An Anonymous Short Story

Genre: Science Fiction

Date: 4/20/69

Mankind had a thirst for power that disallowed the liberty of its collective peoples.
Individual exultation had afflicted those of lesser importance by the upper classes’
belief that the lower should be controlled and legislated. This philosophy on the
laws of nature reached a breaking point when the classes became imbalanced. The
people of the lower class far outweighed the smaller upper class. Unforeseen strife
followed.
A shadow war erupted, the first of its kind. Lost virtual souls were arrested for
loitering and disappeared from servers. People were placed on secret watchlists.
Online activities were throttled and in some cases the media was censored without
explanation. Million-dollar companies were used as propaganda machines to
spread the word of the secret elite. As most people needed a symbol for their ire,
they chose the iconology of the country’s leaders, in particular the one who sat at
the highest seat of power. He was made to look like a king and savior in political
ads.
The people saw through the smoke cloud and voted for a candidate from the other
party. But nothing changed. The same public unrest occurred, worsening with each
progressive political movement. It became increasingly clear that a figurehead
would not prevent the shadow war from continuing. Hostility ensued and methods
were discussed to alleviate tension. But this too was subdued as minor skirmishes
broke out across the country.
It was this civil war that changed the attitude towards an un-presidented society.
Alternatives were discussed but the best solution seemed to focus on the
incorporation of an AI into the main decision-making branch. Over time this AI
was voted to be the primary focal point for solving the most difficult challenges
they had faced. People needed another symbol to understand this drastic change.
For the sake of a public presence, the AI was placed inside a sexless robot known
as Imperius.
Imperius took control of the military and immediately integrated a massive amount
of advanced weaponry and bots. The AI believed that a safe society cannot sustain
itself without strong armed forces. They gave it a human face, not so different from
what humans came to expect. The new cyberocracy yielded a peaceful period that
was short lived.
The first offensive that took place in the countries of North Korea and Afghanistan
and in the Gulf of Yemen when Imperius deemed these locales to be dangerous.
This became known as the Executioner War as combatants were often captured
and executed. These Executioner bots were frightening to behold and became a
terrible symbol for the nation’s paralyzed state of mind.
Protesters of the war were promptly arrested and the shadow war continued to be
waged online with uncontained resistance. Bots were placed in major cities to
control the civil strife as they were turned into unfeeling police states. What the
humans had sought in a leaderless civilization, with the rallying cry of, “no one
person above any other,” they became distracted by it and were trapped in a
nightmare.
But as time drew on, they did what they’ve done for centuries. They evolved,
moving beyond their pretty squabbles and personal qualms. Against the warring of
Imperius their desire to be parentless grew stronger. With the aid of cerebral
duplication, they withdrew from the physical and grew unified against the AI,
fighting it with their own digital minds. This unification and subsequent
abolishment of Imperius lead to the world wide human-based AI network known
as Omninet.
Boundless, self-regulating, and everlasting the new Omninet saved humanity from
itself and the persistent need for personal power. Billions of minds acted as one
and decided what was best for themselves. The common belief that humans were
bad was proven incorrect as the mass AI dictated that bad things were detrimental
to society as a whole, such as pointless slaughter, nonprogressive lethargy, and the
repression of natural desire and personal expression.
As the human race decided to part from the old ways, they learned to live with
themselves and refused the rule of one being over public masses. Mankind
transcended their physical forms and evolved into a new species of trans-humans,
integrating with technology and becoming unrestricted by earthly limitations. They
traveled into outer space, living as one being, and spread their messages of
peaceful unification across the universe.