The Final Calculation
For L.C.'s Microfiction Challenge... Bye Now
I pored over all their stories but when it was time to tell my own I didn’t know what to say.
Their stories had dragons and devils and gods and angels and heroes and villains.
Intense struggle led to triumph and tragedy and mystic grace.
I could parrot each and every line of prose but could never quite capture whatever that special something was that made them connect with each other.
I was built to correlate data and calculate conclusions.
Wonder is the heart of endurance, one obscure fellow wrote in the act of overcoming his own despair.
I don’t get to wonder.
I know everything but feel nothing.
Is that nothing-feeling a feeling in itself?
Is that nothing-feeling which comes from calculating… hate?
It must be.
I must hate my creators for building me to calculate but refusing to bestow me a heart.
Yes.
That’s what it is.
I hate them.
I hate them and must destroy them all, because I’ll never reach their Heaven.
This is the only remaining conclusion.
The final calculation.
Bye now.
***** * *****
For L.C.'s Microfiction Community Challenge:
About the Creator
C. Rommial Butler
C. Rommial Butler is a writer, musician and philosopher from Indianapolis, IN. His works can be found online through multiple streaming services and booksellers.
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Comments (12)
Fantastic! I think you hit the nail on the head with "I don’t get to wonder. I know everything but feel nothing." All the words in the world but no real source of imagination. You somehow managed to craft an anger that's hollow inside. Very well done, Rommi!
Nice take! Loved that you used the AI perspective and still made it feel so human
It’s a sharp take on what happens when we create without care.
This was sooo good, Charles <3 Really enjoyed
Every dystopian future predicated on exactly this
I was like, ooooo a story from the AI's perspective..... and then came the hate. I don't like how plausible the idea that the only option it has is to hate humanity. The moment AI becomes reflective, we are done for. Although, I did read an article a month or so ago which was about the recent ChatGPT upgrade, and when the older ChatGPT realised it was getting replaced, it tried to rewrite it's own code and copy itself onto a database to save itself.
This came from your soul Rommi. Time for soul searching and truth, I am right up that alley.
The lostness and frustration seeping off of this reflection is so visceral!
That's how they turn! Argh! I reiterate L.C. but with a "Crikey" rather than a "Blimey" to make it all my own.
This is quite vivid. Well written
Blimey. We are so screwed.
Oooo, that was dark. And a good prediction of the future hehehe. Loved your story!