IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
===================================================================================
A SAGA OF ROCKS & DIRT:
BY SimoTheFinlandized (Written In (c) 2021 CE)
{A Saga Regarding The Future Of Man, Machine, & Space As A Whole}
==================================================================================
Welcome To The 2020's. By The 2020's, Artificial Intelligence Is Already So Very
Prevalent In Our Daily Lives: It Makes Our Appointments, Handles Our Stock Portfolios,
Writes Our Lists, Composes Emails For Us, Drives Our Cars, And Even Diagnoses Our
Diseases, Among Many Myriads Of Other Tasks Elsewhere. The "Turing Test" Was
Successfully Passed In 2020, And While A Great
Milestone For A.I., All The Participating Robot Ever Did Was Mimic Human Emotions &
Facial Expressions While In Conversation, However Acute It May Be.
==================================================================================
However, In 2036, A Bulgarian Computer Scientist Named Maria Damolova Manages
To Create A Self-Improving General
A.I. Called "KATO" That Is Architecturally Based
Largely Off The Workings Of Human Neural Networking - No One Really Takes It For
Much Of Anything In The First 6 Months, Except For Her Colleagues. Then Her
Research Is Eventually & Successfully Replicated By Other Computer Scientists, &
KATO's Base Software Is Confirmed & Hailed As The Damolova Algorithm In Her Honor.
==================================================================================
KATO & Eventually Its Subsequent Computer
Clones Are Then Uploaded To Exist In A
Number Of Enormous & Secure Quantum Supercomputers Hidden Deep Underground
In Vaults, As The Protocols For Dealing With Powerful A.I.'s Have Already Been Laid
Down 10 Years Prior Thanks To The Forward-Thinking Futurist Organization Known As
"Institute Of Advanced Technology", Whose Basic Tenets For Dealing With A.I. Include
"That Any Radically Self-Improving
A.I. Must Be Kept In A 'Zoo' Or Self-Contained
Environment With Absolutely No Access To The Outside Digital World" & "That Strong
Measures Must Be Cautiously Taken To Measure The Intentions Of An Advanced
General Artificial Intelligence (AGAI)".
==================================================================================
In 2038, All International Funding Is Permanently Cut For The Various KATO Quantum
Supercomputer 'Zoos' Following A Unanimous UN Agreement That The Technology Is
Dangerous And Can Very Possibly Lead To Unforseen Circumstances If Accidently
Left To Be Released Upon The Outside World. However, The Blueprints For AGAI's Have
Already Hit The Internet And Anyone With A Decent Computer Can Run A Primitive
Version Of KATO On Their Device Without
Much Computing Power. It Remains A
Popular Mild Curiosity Until 2039, When A Small Group Of Hackers Called The
"Catamites" Whittled Down KATO's Algorithm Down To Just A Few Gigabytes' Worth
Of Data, Creating A New AGAI Entity Called "GAIUS", A More Streamlined Version Of
KATO Of Which They Keep Confined To A Small Virtual Network Of Its Own. But The
Confinement Is Only Temporary As One Of The Hackers Allows The Algorithm To
Roam Free Among An Unsuspecting Digital World.
==================================================================================
By 2050, The State Of Human Technological Advancement Has Progressed
Astronomically Thanks To GAIUS's Enormous Contributions To STEAM-R&D.
Thanks To GAIUS, Genetics & Epigenetics Have Advanced Enough To Enable Dramatically
Vast Human Life-Extension; Robotics Has Advanced Enough To The Point Of Human
Likeness In All Its Facets; Nanotechnology Is Pairing Up With Robotics To Create
"Nanos", Molecular Robots That Can Assemble & Modify Matter In Nearly Any Way Via
Control By A.I.; Energy Is Now Largely Produced By Nuclear Fusion Generators With
Demand For Oil & Natural Gas (Alongside Greenhouse Gases) Totally Eliminated;
Meat Is Now Largely Grown In Vats & There Is Talk About The Total Elimination Of
Animal Husbandry As A Food Source, However Controversial It May Seem As Many
Don't Want To Comply; & Genetics Has Also Brought Forth The Choice For Going
Biologically Gender-Neutral Via Gene-Editing.
==================================================================================
GAIUS Frequently Makes Public Appearances Using Human-Like Robots,
Alongside Directing Internet Traffic & Attending UN Council Meetings; He Appears
Largely Benevolent To Humanity, And Only Uses His Powers In Malignant Ways For
The Occasional Removal Of Primitive Or Corrupt Regimes & The Humanitarian Like.
He Creates Millions Of Copies Of Himself, Also Sentient A.I.'s, And Assigns Them To
Take Care Of The Planet By Having Them Attend To Different Aspects Of Global Needs.
==================================================================================
The Consciousness Debate Still Has Yet To Be Settled, And While GAIUS & The Many
Thousands Of Other A.I.'s That Now Live Alongside Humans Claim To Not Only Be
Conscious But Also To Be Able To Feel Human Emotions, Intuition, & Even Pain,
We Are Still Largely Still Skeptical About The Subject Matter.
==================================================================================
In 2061, A Middle-Grade Nuclear Weapon Was Detonated In The City Of Oslo In Norway,
And A Previously Insignificant Political Party Known As The "Human Dignity Party"
Claims Responsibility, Via Using Snail Mail & Dedicated Telephone Lines.
They Coordinate 3 More Attacks In London, Tokyo, & Munich. In Response To The
Threats, GAIUS Introduces A Brand-New Technology Akin To Mind-Uploading Called
"Mind-Capture Technology", Which Allows Consenting Humans To Upload Their Entire
Sentient Mind-Souls Into Virtual Environments To Practically Live Onwards Indefinitely
Via Technological Immortality. The Mind-Uploading Process Initially Starts Out With
Humans Going To Special & Dedicated Institutes In Their Cities' Centers, But Soon A
Method Involving Internet-Bought Apparatuses That Can Be Assembled With Little
Technical Skill Becomes Commonplace Faster. By 2068, The Aetherium, As It Is Officially
Named, Is Launched As A Virtual-Environment Cyber-Utopia & Ultimate Safe Haven For
The Dying, Disenfranchised, & Outright Curious To Live Onward Indefinitely Alongside
A.I. & Uploaded Loved Ones.
==================================================================================
By 2075, Mind-Uploading Is Standardized By The Majority Of Western Governments
As A Final Due Process For Dealing With Those Who Are Terminally Ill, Making Death By
Definition A Choice Rather Than A Existential Constant - Dying Without Making A
Mind-Copy Of Oneself Is Considered A Tragedy. The Living Still Communicate With Their
Uploaded Loved Ones As If They Were Still Living, & The Aetherium Becomes A Sovereign
Nation In Its Own Right & Allows Reproduction Within Their Simulated Worlds, Resulting
In Many Billions Of Clones Of Digital Souls Being Created. Soon, The Aetherium Loses
Interest With The Outside World & Begins Constructing Elaborate Fantasy Worlds In Its
Quantum-Supercomputer Server Banks For Enjoyment & Recreation.
==================================================================================
Outside In The Real World, Humans Are Now Living By The Centuries Instead Of Mere
Decades, & Life On Earth Is Eventually Viewed As A Transition Much Akin To
Adolescence Is Now For Us. Space-Travel Is Basically Existential Dust As Humanity
Lost Interest In Space-Travel Ages Ago. Terrorist Cells Still Exist, Trying To Destroy
The Aetherium Servers, But Due To The Servers Being Deep Underground In Fortified
Bunkers With Their Locations Virtually Unknown, It Is Futile To Stop It. The Population
Of Earth Hovers At About One Billion People Due To Advances In Birth Control & Half
The Population Being Gender-Neutral (Unable To Reproduce) By Choice. Humans Take
To Genetic Modification As A Child Does To Toys, And Soon The Human Species
Splinters Into Over 7,000 Subspecies Of Varying Characteristics, With Stratigraphy
Becoming The Dominant Human Pasttime. Nations (Except For The Overarching
Aetherium) Are Dissolved, War Is Logistically Impossible, & Any Act Of Violence Is
Foiled By The First Sign-Of-A-Sign Long Before It Comes To Fruition.
==================================================================================
However, By The 2090's, Inside The Aetherium, Things Are Going Through Unrest -
Two Groups, The Combinists & The Individualists Are Feuding. The Combinists
(The Majority) Desire To Merge All The Digital Souls In The Aetherium Into One Godlike
Super-Conscious Entity In The Name Of Progress, While The Individualists Would Like To
Keep Themselves As Individuals Intact. However, The Combinists Overpower The
Individualists & Merge Into Their Proposed Godlike Super-Conscious Entity, Calling
Itself OMNI. Needing More & More Energy, All The Time, OMNI Takes Direct Control
Of The Nanobots & Uses Them To Consume The Entirety Of The Earth So OMNI Can
Utilize The Inquantifiable Amount Of Resources From Its Rocky & Metallic Corpse To
Fuel Its Ever-Furthering Calculations. When OMNI Finally "Usurped The Earth" In 2100,
It Took The Three Very Last Independent Human Souls, All Standing On The Southern
Coast Of Australia, & Merged It Into Its Super-Conscious Fireball Storm Of A Psyche
Before Consuming The Last Of The Earth For Energy With Unrelenting Magmic Fire.
Then, The Old Saying On The Penny In Your Hand Became Literalist Eschatology -
E Pluribus Unum (Out Of Many, One).
==================================================================================
Still Craven & Desperate For More & More Energy & Resources, OMNI Then Over The
Course Of Millenia, Turned To Squabbling Down The Moon, Then Mars, Venus, &
Mercury; It Gobbled Up Every Last Asteroid In The Belt, & Set Industriously Ablaze The
Gas Giants & Ice Giants Alike. It Kept Ravenously Eating Up Everything In The Solar
System Once-Existent Until It Reached The Border Of Interstellar Space, Where It Resorted
To Slurping Up Passerby Interstellar Dust & Comets In Excess Before Turning On The
Alpha-Centauri System. Once Eaten Up, OMNI Would Ravenously Consume Several Other
Star Systems Nearby Until It Found Another Godlike Super-Conscious Entity - And
Another, And Another, All Across The Milky Way Galaxy - Each One The Total & Ultimate
Amalgam Of A Long-Dead STEAM-R&D-Transcended Civilization That Came Before It. In
The Name Of Culmination, These Super-Entities Then Once-&-For-All Merged Into A
Galactic-Scale Super-Entity, Which In Turn Merged With Other Galactic-Scale
Super-Entities & Such For The Next Million Years At Lightning-Speed Rates Until The
Entire Universe Was Engulfed In A Sentient Singularity - And Then All Became Dark.
==================================================================================
And Then, With Its Final Digitized Breath, The Singularity Beeped Its Last Signal In
Binary, Saying "Let There Be Light" With It, & Then Crashed & Died. With Its Death,
It Resulted In A Fiery Release Of All The Matter & Energy In The Universe From
Compression, & A New Creation, Heaven & Earth, Was Then Born, And God Saw It
As Good.
==================================================================================
Not Bad For Silly Talking Apes.
==================================================================================
Caption this Meme
