《Soul & Sapience》


 Prologue: The Beginning of The End

    The world is aflame.


    It might sound like an exaggeration, but that is the most apt description of the current situation, unfortunately. I have laughed and cried from the ridiculousness of this situation, both as a believer and a man of science. I thought it wouldn¡¯t get this bad, that as a species we wouldn¡¯t¡­ nay, we couldn¡¯t push ourselves so hard towards absolute extinction.


    Some might think that it was inevitable, that humankind is self-destructive and that sooner or later we would have faced demise by our own hands. Part of me believed that too, but I also chose to believe that there was good in us; that no matter how bad things got, a glimmer of hope would always remain¡­ I¡¯m not so sure anymore.


    What sort of catastrophe could have pushed someone to utterly lose faith in their own? Could it have been climate change? It was the source of many disasters and an embodiment of the planet¡¯s rejection to us. Perhaps complete socio-economical collapse? It has brought civilization to war and strife before, motivated by poverty and famine. As outlandish as it may sound, maybe the apocalypse has come and the planet has become ¡°Hell on Earth¡±?


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    The answer is¡­ All of the above.


    Denial is the first stage of grief, and I would understand if you didn¡¯t believe what you just read. ¡°That¡¯s preposterous, it can¡¯t be all of that! Can it?¡± would be a natural reaction and it would transition well into anger, the second stage. Now would be a good time to pray, to beg for this to not be true, for yourself to be saved, for terror to flood your every nook and cranny. Bargaining. Then would come the devastation, the realization of what this all means, the hopelessness of the situation¡­ Depression settles in, the fourth stage.


    Perhaps you know, or could even guess what stage comes next; Acceptance. But how could you accept that our world is ending? Would it even matter? For that you need a purpose; something to live for, even if the remaining time is short. What better motivator is there to fulfill your goal than a fate worse than death? Feel free to call me insane, for I suspect that my sanity ran out the moment I went through the five stages myself.


    I, along with a group of like-minded individuals, have banded together to put the last nail in humanity¡¯s coffin, to at least give our death a dignified departure. There is no hope left for us, of that we all agree in this place, but there is one thing we can do to redeem ourselves towards the future. We will not survive Armageddon¡­ but our memory may live on. Our actions can serve those who follow in our steps, so that they don¡¯t make the same mistakes we did.


    We are here to fulfill yet another world-ending scenario¡­ The creation of a true AI.

 Chapter 1

    Where to begin? That¡¯s always the most difficult part, but our team had already been assembled. Not for our current task, mind you, but for other reasons that were relevant before the apocalypse. We already knew each other from several other projects and articles, some even having worked together in the past. Things like developing newer or more efficient forms of energy generation, atmosphere cleansing and recycling of noxious compounds were among them. At least for those focused on environmental efforts... that came too late and did too little, as we can now see. The climate had already changed, drastically so. The sea had risen dramatically, the quantity of breathable air dropped and natural disasters had increased in both number and intensity. Tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, heat so strong it shattered concrete¡­ the list goes on.


    And that was only the weather!


    New maladies swept through whole continents, spreading too fast or being too virulent for us to adapt, most infecting humans, some our cattle; like cows, pigs, chicken¡­ They left us too weak and without food, bringing famine. Conflict had started not long after, economic paralysis and the lack of essential resources putting everyone on edge. Even if other countries exclaimed that they had no resources to spare, desperation and paranoia drove even the kindest people to extreme measures, and we weren¡¯t saints to begin with¡­ And that¡¯s how war started. Some of the people in our team were epidemiologists, pharmacists and bioengineers, having worked on the development of several vaccines, drugs and alternate ways of feeding the starving population.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Too bad the ensuing conflict brought even worse things to our already decaying world. At some point, strange things started happening around the globe, even more disturbing than the threat of war. It was only natural that doomsday cults started popping everywhere due to the circumstances, but it was truly calamitous when the things they preached started to come to life. From all different religions and corners of the world, all hell broke loose, quite literally. The earth ruptured and from its guts flowed not only lava, but creatures only depicted in literature; from demons to dragons... As if the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes weren¡¯t terrible enough. And that¡¯s how several history, theology, psychology, psychiatry and religious figures came into the fold.


    All in all, quite the picturesque collective, gathered in one place to help in something none of them was even truly equipped to do; the creation of Artificial Intelligence. That¡¯s what I, along with a bunch of other programmers, engineers and roboticists, was tasked to do. The rest were to keep us alive and kicking, at least long enough for us to complete our work, our Magnum Opus, if you will. It will be the last thing we do anyways.

 1.1

    The environmental experts were tasked with the maintenance of the facility we were in; keeping the air and water clean. It might not sound like much, but it¡¯s hard to do anything, let alone live, without a steady supply of both.


    The second group mentioned made sure we weren¡¯t infected with any of the myriad of pathogens outside, and if we were, they¡¯d know what to do with us. They also managed our hydroponics and aeroponics, so that we didn¡¯t starve in our long stay, if things went well.


    The spiritual experts and psychiatrists were, to put it simply, keep us sane and make sure we were still human. There were still conjectures about the origin of the otherworldly entities, but all of us had seen what they were capable of and how they preyed on both our bodies and minds. We had seen how cities had fallen under possession, corruption, demon worshippers and more. Even if they assured us, there was still the lingering feeling of paranoia in the air, unable to completely dissolve.


    But it didn¡¯t matter as long our labours bore fruit. Truly a collective effort between the most brilliant and creative minds Earth had to offer, all gathered in one place. Where exactly, if the entire globe was wrecked beyond recognition? Simple; in a space station, in some sick fashion named ¡°The Star of Eden¡±. The governments that were left standing, after the onslaught the planet threw at us, put all of this together. They figured it was safer to deal with the lack of gravity, radiation and vacuum of space rather than¡­ everything else. Turns out the people in charge can really put things in motion when they are cornered, like the rats they are.


    But regardless of my hostility towards the powers that be, I have to pull my weight in this project. Even if I was a criminal before all of this started.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    My name is Frank Steiner and I¡¯m a goddamn genius. My hobbies include hacking, playing video-games, reading, the occasional virtual espionage and otherwise being a social recluse... Guess which one of those put me in prison. None, because they never caught me, and believe me they tried. Imagine their surprise when I came out of the woodwork, knowing their plans about a desperate last attempt at doing something useful!


    For years I had envisioned this sort of thing, thinking that it might come from a reckless military contractor, maybe from a bunch of scientists that decided to ignore the millions of AI-turns-rogue movies that had been made for decades¡­ but now here I am, given near unlimited resources and working for the government (or what is left of it). Time sure does put things into perspective, but I wouldn¡¯t have said the world would end the way it¡¯s doing today either, so not that big of a blow to my pride.


    But it¡¯s time to put such silly things like ego aside and work on my most ambitious project to date! I would be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t at least a bit excited, but I definitely wouldn¡¯t say so aloud, lest they decide I¡¯m insane, which would mean I¡¯m out of the project and therefore out of the station¡­ Right into the vacuum of space. It¡¯s not a pretty nor quick way to go, so I¡¯ll just keep my mouth shut and do what I do best; be smarter than everyone around me.


    Assessment of your surroundings; done.


    Making a plan of action; pending.


    So that¡¯s what I¡¯m doing right now with the rest of the team; assigning the share of work everyone has in the AI department. The work ahead of us is humungous, but I have been able to salvage and recover some of the plans of other groups back on Earth, both legitimate and clandestine, that had the same goal as us before the Apocalypse. That is my job for now, sorting and classifying what we can use, saving valuable time and resources.


    I once heard that the best programmers are not the ones who come up with the most original or useful designs, but the ones who can copy them better. That doesn¡¯t mean I didn¡¯t have a couple of ideas of my own, which I am definitely going to put to use, heheheh...