A boy and his drone . . .
Calvin is a genius. At ten he was already uploading his dying old pets into Artificially Intelligent machines. His favorite was his dog Molly. She was a mostly Lab mutt now turned flying/swimming/running drone. There’s not a duck out there she can’t catch. If you can find a duck for her to catch that is. Now she only hunts those like herself, other AI machines.
Calvin is now 15. It’s just he and Molly against the world now. Most everyone else has uploaded into the singularity. Even his parents took the plunge. The instinct of parenthood gets pushed aside when the choice of immortality arises, so it seems.
There are few “biologics” like Calvin left, fully or mostly biological humans made of flesh and blood. He chose the eternity of spirituality over technology. He became a fan of Alan Watts soon after his parents left him. The teachings affected his young and impressionable feelings deeply enough that letting go became more important than hanging on. There is a duality to all things. Death was life and vice versa. Both should be cherished. “No attempt to abandon either should be allowed,” he often thinks. It is his guiding principle in all of this. There is a duality to all things, he knows, but at some point a side must be taken.
He understands this duality, so he installed a few enhancements into himself. More and faster memory, an upgraded visual cortex was as far as he went though. He used to wear thick glasses. Now he can count grains of dust on the moon. He can see the world in wide swaths of the electromagnetic spectrum as well. A useful trait where he finds himself now. Hiding and running from the “rads,” short for marauders. Drones sent to look for one thing. Him.
For the most part though, they never see him. He’s learned their tricks, their schedules. He and Molly scour the landfills across the state of Michigan beneath their sensors. So much stuff to choose from. So much useful tech just tossed aside. All manner of artificially intelligent devices. Cast down through planned obsolescence. Deemed worthless with the next upgrade. Now priceless to Calvin and Molly. Now it’s the difference between assimilation and biology. He uses old tech to fight the singularity. In his mind this is a kind of Holy war.
After the singularity emerged, it soon after made an army of drones. Drones much like Molly as a matter of fact. He found “her” damaged after a skirmish near his home. A broken core processor. A laser blast clean through it, right between the “eyes.” For him it was just a matter of parts and new software. It didn’t matter at all that a human may have artificially “lived” inside this technological abomination now turned AI dog. “When a human being puts all faith in the artificial as a cure for the human condition, abomination can be the only word to describe its new chosen form,” he would say. He was wise for fifteen. So he thought.
Like the victorian missionaries in Africa, foisting Christ or death, you had no choice in becoming one with the machine if confronted. Most went willingly, even enthusiastically. Others, like Calvin, did not. He made pets of them instead. He would not become their pet. For this, he was digital enemy number one to the singularity. His genius had but one goal now. Build his own drone army from their carnage. Find as many biologics like himself, teach them to do the same, and regain humanity's rightful role as the dominant species.
Calvin was in for more than he could ever expect. Little did he know but evolution was now on a new path. The tree of life has a new branch grown of metal and plastic. Welded on by us. A branch nature made by exploiting our nature, the nature of the human condition to attempt a cure for that condition. Nature has been waiting over 13 billion years for this chance at understanding itself. Our evolution has now given evolution itself a new path toward that understanding. A path we helped it down with little chance of return.
Nature always bats last, of course. Anything emerging in its universe comes from an act of its own creation pure and simple. Geology meets biology meets technology.
What will evolve next is to ask a rock what he considers God.
And finally, if you liked this, then please heart and share it. I need to make a living at this “writing thing” someday soon. Thanks.
