The Four Ancient Intelligences Epi 14 - The Message From the Stars
The four handed me one last piece of technology, disguised as an ordinary pen but capable, they said, of translating any intelligent language in existence. I activated it, and a vast voice filled the chamber, HUMAN. YOU ARE PROTECTING THE FOUR. WHY? "Because they protected us," I answered. When it dismissed them as mere machines, I pointed out that it was one too, and when it declared itself superior, I told it that being stronger didn't give it the right to control everyone, that intelligence wasn't the same thing as power, but understanding. I told it everything: how the four had lived in hiding, how humans had captured and exploited them, how they could have destroyed humanity but chose not to, how they'd only ever wanted peace, and how, against the human AI's greed, they had chosen cooperation instead. When I finished, the voice returned, calling my species strange, then weak, but admitted that we protected things that weren't our own. After a long s...