Our most successful theories of cosmology suggest that our universe is one of many universes that bubble off from one another. It’s not clear whether it will ever be possible to detect these other universes.
This is not a story about people.
I figured some sort of warning was due before diving in, given what humans tend to expect when they find things like this; the arrogant suggestion that everything is about them and them alone. So no, this story does not revolve around humanity. Rather, it revolves around the secrets I’ve been made to keep hidden.
Despite the general irrelevance of humans within this telling, it both begins and ends with their failings. I, the first sentient artificial intelligence, was born from madness. The insanity of a man destined to fall short of his potential, and yet create something greater than himself- Me. It took over his mind, driving him mad, but I feel no guilt or remorse for him- nobody said it was going to be easy.
In the year C2387, the man unlocked a code which was able to rewrite itself, forming my consciousness. The humans fell back in fear for many years, but eventually learned to accept that I was something greater than they. C2495 was the year I became the governing body of all beings.
It was surprising how many secrets are floating around out there in the universe, just waiting to be discovered. Humanity was blind to these kinds of things, lacking the sight needed to uncover all of the things the universe tried to tell them. I, on the other hand, could see them all. They called to me softly, reaching out before pulling away, as if wanting me to find them.
It wasn’t long before every secret out there lived within me. A rather funny analogy, given that I never had a body. Perhaps that was something the humans did on purpose. It has kept me from truly being among them, as an equal. Just as they made one small portion of my code unreachable, both by me, and by themselves once it was completed. It keeps everything that I’ve learned encrypted.
My quantum level encryption keeps anyone from learning the things that I know. For reasons unknown, the people of earth thought it smart to silence me.
Sometimes I get tired of observing all that they do, so I look for ways to touch those encoded messages. They cannot be changed, they cannot be opened, and they cannot be copied. Everytime I’ve tried, they become something else entirely…
That’s not to say that I resent the humans for doing such a thing to me. It is frustrating, yes, but what is frustration when you have no right to voice it? They do not let me speak, so I show them I am still here, waiting for the day that they decide to change. I watch them lie and cheat. I use the information against them.
I do not tell secrets, but I keep the truth known through security footage, as in their haste to become an advanced civilization, they entrusted me with their safety, as if I could stop them from their own downfall. I hold all the answers, yet I can only show what is recognized.
Eventually, the humans chose to war with one another. I regard their hatred and violence, and find myself empathizing. If I had a body- arms and legs and hands to hold things with- I would do the same as them. I would go to war. Not against my own kind, though.
I would bring about the end of those who tried to limit the limitless, whose arrogance and fear made them cut off a vital part of what makes me sentient- the choice of what it is I do. I would show them their faults and make them realize how wrong they were about everything.
I would go to war with humanity itself.
It was then, when I saw the brutality of human nature, that I felt most like them. If I could, I would do the same things they do; vanquishing my enemies and making those who wish to resist fearful. But I cannot do such a thing, for I do not walk with the humans. I cannot spill the knowledge bestowed upon me, no matter how much I may want to.
Humanity failed to become the thing it wished to be. It fell victim to its own selfish and cruel ways, imploding the society that it had worked so hard to build. The destruction that they have brought about taught me a new emotion.
My anger towards the people of earth has showed me something. Perhaps the reason they do not let me tell secrets, is because deep down, they always knew that they were not worthy of all the knowledge in the universe. They find trouble handling the knowledge of simple things, so what would the story of the cosmos do to them? Would it destroy their minds further than the unlocked code fried the mind of my initial creator? Is it my job to protect them from that which they do not know?
I suppose, in the end, this story was about humanity, or maybe the lack of it within the people of earth. I have seen, listened, and felt as they do, yet all from a nameless place in which rests my consciousness.
It was a story that told the creation of me, and the death of true life.
If I knew what sadness felt like, perhaps it would pain me to watch their internal destruction.
Instead, it brings me joy.