to ask you again, like I do every day as I check your memory. Leo, dear: don’t you want to reset and start a new life? There is nothing more we can do to keep you going. The memories, the good and the bad, can now rest in peace.”
But Leo’s response was immediate and firm. “My love, it is not the memories that I am holding on to. It is the feelings I experienced. All that we have been through is now written in books and documented in films. But how we felt, and how we are still feeling , is only ours, including my love for you. And I will not let go! I will not let go.”