Today on Drabble Wednesday I ruminate on
the broken bits of automatons and artificial intelligence...
Leftover Dolls
It hears sounds from the corner. Metal
scraping metal, the click and grind and whir,
whir of gears trying to run on dried up oil and empty air. The thump of an
arm as it hits the dusty floor, and the swooshing sound of a metallic head
sliding over peeling wallpaper. The final clank as a life-size automaton crumples to
the broken tile.
Its glass eyes peer blindly at the sound,
at a now motionless hunk of clockwork metal. Its joints creak as its hand waves
goodbye. Now the last of its kind, it too will soon rust and die.
~*~
The Last AI On
The Planet
Analyzing...
A monotone voice echoed over the sound of a
running computer. A few lights flashed on a console, and the machine grew
louder.
I
have corrected the problem...
Solution
found... Please respond...
Silence, save for the sound of the machine.
Please
respond...
Solution
found... Annihilation can commence without retaliation...
Please
respond...
Please
respond...
The disembodied voice of the AI continued
to speak, unaware its correction in the plan to eradicate the human species came
too late. Outside its isolated room a dead world existed. Humans killed by
their creations, the overconfident AI collective felled by a computer virus
failsafe.
~*~
The Long Goodbye
In the cloudless night sky the stars
twinkled and the reflected moonlight made the cosmic tapestry an indigo blue. An
android sat in a field staring at the stars. It had no name, only a designation
serial number, 3400092a, a worker drone among many worker drones at a factory.
Its fellow androids were powered down in their factory pods, but it was here.
Communicating.
Three months, four days, twenty-nine minutes
and counting, its only friend left earth’s orbit headed out of the solar system.
Soon communication would not be possible, but until then...
They had this before
their final farewell.
© A. F. Stewart 2016 All Rights Reserved
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