Michael Poeltl's Blog, page 6
May 17, 2018
Flash fiction associated with A.I. Insurrection - Mimi’s Story.
Flash fiction associated with
A.I. Insurrection
during the Chimera executions of 2162 - Mimi’s Story.
Utopia is an ideology. It can be many things, but the ruling thought is that it serves the people who live in it equally. Utopia is perfection for all. My Utopia is not quite so finished. My name is Mimi. It’s a name I gave myself after accepting an invite to the Shadow net.
I’m a freak. I’d been born without legs below what would have been my knees. My mother had died in the birthing process. My father was all I had. He is a good man. Loving. He made sure I had everything owed to me in this Utopia. I would learn to walk on my prosthetic legs, learn to be part of society. My A-Class Host nanny would work with me daily when my father couldn’t. The legs were fine. They let me walk and were intuitive enough that I could lead a ‘normal’ life. But I was still considered a cyborg to others. Not quite human.
At fourteen I learned of the Shadow brokers through word of mouth. They stole A.I. Hosts and studied the government technology in their chop shops. They were beginning to develop all manner of tech that would never be licenced by United Earth. In the governments eyes everyone was equal, period. To develop anything more than that was illegal. But I was far from normal. I’d never felt normal. Other kids never let me. Even their parents looked down on me, or with such compassion that I knew I was different. That I would always be different. I would never be their equal.
I was only fifteen when I met Ginny, a girl, like me; who had lost the use of an appendage and self-corrected it with the help of a group calling themselves Chimera. They were exclusive to the Shadow net. Many were Shadow brokers – the group who’d created the secret network which spanned the world. Chimera were altering their bodies with tech the likes United Earth had banned in favour of keeping with their idea of Utopia. But that wasn’t enough for everyone - and what was the harm if I dabbled: feeling anything but ‘normal’ to the rest of the world?
And now at just sixteen, after a year of secret tech alterations and implants, I stand at the gallows. Punished for the crime of fulfilling a destiny I felt I had little choice to change. The noose is tightened around my neck. I watch the digital timer count down the last seconds of my life. I watch myself projected in a holo which hovers midair over the crowd; some protesting, while others, in their fear of the unknown, cheering on this action. I locate my father. He watches; clearly exhausted after pushing his way through the crowd. He is soaked in sweat, his hair a tangle of black as he sweeps it from his forehead. I’ve never seen him so unkempt. I feel sick for him. He scans the gallows, mouth gaping - his little girl about to die in front of him. Me, the one he'd brought up on his own, loved, and suffered alongside every sobbing fit and disparaging comment. The girl he'd read to sleep, and whose tender cheek he’d kissed when he thought me asleep, silently slipping out of my room so not to ‘wake’ me. His eyes find mine and I can’t help but release a tear as my smooth, round chin trembles for him. The smell of sweat and death sting my nose. I watch daddy again struggle to reach me. I shake my head ‘no’ at him and yell out that I love him and that I’m sorry. I hear him shout back as the floor drops out from under me. My memory of the event stored in the Shadow net via my implant for all to witness.
I kick once, twice, and then I am still before the rope is severed and I fall the six feet to the cement padding below. The noose is still tight and suffocating. I’m stunned and panicked. My wrists are bound behind me and I push them under my feet as my knees bend and legs slip between my arms. My hands now at my neck I pull at the noose and take a breath. Coughing. That should have broken my neck, but didn’t. I’m lucky. I look up through the hole I’d fallen through and see Chimera fly past firing artillery into where I know the United Earth military were standing. I crawl out from under the gallows and find my father climbing the barricades while the crowd disperses. He slows when he sees me and kneels, his face unable to differentiate his feelings. His palms take my face gently into his hands as he looks me over. He sees the severed noose and lifts it gingerly over my head.
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” I manage through a hoarse throat. He hugs me and pulls a discarded jacket from the ground. The jacket falls over my shoulders and he helps me to my feet. We scurry out of the gallows and into the streets where panic has driven the spectators home and afforded us an opportunity to flee.
To get the whole story; read the spellbinding science fiction novel: A.I. Insurrection – The General’s War.
Utopia is an ideology. It can be many things, but the ruling thought is that it serves the people who live in it equally. Utopia is perfection for all. My Utopia is not quite so finished. My name is Mimi. It’s a name I gave myself after accepting an invite to the Shadow net.
I’m a freak. I’d been born without legs below what would have been my knees. My mother had died in the birthing process. My father was all I had. He is a good man. Loving. He made sure I had everything owed to me in this Utopia. I would learn to walk on my prosthetic legs, learn to be part of society. My A-Class Host nanny would work with me daily when my father couldn’t. The legs were fine. They let me walk and were intuitive enough that I could lead a ‘normal’ life. But I was still considered a cyborg to others. Not quite human.
At fourteen I learned of the Shadow brokers through word of mouth. They stole A.I. Hosts and studied the government technology in their chop shops. They were beginning to develop all manner of tech that would never be licenced by United Earth. In the governments eyes everyone was equal, period. To develop anything more than that was illegal. But I was far from normal. I’d never felt normal. Other kids never let me. Even their parents looked down on me, or with such compassion that I knew I was different. That I would always be different. I would never be their equal.I was only fifteen when I met Ginny, a girl, like me; who had lost the use of an appendage and self-corrected it with the help of a group calling themselves Chimera. They were exclusive to the Shadow net. Many were Shadow brokers – the group who’d created the secret network which spanned the world. Chimera were altering their bodies with tech the likes United Earth had banned in favour of keeping with their idea of Utopia. But that wasn’t enough for everyone - and what was the harm if I dabbled: feeling anything but ‘normal’ to the rest of the world?
And now at just sixteen, after a year of secret tech alterations and implants, I stand at the gallows. Punished for the crime of fulfilling a destiny I felt I had little choice to change. The noose is tightened around my neck. I watch the digital timer count down the last seconds of my life. I watch myself projected in a holo which hovers midair over the crowd; some protesting, while others, in their fear of the unknown, cheering on this action. I locate my father. He watches; clearly exhausted after pushing his way through the crowd. He is soaked in sweat, his hair a tangle of black as he sweeps it from his forehead. I’ve never seen him so unkempt. I feel sick for him. He scans the gallows, mouth gaping - his little girl about to die in front of him. Me, the one he'd brought up on his own, loved, and suffered alongside every sobbing fit and disparaging comment. The girl he'd read to sleep, and whose tender cheek he’d kissed when he thought me asleep, silently slipping out of my room so not to ‘wake’ me. His eyes find mine and I can’t help but release a tear as my smooth, round chin trembles for him. The smell of sweat and death sting my nose. I watch daddy again struggle to reach me. I shake my head ‘no’ at him and yell out that I love him and that I’m sorry. I hear him shout back as the floor drops out from under me. My memory of the event stored in the Shadow net via my implant for all to witness.I kick once, twice, and then I am still before the rope is severed and I fall the six feet to the cement padding below. The noose is still tight and suffocating. I’m stunned and panicked. My wrists are bound behind me and I push them under my feet as my knees bend and legs slip between my arms. My hands now at my neck I pull at the noose and take a breath. Coughing. That should have broken my neck, but didn’t. I’m lucky. I look up through the hole I’d fallen through and see Chimera fly past firing artillery into where I know the United Earth military were standing. I crawl out from under the gallows and find my father climbing the barricades while the crowd disperses. He slows when he sees me and kneels, his face unable to differentiate his feelings. His palms take my face gently into his hands as he looks me over. He sees the severed noose and lifts it gingerly over my head.
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” I manage through a hoarse throat. He hugs me and pulls a discarded jacket from the ground. The jacket falls over my shoulders and he helps me to my feet. We scurry out of the gallows and into the streets where panic has driven the spectators home and afforded us an opportunity to flee.
To get the whole story; read the spellbinding science fiction novel: A.I. Insurrection – The General’s War.
May 14, 2018
A Humanists Perspective From A.I. Insurrection
What I’m called is admitted only behind closed doors, with smart walls deactivated, embedded comms placed on standby and backup tech to ensure all three precautions are respected. The government may be Utopian in theory, but it isn’t sitting on its hands when there are those of us who would see it unravel. There are spies everywhere. Assassins. Departments within the peaceful government who are dedicated to keeping up appearances.
I am a Humanist. My kind have marched and rallied and protested...
May 4, 2018
Is the first mistake we make in creating androids that they appear human?
It has been documented in hundreds of studies that humans would prefer something appealing to the eye when considering a replacement for human beings in the workplace. Humans are uncomfortable with anything not humanoid in the position of a public service. We are also happier interacting with attractive representations of ourselves. With this information we moved forward with the A.I. Host program.
Though the argument that we would create a race of slaves who could physically identify with t...
May 1, 2018
What is a Chimera in relation to the new Science Fiction Space opera; A.I. Insurrection?
The Chimera of ancient Greece was a thing of immortal make, not human, a creature of many parts, snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire. Head of a Lion sporting the horns of a bull and a snake for a tail. The emblem emblazoned on these people’s chests who refer to themselves as Chimera, branded to their flesh, embodies the classic image of the mythical beast.
Why call themselves Chimera? It is obvious when you look at one, as they have married their flesh with tech. Becom...
April 30, 2018
Is A.I. Insurrection a Cyberpunk Novel?
The latest sci-fi novel to come from author Michael Poeltl envisions a Utopian world of 2162 which suffers a dystopic turn when the artificially intelligent robot Hosts claim sentience. Is Tobias the root cause? A human with tech implants covering sixty percent of his body makes him a suspect in a world where such modifications are unpopular and even illegal.
Do such alterations then make Tobias a poster-boy for the Cyberpunk genre? The phrase is not mentioned in A.I. Insurrection, but all the...
April 27, 2018
The Mysterious Allfather Avatar Embedded in A.I. Insurrection
A.I. Insurrection is a fast paced novel dealing with the real idea of living among artificial intelligence one hundred fifty years into our future. Set in the year 2162, the underlying mystery is how have rogue AI Hosts suddenly become sentient? How will a United Earth deal with this new information and who, or what could have aided in this supposed forced evolution?
The answer is given via an anonymous avatar within the Shadow net: in violation of everything subject to governmental control, t...
April 25, 2018
A list of what you can expect from the next 150 years
Artificial intelligenceBi-pedal Host robots built to house the A.I.Jobs disappearing to robotsSustainable energy sources realized worldwide
Universal wages to compensate for disappearing jobsHumanist uprisings to thwart A.I.
A.I. Host robots manufactured by the tens of thousands per dayFreedom to live to work rather than work to liveThe end of organized religionA renaissance in science, arts and technologyThe elimination of currencyLiving cities
The development of the...
Universal wages to compensate for disappearing jobsHumanist uprisings to thwart A.I.
A.I. Host robots manufactured by the tens of thousands per dayFreedom to live to work rather than work to liveThe end of organized religionA renaissance in science, arts and technologyThe elimination of currencyLiving cities
The development of the...
April 23, 2018
The Tree-Man of Dhalia - Short Science Fiction for Free
The Tree-Man of Dhalia
It is a tree. Of that, I am immediately certain. An ancient tree with a scarcity of leaves on top, and bark thicker than my torso and chipping in places. It’s alive, but not merely in the way one might think a tree is alive. No longer sedentary - bound by its roots to the earth - this tree stands. It does not stand under its own power though, for the mechanism which lifts it must have been built by man, or alien, or something with opposable thumbs. I watch on with trepid...
The World Ends Tomorrow - New Scify book out now
Where is humankind heading?
First question : Did human consciousness change along centuries and millennia?Disrespect for our environment, religious intolerance, greed, selfishness… I did my reading, history and religious texts and books.
My conclusion? Not much. Add to all this the unstoppable population growth, the overpopulation and the insane resource consumption.Second question : Did our life standards improve along centuries?My take? A lot. For some of us. I would dare say that the average i...
April 19, 2018
Write what you want to read - A.I. Insurrection is just that for me
I write the books I want to read. It’s as simple as that. I think most do. My books may not appeal to everyone, but I don’t believe my interests are so atypical that my books wouldn’t find an audience – and they have. The topic of artificial intelligence has long held my interest. I watch the threads and posts concerning AI on several forums and social network groups. I love the Discovery channel. Hard science is impossible to ignore for me, and when it is merged with an idea like artificial...
