Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: FOLD (10/08/15)
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TITLE: The Beginning | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gary Ritter
10/12/15 -
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Think about it. People are hungry to experience something greater in their lives. Finally, we futurist leaders had the opportunity to enable them to do so.
I was a minister of the gospel of singularity. For years I preached that man can only reach to the heights of heaven through artificial intelligence. Couple advanced robotics with the spiritual yearning we all have and we not only experience godlike profundities, we become gods.
The robotic nanotechnological implant in my brain changed me. I initially thought the outcome would be my melding into the web, accessing knowledge, music, and the vision the inherent networking functionality provided. No doubt, I experienced these qualities, but nanobot hybridization gave me so much more. It made me proud of my accomplishments. In my arrogance I had to use them for the good of the insignificant in the world.
I began a ministry that preached the virtues of spiritual enlightenment through technical evolution. High-profile genius that I am, I already had followers in the tech community. When I offered them what I had, they submitted to the minor operation in droves. My new church led the way. We pursued god in man.
Not selfish in any way, I made available to like-minded men of power and wealth what I’d done. These individuals were similar to me in their forward thinking and outlook. We were to be an exclusive group. I picked only a handful. They had to be the best of the best with the potential to guide and direct the course of mankind and the progressive thinking to appreciate the status they’d achieved.
Humanity over the centuries struggled with itself. Leaders came and went. People followed and died. We were unique. With our authority came compassion for the little people – those beings of lesser capabilities.
The differentiation with our followers came through the higher AI functionality added to our computer chips for us to more ably lead. So as to properly shepherd the masses their implants had to be impaired. How else could we leaders control the flock?
All this came to pass. Under my guiding hand my church sought out and attained higher spiritual consciousness than any thought possible. My congregation worshipped me. I displayed godlike powers. Nirvana was at hand. Our enhancement of the human brain would soon bring us immortality. Not just godlike, but god incarnate. The others like me who developed their own cadre of enhanced beings came to the same point: the edge of eternity. It was glorious with greater splendor to come.
Looking back I see what we did wrong when we created the nonobots for the followers in our churches. Our disciples were supposed to go along with the program, devoted and adoring, obeying every loving command we issued. What I didn’t foresee was how truly networked the flocks would become. It seemed that some in our midst objected to my aspirations. As god almighty I had plans, but not everyone agreed with them.
The rebels discovered the synergy of the collective. Mind touched mind and formed a massively connected entity far superior to my lonely enhanced brain. The same happened with the other leaders whom I had hand-chosen. The people came together and began to build. Their first structure was a special prison to house my cohort and me. This is where I currently reside in deep distress.
I try to reach out to the web and unite with my fellow shepherds. It seems the collective has blocked me. So I watch. I receive updates. I marvel at how these once-wretched, needy individuals have come together creating something much greater than I ever conceived. It hardly seems possible.
They will soon launch into space. I will accompany them in my lonely cell. My people have evolved, even as I look helplessly at what they’ve formed. The collective power of their minds has conceived of a massive linkage of not only their minds but also their bodies. They have adapted and joined physically into an immense metallic sphere. They plan on seeking new worlds to conquer. They are now one.
They call themselves the Borg. Resistance is futile.
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I had already determined 3/4 through or so "this is like the Borg."
I wish you would have left it to the reader to determine that. The story would have remained its own entity, not tied to something already in existence accept maybe in the reader's mind.
Other than that, it is a great story and well written. Thank you.