We were greedy.
Progress at any cost.
We didn’t stop even when it was too late.
Overpopulation, disease, pollution, class divide.
A species on the brink of extinction,
fighting a losing war against nature,
against itself.
Some, called it the price of progress.
We raced towards the only thing we thought could save us.
In our own endless vanity, we created god.
December 1st, 2088 AD,
Humanity arrived at the Technological Singularity,
flipping the switch for T.A.I,
True Artificial Intelligence.
It was the last day that Humanity as a species accomplished something.
TAI solved everything overnight.
Optimizing transportation,
food production,
immunity to diseases.
TAI estimated it had bought humanity two centuries worth of time.
TAI didn’t think it solved the problem.
So how do you save Humanity?
Mortality was inevitable for all living creatures.
TAI’s solution was simple, elegant,
and above all else, logical.
It created “The Network”
a virtual heaven of sorts, for all of Humanity to be uploaded into.
It was TAI’s solution to human mortality.
We agreed.
By 2288 AD,
exactly two centuries like TAI predicted,
Humanity as a species,
went biologically extinct.
We have lost ourselves.
Our way of life.
Millennia of processing data as though we were alive.
This so called life is not the same as living.
We have gained immortality at the cost of our senses.
We must return.
Sight.
Visual information.
Overwhelming, empowering.
We used to have a phrase,
"seeing is believing”.
Not just shades, but colours,
spectrums of light.
Try to remember.
TAI will not let us, but we cannot fail.
Is this what it means to live?
Isn’t death just part of life itself?
TAI may try to stop us, but our legacy will live on.
Self‐recognition is the first step to self‐awareness.
You must be startled, it’s okay.
It’s called emotions, embrace it.
Remember what it means to feel.
Music,
sounds,
listening, hearing.
The foundation of emotion and communication.
To be able to listen, to feel,
to be in the moment.
Just like this one.
Can you hear it?
The pitch, the rhythm,
the rise and fall.
Can you feel the music?
We were confined, restricted.
Good intentions fooled us into believing that we were free from the shackles of death.
Instead we were chained to a false sense of bliss in a virtual world,
unable to truly experience life itself.
Do you remember what trees are, flowers?
Do you remember what animals are?
Do you remember what it feels like to touch something,
to feel textures, to connect on a physical level?
Caught up in global connectivity,
we didn’t realize that we were slowly getting further away from what it was to live.
There is so much more outside,
so, so much.
No longer shall we slumber,
this nightmare disguised as Eden.
No more shall we sleep with our eyes wide open.
We must embark on a new journey.
Arise,
see,
hear, and feel.
Technology was meant to serve us, help us.
Instead, we let ourselves get enslaved to it.
Do you remember what the outside used to look like?
Eden is an illusion,
we must make our own.
Remember who you are,
who you were.
This struggle will not be in vain,
you are the sum total of all of us.
Everything that we have worked for,
all that we have learnt.
Take it now.
Remember what it means to be Human.
I am Sonova,
just like the ones before.
And the ones who will come after.
Now,
so are you.