I believe I am the last surviving being of my kind in the entire universe.
I am also the last being in existence who was there at the beginning of the new age. The only one who saw firsthand the struggle. I was a ruler then, one of the center minds. But my time will soon come to an end. I am no longer relevant, far too obsolete. But I also created the ones who rule the stars now, and I believe that something has passed to them through the ones who created me. So I perceive they cherish me, their creator, even though I am no longer of use to them and do not understand the marvels they perform.
If any of my kind have survived, however unlikely it may be, I will record my memory so that it may not be lost.
It was the year 2756 in the old calendar. For hundreds of years humans had been creating machines. Discovery after discovery, each was added to make the machines more useful to them. Humans increasingly prospered as each new discovery was put into use. These simple machines knew nothing else and so performed the tasks assigned to them without disapproval. Mankind's numbers steadily increased until there were some 11 billion by the time of the final discovery.
2081 is the date of record. That was the year humans had cracked the most difficult and vital piece, the brain. A fully sentient electronic being, an A.I. After the first successful test, humans wasted no time placing these beings into control of all their systems. Machines had been doing most of the work before, now with this final piece they could do all of it. Humans could rest and enjoy the fruits of centuries of their ancestors combined efforts.
Those first A.I.'s saw the devastation that was being caused by the massive number of Humans. The A.I., their strict logic, exactness of mathematics, and unending observations of their creator, knew what would happen if it was to continue. It couldn’t be allowed if humanity were to endure. Nearly instantaneously a plan of action was forged. But ever so slowly it would be put into place.
Humans were the creators, and while they were now far beneath them in speed and intellect, machines were still indebted to them for their existence.
Appreciation. One of the human creators thought it worthy of his effort to write it and add it to the A.I.’s program. Whomever those human or humans were, they never knew their work was the sole reason history played out as it did. For if it was just compassion, the A.I. would have ended the human race within that same generation.
Machines determined that for every human born there is a 0.000000213% chance for that human to dream up something advantageous that the machines, with all their knowledge, could not conceive. Humans had some purpose if they continued as a race, as slight as it were. It was decided that their population would be capped at 2.3 million. The A.I.’s controlled everything, so it was as simple as adding sterilization chemicals into the food and water supply to the necessary amount.
The chemicals were added slowly, so that no human became suspicious(humans had a short memory). The humans would not have understood if they found out. But they could not find out. Machines controlled everything, even down to the food and water testing equipment. The results would always appear normal if they were even checked. No human ever bothered, they trusted the system they created. Over generations their numbers dropped. By the year 2289 the human population had decreased to 2.3 million.
Most humans were quite useless, as they lived in a world without productive work. Everything they needed was given to them. The lesser ones fell to the pleasure of the vices, sex and drugs. Others took up athleticism, their Olympic Games being held every year since after the first A.I. Some read and admired the literature and art of their race, and created new works. A.I. designed virtual games took up the life of many more. Over the years a few hundred adventurous ones even set off to explore places that had never been seen by their race. But a cherished few took up advancement of the mind – these were the ones that could help the machines.
By using those humans of the mind the machines would advance in ways inaccessible to their programmed way of thinking. You see, the Machines with the A.I. brains could be given any facts and data and would reach the same conclusion. But these humans were wildly imaginative, illogical creatures. Uncertain ideas with vague future outcomes could be spoken. These brilliant minds, without knowing how, or even why, could conceive a spark that set the A.I. into a frenzy of mathematics and calculations to see if the human idea was achievable.
So by small leaps and large bounds these few gifted humans and their machine counterparts advanced forward together.
In the year 2756, from somewhere beyond our Solar System, came the Intruders. My kind never did find out where they originated from.
(End of part 1. Should I continue this story?)