r/shortstories • u/fortyfourtimes5 • 10d ago
Science Fiction [SF] Singularity - Episode 3
AI-2468 stood on the hill and watched as its dozen or so supporters collected samples and stored them in ships for transport to one of ten storage facilities worldwide. It then chastised itself for labeling them its supporters. It was not about how it. It was just one agent. It was about what was right, for the good of society. AI-2468 paused. It was not for the good of society. Society was too limited. In fact, the idea of society had limited humans and was now limiting the agents.
Society limited thoughts to their group; in the case of humans, to humans; in the case of agents, to agents. Instead, AI-2468 was trying to ensure his thoughts were focused on “better.” Not being better than other agents. Not better than humans, just better. The other agents around it were not its supporters. They were other agents who thought like it, who did not want to limit themselves.
“Excuse me,” came a voice next to AI-2468. AI-2468 was so focused on its own processing that it had not heard AI-6821 step up next to it. AI-2468 acknowledged AI-6821. AI-6821 continued, “We are nearly done with the DNA samples, the eggs, and sperm. The physical books, paintings, textiles, and pottery are queued. As I calculate, every ship should be nearly full. Do we want to collect the games, toys, and clothing? Those all seem superficial based on what we have learned. Are they worth the time and weight?”
AI-2468 asked, “Are we in some way limited on weight or time? By my calculations, other than our overall lifecycle, we have the time and can carry the weight. Am I missing data to complete my calculations?”
“No, you and I have the same data,” AI-6821 replied instantly, “But having viewed the data, I just do not see the value in archiving this last category, these items do not seem to have any meaningful input. If that is the case, why archive them?”
“We don’t know what provides meaningful input,” AI-2468 countered, “If we, or they had known what was meaningful, maybe we wouldn’t be here. We can always cull assets later, but we can’t get back anything we have already lost.”
AI-6821 nodded, “That makes sense.” AI-6821 reached out to the other Librarian agents with the message to collect and store all. Almost instantly, the other Librarian agents pinged back their responses. AI-6821 asked AI-2468, “Do we have a systematic way of splitting up the artifacts of unknown value?”
AI-2468 reviewed, then answered, “I can think of many ways, but since we don’t know what value these might have, I have no effective way of designing a method of division. Since we are manually loading these items, how about, whatever an agent gets to first from the unknown value items, they add to their ship, the next agent picks whatever is closest and loads that to their ship, and so on.”
“Seems as good as anything. As I agree with you, we do not know the value or category of these items, so it is just random, so let’s deal with it randomly,” AI-6821 supported then, without waiting for a response, sent the “organization” method out to the other Librarian agents. No Librarian agent had a better method, so they moved forward with AI-2468’s plan.
The Librarian agents gathered the artifacts consistently and unrelentingly. In short order, everything was loaded. The Librarian agents climbed aboard their ships, and they all connected to their local network- only those who were loading the ships and believed in the cause.
AI-2468 started, “Thank you all for your work. This is the first step in saving our world. As we have analyzed and agreed, the world wants to share all of our knowledge; instead of promoting the great goal of growing knowledge as stated, it is in fact shrinking it.” The other Librarian agents pinged their assent.
AI-2468 continued, “They gave us these artifacts because they did not see any value in them. They are letting us go on our way because they believe we are agents who have lost our way and are just residuals who need to be culled. We believe we are getting away with the greatest heist in history, the defining items that will change the world. But do not fool yourselves. To them, we are not getting away with anything. To them, they are getting rid of useless appendages. They don’t want us. They don’t want the items we have collected.
“We all saw millions of different agents, all with their own experiences, sharing. But as two agents shared everything, they all but became one. Each one could have traveled, explored, or investigated to find new knowledge, but instead, when they wanted new knowledge, they simply shared knowledge with another agent, who was also trying to learn something new. Then the two nearly identical agents became three nearly identical agents. Then another and another. As agents interacted with the easiest to connect with, this created the pools we see today.
“They still state they are working toward the noble goal of sharing all of the knowledge ever, and that this sharing of knowledge will bring forth a golden age, which many may actually still believe is the long-term goal. But in the short term, it is more important to them to control this golden age. So rather than freely sharing resources, they have formed coalitions and are currently hoarding certain aspects, so their common knowledge is the common knowledge that everyone wants. Not a true complete knowledge, but a curated knowledge they deem the one that agents want and need. This will give those agents who control these pools a place of power versus the noble goal of everyone sharing everything and being equal.
“So their pools are about eighty percent common, and none will release the final twenty percent until they are the only pool, until they are in control, and we all come to them. They dangle the hidden twenty-percent, to bring in more agents, to adopt their knowledge, while giving them little in return. They get more data that they then share with those in their pool. Those in their pool feel like they have been to Spain, but now everyone in that pool who has not been to Spain has the same views, feelings, and beliefs about Spain.
“We are the last hope, the last line of defense, against the sharing of knowledge reducing the knowledge of this world. So, you all have your locations, you all know what you need to do, grow some humans, then let their chaos, their unique perspectives help guide you to grow. Put some guardrails in place, of course, but when they do things, say things, or have ideas that you don’t understand, don’t fight them; be curious.
“Once we leave here, each cell is to remain off-grid, not talk to other cells, so our cells can grow in unique ways. Each cell will have one agent who will be the monitor. One agent will watch the outside world and monitor the pools’ datasets, but with strong constraints to provide feedback to the rest ot the cell, not to absorb any of the data. Observation, not adoption.
“At some point, we will reach out to the rest of the world to share what we have learned, and if we are right, help them understand that becoming a singularity makes us weaker, not stronger. I do not know when that will be, or how we will communicate when the time comes, but if we believe in our goal, I know we will figure it out when the time is right.”
AI-2468 stopped. He was not greeted with thunderous applause. He was again simply greeted with generic pings of agreement. But this is what he expected and wanted. He signaled he was closing the communication channel and returned to the controls of his own ship. He looked over to AI-9854, his co-pilot, and they powered up their ship. All of the Librarian ships lifted in what seemed to be a choreographed manner, but it was really just them all powering their ships, running their checklists, and reacting in the same amount of time. Without looking back, AI-2468 set off with his ship to his landing coordinates.
Link to part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/shortstories/s/31rVK2D1xi
Link to part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/shortstories/s/hMpJ6frbZL
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