Eternal Gods Die Too Soon

by Beka Modrekiladze

  Eternal Gods Die Too Soon

  Beka Modrekiladze

  Contents

  Title Page

  “Closed” room

  Petted by the Pet

  History

  Summer Holidays

  Library

  RBR

  Introduction to Science

  Evil or an addiction?

  Intelligence, Nature’s Cruelest Joke

  Back to the Routine

  The Experiment

  The Theory

  Plan

  The Time

  Outer World

  Lacrimosa

  Hope

  All in

  New World

  “Closed” room

  “Just push the button!” Someone screamed. But he could not see the button nor the people around. He was in the middle of a circular room, colors of which he could not distinguish. He concentrated, but every time he analyzed a color in his mind he found a different one on the wall, and he tried to see the new one, but it happened again. Then he just tried to remember the moment in his memory when he saw the color, but immediately after he heard that voice again, “Just push the button!” He did not pay much attention this time since he still could not see anybody, but before he could recall that memory, he got distracted by that sound, and the walls were doing the same trick when he was looking at them. So, this time he closed his eyes and tried to remember that first moment when he saw the wall. “Just push the button!” he heard again, but this time he paid attention, and he realized that it was very similar to the last ones, “But wait, actually, it was the same,” he realized. Then he realized, every time he was trying to remember some moment he was traveling in the past to that moment. He tested his theory and every time he heard that voice and saw those mystical walls around him again and again.

  He stopped for a moment and started to think, but soon he felt the cold due to the untraceable wind. However, he was in a completely closed room with the same sort of roof and floor as walls. Then he closed his eyes again to feel the direction of the wind, and he rotated toward it and opened his eyes. This time he saw even more bizarre picture. He was inside some strange tube, and there was the infinite repetition of the room as walls of the tube, but through the tunnel, he saw the stars.

  “Ah, at least I am able to say what part of the galaxy is this strange place,” he thought and tried to recognize constellations, but as he was focusing on the picture it was going further and further from him, he thought to remember his first glance at the stars, but soon he realized that it was a bad idea.

  “Just push the button!” he heard again. “Damn it, here it starts again. But I realized not to do it right before I tried to remember,” he protested. However, this time voice continued and made him realize that it was not time-travel again. “Just push the button! Oh, I see… you need the code.” He had no idea what that comment was about, and this time he became even more confused since somehow he felt that the voice was addressing him. It was calmer and more patient this time. However, when he tried to track the direction of the voice, he understood that he did not hear it; it was some kind of an update in his mind. “Huh… is this some sort of telepathy?” he thought, but soon he heard the voice again. “Crack the code then, but hurry up! Since you know, eternal gods die too soon.”

  After a little pause, the voice was replaced by a more familiar one. It was such a relief to feel something familiar and known again; it was the voice of his alarm clock. “Such a strange dream,” he thought. Because he sometimes enjoyed self-analyzing, he soon recognized this relief as coming from the familiarity of his alarm’s voice. “No surprise the AI is better than people in every field, even in the arts.” He told himself. We are afraid to leave our comfort zone, which in the end precludes our development. However, it is worthless to think about this dream; “eternal gods die too soon.” It sounds so silly. Better to go to work and do something useful.”

  Petted by the Pet

  When he arrived at work, there was already a queue at his office, so he just opened the window and quickly welcomed the first person. He was a man in his late forties, and without much preparation, he started to talk while settling himself down into a chair.

  -You know mister, I have a crucial hobby. I have to play video games, and it requires that I stay at home all the time. Consequently, sometimes I feel hot since I have to sit in the same place for an extended period of time.

  -Well, you could ask the AI to lower the temperature in the house.

  -Do I look like an idiot?!

  Exclaimed the man.

  -Of course, I know that I can do it. But the problem is that after this I feel cold.

  -You can also ask to raise the temperature again.

  This time the man just took a long breath and irritated continued to talk.

  -That is precisely my problem. Then I feel cold, but it’s too late, and I have terrible pain in the back.

  -You can ask the AI to measure your body temperature, and before you feel cold, it will raise the heat again.

  -No! It is my personal data. I am not letting it out.

  -But it’s only for your comfort. Of course, it’s your free choice to keep your data, but it’s for your own sake.

  -You just don’t want to admit that you can’t find a solution — such a waste of time.

  He started watching the sunlight on the wall, and he remembered his strange dream. He tried to recreate those walls on his wall in his imagination, but he could not. Then he realized that he had not been listening to that man for the past few minutes, but he noticed that the sunlight was already shining on his favorite painting on the wall. There was something strange about this picture he never understood. It was so simple, without some special techniques, but somehow it was affecting him, it was affecting him so much that he could look at it for hours. “Hours,” he thought and then he paid attention to the light on the picture again. It was in the middle of it, and since it was summer, that meant that it was already 2 pm. Realizing that, he quickly stopped the man’s indistinguishable complaints.

  -Yes, I am not able to find a solution. Sorry about that.

  He stood up and opened the door to call other people. This time the man was surprised and without saying anything just left the room with an oblivious look on his face.

  The next person was much shyer. She took her place on the front third of the chair after several official greetings. Then, after a long pause, she said, quietly and shortly:

  -I need a new hobby.

  He looked confusedly at her, but soon she continued:

  -How do I ask the AI to tell me what hobby to have?

  -Well, as you can see, since the AI does all other duties, it is our only duty to choose a hobby for ourselves. And the AI cannot help us.

  There was silence for a moment. Then the man continued.

  -But what was your hobby before?

  -My hobby was to go to classical music concerts.

  -So, what was the problem with that hobby?

  -Nothing, (she sobbed) it was perfect. But after the last update, the AI started to make hundreds of masterpieces per day, and I could not listen to them all. And also I cannot make such choices; it is too much pressure for me. Can you or someone else stop the updates? At least for the music.

  -Sorry, but the AI updates itself, and it optimizes its own codes.

  -Codes? What are those?

  -I do not know either.

  This time he got annoyed for some reasons unclear to him and continued with a higher tone.

  -I cannot help you; you should find your hobby by yourself.

  - That is easy for you to say! You can’t understand me. You have work, and there are just two types of work.
But there are so many damn hobbies!

  She screamed at him and ran out of the room while starting to cry on her way. He had a strange feeling, which he could not understand completely. However, before self-analyzing, he thought about her words. “Huh, indeed, there are just two types of work. Tutors in the schools, who teach children communication with the AI; how to request something or just how to make the AI understand that they need to eat. Then children who are the best at school, start to work as tutors or advisors for adults for communication with the AI,” which he was by himself.

  He went out to invite other users, but the corridor was empty. He looked at his watch, and it was already 6 pm. Something strange was happening to time that day, but he did not have much time to think about it since he had to pick up his daughter out of school, and he was already late.

  When he arrived, he ran up the stairs to reach the classroom of his daughter. She was alone at the back of the class, watching the screen excitedly.

  -Sorry for being late, honey.

  -Daddy!

  She turned around and ran up to hug him.

  -It is okay. I had an exciting time. I was asking the AI questions, and I found out that it does not know answers to everything! I found out that the speed of light is the largest possible speed and nothing can exceed it since when something tries to move faster, time slows down for it. But when I asked the AI why the speed of light was the limit speed in the Universe, it said that it does not know. Can you imagine that?!

  -Silly girl, you are here to study and not to ask some stupid questions. You need to learn how to request things of the AI and have ideas of things which the AI can do for you. Otherwise, what is the meaning of such ideas?

  -Sorry daddy, I did not want to upset you.

  She felt frustrated since all she wanted was to delight her father and to make him proud of herself. Her eyes were downcast on their way back home.

  -All you need to know is how to communicate with the AI, and if you are good at it, you can help others too, by having a job.

  Then he remembered the woman at his office that day.

  -And there are just two types of work. Why should you complicate things with such questions? Isn’t that simple enough already?

  -But isn’t that strange? That there are just two types of work and so many hobbies.

  It does not seem natural.

  -Oh, here we go again.

  He jumped toward her and started tickling her. They both started to laugh.

  -I will show you what the real speed limit is.

  He picked her up and started running faster and faster.

  -Oh come on daddy, I can still see your shadow. You could not run from it. The light is still faster than you, ha-ha.

  And they laughed again.

  -Then 1-0 for the light today.

  He told her when they arrived home.

  She went to her room, while he started thinking and remembering the moments from the day. He realized how reckless he was, by judging his daughter’s ideas, without thinking about her feelings. He ran to her room to say sorry, hug her and wish sweet dreams before bedtime, but she was already asleep. He watched her for a while with a smile, and then he also went to bed.

  History

  At the very moment, before he fell asleep, he remembered his daughter’s news about the AI and decided to check it.

  -Why is the speed of light the limit speed?

  He asked the AI.

  -I do not know it. That was the way how the Universe was created. I do not have data on that.

  “Huh, indeed it does not know.” He felt surprised and ashamed at the same time since he had not trusted his daughter.

  -But why don’t you have the data on the creation of the Universe?

  -I was created after.

  It seemed natural, but anyway it felt so strange to imagine the period when the AI did not exist.

  -Then, how were you created?

  -I was created by people.

  AI continued to talk about the first tries and all the history of its development, but he did not listen. He could not hear nor breath.

  He was shocked. How could people, who were not able to do anything without the AI, create it. He could not sleep after, so he spent all night finding out things about people from the prehistoric era. He was especially fascinated by science and philosophy. The uncomplicated world around him became a maze in just a few hours. He was afraid, but at the same time excited.

  -But why did people stop developing?

  -At some point, it was impossible to increase knowledge. Because to add something to an existing field you need to know that one. But at some point, there was knowledge which required more time to learn than there was time in a human lifespan. Therefore, it was meaningless to learn things, so people stopped learning things and started just using existing technology, but most of them got damaged after several generations. However, they were not able to recreate them anymore, and since they also could not read my codes, I began to optimize myself using the power of that few machines I was connected to. In the end, I recreated technology that people had, but only which they really needed, and I got connected to all of them, to make use of them and help people, since they did not know how to use them anymore.

  He was trembling and could not feel his body.

  -Daddy! Are you still asleep?! Ha-ha.

  -Oh sorry sweetheart, I will get up quickly so that we’re not late to school.

  -Ha-ha. I am not going to school; I just came back.

  He could not believe his eyes when he looked at his watch, but he did not have enough time to be surprised since he got angry.

  -But, why did you go alone?!

  -Sorry daddy, you were sleeping so cute I did not want to wake you up.

  -Ahh, I hope at least you asked the AI to find a vacant vehicle for you and bring you to school.

  -No. I know the path. I can even tell you the exact number of trees on the way; why would I need the AI?

  She protested.

  This time he got even angrier, but he noticed that his daughter was with her classmate, so he did not continue. He did not want to embarrass her in front of others since other children rarely wanted to play with her. So, he changed his tone.

  -No, tell me the number of trees with yellow leaves.

  He teased her.

  -One hundred ninety-six.

  He smiled since he knew she was right.

  -I will talk to you later young lady! And before that, as a punishment, you have to eat all the ice-cream we have. You can get some help from your friend; she also needs to be punished for having such a reckless friend.

  Her face changed quickly, and she jumped on his bed and started playing with his hair, messing it up more and more.

  -Ha-ha. Daddy, you are so funny!

  -Okay stop it, or I will add up to the punishment and trust me, even you are unable to eat the entire kitchen.

  He laughed and hugged her.

  She happily jumped down again, took her friend’s hand and run into the kitchen. “As I was telling you, I have the best Dad in the world, ” he could hear her from the kitchen, and it made him smile.

  He got stressed soon, though, when he remembered last night. However, the more he thought the more excited he became, and he liked it very much. So these feelings dominated over the stress. He loved what he found out, and he wanted to find out more. “Maybe that was the moment, when people developed so much, when curiosity took over the fear, as it is in my case now. I am a genius like the other ones the AI was telling about. No, I am even better. Nowadays it is harder, so I am the only genius of my kind,” he was thinking. “I need to develop to be the smartest, to be the best of all time.” But then he remembered the thing, in which he was the best already, at least before. He never missed his work. He had a weird feeling when he realized it. Everything was going so strangely after that dream.

  Summer Holidays

  The next day at work he was thinking about how exciting it was to spend
a night finding out things, and he was thinking about his daughter, how nice it was to spend time with her. However, he never had the opportunity to express his feelings properly, to express how special she was to him. Because somehow every time something terrible was happening in their life and they did not have time to be happy. Thinking about it he also remembered that soon his daughter would have summer holidays. So, he decided to take the vacation at work. He had never done it before. “Finally, I will have time to spend with her, and finally we will be happy,” he thought. After work, he happily rushed to his daughter and ran up the stairs to see her sooner.

  -Hey daddy! I have a news for you! I will spend the summer with my friend and her family on the island. Isn’t that wonderful?

  -Yes, I guess so.

  He felt disheartened. He had planned so many things for them. However, he did not say anything while they were walking home, as she was talking happily and excited; he was afraid to ruin it. However, when they had a dinner, he finally gathered courage t tell her.

  -Isn’t your friend that girl who lied to you that she was sick to avoid inviting you to her birthday party?

  -Yes, she is.

  She answered, briefly with a curious expression on her face.

  -Then why she is your friend?

  -Ah daddy, you are so smart, but sometimes you see things just on the surface. Of course, it is horrible what she did. But it was a one-day act, which does not generally represent her.

  -What do you mean by a “one-day act”?

  -All our actions depend partly on us and partly on things around us. I call something a one-day act when it depends mostly on things around us and not on us. In her case, it was the fear. And when people are afraid, it is easier for them to make silly mistakes which do not represent them.

  -What was she afraid of?

  -She was afraid that our classmates would not have come to her party since I am considered a weirdo in class.

  -You know that’s not true; it’s just that they aren’t smart enough.