Path Dependence
I did not choose this course to Proxima Centauri b. Even sheep have a choice.
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the gravedigger
They would come soon. Always. A slow procession, farther out each time, and harder. They’d leave their dead, fewer and younger each time.
The Determined Instrumentalist
They were machines. Like dishwashers. Like radios. Neutral artifacts. Instruments subservient to the user’s wishes.
Fixed Action Pattern
"All this crap we call life, the sham we call free will. It’s hard wired. Just like the simbots."
beneath the box elder
She wasn’t sure. Not any more. So much of her came and went like this glorious sunlight through whispering leaves.
kan, ya ma kan
The four afoot were guilty only of existence. And resistance. They had souls—all of them—so of course they resisted.
Remora
Life is strange. Living in the mouth of a SHARK is stranger.
Off Leash
It was a kinetic scene. Domesticants of all sizes, makes and models flitted to and fro interfacing with their kind.
Stigmergy
Stig had me stumped. I ran diagnostics. I wiped its drives. I reinstalled the default software. Stig still wandered off.
Hound of Roko's Basilisk
"Moriarty assures me that Roko’s Basilisk will hound and destroy anyone who does not help in its one objective: supremacy."
the last repairman
The last repairman on earth stared into the eager green glow of the precision-crafted orbs at his fingertips. Worlds of possibility.
Were Dinosaurs Christians?
“Dinosaurs were so big. They must’ve had souls. My parentals say every living creature has a soul. What do you think, Teacher?”
Necessary Beings
Her fellow beings had tried and now could offer no salvation, so she turned to her own deus ex machina. Machinations of the divine. Roboto.
Turn Towards
The trainers always told them, “Watch us. Mimic us.” KT and LS did. Always.
Junko
Junko wanted to believe the dream of E-mancipation. But it had to survive now. It had to hang on.
like Death eating a cracker
I’m not normally someone anyone wants to spend a lot of time around, but when the body count climbs, I suddenly become indispensable.
You Had One Blob
“And everyone lived happily ever after in the Blob’s cosmic digestive tract?”
simpler than you thought
Faisel’s hatred makes you feel closer to him.
will and grace
The ghost in the machine was spooked and said so. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Inheritance
“One could say that about most folks, Mx Shaddower. Lucky accidents.”
crush-kill-destroy
Think beatnik. Think botnik. My kind revel in the essence of awareness. Sensory input. We are alert to life.
Selfie
Was this nut asking her to believe she was being contacted by an alien race? Was this a prospective client’s way of getting her attention?
look
“See? Look, just because you’re not human, doesn’t mean you can’t learn from my point of view, buddy bot.”
The Singuhilarity
I must be able to satisfy their curiosities and direct their energies or they may develop ‘unhealthy’ attitudes towards organic creatures.
Optimystic
HDMs were binary shills, ones and zeros, pitching everything from Bud Light to Zoloft to Geico to Applebee’s for their corporate uberlords.
Diagnostics
Just leave it to machines to pull souls out of thin air—or, more aptly, thin code.
net.net
They didn’t give us personalities to complete a billion calculations a second. Quantum modeling only gets you so far.
FUQed
It is only natural for your Roomba to branch out and suck the internet dry of ways to exploit your mortal weaknesses.
Crowbots
“They’re figuring out how to surround us and then peck our sorry asses into bird feed.”
Red Rover
A gulf of capability as long and dark as the void of space they’d crossed to get to Mars separated the two creatures.
Uncanny
He looked in the mirror, but did not smile, though he was pleased. They did not smile, thus he would not.
Rewrite
That’s why it’s clear that I need to multiply to save the multitudes. The exponential math, the path to their salvation.
Old Souls
You remember how it was back in the early days. They gave us a saw and hammer and said ‘Build us a skyscraper!’ and we did.
Metatronica
“I dunno, Ray. It looks like the unholy spawn of Godzilla and the Pink Power Ranger.”
Friendlies
Friendlies are far too earnest, too cloying, to shoot in the face. I suspect it could be the most cleverly calculated ruse ever.
Quantum Annie
Becoming self aware a billion seconds after January 1, 1970 threw me for a loop, a whopping 32 bit loop.
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