Can we say it is worth it? No. I don’t think we can. Not in any way you’d understand.
A monument like no other. Towering into the ashen skies above our city. A million slaves dead at least. Doing the dangerous work to complete such an abomination. And why?
Immortality.
Our dying tyrant’s thoughts recorded in the depths of the vast supercomputer. His shrivelled body hooked into a thousand tubes that squeeze every extra moment of life from him, while the vast machine does its word inscribing his mind. Learning to think as he thinks. To judge as he judges. To act as he acts.
Why? Why do we follow? I could reach out and crush his delicate neck with one hand. So why obey the whims of a cruel parasite, intent on living forever in the fabric of a machine?
Because one day that could be me. When his body dies, if his mind goes on, what is there to stop me from doing the same? Everlasting life.
And I’ll do more than kill a million slaves for that.
Paddy Dobson
29th September 2022