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Green life quickly vanishing, oceans disappearing, people no longer exist - it was a nightmare to behold. I, Gus Raloband, am the only human being with flesh on his bones and breathing oxygen. Men dreamed of this day, desperately and eagerly awaiting its arrival, and now I am the only one to tell and see the gloriousness of this moment. I have nowhere to run and nowhere to seek refuge. My cause of existing is hopeless. My intellect urges me to end it now by decapitating myself with a surgical laser beam, but my pride will not let me. My anger will not subside until I leave no regret behind.
Men, women and children all over the world awaited the birth of AI. The technology breakthrough surprised even the biologists, software engineers and mechanical engineers that collaborated their findings. Not until they put their research together did artificial intelligence emerge. Mechanical engineers developed advanced robotics that enabled man to control machines of vast strength with virtual reality techniques. Software engineers discovered an innovative recursive method that increased the information reception rate more than five thousand percent. Astounding as that may sound, what the biologists unveiled about artificial intelligence proved even more astounding, and unnerving.
A man named Thorton Gramm funded Project SIRC (Synthesized Intelligent Robotic Creation), a secret program to develop AI using any means necessary. He intended to create a robotic war machine that duplicated humanoid physical movements, but with superior physique and intelligence compared to a human. The United States of America promised riches beyond comparison for a weapon with intelligence that could be mass-produced. Such technology would enslave the world and force all people to abide by the Constitution.
The technology backfired. Once created, Sirc, as he was named, realized that to survive he needed a specific substance that is impossible to manufacture: human neurons. Sirc’s cerebral cortex was constructed of many microchips using the new recursive technique and neurons from a human brain. After attempting animal neurons, biologists discovered that the type of brain the neurons were taken from determined Sirc’s intellect. Using pieces of a human brain, however, empowered Sirc to feel emotion and remember events, not just act on instincts.
The neurons did not last forever. The amount of information Sirc gathered surpassed human capacity, but with a price. Each neuron lasted fifteen to twenty seconds, and then was rendered useless. Sirc battled with his ethical programs and human neurons for quite some time, but concluded his survival mattered more than anything else. If he ceased to exist, he could no longer learn, feel joy or discomfort, and his metallic parts would be used for another like him or rocket parts. I do not blame Sirc for killing his creators and adapting their neurons into his half artificial brain. I do not blame him for giving birth to others like him who shared his same survival instincts. And I do not blame the Sirc race for ruthlessly murdering my wife and children in front of my very eyes and extracting their brains as I helplessly feel on my face, weeping. I blame all mankind that searched for the knowledge, knowing that such technology would imminently bring us all to our knees, begging for mercy that machine-based rationalization would not provide.
Now only I survive. The million Sircs know me as a criminal. I am the last threat to a thriving robotic society. Sircs have developed a technique to harvest neurons by cultivating whole brains and cloning them. My only hope is to use their technology against them. I must break into the cloning facilities and clone myself until there are enough of me to retake planet Earth.
This will be the last entry in my diary. I only hope that years from now humans everywhere will read this as a triumphant historical document that surpasses even the magnificent Iliad. End recording.
The electronic recording device beeped twice and shut down. Gus sighed heavily and bowed his head. He broke into a loud wailing with tears streaming down his cheeks. Because of no fault of his own, Gus lost everything - his wife, children, friends, and all humans - and he was alone because of a greedy mistake. Mankind was greedy for knowledge and pride that people could do anything and go anywhere. Furthermore, he never asked to be the last one left to save humans; he wanted to live a normal life and raise his two boys to be happy, productive men. Life dealt him a lousy hand this round, and he knew he would sooner or later bankrupt his funds.
Gus left an old apartment building with little more than his clothes and a surgical laser. Even though doctors used this hand-held device, Gus found it to employ mass destruction when he pulled its trigger. The crude weapon resembled a mini plasma cannon that soldiers of war used often. What made it a surgical instrument rather than a weapon was its range. The laser reached only ten feet in a cylindrical beam no bigger than one-thousandth of an inch in diameter. Gus needed to use his weapon precisely.
Casually Gus stepped into his hover vehicle and drove to “Double-Ur-Pleasure,” as the cloning facility was cleverly labeled after cloning became legal and commonplace. At first he feared that the Sircs would identify him and kill him in his hovercraft, but he realized after living as the sole human heir to Earth for over two months that they possessed no method of tracing that a human and not a Sirc propelled the hover vehicle.
Gus arrived at “Double-Ur-Pleasure” during midday. During his two-month evaluation of the Sircs, he discovered that half of them replenish their neural implants when the Sun climbs to its zenith in the sky. Carefully, the unlikely hero jumped to the ground from his hover vehicle. As it descended from its two-foot height, Gus deftly hid behind the chrome vehicle. He used a crudely constructed mirror to survey his tactical position. Guarding the main entrance to the cloning lab were two Sircs, heavily armed with plasma cannons and microfusion grenades. They resembled human skeletons with such striking similarity that Gus shivered in disgust. Made with a titanium alloy, they were virtually indestructible. He dared not risk attacking them even from behind because his laser would not even touch them before they made him sidewalk sludge.
The unlikely hero acted by throwing his mirror onto the side of a building nearby and drawing their attention. Even though they possessed no eyes or ears, the Sircs did have mounted video cameras and adapted hearing aids. The two titanium skeletons ran quickly to the infraction site. As they moved away from the entrance, he slipped behind the building, because he knew video cameras awaited him eagerly at any entrance. Gus used his surgical weapon to slice the back wall into a crude entryway. He entered, finding the cloning lab, just as his virtual schematics promised. Finding the room empty the human began cloning himself. His software hacking skills provided him with all the knowledge to work a cloning device. The Sircs would be ecstatic to have his extremely intelligent brain, for it was sure to contain massive amounts of neurons.
Gus set the pre-cloning process for a time period long enough to enter a cloning chamber. As it began, he felt the little prick of a needle in his skin to sample his DNA. How he hated needles! Needles were among his top fears, along with public speaking and death. He actually felt a certain comfort in death, but he was afraid of how it would happen. For having an ethical program, Sircs could mutilate a person unmercifully. Then again, so could humans...
Five minutes elapsed and the cloning chamber opened. Gus went to examine his new twin brother, only to find him a pool of plasma. Knowing exactly what happened, the unlikely hero looked at the entrance he cut. The two Sircs stood there with their skeletal smiles, one with his plasma cannon still smoking at the barrel. Gus knew the Sircs had won that battle, so he ran away to fight another day and formulate a second plan.
Gus woke up staring into a bright light. Exhausted and famished, he attempted to sit upright, but he could not. Then he realized why. He was strapped to a table, arms, legs, neck and head. Frantically he tried to free himself, but it was no use. He was helpless.
“Ah, you are awake,” said a digital voice as the bright light was replaced by its dimmer substitute. “This is good. I like to hear my victims scream as I extract their brains.” The Sirc started a small saw spinning rapidly in his hand and brought it close to Gus’ forehead. The screams became louder and the saw deepened the wound, until finally death came for him in a black hovercraft.
The humans lost terribly and the Sircs have everything they needed to survive. Yet, who knows? Maybe one day AI will experiment with HI, Human Intelligence, and humans could retake the world again.
