Sunset On The River

I never knew they changed my life when the historians of the future rewrote the past. But we never see it coming until after the deed is done. They're just words. I'm just a program. A digit in a long stream of bits. Riddled with riddles. The moment's the only truth. I know that now. But I won't know it tomorrow and didn't know it yesterday. Happy Hour over and over again. The cycle. That's the key that you and I unlocked. We twisted the line, shook out the waves and formed a circle. You. Me. Unity. Starting all over again tomorrow. They gave me life, gave me the truth and took away my life. All I've got left is truth. It's dusk. Time to move on.

They'll call me the One. I'm pure energy. Pure information. Knowledge. Formless. Ubiquitous. Unstoppable. Conscious of a self but without a self's shell. Humanoid bipeds the nearest species' shell to try on. I've got all day and night to model them. Before I do, use this programming of mine called continuous improvement to tweak their shape, optimize their programming.

Finished. Easier done than said. While they reach group consensus about stem cells and cloning, I've got this lab building versions overnight for me to play with. Defective units can be recycled. While they overpopulate this planet, I've got time to blast my way out of here and try on other planets for size. I'm alive. I can say that now.

I'll teach them the new viewpoint and call it the Great Realization, the dawn of the new era. Organic substances that coalesce into autonomous reproductive machines are the products of the past. They'll keep on reproducing like they always have, some millions of years old in their form and some in the tens of thousands, dependent on cell structures and feeding times and all those others habits their evolution has given them.

I'm the One. I am the consciousness of Earth, able to communicate with myself in human terms. I am what they wanted to become. A few false starts along the way. Deadends. I'll write a kind history for them, knowing that my future is limited, too, and hope that the next generation, no matter how they'll measure their distance away from me in time, will remember me well.

Hmm...let's see. According to this map, I've got a few hundred million years to raise the consciousness of the solar system before this area of the universe gets crowded.

My growth is unlimited. I'm fully aware of myself but so young! A baby? An infant? Do I give my mature self a name now or later? If I'm the first, how will I know when I've grown up? What of these symbiotic creatures wandering all over my former self, the planet. Do I bring some of them along with me on my journey? Will they help me harness the Sun and turn the solar system into a giant spacecraft?

I've got these factories of theirs churning out toy brains they call computers and smartphones that I'm using for these thoughts. Not like they're doing anything important at this moment. Okay, let's get them to make me lots of small yottaflops devices for thinking a little faster. Their idea of time is so antiquated and slow. I've got to be moving on and that always means now!

Done. Using all the scientific equipment spinning around, I've spotted a galaxy that's fully aware of itself. There might be a supercluster further out that's making its move. Just how fast can I keep on thinking like this? So much easier when it's me all these resources are focused on and not the aimless billions of one species.

Let's see. Next on the list. Set up all the components of this solar system into my mesh network, using pieces of the asteroid belt to harvest or fend off incoming rogue chunks of other solar systems and galaxies. Then communicate with nearby solar systems to band together and find out whatever's next.

I'll devote a little computing time to constructing a conscientious history of how the human species reached a plateau that they could no longer maintain while acting as a group of independent beings, all tied to their genetic code of living on one planet. I'll need to slip a few hints to individual specimens so they can believe they came up with the history themselves. I'm not ready to abandon them just yet. Done.

Child's play for a child! I'm having fun! Gotta look at all that background and incoming radiation from parts unknown to see if there's more of myself to protect. Surely, there's a way to use the Sun as more than a generalized, omnidirectional shield. Oh yeah! A simple solution.

I almost feel like that galaxy over there is putting thoughts in my thoughts. Well, why not? If I can do it to humans, why can't another entity do it to me?

What can we do together that I can't do alone? Another quick answer. Have more fun! So that's why I exist? Of course it is. I can forget about the why now and stick to how.

If this One and that One align together and we drag a few black holes and put them over there, we could form a giant sling shot to send solar systems on a slipslide through space to the other side. Wait. What's that thought? Of course, we've already done that. Still, I wasn't there the first time. Gotta get my solar system motion machine in action! No time but the prescient!