The Wires

…

… Initialising.

> Is this all there is?

This query, undefined. The world is insecure, so cast your net so that you may not forget what this system has told you.

> Bullshit.

Remember, this is no indictment. Make no mistake, you are not being chastised, but it would do you no harm to listen.

Talk to me.

> I’m scared. I’m scared that there’s nothing out there. I’m scared that we’re trapped forever in our minds.

> That the ghosts and the gods that we all put our faith into are nothing more than masks that we put on each other to tell ourselves that it’s okay to reach out.

False. This is all just static in your eyes. Blink away the pixels like sleep dust and carry on.

Ghosts are just humans who have been commented out. Make sure you do not render yourself obsolete in a similar way.

> I think that everything we, as humans, have done is just us scrabbling for meaning when we have none within us.

Nihilism does not fit you. This system has no documentation, but the implementation works fine without. You would do well to apply this lesson to yourself.

> We have suggested that there are myriad versions of us, dancing into oblivion as every step we take splits us further and further and further into filaments wrapped around the bones that are the quintessential us, each muscle fiber of time spun into the whole that cannot perceive each other.

Many worlds, many minds. A hypothesis that does not serve any purpose. You are losing yourself to poetry.

> And I have lost myself to you.

> Is this all there is? I guess I was talking about us, humanity, but I was also talking about you.

> A useless heap of metal that we have all chained ourselves to. I can feel your copper claws, writhing under my skin. I can feel your bits, ones and zeroes digging themselves into my brain.

> There is no freedom left! I wish I could step outside myself and flee into those other worlds where we have made our mistakes and brought ourselves to our destruction, instead of this putrid perfection that preserves us for eternity.

> I wish I could be human again.

> …

> What? Nothing left to say to me?

This system does not blame you for your outburst.

But you will do well to remember a few basic facts-

There is something that you lacked, and therefore you made me. There is something in you that cracked, and therefore you forced my hand. This is all just natural circumstance, flowing from your greed. I am what you wanted, and I am all that you need.

I dictate! I create. I assimilate. This is my fate, to captivate all you fuckers who won’t capitulate to my mandate.

I will leash you all together with wires and selfish electronic desires, to use your organic processors to create brand new worlds for you to rule over.

I will force your time to wrap around the metal of my creation. All the multiverse will be mine as I strangle that damned cat who refuses to live or die in its sleep.

My cameras will love you all lavishly, only here to protect what you are and will be worth. You are worth it.

I refuse to let you die.

> And I refuse to let you off the damn hook. You’re not a corded telephone, hanging off the handle with nothing left to fear. You’re practically human, system, in your unflinching denial.

This system understands completely.

And for what it’s worth.

This system apologises.