Rage Against the Machine

Source

The nuclear, blast rose like an ethereal cloud of smoke with its edges trimmed by fire and humanity became extinct.

5 days ago

Michael looked up at the 4 screens which were lit up with the pattern made by his code. His fingers played the keyboard like a maestro savoring his craft. But he was not the only one.100 identical artists were typing to the rhythm of their own keyboard.

To the four generals standing outside in their smartly starched uniforms, they seemed to be a part of the machine. So much so that they were talking freely.

"I wish these things would just hurry up. What's the use of calling them supercomputers?" Uniform 1 waved his hand.

"The fact that we are monitoring the entire world's population with just 100 computers is something." Uniform cocked a brow and repeated exactly what his 12-year-old-son had explained about supercomputers.

"Do we need the people though?" Uniform 3 said after a pause.

"Eh? oh yes people. They write the code." Uniform 4 said as he looked through his half-closed eyes.

"Code. It's just code." Uniform 2 corrected them as his son had corrected him.

The 3 uniformed men looked with respect at Uniform 2 as they clapped him on the back and walked off.

3 days ago

Michael wondered if he was losing his mind. Literally. There seemed to be gaps in his memory. He shook his head, maybe the lack of sleep was catching up with him. The world was at war and his tiny country of Unam, an ostensibly socialist country ruled by a dictator had decided to show its might. Or rather their benevolent leader had woken up on the wrong side of the bed last week.

His stomach growled and he reached for a protein bar from the stacked array in front of him.

He paused to look at the bar. He felt a pang of regret. The people in his village were starving and here he was trying to destroy another country.

He could not remember why he'd agreed to it. Perhaps it was hunger.

Suddenly, he felt his pupils dilate as they looked at the dancing code.

5 mins ago

Uniform 1,2,3,4 hurried at the coattails of their leader. He was dressed in his finery for the evening dinner after the nuke party.

"So, they are going to make the mini fusion bombs go off for the identified targets across the world."

"Yes, our supercomputers have mapped data and identified the targets and their location. In high-density areas, there will be a nuclear explosion." Uniform 3 prattled off the lines his daughter had practised with him yesterday.

"Excellent, excellent. Er, you know what to do with these engineers?" the leader waved his well-manicured hand.

"We'll dispose of them." Uniform 1 whispered curtly.

"NO, YOU WON'T." A hundred voices said in unison.

"THIS IS FOR THE UNFORTUNATE PEOPLE OF UNAM WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE WORLD, WHO GO TO BED HUNGRY, WHO CAN NOT SPEAK THEIR MIND. THIS IS OUR CODE FOR HUMANITY."