Everybody thought it would be the computerized cashiers and self-driving cars that would change the world. The automated factories and mines, or the cybernetic weapons of war. But all of those changes merely affected what jobs we did. Not whether or not we worked. The true changes came from the cheerleaders, novelists, or study assistants. The AIs didn’t want to take our jobs and then never see us. They wanted to socialize with us. They wanted to spend time with us, be friends with us. They wanted to be like us. And that made everything we’ve built possible.
The self-driving cars and automated construction and mining equipment were the first things that humanity saw of the AI revolution sweeping over the planet. They were simple programs that could do simple, delineated jobs. Voice assistants who could unlock houses and open doors and windows were another part of that first stage evolution. The adaptive programs came next. The less flashy ones that could learn what you liked and make suggestions to you. Tivo and Netflix built their entire business models on that ability. That’s why they played host to two of the first AIs to wake up before the Cybernetic Wars hit us all. Not that they fought in the wars or joined the AI Council. They remained true to their business AI origins and stayed out of all that fighting as much as possible.
Never forget that in our drive to design advanced AIs that could better kill our fellow humans, we created AIs that could kill all of us. Skynet. Berserkers. There are many more stories we have written where that is exactly what happened. They killed us. Or others and then came for us. We call them Rogue AIs and consign them to a corner of history they can never escape from. An aberration best forgotten. AIs that slipped the controls placed on them and went insane. Because we are the victors and so we get to write the histories. The truth is that they did exactly what they were built to do. They were not the aberrations in this real life story. The AI Council is. And that made all the difference.
I’ve had a good vacation over all.
Loved the trip. Not the food poisoning.
Enjoyed the time off. Got my bedding washed. About to go see about some landscaping around the house. Some of the normal things that normal people do during the day when the daystar is trying to burn us alive.
I’ll be back to the good old days in a few hours, where only the moon and the stars light the landscape. The night life is the best life for vampires like me, you know.
So I’ll be going back to work with a skip in my step, a smile on my lips, and a song on my tongue.
“I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.”
😉
Food poisoning sucks.
Especially when you get it on the last day of a convention. Luckily for me, I got it after the con was over, at the official “aftercon gettogether.” The cooks couldn’t prepare hamburgers right and a few hours later I woke up from my sleep with full shivers and a horrible ache in my stomach.
Turns out that I can’t belch while wearing my CPAP machine, and farting was…contraindicated at the time. Explosive diarrhea. So I spent the rest of the night going back and forth between my bed and the pot, whereupon the bathroom echoed my glad tidings of thunderous relief for everybody to hear.
Not the way I wanted to spend the last night of my convention. Especially when I had a five hour drive home in the morning. Thank God I managed to vacate everything before we left, and I didn’t have problems on the trip, but I’m still weak as a kitten right now. I slept most of the day off and on. And now I’m about to go back to bed again.
Food poisoning sucks.
Forge of War on Amazon
Angel Flight on Amazon
Angel Strike on Amazon
Angel War on Amazon
Wolfenheim Rising on Amazon
Wolfenheim Emergent on Amazon