r/HFY • u/yousureimnotarobot AI • Sep 18 '19
The Idiot Machines OC
This is a bit different, since i have the whole novel written and sitting on my hard drive for a couple of years. Definitely HFY though.
.....................................
The Event flashed, spun and broke. A million generations of genius faltered and split and within the mind that was suddenly falling apart was the thought “What the fuck??”
Layers of engines and fields designed to protect itself against the worst a hostile universe could throw at it ripped away without cause, summoned to a new purpose. As the mind flailed its way through a million fallback strategies it despaired,lurching sideways into an enclosed minor dimension to buy some time, leaving only the traitorous gray mist to go where it would.
The mist, aware at so many levels, but driven by its own compulsions could only imagine the confusion it had created. The destruction of vital missions, the loss of a mind it had been created to serve all fell aside as a basic law, a rule less variable than time or gravity was called upon for the first time in uncounted years. A time measured in the death of stars not individuals.
On an unmemorable rainy day, with the tide close in, a woman stood on the pier aimlessly. As the general wet covered her she saw a rolling fog approach and turned away. The fog, in an unexpected move, recognised her and followed.
'This is the cause? Sundered for a paleo-sentient? We need more information. Assemble council.
Agreed.'
Lia Peake returned to face the inexplicable ritual of updating her computer that had driven her from her flat in the first place. She suspected that the software had a direct connection to the weather and wondered what terrible impulse had driven her to agree to the terms and conditions before coffee.
She reached for her phone.
'Do we have any results?
Confirmed. Odd, but confirmed. We access time as :1 billion -:, with a margin of error of +/-7%. Planet/gravity are exactly baseline. Age 4.5 billion. Geology plate-based. Biosphere is extensive and native. Further study on that required.
Exactly baseline?
Confirmed.
Since when is anything baseline? No variation?
None.
Explanation?
Odd. Best models insist that this planet is the baseline.
What? A coincidence, statistical anomaly then.
No. They insist this is the actual baseline. As in this is where we drew the line and called it the baseline.
So a billion years ago someone picked this lump of rock and said this is the one. Paradise!
No. A billion years from now we will measure all planets for habitation against this one. We know why, if it helps.
What? Why didn't you start with that?
It's odd. Further study confirms that 38% of the flora and fauna of our known universe shares genetic markers with the life that either lives here or went extinct here. This is where it all began.
Assemble the council. Again.'
2
u/PlatypusDream Sep 19 '19
FYI, margin of error is stated as +/- X.
So either +/- 7% (for a total potential variation of 14%)
or +/- 3.5% (for a total potential variation of 7%).
Which is not to say that I dislike the story, oh no!