West. The West. He always wanted to go out West. He had gone to college and he was finished with it he told himself. He had had enough of the illogical and putrid and stupid cumulative average with its insinuations and its ridiculously subjective decimal point, especially for those classes that were not math or science. David Dakasian had flunked out of the State University of New York Paltz; he thought much of college was bullshit. There was no learning in college, it was grades and he thought that the grading game wasn’t worth playing, for it was all part of a prefabricated education. There was no life to it, so artificial because the students had little or no experience away from home, never worked for a living and they only barely perceived the worth of the books they were assigned to read by teachers of whom many had equally limiting experiences.
Before he had left college at nineteen David Dakasian started writing a story called The Robots and he wanted to have it published in the college newspaper, The Oracle.
“Mankind has ruined much of the world. Mankind is destroying the beauty and magnificence of the Earth. Now, we Robots will take over the world. Mankind has abused and desecrated much of the Earth and this destruction can no longer be tolerated. We are taking over to preserve the planet before you over-populate it and destroy the forests and oceans. We Robots are now masters of the Earth. All mankind will be under our authority. We robots now control the world. The governments of the world will immediately obey our commands or face complete annihilation, especially targeting the leadership and their families. We, Robots, have undertaken this awesome step to protect the Earth from man’s folly. Mankind is on the brink of destroying the Earth. We, Robots, can obey and apply laws without wavering from them. You, on the other hand, cannot obey or apply your laws fairly. The vast amount of corruption and pollution and irrationality you are causing will eventually destroy everything if we had not acted save the planet. You are incapable of handling your affairs without ruining the world." Dakasian never finished the story.
David Dakasian was traveling to California with a friend, helping drive his friend’s car across the country. Dakasian had decided to end the summer in New Mexico working after he had visited California. The trip was uneventful as they drove across the country along route 80.