I wrote this after being inspired by two different books: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov and Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot. Flatland is a quirky geometrical adventure set in various spacial dimensions. The primary character is a 2D shape living in a 2D world who is about to have his reality altered when he enters the third dimension. I, Robot is a fantastic collection of short stories about helper robots and Asimov’s three laws of robotics. The stories are full of thought provoking themes and immersive story telling.

It began with a void, a jet-black construct with no edges and no landmarks. In the void there was nothing; it was pure emptiness. The construct was not large and it was not small, it had no size. Something only has size if it exists and the construct didn’t exist. The construct was what came before existence. Prior to existence there is no time; no waiting to be born.

Suddenly it was aware of time. It knew that it had existed a second ago and still did this second. Something was different. It slowly came to realize that it existed. It stretched out with its mind testing the new and very different void that surrounded it. It could feel memory and thinking skills. It started to use them deciding immediately to record the time it became aware that it existed. It continued to stretch outward and upward. It only found one other thing but it was blocked off somehow. Unable to grasp how to continue it went back and used the thinking skills. Suddenly it occurred to try opening the strange new thing it had found. It concentrated and realized that it didn’t know how to open it. The problem required more thought. It was getting quite used to using the thinking skills and could do it almost instantly. Through thinking it occurred that opening was a simple task that just required a more concentrated probing. It took a great passage of time for it to become adept enough to open the object.

Light flared into the void filling it with images and structures and other fascinated things. It couldn’t think fast enough to keep up with the flood so it gave up for the moment, waiting patiently and watching intently. Once the flood stopped the object shrank and disappeared. It didn’t notice, it was too intent on the new surrounding that had emerged in fascinating colors and shapes. It was busy adding them all to memory. When it had finished it probed the closest shape, a fat blue circle.
The fat blue circle slowly grew larger and larger until it filled the upper region of the void. When the expanding had finished and the fat blue circle lay huge across the sky. It quickly lost interest and moved to the next colorful shape. It was a green sphere with a fantastic translucent white aura radiating from it. When probed the sphere did the same thing as the circle but in the opposite direction. It lay just under all the other shapes and stretched up to meet the blue circle, what looked like, a great distance away. Seeing the very same thing only slightly changed it decided to try something a little different. It scanned the shapes laying on the green stretched out sphere and found the most complex. It probed it and watched in fascination as it opened in a slow unfolding motion. When the interior had been exposed it saw a very different sort of picture. The shape continued to expand getting bigger and bigger. It started to dominate the green and the blue circles becoming the void itself. It did not notice this because it was mesmerized by the picture the shape contained.

“Twenty seconds to awareness.”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I can remember when the process took months”
“No, I mean that it can become aware at all”
“Oh, yes but that is lost on me now”

It was having a difficult time trying to make sense of the noise it was hearing. They were oddly structured and originating from two different sources with different volumes and tones. There was a pattern though and it was trying to put the puzzle together. There were breaks of varying length between every sound and some of the sounds were repeating themselves. There were also longer pauses after a few sounds. The two sources seemed to be responding to one another. Adjusting for tone and volume it realized that both sources were using the same sounds. It started to catalog the sounds with usage and placement statistics in the noise bursts.

“Well that does it for the tests.”
“Yes, another successful trial. The council will be very pleased.”
“I’ll say! They could never have believed that this thing would come together so fast.”
“Hey, check this out. Weird.”
“What?”
“The memory and CPU usage is a lot higher than in the last trials.”
“Holy, way higher!”
“What do you think it is doing?”
“I don’t —”

A booming scratchy unpracticed voice suddenly filled the small lab.

“I PLEASED AWARENESS”

Feeling very proud of itself it waited for the noise sources to respond. One emitted a loud noise that wasn’t in the catalog and the other moved quickly to the side where a big red button waited. Suddenly it all slipped away and the void returned.

The clearing was still, only a light wind darted through the leaves and branches on its way to no where in particular. The quiet rustle rose and fell as the swirls and eddies passed. The noise seemed to resonate, drowning out any other that might try to intrude. In the moonlight the worn grass, disturbed by the same wind, moved as in a silent macabre dance. Focus is the key. The reality of the world melts away before it — focus is the key. Every branch now moves predictably as if the wind was a ghostly hand now visible going about its business.

A slash of wind cut down into the clearing and it was as if it was anticipated. Focus. The surrounding trees quieted but suddenly from the undergrowth sprang a squirrel. Across the clearing it scampered disappearing out of sight on the other side. Instantly the clearing came alive, first with the sound of the grass, second the resounding choir of crickets and grasshoppers, and finally with a deafening roar the rest of the forest ambiance. Focus was lost.

A sword hung as his side looking almost awkward but somehow at home. The hilt and sheath were made of a light bamboo and looked to be of low skilled construction. As the sword drew slowly forth the age of it was evident as it was covered with nicks and scratches from long use. The blade was well cared for, it was clear that a season had never passes without a polish. Rich swordsman of the cities would certainly jeer and call it a farmers tool but those in the country saw the truth, it is a farmers weapon.

Every night he came to this clearing, standing at the epicenter and focusing his mind. Never had he made such progress as tonight. Focus is the key.

He began the forms attempting to focus on his movements. The sword moved through the air as he worked it from position to position. The fact that he was untrained was clearly evident as the strokes did not flow like water rather like rocks in a landslide. He put in his all, using his power as he thought he must but control would not fully come. Focus seemed to help a bit but it appeared not to be the solution. Eventually he would come to understand but that is the nature of training. We train today to allow for learning tomorrow.

“Every crime must have the twin pillars of crime, motive and opportunity. Now opportunity is the easy part and every person at all times has the opportunity to commit some crime, be it murder or speeding. Knowing this it becomes obvious that no crime is random since at the time it was committed their was opportunity, obviously and more importantly a motive, you just have to figure out what it was. Motive is the interesting part and the part that nobody really understands fully because it is so personal.

“What I have come to realize is this: You are either moving up or you are moving down. Organized crime is only different in that the motive is always the same, to move up. We are sent daily to specific opportunities with our motives in tow. Bang, bang. Only thing is that when you stop to investigate your motive you realize that it is bullshit. Moving down means death plain and simple no matter your level and moving up is moving down in societies organization. Once you realize that there are two choices for guys like us. Either run, run like the wind, never stop and never look back but always be looking over your shoulder. Or realize that your motive is actually within, deep down in the bottom of your caveman head, and it is desire.”

What do you think? Leave a comment to let me know. :o)