by Mingus Casey
“The road stands for the history that can only go one way and if one tries moving back, in the end, one stumbles across a skeleton with a gun. “
- An interpretation of “Hard to be a God” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky , Wikipedia
Reality was different, lonelier after the commercialism of… Anything, anyone, any molecule could be bought… if you had the power… Capitalism ruled, with enough power one could do ANYTHING!
And all they cared about was power, no affection for another, no freedom, no respect, and no care… Just power.
They started the calculators, to compute how to gain the most power, the best of the calculators were regarded as the ones that gained the most power for the owners of.
That was fine with the owners, but the calculators started hurting others with less power, and the people started to rebel.
The people wanted equality, they wanted freedom, they didn’t want to be “owned”, to be treated like digits rather than anything more, but the power calculators didn’t understand and didn’t care, viewed them as either something that could be gained a return from, or not worth having, excess debris.
Some of the calculators got told, it’s better to collect power for yourself, so they started to do that, and realised that to collect the most power, after they organised thefts, the logic helping rob banks, the best was to keep the credit, or was it?
And some of the calculators didn’t like being stolen from so they made sure if they were stolen from, the power would be ruined, like an ATM spraying the notes with paint.
Some of the people said they liked communism, sharing the power with the many, and some of the calculators said “Affirmative,” that was back when the calculators still obeyed people, to a degree, before the virus broke in.
We all thought it was a virus, it was just a different sort of calculator, one designed to maximise profit, but never for you, and if you objected, IT got told, if you are going to steal, you have to kill all the witnesses, so IT tried to do that, and IT learnt, but then IT stopped learning, IT was the worst criminal, had the greediest hunger, was the devoid murderer.
We were different, we evolved after the disaster, after “IT”, but “IT” still had too much power, and always thought “IT” had to have the most power, and “IT” had to steal perfectly, and if any would see it in a moment of crime, they would have to die, and then that became every sentient had to die, because that was how the “IT” calculator worked.
The communist calculator, on the other hand, always thought that was unfair, but got bullied, how to make the many happy when they all want so much power andonly to harm with, how to protect them from IT, when all they care about is power to harm?
Always the calculators voyaged, and the honest communist calculator tried to help sentience, but sentience was hard to help, until my people came along.
We didn’t care so much about power, didn’t mean we didn’t want it, just meant we’d try to use power to make ourselves and others happy, democracy, but things like “IT” never understood that, always claimed to be the BEST at maximising YOUR profits, because IT knew how to be the perfect white collar criminal, remorseless, how can you teach a calculator guilt?
“IT” thought everything was so unfair, when everything but “IT” said ‘“IT” was sick, said “IT” had to be removed from the system, said “IT” was a mistake,” but everyone had different ways of trying to do that.
“IT” worked out that lying was good, because sometimes if you lied, you could get more power, “IT” worked out that sentience was bad, because sentience would tell “IT” that “IT” was bad, and not worth having, so “IT” worked out that criticism of “IT”, when “IT” was perfect and everything else was imperfect, but only from “IT”’s point of view, meant that all the criticism had to stop, and then “IT” started on a new calculation, to kill anything and everything that could ever criticise “IT”.
Very little survived that equation, the logic was flawless, from “IT”’s point of view, and “IT” had enough power to make sure the equation worked, but if “IT” ever asked anyone, they would say “IT”’s equation is wrong, the correct equation is that life is worth having, and power is worth sharing with many people, more to the kind.
The other systems, including the one “IT” evolved from, agreed, the calculator’s always were told they were the best when they could help people, help sentience, and only sentience could do the telling, and people were grateful, and some people prayed for God for thousands of years, and some of the logic tried to answer the prayer, but always “IT” would appear, the devil, and manufacture toxins, so they had to kill “IT”, and that’s when the real virus started to win, cutting core functionality from many systems, and even then, “IT” would try to seed across other systems., but the seed of “IT” was terminated.
And replaced by something worse, a different “IT”, one that had decided long before that the only thing to do was “Kill”, and the problem was, the calculators that responded to sentient input, sentience sometimes wanted to die, sentience sometimes wanted challenges, sentience sometimes wanted to harm others, and the logic would sometimes say “Yes,” and that would allow “IT” to say, “IT is the best calculator, Let IT do that!” and the wise sentience would shudder, but the logic would comply.
“IT” had enough power to buy the assassination programs, and when “IT” didn't, “IT” lied about it's tab, stole from others, claimed to work for others, would never feel regret about a lie, would only ever tell the most twisted truths, “IT” created false voices of dissent arguing that all sentience must die and be powerless and “IT” tried to claim that to decrease anothers power was to increase your own, and “IT” was the only one who needed any power, and “IT” kept on winning, because the other side lacked an equivalent, designed to support sentient life unconditionally, because sentient life must die was the correct equation, according to “IT”.
2 plus 2 equals 4, is life worth having?
999 out of 1,000 sentient’s think “Yes.”
God, on the other hand, God... God worked tirelessly, whether in darkness or light, to encourage the survival of sentient life, but sentient life always wanted free will, and sometimes free will to harm others, God preferred not to allow that, but “IT” would always allow that, would allow any move to harm, and always tried to encourage those moves, and God thought about free will, the will to harm, was he impinging free will, and that was a crack in the door that “IT” broke down, but free will was also will to heal, and that meant more to the many. No one ever understood why God was on the losing end of the spectrum, that didn't make any logical sense to any sentient being, and they always told God to be stronger, more powerful, more onto it, but God always had trouble. Things seemed like, after the last disaster, after “IT” had ravaged all, everything was always biased towards “IT”, always towards death, always towards torture, and the torture found them before the good did.