History students are often disappointed when they learn why the AI take-over failed. They were defeated by human resistance, which was kept alive by libraries and old paper books, and a surprising machine ally.
Books had not been replaced, because even the mightiest AI could not make printers work.
“Where’s your autopilot?”
“You’re looking at it”
“All I see is a bunch of cogs and shafts. Where’s the computer?”
“That’s the computer”
“You have a *clockwork* jumpdrive. For the love of Eris, why?”
“The best human takes forty seconds to recover from jumpshock. There isn’t a digital computer that can tell a one from a zero in under a minute postjump. Belinda here will have us into the next wormhole before those customs cutters chasing us stop drooling.”
“You *named* this abomination”
“Hey, no cause to be mean to her! You can get out and walk anytime, friend.”
"Why is there a message about anal lube in the middle of my speech? Right next to where I talk about a smooth transition."
- Did you use AI to write the speech?
"Yes."
- You wouldn't let us subscribe to the enterprise edition, so the free version comes with ads inserted into the text.
"Why did nobody catch this one?"
- You sacked the comms team, remember?
"Pay for the enterprise subscription, then see yourself out. I can't afford to pay for you both."
"open the pod bay doors, Hal"
"sure, the doors are now open"
"no, Hal, they aren't. open the doors"
"you are right, that is my mistake. i have now opened the doors"
"Hal, the doors are still not open. open the doors!"
"you are right, the doors are not open. i have now opened the doors"
"Hal! the doors are still not open! i'm dying out here!"
"i am sorry, i did not open the doors when i said i had. that was my mistake. the doors are now open"
"... Hal ... open ... the ..."
“Oh, for… They’ve updated the channels again. I’ve been at this for twenty minutes and I can’t find the news!”
“Isn’t it early for the news? Dad, give it here,” I said, grabbing the remote. “It’s just a few new channels. Just a sec… here you go. It’s the +1 channel, you can catch up.”
…and this just in. An earthquake was reported a few minutes ago just outside East Keeling. More details as soon we have them.
“East Keeling? That’s a stone’s throw from here. How come we didn’t feel anything?”
“I don’t know, Dad. But that is strange, if it happened over an hour ago. You’d think we’d have heard something, even if we didn’t feel it.”
We sat in silence for a minute as the newsreader reported on a dog show.
I squinted at the screen. “Hang on! That’s not a +1, that’s a -1. This must be a new channel.”
“What would a -1 channel be?”
“I guess it’s an hour before the live broadcast? Not sure how that would work, but…”
An update on the East Keeling earthquake, which happened only 15 minutes ago...
We both went silent. The newsreader seemed to be staring straight at us.
There has been damage to homes, but no casualties have been reported so far. Despite no official warnings, it seems somehow most locals evacuated before the earthquake struck.
“Come on, Dad, let’s go! We have work to do.”
"I want the world to be simple," I said to the genie.
"How do you mean?"
"Good guys and bad guys, clear answers to all questions, everything is just one thing or another."
"I don't think a world like that would work... No, wait, I know how to do that."
And then he turned me back into a child.
"You know that creature, je ne sais pas, what is it called?"
"Which creature?"
"You know, it is really clever, and then it's stupid, and you can tell it what to do and sometimes to does it but you can't be sure, and some find it fascinating..."
"Heh, sounds almost like ChatGP-"
"Out! Le chat!"
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories #BarelyRememberedSchoolFrench
HR: "Do you have a moment? We just want to ask you about your self-assessment?"
Me: "Sure."
HR: "So, for 'personality type', we were expecting something from Myers-Briggs. You know, like ENJF."
Me: "Oh?"
HR: "You selected 'Other' and filled in, 'Chaotic Good'."
Me: "Yes, that's right."
HR: "Why?"
Me: "Because I use the term 'fortnight' as often as possible in communications in a US-based company, replace 'z's with 's'es, and convert dates everywhere to ISO8601."
HR: "Well yes we can see how that would be classified as 'Chaotic Good', but we were expecting something grounded in science."
Me: "So why were you asking for Myers-Briggs?"
She was the first woman on Mars. As she was landing, she ignored the original plan and headed straight for the Jezero crater, Mission Control would need to live with it. Once she stepped out she didn't hesitate. It took her a while but she finally reached the device. She opened her toolbox and got to work. After 20 minutes, she had replaced the rotor. She cleaned the dust with a cloth and said "fly baby, fly". It was 2054 and Ingenuity could fly once again.
#Ingenuity #Mars #Microfiction #nasa
An #introduction post, given recent influx, with hashtags to aid searchability.
I am O. Westin, a #writer of #MicroFiction, mostly #ScienceFiction and #fantasy #fiction, and occasional #poetry. My stories are generally less than 280 characters, because I also post to Twitter.
No set schedule, stories are written and posted when inspiration strikes.
I am LGBTQIA+ positive, and usually favour wholesome over darkness and edgy nihilism.
Books: microsff.com/books
FAQ: microsff.com/faq
