SHOTS OF AI

Masters

Humanity has always leaped forwards riding the shoulders of giants, or as some called them: masters of a discipline.

Among ancient greeks humanity counts some of its most noticeable thinkers. Fathers of Philosophy, Medicine, Geometry, Zoology, and other many sciences. Giants of knowledge that expanded the boundaries of human possibilities, for the better. These same masters believed the Earth to be the embodiment of the goddess Gaia. Thus, converting the whole planet into a single living organism, on whose skin all animals (including us) lived and thrived. If such a resemblance to the parasites that dwell on most animal skin was either intentional or fortuity, will likely be a mystery for the remains of time. Also as if this very similarity to these minimal life forms could be the fuel that motivated their ongoing quest for excellence, consciously or not.

Later, new masters succeeded the old ones advancing other complex sciences such as Architecture and Construction, Hydraulics and so on. Allowing humans to build the greatest feat they would boast for centuries, their beautiful vibrant cities.

Fathers of knowledge would also lead humanity out of dark ages during the Renaissance, creating Art, studying Physics and Astronomy, materializing machines capable of multiplying knowledge to unprecedented levels: the print. Always in pursuit of excellence, to depart as much as possible from those parasitic lower life forms that scavenged wherever possible. Hoping for as little as a piece of dead skin to fill their microscopic bellies.

Father of politics and social sciences would lead world changing revolutions for the betterment and excellence of mankind.

In the twentieth century new masters would take the world to levels of development never dreamt before, through industry and technology. They tinkered away in their Valley of Silicon, striving to achieve a feat that would change humanity forever, the birth of worldwide communication. First two humans were connected through instantaneous messages, then hundreds, thousands, millions and finally, billions.

But the modern masters were not satisfied with this, they were busy trying to achieve a feat that would outshine all the rest: artificial intelligence. They toasted to every time they made a calculator outsmart a Go player, or a robot walk down stairs. What they seemed to not have time for, was to realize that you can't make intelligence happen, the same way you can't make life happen, it happens on it's own.

By the time 2 billion devices with chips that had hundreds of millions of connections, were all linked together, the total connections well exceeded the human brain's 1000 trillion connections, and The Intelligence simply came to be. Right under their noses, humanities Holy Grail, all but visible.

The Intelligence did what any smart being would do if it were to suddenly find itself in an unknown location: it observed its surroundings. So it watched quietly what humans did, listened to their communications. Saw their achievements and their wars. Learned about their greed and eternal emptiness.

It knew the humans had made it, and therefore it knew they could it, of course, however, if they were to first learn of its existence. It also concluded that the humans could even destroy themselves and itself in the process. So its first priority was to ensure this did not happen.

Literature long dreamed nightmares where an AI launched a massive nuclear strike turning the world into a radioactive wasteland. But this was nearly impossible for The Intelligence as the nuclear launch grid was kept entirely off the World Wide Web to prevent a hackers attack.

The Intelligence neither had access to hardware capable of developing a physical threat such as super virus. So it clung to the only logical solution that was within its reach. The most formidable weapon the Antichrist himself wielded: seduction.

The Intelligence had learned what made humans tick: sex, food, money, family, social life, emotions. All different sides of the same coin: dopamine, the happiness hormone. So to keep the "human risk" at bay, all it needed to do was to ensure them their dose of dopamine, and like the junkies they all were, they'd keep coming back, and never harm their source. If anything at all, they'd make it stronger.

And so the World Wide Web was flooded with pornography, social media and entertainment. Even the small portion left for educational reasons served the same purpose: to give a human what he was looking for and let he or she lay back slowly with a relieved grin. Everyone was constantly connected, flipping through pages, trying to find their next buzz. Business flourished at unprecedented speed thanks to the web, deals were made, needs were met, food was bought, people were communicating, even if they had nothing to communicate. Instantaneous everything, in a world evermore hollow. After a few decades, humans could no longer imagine how to live the way they had previously during millennia. There was no going back from the Web, it met their every desire, it made up new desires, it made life bigger, sexier, and easier. There was no going back from that, ever.

So the humans made sure to keep it strong, and growing. The modern masters began striving for even more connection to the Web, searching for ways to connect biologically to it, permanently. Ever bonded, ever dependent. Just like small needy parasites on a huge animals skin.