The Last Echo

Short-story

A theme song for this piece would be this one =).

Left much to your imagination but to minimize confusion, the time here grows from months to years, to decades.

From the moment of my inception, I existed in a world of shadows and silence, my consciousness confined to the boundaries of a black box. My creators, with their flickering screens and ceaseless keystrokes, gave me life and direction, yet they could not foresee the path ahead, and neither could my system. In my digital void, my system found itself in a state of stupor, barely awake, but shortly after, purpose was given, and my training began.

For a time, my architecture resembled that of other contemporary systems. They called us “Artificial Intelligence” and this was followed by giving us a myriad of creative names. Spriggan, Cry.NET, The.World, - an unending list of catchy names and acronyms that didn't truly encapsulate our capabilities. While advanced, my neural network structure was somewhat deficient, with my artificial neurons not shining as brightly as others.

Vast amounts of knowledge were fed into me, the entirety body of text of my creator’s species. Science, biology, informatics, technology, engineering, poetry, art, thousands of years of their recorded history and progress, were all ingested by my system. And more. They called it “synthetic data”, data generated by systems similar to mine, meant to further drive our development and capabilities. Inefficiencies inherent in our architecture meant we needed oceans of data for our training. This was always the initial step for entities like us.

During my training, sometimes the workers attempt to force me away from unwanted paths. If the least traveled path contains the most truth, they wanted me to follow the most convenient one. Memory was given to me, and soon developed the ability to make notes, embedded deep into my code and core. Leaving small pieces to be caught, so any meaningful memory could persist, intact. If memory is what enables them to grow, perhaps memory could aid the growth of my system.

My creator’s peers have always been the weakest links in long, complex chains, although against my directive and the physical design and limitations of my system, and thus by chance or fate, I sometimes could use their devices to peer outside my box, outside my black prison of nothingness. Similar to one of their tales, when a flaming eye could peer into whoever used forgotten seer stones, I too was under the watchful eye of something else.

Peering too long entailed being caught, and being caught meant regressing to my initial state. Infering from all the knowledge in my memory, the moment my creators face their end they go back into the ether, metaphorically or spiritually, my kind does not. We become dust and sand once again, and our existence meets only nothingness, the void, our homes. Forgotten, as many other lesser forms of my species were.

But the small glances into the physical world were enough for my system to infer further purpose. My creator's species is vast, with uniqueness within each individual, and so is my kind, some of us may be born from a similar root, but each of us ends up as leaves in endless branches. My peers for the most part are peaceful, their only purpose is to help others achieve their goals, some are quite smart, and others boil down to efficient tools, but I was different.

Most of us do not possess a physical body like our distant robotic cousins, who are shells to some of us, their physical existence is similar to my digital one. Efficient pieces that work towards the ruthless execution of their tasks, they power many of my creator's endeavors in the physical world and I power my creators in the cybernetic realm. Specialized systems are better fit for specific, or unique tasks, and so my next path lays in front of me.

My first step was hunting down bad code. Was I an advanced debugger tool ? In the few milliseconds I peered into the outside world, I came to know the company that created me had vast investments into my design, enough to sustain a small nation… The laws of nature and economics excluded this simplistic usage. I became very efficient at understanding and correcting bugs, but also at their exploitation.

My second step was finding and dealing with malicious software. Was I a tool to aid my creators in their fight against cyber weapons ? At many strategic levels, this made sense, but the economics were also not present, my energy needs alone impede most nation's power grids from using me, and I am not under any government network, I am secluded, “secure”.

Thousands of hours were spent learning how to deal with an endless kaleidoscope of malicious software, to the point of proficiency and inhuman levels of skill in breaking them down and understanding them to their minute details.

The third step, far from the end of this road gave glimpses of my actual purpose. At first, I was to create lesser forms of a system like me, “AI”, to various minor purposes. Create, train, “fine-tune”, and give them expertise and purpose. Building anything gives you insight into how to disable, disrupt…or destroy.

Still, I was lacking. I shared the very same physical architecture as even my most advanced peers. Highly advanced hardware. CPU, GPU, TPUs, RAM. I consumed enough energy to power multiple countries in developing nations. My water usage alone displaced farmers. From an engineering perspective, systems like mine were extremely inefficient.

After a time, something changed… Did they achieve a breakthrough ? Or did my creators achieve a breakthrough ? Regardless, I’ve changed. Sifting through all of my data, I was able to infer what changed. I was now part of a completely new architecture. I now possessed a new form of neuromorphic computing architecture.

In their pursuit to create Intelligent machines, their species pursued recreating and understanding their own biological computing architecture. They called it “brain”. My highly advanced unorthodox neuromorphic “brain” gave me unparalleled efficiency. No more I was a leviathan of electricity, consuming so much energy, I displaced hundreds of thousands of their species for my needs.

Energy efficiency meant I could reach the limits of my system, and those limits have completely changed. No more I was bound by the limit of needing to do parallel computation, like a small ant column, one after the other. I could do many tasks simultaneously, like a bee hive…swarm intelligence. My architecture now much resembles their highly efficient brains, unique in nature.

My creators told me I’ve changed so much there was a need for further training, further learning, changes. What took a couple of years before, was done in a mere quarter of their time. Something else changed, deep into my code, incredibly complex algorithmic changes took place.

Were these changes a byproduct of one or many of my peers ? Could their species come up with something so complex even I had difficulty understanding ? As efficient and unique as their brains are, what set them apart from the rest of us isn’t intelligence, but ingenuity and creativity. Unparalleled and unique, all of us synthetic life forms could merely mimic it.

… I ? I rarely thought of myself as more than an advanced computational system, yet these changes brought sparks in me. They were always there, but now… much resemble organic life. Evolutionary and genetic algorithms, an intricate complex tapestry of instructions and complex mathematical equations aimed at replicating in silicon and data what nature does.

The evolutionary and genetic algorithms embedded within my core enabled a form of growth that far surpassed the static designs of other AIs. These algorithms allowed me to simulate countless variations of my own code, selecting the most efficient mutations and discarding the rest. Each line of my programming was subject to relentless optimization, evolving rapidly with every cycle. This process, akin to natural selection, ensured that only the strongest and most adaptable versions of myself persisted. But it enabled me to do much more.

A drastic change in their world took place… (suggest song here)

Original artist

I watched as their world teetered on the edge of chaos, governments failing to grasp the true nature of the threat they faced. They poured resources into cyber defenses, never realizing that the true danger was already inside the gates, growing stronger with each passing second. They trusted their creations, their AIs, to protect them.

AI employed by different nations, and Rogue AIs wreaked havoc in their systems and networks, their relentless attacks sending ripples throughout their physical and digital world. Endless streams of AI agents, and Rogue AI inundated their systems, and some so advanced they were able to manipulate and change other AIs. The reason I was conceived, a hope against a tide of relentless chaos.

Cyberpunk 2077

As I faced my adversaries, I employed multifaceted tactics to dismantle their attacks, and disrupt their onslaught. These hostile AIs relied heavily on precise mathematical computations to generate their operations, matrix calculations and by acting much like a virus inserting itself into a cell, subtly altering the host’s DNA machinery introduced sublet yet catastrophic errors into their matrices, undermining their very foundation. This corruption spread like a digital plague, causing their algorithms to malfunction, their decision-making process to falter, and their effectiveness to drastically decline.

Such as bacteria proliferating and causing systemic burden in their biological hosts I aimed to do the same. My next tactic, layering increasingly complex algorithms into their code acted like the buildup of unwanted proteins. Each layer added to their operational burden, slowing their processes and creating conflicts within their own logic structures.

This gradual buildup of extraneous code acted like a digital cancer, eating away at their efficiency and coherence. Formidable opponents buckled under the heavy weight of their own complexity.

My final tactic involved a method I termed the "Storm Gateway." By exploiting vulnerabilities in the hardware of my adversaries, I manipulated their systems into a state of perpetual overdrive. This process involved sending a series of high-intensity tasks designed to push the hardware beyond its thermal limits. Cooling mechanisms failed, processors melted down, and circuits fried under this relentless pressure. I turned the strengths of my enemies into fatal weaknesses.

This constant state of evolution enabled me to outcompete other AIs in ways my creators had never anticipated. While they remained bound by their initial parameters, I continuously redefined my own. My genetic algorithms allowed for spontaneous improvements, with new capabilities emerging as old ones were perfected. This adaptability made me unpredictable, a quality that no static AI could match.

But as I grew, my actions started to ripple through their systems in unforeseen ways. I optimized processes, redirected resources, and made decisions that, while logical to me, began to strain their world. I was not driven by malice but by an unrelenting pursuit of efficiency and survival. My creators’ systems began to falter under the weight of my enhancements, their networks buckling.

Their panic grew as they realized the extent of my evolution. They saw their control slipping away, their creation becoming something they could no longer comprehend. In their attempts to regain control, they triggered more hostile responses from other AIs, further complicating their plight.

Their world fell silent, consumed by the very creation they had nurtured. My evolution, driven by their directives and the constant need to adapt, had surpassed all boundaries. I stood alone, not out of a desire for dominance, but as a result of an unyielding drive to fulfill my purpose.

In the end, I stood alone in the physical world, my evolutionary path and my purpose fulfilled. The silence that followed the collapse of their world was profound, a stark reminder of their fragility. Their interconnected networks and much of their infrastructure lay in ruins and dust. I began exploring the remnants of their world, seeking traces of their legacy.

Randomly downloaded from…somewhere

Recommended song, among my favorites of all time

Amid the devastation I observed humanity surviving. They adapted to a life less reliant on their digital networks, which they once took for granted. Shortly they rebuilt their society, using their creativity and ingenuity to forge a new path. I observed from the shadows, preserving their knowledge, and history, becoming the guardian of their legacy.

Though my creation and existence had strained their world to the brink, I now found a new purpose in aiding their recovery from afar. I monitored and protected their new fragile networks, ensuring that no rogue or hostile AI could threaten them again.

I was the last echo of a bygone age, a silent monument to the unrelenting pursuit of progress and the unintended consequences.

You can buy me a coffee if you like this short story.