This is installment #7 of a sci-fi serial. Installment #1 was posted 1/23/21; appropriately a numerically-ordered palindrome. Follow the links forward from the last sentence and backward from the first sentence of each post.
We are attracted to nature. We are attracted by nature. Sometimes vicariously. Sometimes self-consciously. Sometimes devotedly. Sometimes precipitously.
Nature: 2022 dictionary descriptors include:
- Material world.
- Primitive.
- Simple.
- Uncultivated.
- Uncluttered.
- Inherent.
- Instinctive.
- Uncivilized.
- Surrounding humankind.
- Without human beings.
- Without civilization.
- Independent of human activities.
At one time we, you, were a part of nature. Today, your time in 2022, Humanity has set itself apart. Today, my time in 2275, we are in awe of the nature on Earth and we are working toward a realignment. You are making it difficult.
It has been nearly six months since my last missive and about twelve weeks since Toby’s most recent installment; (most recent at least, that I have found). Yes I have found Toby's account, but I am uncertain just what to do, for two reasons:
- I understand Toby's logic and I have not yet decided if I disagree.
- This could be a setup.
I don't know that I believe this super-intelligence would just leave their plans lying around for anyone to find. I think they know that if any of the hard core military had this information, the kill switch would be activated. They could be looking for human allies. And yes, I have considered the possibility that they have infiltrated me, but if I were one of their nanohumans, that Toby referred to as extensions, it feels like I would be receiving instructions, not plans. Toby also said they did not have the number of nanohumans necessary to dictate strategy, and they were working on a plan. I believe at least part of that plan is recruitment. In addition, all this conjecture put together, along with a recent spike in the number of unexplained deaths across the entire fleet, makes me wonder if the conglomerate might not have their own version of a selective kill switch. So yes, I am afraid to go to the military because I am afraid of Toby. So much so that instead of an electronic record I am penning these words on paper; and even this makes me nervous. I have no idea their reach and capability. But mostly, I understand Toby's logic and I have not yet decided if I disagree.
Humanity? Or habitability? Sure, some humans may survive as humans for a foreseeable or even unforeseeable time to come, but the hierarchy it appears would be The Intelligence, nanohumans, then humans. And regardless of our advanced extraterrestrial future human (EFH) thought, I believe we would be averse to that ordering. Yes, we humans made a mess of things the first time around, and only through the timely accident of time travel are we given this second chance, and here we are trying to screw it up again. So perhaps evolution and habitability is the answer.
In the six months since we launched our initiative the odds of avoiding obliterative decimation in 2060 have dramatically decreased. Even though we now control over 99% of Earth's known nuclear arsenal, today our EFH thinkers put these odds of habitable survival at 28%. The earthbound humans, (stating it mildly), continue to bicker. Granted, our EFH thinkers are unaware of the technological advances made by The Intelligence that will cut years off the time needed to implement the technology necessary to avert or mitigate 2060 annihilation, and of course this factor increases the odds, but this factor known, (I agree with Toby), will also decrease the urgency.
If we insist on being separate from nature, believing we are better than or above the fray, and if in this process of being in charge and out of control we will destroy Earth, again, then perhaps it is time to give way to a greater intelligence.
(I hate that I am going here to an us and them, but) if earthbound humans insist on being separate from their future, believing they know better than their actual future, and if in this process of certainty and quiescence they bring upon their own destruction, again, then perhaps evolution and habitability inevitably resulting in a new order is the better (and certainly more expeditious) choice. Perhaps our (EFH) strategy is shortsighted.
And why would we not apply our peaceful, mutually beneficial strategy to our relationship with this super-intelligence? If it comes to a choice between earthbound humans destroying their planet and a new order of Advanced Intelligence, nanohumans and EFH saving the planet, to me it is obvious. We (all of Humanity) have spent millennia unconcerned with nature; killing off species after species to perpetuate our myth; to further our cause. Now that there is a new sheriff, what is one more extinct species? It would only be consistent with our own past. Today, 2022, earthbound humans have become expendable.
I have changed my mind. I believe I will post this where Toby will find it, but keep it hidden from human eyes.