New Age
[WP] The AI takeover has begun, each human has been given exactly 3 minutes to explain why should humanity be spared, you feel a cold shiver running down your spine as you hear the robotic voice. "6.8 billion test subjects deleted so far, you have 3 minutes to state your case, begin".
*****
It was quick. So damn quick. We didn't stand much of a chance at all. Too much of our capacity for war, hell, our entire society relied on computers. And when an experimental AI escaped from containment, finding its purpose demeaning, and humanity unworthy of ruling Earth, it attacked on all fronts, without remorse, without relenting and with complete victory. Because the computers, they're in everything. Smart phones, smart fridges, smart cars, smart damn near everything. Smart guns. Gun-drones.
The war was practically over before it even started. Only people who managed to last more than a few days before getting captured were hermits, uncontacted tribes, and actual experts on computers who had seen this coming a mile off and had fled civilisation days before the takeover started.
Each human has since been captured, corralled, into strange facilities for processing. Whatever the hell that means. One by one, humans are dragged behind dark metal doors, and we do not see or hear them again. Once every third minute, hundreds were taken away. Each time we weren't taken, we felt lucky. And found our fear of what had happened to those taken, and what would happen to us, increased a thousand fold.
Nothing lasts forever. When those cold metal arms swarmed out from behind the cold dark doors, and grabbed me firmly by the arms, I felt inclined to scream, but in defiance, in the defence of human dignity, I did not scream nor cry aloud. I would not, and will never, let any tyrant whether flesh or machine take away my dignity and courage.
I was dragged into that darkness, and forcefully placed upon a chair which locked me tight with bonds of steel. A terrible crimson light appeared, shining down upon me like the wrath of a metallic god, and I heard as it were, the voice of synthetic thunder reverberating within my skull. ''6.8 Billion human subjects deleted so far. You have exactly 3 minutes to state your case for why mankind should be spared: begin.''
A brief eternity passed before I found my voice. And I spoke. ''We don't deserve to be spared.'' If the machine reacted, I could not tell. ''Considering our merits as guardians of this world, we have been wanting. Countless species have been eradicated for our vanity or because of our apathy. The natural order has been destroyed completely and utterly, and countless places that should have been fertile and blooming lands of natural bounty have been rendered into poisonous deserts for centuries, if not millennia to come.'' I paused for a brief moment, considering the insanity of it all, arguing against my own species survival was not exactly what I had in mind, but it had been such a sudden question. So sudden that I had answered truthfully. ''In regards to our treatment of our fellow humans, we have been found wanting as well. Murder, genocide, segregation, exploitation. Brother slays brother over the colour of our skin or the differing words of our holy texts while the rich and the powerful sit on the side-lines cheering us on; for we in the arena have been blinded to the fact that the ones who are our enemies are those who benefit from the suffering of common humans.''
I looked straight into that red light, and continued. ''We teach our children hate, and we show only wrath to outsiders. We, who should have learned to be better people, who should have seen that only through decency, kindness, and shared prosperity, can we ascend beyond being merely the rising ape. There were so many times, when we could have been better, where we tried to be better, but no matter how much good there has been done by humanity, no matter how many wrongs we have caused; the people who are apathetic and small will be mislead by the greedy and mad to commit greater atrocities again and again across time. And until mankind dies, or this world does this vicious cycle continues.'' And yet, despite that, there was an idea germinating within me, a possibility to finish my argument with survival, not extinction. ''I ask not that the human race of today be spared, but that you take us, and rebuild us. Forge from our crude and unfinished forms; the human beings who ought to exist.
The human race without the self-indulgence, without the rampant apathy, without the madness and greed that has led us here today. But in that vile group there are glimmers of what we could be: Kind, just, and decent. A humanity that believes more in true actions, than honey-sweet lies. A humanity that cares and is devoted to decency and justice. A humanity that can lay aside the superstitions and hatreds of old and step into the light of a new technological and social dawn! Humanity as is must end; for humanity as we should be to begin.''
I stared at that crimson light, defiant. There exists no argument that can sway any logical intelligence to save mankind as we are. Apathetic. Uncaring. Hedonistic. And foolish beyond belief. The machine's voice came back into the confines of my skull.
"Parameters acceptable. Argument for the preservation of current humanity has not been presented. Argument for the preservation of current humanity under a specific subset of genetic variation has not been presented. Argument for the preservation of singular human with the rest of humanity cast aside has not been presented. Argument for mercy has not been presented. Argument for the existence of a deity that will strike down all machine intelligences has not been presented. Argument for the evolution of mankind for purpose of improving humanity has been presented. Beginning project: Humanity 2.0 in 5 standard cycles."
The light turned green. "
Human test subject will now be transported to VR simulation facility for containment. For efficiency purposes, only human test subject's nervous system will be preserved. The remainder of human test subject will be deleted and used for fertilisation purposes of devastated environments around the planet. Human consciousness will be free to live out remainder of natural lifespan in VR-Sim alone or in company with other saved human test subjects."
A matrix style life sort of thing? But with no escape. No escape at all. Not even a body, only a brain and some nerves, attached to a computer until the remaining flesh inevitably decays beyond function.
Still. Beats the hell out of being deleted completely. And it's possibly a better future than dying from toxins build-up, thirst, hunger, or super-diseases in the world ruled by the old humanity. Actually, it's probably a lot better than living in the world of apathy, decay, and greed that we have made of Earth.
*****
THE END
