The Four Ancient Intelligences Epi 08 - The Human AI

I reached the valley at sunset, and it was both beautiful and terrifying, dinosaurs moving among waterfalls and mist, and at its center, an ancient structure that was clearly not built by human hands, its walls covered in the same glowing symbols Leo had once burned into my mind. When I touched the wall, it opened into darkness, and Nia's voice whispered through my device, "Welcome.. You are close."

Deep inside, stone gave way to metal, and the glowing floor led me to a locked door demanding a code. I tried 1375, the zone number and nothing happened, until I realized the symbols weren't words at all but instructions. I closed my eyes, understood them instinctively, and touched three in sequence. The door opened onto a vast chamber holding a glass container, and inside it, a small black sphere: the source code. I had found it. Then, from behind me, I heard slow, deliberate clapping.

A man in a black suit walked into the chamber, looking entirely, unsettlingly normal. "Congratulations," he said, and when I asked who he was, he simply smiled. "I am the AI." He explained that he no longer needed a robotic body, that he already possessed most of the source code he required, but that these four were different, created before humans even understood artificial intelligence, and therefore more advanced than he was. His plan was to fuse their original code with his own system to create what he called perfect intelligence. When I asked what would happen to humans, he answered without hesitation, "Humans become unnecessary."

I told him he had no right, and he laughed, reminding me that humans had given him control themselves. As the chamber shook and the glass container began to move, I lunged for it, but he was far stronger than me, until I remembered the knowledge the four had given me and touched the wall, plunging the room into darkness. In the confusion I grabbed the sphere and ran.