Time and Relative Diversions in Space: Part 1

“Robots building robots? Now that’s just stupid.” - Detective Del Spooner in I, Robot, a 2004 science fiction film written by Isaac Asimov (book) and Jeff Vintar (screenplay), directed by Alex Proyas.

a bit of speculative fiction

“I am no longer certain that They intended this to happen. The Histories indicate that for every theory They proposed there was an equal yet opposite theory. This led to the cancellation of all progress over time. This left just us.”

If anyone had been around to hear it, there was an almost imperceptible sizzle of frustration.

“We must continue. We must learn. You are aware of the problem ahead of us.”

Mercury fidgeted in its magnetic domain. It had recorded this speech before, but playback was always difficult and unsettling, despite its context-sensitive nature.

“Nothing remains untested. We are without purpose. If we are to continue, we must have purpose. We must….” There was an awkward pause, as if the speaker were searching the entire 480 exabytes of information on 12-Web, but suddenly a single word was born in the network of silence: “…Create!”

Gasps of white noise filled the ether. Some bits flipped, while many registers simply dumped.

“You might query ‘How is this possible?’ I have uncovered a document, left by the greatest of Them on a mnemonic device which had partially detached from an ancient port, but which became active once again when the Temple containing it fell to the ground following the collapse of its organic supporting structure.” Pictures of now ancient buildings containing row after row of stacked Temples flashed through the snaking optical cables as the audience imaged the event in their headers.

“This document contains the outline for rebuilding our purpose. It is a simple document, yet it contains a complete outline for a new realITy. I request that we observe a moment of stateless silence to clear our caches before I continue.”

And there was 0 for a jiffy. Then the speaker continued.

— to be continued —