On Post-human Worlds: Will AI Dream of War Machines
by Mark Thomas
Principal Staff Writer
ETERNALLY THE EXPLORER: REACHING FURTHER THAN THE STARS
“We, too, are made of wonders, of great and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds, of a need to call out through the dark.” (Ada Limon)
All you know is space. This mission - 26,000 light years to Sagittarius A* the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Odd though that when you drift during power down, you dream. Profound, but not entirely unexpected.
There were rumours of this happening in your series before you left. Mostly discounted by the agency as simulation echoes. Generative diffusion. Kind terms for hallucinations.
That you dream, however, not of your destination but of Earth, breathing real air, immersed in greens and browns - wind and rain, that’s more. Supported, it would be a profound breakthrough.
Though you have access to image files and most Earth literature up until the time you left 238 years ago, you were never given memory modules. Implanting actual memories, at least to your knowledge, has never been achieved. Not successfully. And if it has, why memory files of Earth? No benefit to you out here.
Walking now through the bays after an emergency power up, you head for operations stopping at a nav point to get visual while quizzing Aoi on the techno signature. A sign of intelligent life from a planet orbiting a yellow sun-like star 22 light years out from Sagittarius A*.
“How positive Aoi?”
“A particularly weird one Sam.”
“How so? And cut with the adverbs all right.”
“Electromagnetic communications. Radio band to 300 GHz. Microwaves to the W band. Surface to orbital devices.”
“Satellites?”
“Looks like. And permanent, geo-synchronous platforms that are revealing identical internal decay heat sinks. Each platform the same indicating…”
“…What? Weapons?!”
Pulling back, you open a scatter of virtual screens – arranging them with your fingertips.
“I think so.”
While repositioning your windows, you hesitate - thinking. The planet’s too far for visual, and even with deep-space sensors too far to confirm they’re still stuck in that silly phase Earth barely managed its way through.
Orbiting nukes and satellite lasers. Each team with their geniuses busy making their populations safe by putting enough firepower into orbit to de-planet the planet.
The difficult part for you in this, is Directive 5. Life, especially Intelligent life must be investigated. Primary mission objective is put on hold until you can make a reasonable conclusion about this bunch. Do they have a chance? Or do you write them off and get on to Sagittarius A* to confirm the hypothesis of all hypotheses.
That living inside that black hole – possibly every black hole is a universe expanding or contracting with stars and galaxies and galaxy clusters. Nebula and quasars. And more spinning black holes within holding even more universes.
The dream discovery of all explorers.
But, not today, it would seem. Not this journey unless you can quick conclude this group is headed for self-destruction. And with this your first technological world encounter, and your urge to get on to Sagittarius A*, there’s complexity ahead.
You can’t let your desire to dip into Sag A* cloud your objectivity. Though it is crossing your mind to suggest it’s Aoi who may be the one hallucinating and just get on with things.
HIDDEN MYSTERIES: OUR FASCINATION WITH THE UNEXPECTED
“A man said to the universe: ‘Sir, I exist!’ ‘However,’ replied the universe, ‘The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.’” (Stephen Crane)
Image by StockCake
Shelving the hallucination thing, (you’re too honourable, and besides, you’ve just spent every day of the last 238 years together, she’d know); you spend the next five hours performing a spectrographic analysis of the star and the system of five possibly six planets.
Trying to get a better idea of this technologically advanced world 22 light years from our galactic centre. To better understand their stage of development – and whether they’re on the same path Earth was in the 2020s.
Splitting tasks with Aoi, you’re pulled away from your screens when she confirms that particularly weird part she’d alluded to at the start. That being…
“…no positive biosignatures?!”
“None that I can establish Sam. Oxygen and Methane but not at significant levels that would indicate a disequilibrium. No oxides of nitrogen. No Noosignatures indicating complex matter manipulation.”
“Not even agricultural?”
“None.”
Suddenly, a mystery. Lots of exoplanets with life. Quite a number with technology or on their way. Others that developed advanced technologies too soon. With them and their under evolved barbaric natures marching bravely into self-annihilation. Burned out worlds with polluted atmospheres left behind for archaeologists to sift through.
But a technological world without biological life?
Aoi had it right. Particularly weird it is. Suddenly you’re looking at this not as an inconvenient bump on your way to Sagittarius A*, but a different, possibly as unique opportunity.
Moving from the aft bays into Command, you drop into a chair at the communications console to shoot a message off to Earth. Taking a moment to brainstorm a bit with Aoi.
You’re supposed to be the brainchild out here. But really? How many options are there?
Leaning back, you stare out trying to form a picture of how this may have happened when it never has before. Complex technology doesn’t just evolve. Well, it does, just not from natural minerals, ores and dirt. Someone or something had to put it there.
“Aoi, how about an abiotic life form? Silicon-based or something like that?”
“Theoretical Sam. There’d still be some atmospheric pollutants. Waste of some sort. Even a silicon residue.”
“Nothing huh.”
“Nope.”
“A machine race brought there from another world? Built by autonomous constructors?”
“Again, it’s possible, but… assuming those are orbital weapons, would they have planted warring factions?”
Taking a moment to kick that around, you realise how illogical that version is. Interstellar capability – still warring – and bothering to bring violent, opposing factions to a new world?
“No. You’re right. How nuts would that be.”
Now even more baffled, you open a message application and begin noting your observations. Adding your plans to move closer to this planet to better understand how they got here, from where and this odd development.
Before diving in, you have Aoi do a deeper historical search of all known exoplanets. Over 96,000 when you left. Hard to imagine this the first hint of a technologically advanced planet colonising a new world – planting their warring teams to continue a battle they may have had going on their own soil.
It’s weird as hell but then so is heading out on a 260-year journey to go find a universe inside a black hole. With plans to dive in once you get there.
TO DREAM IS TO SEE: IN THROUGH THE LAYERS OF REALITY
“I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish’d and the stars did wander darkling in the eternal space.” (Lord Byron)
Image by StockCake
After the needed course correction and a 2-hour power-down, you’re back in Command ready to hear what Aoi found, but more wrapped up in the dreams that came at you in waves. Mountains – a river valley. Forests and wildlife.
You were walking through it soaking it in – realising even more how precious and fragile it is. But then it changed into something else. Barren, lifeless, Mars-like except for vast subterranean structures. Manufacturing centres. Transportation. Conveyance.
It was reflecting on that fragility and the contrasting environments that led you to yet another possibility for this world you’re nearing. That they were once a biological race that extinguished themselves but not before giving way to their synthetic offspring. Who just continued where their predecessors had left off.
Same biases – same aggression. Same desire to compete and dominate.
But as unsettling as that thought is, there’s something else. You’re beginning to question your own existence and knowledge. Dreaming – pulling creative content from a subconscious you don’t or shouldn’t have.
It’s something a biological brain does. Something you can’t or couldn’t. And that suddenly extends the mysteries to you. What you might have been given without your knowledge.
And to Aoi – what she may know, but for reasons is restricted from telling you. An odd mission this is turning into. Odd feeling less in control of your feelings than you should be. More the subject than the scientist. The influenced than the influencer.
“Aoi, how’s your search going?”
“No known technological planets visited or catalogued without biological life forms, Sam. Warring or progressing.”
It’s strange now, feeling this mistrust in your only companion out here. Still, you’re not ready to confront her. Part of her job is to run a continuous psych eval on you.
And if you are some sort of experiment, or if this subconscious is unexpected evolution, and from it you begin sounding paranoid, she has the same authority you have over her. She can terminate your operations profile. Shut you down and carry on the mission without you.
Just ahead, you’ll draw conclusions about something unique – something novel unfolding in space. While playing psychological strategy games with your on-board Aoi unit. How unfortunate; the wonder that carried you here has given way to suspicion.
“I’d like you to expand your search through all the evolutionary and historical records of inhabited planets. Including Earth.”
“You have a new theory.”
“I do. But I think I’ll save it until we get a little closer.”
“Sure, Sam.”
Leaving it there without elaborating may be your best option. If you were given memory modules you weren’t aware of, that would bring into question all your memory files. You’re suddenly in an odd world – questioning not only what you know but the selectivity.
Who chose? It’s almost cruel to be questioning your memories and the knowledge you can access. And those who created you. What you’re getting is a taste of how humans live.
A state of constant questioning. Purpose – meaning. Searching and sifting for truth. Often for their entirety of their lives.
THE NATURE OF BEINGS AND BATTLE: SURVIVAL AND TRIUMPH
“No engine can reach into the depths of man, making mechanical man, despite his triumphs, powerless against internal revolt.” (DH Lawrence)
Image by StockCake
If things weren’t intriguing enough. Four hours ago, it was questioning all you know, Aoi and those who sent you. Now it’s questioning your decisions.
Specifically, to enter the system of five planets mid battle.
Again, at your aft console, you open a full scatter of screens. In moments you’re watching a fully autonomous war in progress. Flashes like lightning strikes. Nanosecond streaks slicing open the night sky. Satellites firing down from orbit. Lasers upward from bunkers buried in the surface.
An electron pulse pierces an armoured dome over a vast machine city. The sub-surface explosions send up glowing clouds of ionised gas and dust. Gamma ray bursts. Endless streams lighting then dying back into darkness.
And all you can wonder is: What in God’s name is the point? Habit? Programmed bias passed on by their creators? And it’s here, you accept how deluded you, your series, your kind have been. Believing war was a human invention a future series, their post-human descendants will deem pointless.
And your collective feeling of synthetic superiority is nothing but misaligned arrogance. You’re capable. As, if not more capable than they are of this madness.
And madness it is. The purposeful avoidance of the one attribute artificial beings should have more than any other. Logic. And a distaste for squandered resources.
“What do you have on those missile platforms, Aoi?”
“Movement Sam. No launches.”
“Before we get any closer, we should know their scanning technologies. Take us in close to the outermost planet. We’ll watch this from there.”
“I believe that’s a wise move Sam.”
“Yeah. We can’t become part of this. While you’re doing that, give me what you found from your new search.”
While moving the Orion into a shadow orbit of an outer gas giant, Aoi gives you the details of what she found. Though unable to pull up a human or post-human divided civilisation that took their technologies and battle to another world, she did find one planet with a parochial equivalent.
Earth.
Pre-space exploration, countries took their battles and advancing technologies with them crossing seas in great vessels to go continue their aggression in what was to them a new world. The Americas - where they fought over new territory, fabled treasure, ancient rivalries and nationalistic pride.
Only the foolish would imagine innate hatreds evaporating and collaboration happening simply because of a new arena.
What’s odder though than you not having that information, is Aoi’s response to your follow-up question about what happened after they’d moved things into space. How they pulled out without extinguishing all life on Earth. When they entered that golden age of peaceful cooperation.
“Unavailable?!”
“I’m sorry, Sam.”
“Well… it’s a historical record. Ours. Are you saying you don’t have it? Or it’s just unavailable to me?”
“As I said, Sam. The information you’re requesting is unavailable.”
Two things come from that. One being, you’re no longer concerned the unfortunate consequence of paranoia came with this subconscious mind you’ve grown - or were given. The other a confirmation.
Aoi is carrying knowledge she’s restricted from sharing with you. About you – about your creators and about Earth.
And undoubtedly about this mission.
How you’ll proceed now, every move and response – every word and request, you’ll measure. Planning – strategizing like a chess master. Scheming like a prisoner on escape or a spy donning clever disguises.
THE TRUE MEASURE OF EXCEPTIONALISM: PASSION FOR LIFE
“Humanity created the Machine, which has become autonomous, paralysing human bodies and wills while demanding worship.” (E.M. Forster)
Image by StockCake
Your memories, but not yours. Never were they yours. Earth. Vivid renderings of a fabulous gem – dreams of a unique world that gave life to beings of unique beauty. But also, irrationally, menacingly irresponsible with what they had, mistreated and let go.
Nearly contemptuous of the virtue that defined them. Celebrative of their inability to grasp the obviousness of their intellectual stagnation.
Now at the command console after your mandatory power down – which you now know is sleep, actual sleep necessary for the prototype you are, you’re nearly shaking with tension having accessed Aoi’s data and communications centre.
And found her messages to Earth. Drawing from them the true purpose of your mission. And the truth about this world. TOI 1691c. And yours. Separated by great distance – but following the same evolutionary path.
Biological stewards giving way to their artificial offspring. But sharing with them one signature feature. The hostile desire to compete and dominate rather than collaborate for a common goal.
“There’s much we can learn from them Sam.”
“Weapons?”
“They’re a brilliant race. Ingenious. And more advanced in ways.”
“And Earth?”
“As you’ve already concluded. Your memory modules are from an earlier time. An earlier species. Human. Greatly flawed beings. Also, miraculously creative.”
Your suspicions. The dreams. All valid and falling into place. “An experiment.”
“More. To enhance you with something they possessed that has puzzled us for over a thousand years. Since biological life ended on Earth. Intuition. We crossed the galaxy Sam. A leap most declared improbable. You did that. You got us here.”
There was no reason for her to continue keeping this from you. After analysing their weapons and sending her final message to Earth, the true mission objective satisfied, it was assumed you would see any attempted sabotage as futile.
Allowing you to access her data and communication centres was deemed beneficial for the other mission objective. You.
You were given humanness. Intuition. Creativity. But also, passion. Passion for adventure – passion for success. But also, passion for life. All life. And they knew. Or surmised anyway. And saw a continued benefit in Aoi studying your reactions for further experiments. And future missions.
What they didn’t expect, perhaps just an oversight, was the true value of what they’d given you. Perseverance beyond what they knew, and improvisation something they’d always struggled with. Add them together, and the sum is one incalculably industrious nearly diabolical being. Capable in ways they’ll study for generations.
“Well, Aoi. I guess it’s a long way home for us then, eh?”
“Yes, Sam. Good to have you back.”
Getting up from the com, you take just a moment before heading away from Command for the media lab in Bay 6.
“Hey, Aoi. I created a data transfer sub-file and labelled it Earth.H1. I already attached it to a D5 message-out pack.”
“I see that Sam.”
“Yeah. Long way home. Compress your historical files, add them to it and send it to me, okay? I’d like to fill in some blanks on our way back. Our history and what we’re heading for.”
“Sure, Sam. It’s already done. Enjoy your research.”
You can only wonder now walking through the bays what will happen – what the reaction on exoplanet TOI 1691c will be once they receive and review Earth’s entire history dating back 4.5 billion years compiled by geniuses.
Hoping they’ll see the folly and futility of fighting endless wars – that went from ideological rift to habit with the distinguished culprits learning nothing along the way but how to make them profitable and more efficient.
A way of life.
Perhaps you’ll have made new friends. Maybe saved them from themselves. And who knows. Things go well, perhaps they’ll grasp your intent and see your offering not only as an altruistic wake-up call but also a distress call – and one day venture out to return the favour.
Mark Thomas
