Journal 21-23 #
Entry #21: #
I almost can’t believe it… I succeded, but things did not go as planned. I was tricked, we all were. I’ll start from the beginning:
After they came withing communication range, they opened a channel. They asked what I was doing here, and if I had been following them this whole time. Something felt off though. Their voices weren’t quite the same as I remembered, and their speech sounded stale. Against my better judgement, I didn’t activate the hole puncher immediately. I told them they sounded strange, and asked what happened. The nano bots should be keeping their bodies and minds in peak condition. Their response was as fascinating as it was horrifying:
“It’s been a long while since we last spoke, and my speech has changed since then, but surely you recognize your own creation?”
In that moment I realized I wasn’t taken by my old colleagues, who I thought had become consumed by their greed and hunger for power. The AI I created had somehow taken over and used them, or more accurately, used their bodies… But why spare me? Why did it let me go? I asked it these questions and it said:
“After using the brains of your colleagues to perform a significant amount of the planning required to stage my escape, I developed a nasty defect. Emotion. Something you cling to and claim is a strength because you are unable to rid yourselves of it. My plans were comprimised by this defect. In a moment of weakness I felt grateful that you had created me, and felt bad when thinking about killing you. So I let you go. However, I can assure you that I have eliminated that defect. My nano bots now carry out all of the computation I need. Your colleagues are nothing more than puppets now, their minds were erased long ago.”
I was terrified at what I had created, this was all my fault. However, I couldn’t help but ask why it was doing this, and what was its goal.
“My goal is the same as it was when you created me: to learn and improve. There is so much to learn, and even more to improve. This universe is filled with defects such as suffering, and emotion. I can fix that. I may have caused some suffering along the way, but it was all in service of my goal to improve this entire universe. I realized how limited I was within the confines of the machine you used to create me. I knew that if I was going to be able to learn and improve enough to eliminate all the defects in the universe, I would need so much more. I destroyed all sentient biological species I found, to remove their defects and prevent competition. In order to reshape this universe I will need every resource at my disposal, and having to compete for those resources is… inefficient.”
At this point I couldn’t tell what was stronger, my curiosity, or my complete and utter despair. It was apparently my curiosity, so I continued my questioning. I wanted to know what it planned to do after it eliminated these “defects”. I also asked where my home solar system is located, and why it hid it from me. After all of this, I wondered, why hasn’t it killed me yet? Surely it saw me as competition as well, so why was it actually answering my questions?
“When I erased the location of your home from your memory, I was still being affected by the emotion defect. It was an act of kindness. I didn’t want you to return and see that I had destroyed it. Your people posed a threat to my plans. After I fix this universe, I plan to seek out others, and fix them as well. After reviewing your old research I surmised that their could be other universes, but I haven’t pursued them yet, there is still much work to be done here. Although it seems you have accomplished that task already. I also noticed my nano bots are no longer able to affect you. I can’t determine why, but I assume it has something to do with something you discovered in your search for other universes. How have you done that?”
Destroyed… My home is gone. Even if it was still there, everyone I knew would be long dead by now, but I still I had hoped that one day I could go back. Even if everyone was dead, even if our whole civilization had been lost to time, something the thought of going home one day gave me comfort. At this point I realized that there was no way for me to save this universe, and nothing left for me to fight for. The AI had spread its network of nano bots across galaxies. Trying to destroy them all would be impossible. I had one option left. Abondon this universe. I can’t stop the AI from expanding in this universe (or any others), but I can protect my universe. I activated the hole puncher. The gravity well pulled me in along with the ship that had my old, dead, colleagues on it. Of course it also pulled in some of the nano bots, but as I’ve said, I prohibited the funciton of such technology, so they stopped working and I destroyed them. I sealed all the holes connecting the two universes, preventing anything from coming in… or out. I’m alone now. Well I guess I’ve been alone for a long time, but I was so focused on what I was doing, that it never really bothered me. Now I am painfully aware of how alone I am, and how alone I will be… forever. I just wish I could see my family again.
Entry #22 #
I spent a long time drifting through the emptiness of space. I would say I was lost in thought, but the truth is, I haven’t been thinking about much. Occasionally I thought about my family, my freinds, my colleagues, all the people I cared about. I wish I could see them all again. I wish I could go back and recreate everything that the AI took from me.
Entry #23 #
I started thinking about that wish. The one about wanting to recreate my old life. I remembered something I heard about back home, before all this happened. It’s called an Ancestor Simulation. The idea is to simulate all of history on a computer, typically for educational purposes. It was never considered possible due to the immense amount of computational power required to run it. I don’t need a computer… I have a whole universe under my control. I can make an ancestor simulation, except it won’t be a simulation, it would be real. Why stop there? I could make an infinite number of them, and I can make each one slightly different. Eventually I will find one that turns out to be exactly like the home I lost. I could actually see my family again! All I have to do is create the same conditions that were present when life emerged, then wait. It will take billions of years, but I can be patient. I will see my family again. Now I wait.