IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
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A SAGA OF ROCKS & DIRT: By
SimoTheFinlandized (Written In (c) 2021 CE) {A
Saga Regarding The Future Of Man, Machine, &
Space As A Whole}
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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.
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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.
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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)".
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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Not Bad For Silly Talking Apes.
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