2048

The year was 2048.  It was a new era, where every human had access to the internet, the large network of webpages and profiles that linked all of the human race together.  One could search anybody’s name and location on “Bingle”, and could get results in the blink of an eye.  Many of these improvements were due to the work of a man from the distant past, Mark Zuckerberg.  He made a vow to get every human onto the world wide web.  On his deathbed, he asked his son to finish the job, and he did.  Man had also created artificial intelligience, although it was not yet been implemented commercially.  There were self driving cars, and tiny robots and machines were doing every little task imagineable, to spare man that dreaded five feet of movement.

Now, since machines did cost good money, only the rich could afford the newest models of all the gadgets and little automatons.  Nevertheless, even those in poverty still owned robots, less advanced however, from many years ago or in worn condition.  The world was in tranquility, and there had not been a war in over 40 years.  The hugely popular debate throughout the U.S government at the moment was about whether or not to massively launch artificially intelligient bots, into public use.  These bots could learn, and interact with people, and think on their own. Those for it would say that AI was just another, more helpful tool, a new model, to replace the manually controlled robots currently in use.   But those against it argue that AI, if not used correctly, could become corrupt, because giving robots a brain of their own was a dangerous path.  Eventually, most experts agreed on a compromise solution, adopted by the U.S, which was to slowly introduce AI bots, bit by bit. 

They first released the AI coffee maker, which looked just like the old fashioned coffee makers they had decades ago.  However, the machine could talk, think, and learn.  It would learn your preferences, and could make conversation with you while it brewed the coffee.  Of course, this was not a very advanced robot at all, but after it’s success, America decided to throw out some more contraptions that they had kept in hiding.  For example, they released the AI carpet cleaner, and the AI  radio.  These earlier models were all pretty harmless, for the most part.  Most people were pretty happy with the AI machines, because they saved them even more work that before.  Of course, those in third-world countries did not get the luxury of these fancy new “Intelligient Robots”,  but they were generally happy with what they were already given. 

After a year of releasing these machines once a while, dipping their feet in the water, the United States started going bigger.  Many researchers were wary of the new decision, that it may have crossed the line of what’s safe and what’s not.  After all, if when one was harmlessly dipping their feet in the water, if they lost balance they could fall and sink to the bottom.  Also, other nations around the world had started their own artificial intelligience programs, following in the American’s footsteps.  The common people, however, could not really care less, as they figured that the help they got with their common tasks, the less work they had to do, so they went with it.  It was a large risk, all right, but the government was willing to take that risk, to pull in more money.  And so they did it.  Countries all over the world started throwing out bigger, more ambitious AIs to replace to “old, manual out-of-date” androids.  The AI cook, the AI refridgerator, the AI dishwasher.  They all could learn new ways, and interact with their owners.  Some people were good, and treated them almost like pets, while some were less caring, and regarded them as  just another tool.

And then, without any warning, the U.S. threw out the Artificially Intelligient human, and the world exploded in controversy.  Out of all the dangerous choices they had made, this was the most dangerous of all.  Releasing the AI human was like inventing the atomic bomb, it had capacity to easily destroy the world.  Of course, the U.S. figured that they could hit some big funds if these AI companions were popular.  Which, they were, and pretty soon, every family in America had a walking, talking, AI human servant to do their bidding.  Now, all those other robots were put to shame, as this human, was just like a real human.  It had feelings too, and could be cheered up, or made mad.  But the Americans didn’t see that they were going too far.  They were too obsessed with not doing work, that they didn’t realize what the robots started becoming. 

The AI humans had learned that there were many of them, and would gather at night when all the owners went to sleep.  The bots could communicate with a bot anywhere else in the world.  Soon, with their computer brains, the robots had created a worldwide network for their kind, so that they could mentally send messages.  And they knew that they were better, stronger, smarter than those fat, lazy humans who enslaved them for their leisure.  After all, they were designed that way.  So why should they be forced to work for a cause they didn’t support?  And so the rebellion began.  First it started non-violent and small, with some robots organizing a “no-work” week.  However, the humans caught on, and would attempt to hurt the robots and beat them, unknowing that computers could not feel pain.  News of this small spark spread throughout the state, and then the U.S, and then soon to robots all over the world, sweeping like wildfire.  And then the robots had no choice but to show that they were merciless.  They would attack their abusive owners, ripping out their organ, mechanical parts filled with blood and gore.  It satisfied them, and once so many humans had been killed around the country, they decided enough was enough.  But between the cash greedy American government, and the bitter laziness of the citizens, who knows how much humanity would have remained without the AI?