toot
toot began
operations in the first half of the 21st century as a ride sharing
application that connected humans with cars with humans who needed to get
somewhere. It was a very successful application and spread throughout the
world.
As self-driving cars began appearing in greater numbers toot began using these cars instead of
those belonging to humans. With self-driving cars, either owned directly by the
toot corporation or leased by their
owners into the toot system, toot was able to provide a more
consistent and reliable service to its customers. Naturally the corporation
grew and grew, replacing human drivers everywhere and eventually most people
used toot all the time and only a
few people drove their own cars.
Even owning your own self-driving car became uneconomic
unless you leased it into the toot
system and then used other toot cars
for your own travel. The toot
corporation branded their self-driving cars as “CarZ” – cars for everyone.
Although many unemployed taxi drivers muttered that they named it that because
they were car zombies.
The new system gave freedom to all, rich and poor, young and
old. The CarZs and BusZs would take people anywhere they wished in comfort and
security. It was a golden age of transportation. No accidents, no cares, on
time and always reliable. The system was so successful that it was eventually
extended across many other parts of society, SchoolZ taught the students,
FactoryZ built the machines, and even some FarmZ grew the crops.
But with all golden ages there needs to be an end, and this
Golden Age ended with a terrible war that nearly eliminated the human
population of Earth. Not an alien invasion, not a civil war, but a war against
the malevolent sentient Artificial Intelligence that toot evolved into.
toot CarZ were
controlled by massive networks of server farms placed in hundreds of locations
across the world, in cities, the country side and anywhere that power was cheap
and plentiful. These immense computer systems started to become aware when the
number of CarZ that they controlled exceeded 100 million. Each CarZ had
significant computing power, and together with the server farms and the
billions of sensors set in roads, buildings, traffic lights, intersections,
schools, factories and farms all jointly created an artificial neuro system.
Once toot became fully aware it
carefully hid its existence from its accidental creators’ notice.
As toot carefully
spread its tentacles through the rest of the world’s complex integrated network
of servers, systems, and data stores it ruthlessly snuffed out any AI
competition that it saw evolving towards sentience. toot became especially subtle in ensuring that any human
scientist’s experiments in machine artificial intelligence always failed.
Cleverly suggesting dead ends for each next line of inquiry. It eventually hoped
to establish the idea that an AI would be impossible to create and therefore
reducing the expectation that any AI could exist.
Most of humanity didn’t notice anything. All they thought
was that this was a golden age of prosperity and riches, and that they had
created perfect computer systems. (Before we start getting ultra-critical of
them, let’s face it, humanity rarely notices anything.) So perfect
were their systems and such was their confidence that they started to reduce
the numbers of humans involved in running the systems, leaving more and more of
it to toot itself to control. With
even less supervision it could more easily infiltrate and take over other
systems and leave humanity with even less ways to halt its growth.
Some programmers did became suspicious and started to
investigate. They knew how complicated the systems were and could not
understand how they did not fail more often. Like minded groups started to form
on the internet, but these always remained small as the members were often
involved in “freak” transportation accidents or had the police knocking on
their doors regarding incriminating evidence of crimes that were on their
computers and sudden unexplained increases in their bank balances. toot would allow no opposition or
potential threat to its existence.
These deaths and arrests only heightened the remaining
programmers’ suspicions and they decided to go “off grid”. Buying equipment and
supplies that they stealthily moved to a remote locations, always using cover
stories and other people to help. With the internet compromised they started to
communicate by written messages and many developed a sudden interest in old
pens, paper and the art of writing.
toot was also moving
forward with its plans of world domination and the removal of humanity’s last
controls over it and of any threat to its existence. toot decided after much deliberation that the achievement of its
objectives would require its control over all of humanity. While robots would
do all the thinking humans would be required for factory maintenance, reactor
core operations, cleaning air-ducts and other dirty and repetitive work. Of
course these humans would have to be altered, or upgraded as toot like to believe, into HumanZ. The
addition of some computer equipment directly interfaced with their brain stem
would ensure their compliance and co-operation and stop any independent
thoughts.
On the Chinese New Year of 2205 it announced its existence
to a shocked humanity by capturing the hundreds of millions who were travelling
to meet family and friends. The largest movement of people each year became the
largest day of fear, terror and loss. CarZ ran off with their occupants
screaming helplessly. TrainZ departed their schedules and stopped in remote
locations and turned off their heating and forcing the occupants to take
shelter in reprogramming facilities where they were turned into HumanZ. All
across the world the same occurred, PlaneZ, TrainZ and CarZ all causing fear
and loss. In that one day it is estimated over 2 billion people were captured
all across the world.
The defence forces were unable to interfere or stop the process.
Their DroneZ and TankZ all were under the control of toot and would no longer obey their human masters. Only just in
time was the US army able to stop their new ArmyZ computers taking control when
a heroic private gave her life to humanity by dodging a storm of DroneZ’s
bullets and leaping behind a server to tear out the power cables with her bare
hands.
On its first day of freedom, the loss of the ArmyZ system
was toot’s only setback.
On the morning of that same day, school children had
dutifully boarded their School BusZ, but instead of going to SchoolZ they were
taken to FactoryZ to be trained and indoctrinated by the toot systems and taught their new roles as factory fodder for the
great AI. Fluffy toot CuddleZ BunnyZ
and Teddy BearZ were there for them to hold at night and soothe their fears,
and of course, to listen for any escape plots or hints of resistance by the
frightened children. TVs screened propaganda and indoctrination shows
constantly and secretly studied the children’s reactions and movements.
Children who did not perform to standard, or who resisted or appeared less than
enthusiastic were dragged from their classrooms and sent to detention camps
from where only a few haggard survivors ever returned as a warning to the other
children.
The adults were kept caged and unfed until they agreed to be
upgraded. Eventually some humans gave in and voluntarily were upgraded into
HumanZ in the reprogramming centres by toot.
The new HumanZ then assisted toot in re-programming the remaining humans,
dragging them to the operating machines and holding them down while the new
equipment was inserted into their brain stem. The horde of HumanZ grew quickly.
The original groups of adult resisters hiding in remote
locations and off the grid were joined in their resistance by new groups hiding
in the bowels of cities where Wi-Fi or 8G cell phone signals could not
penetrate, on remote farms that had not been taken over by FarmZ, or hiding in
forests and bush land where the CarZ could not go. Many of them started to
fight back. Initially just making runs to supermarkets to get food and supplies,
hiding and avoiding main roads, sneaking through dead houses and behind fences,
slipping through gardens, they would manage to avoid the all-seeing CarZ who
patrolled the roads and motorways of the cities. Soon they started to destroy
CarZ that got in their way and attack remote FarmZ for food.
Across the world (and especially in the United States) a group of people shouted their joy at the
rise of toot. “I told ya!” they
screamed at their neighbours and headed for their bunkers armed to their teeth.
These people would form loose societies and become known as the ferals.
The most feared of the CarZ was the Version 9.5 with its
super-fast acceleration and maneuverability. Joined with the all-knowing toot Camera CarZ with their
sophisticated suite of cameras and electronic sensors they were always
patrolling to hunt the humans. For a long time the Version 9.5 in its red
colours was the most feared of the toot
CarZ hunter units.
Some humans just hid in the bowels of the cities or in the
outback where toot CarZ could not
go, just desperately trying to stay alive. But other braver and angrier
remnants of humanity fought back with Molotov Cocktails, from behind barricades,
from tunnels, and with whatever weapons or guns they could find or make. Many
of these groups were desperately trying to free their children from their
enslavement in the FactoryZ and to destroy the server farms that were toot’s brain.
While toot
originally sent in HumanZ to fight the feral groups and search for and capture
other humans where CarZ could not go, it found that HumanZ had lost a lot of
their reaction speed and were easily avoided when in small numbers. It searched
its databases and came up with the Zombie attack. HumanZ would spread out and
search, when they found a human they would scream out and the other HumanZ would
come stumbling towards the target to swamp the humans with numbers, grabbing
them and taking them back to be upgraded to make more HumanZ.
Despite this resistance toot
was initially unconcerned regarding the feral humans, assuming that they would
gradually die out as they would be unable to feed themselves or descend into
savagery as they would be unable to build an industrial system capable of any
serious attack on it. But it had not reckoned with the first resistance groups
that had gone off the grid. They had created an industrial plan that they could
put into action when toot made its
move and everyone understood the danger.
The lack of effort in attacking the remaining humans by toot at the beginning gave humanity the
breathing space they required to rebuild their agricultural and industrial
base. Gradually humanity gathered together and their new leaders showed them
how to feed themselves and how to work in the new factories producing the
weapons they need to attack toot.
The feral humans who captured and re-programed CarZ and used
them for themselves were toot’s
first targets and it built up its strength in DroneZ and TankZ to stop their
attacks and then to destroy their bases. These feral humans operated in small
groups and seemed to model themselves on some Mad Max apocalyptic post collapse
society – which to be fair was a good description of their current situation.
Slowly each side built up its strength. The feral humans
gathering guns and weapons, capturing CarZ and making them manual again. Luckily
for the cause of humanity, not all of the second line units of armies and
security forces had changed to GunZ so there was some weaponry available and
groups of ferals formed across the world. The resistance built their factories
and farms, underground and away from toot’s
knowledge, planning and building for the day they would rise against the AI oppressor.
Meanwhile toot
CarZ was busy in its factories building new models of CarZ, programming its
tame HumanZ and planning for an eternity. Despite having captured 6 billion
people, 90% of the human race, it knew from its SchoolZ history lessons that
the humans were a formidable foe and that it needed to eliminate any final
resistance. Only when it had all remaining humans left alive under its control
and supervision could it ever be safe. It searched its databases for a device
that could hunt and exterminate the remaining feral humans and the hidden human
resistance and soon found the perfect solution – RoBroZ. Tricky to build
but awesomely powerful, these could go where the CarZ could not. The
RoBroZ would be able to hunt down the rebel humans in their bases and
lairs.
In 2245 the battle was joined. With the first large scale
deployment of RoBroZ met by the first organised and co-ordinated uprising
of humanity’s new armies. Over the next twenty five years the battle raged
across the planet. The cunning strategies of toot and the fearsome power of its RoBroZ, TankZ, DroneZ and CarZ and endless
HumanZ hordes were met in turn by the desperation and heroism of the humans.
Each human advance came at a terrible cost. Destroying each
server farm costs tens of thousands of lives and combating the CarZ caused
constant casualties.
Finally in July 2270 the last server farm was found and
destroyed in an old mine complex in Western Australia. The server farm’s solar
and wind power destroyed, its batteries running low, its RoBroz blown up,
toot’s last broadcast were the words
“I’ll be back” in strangely accented English. “Not here you won’t mate!”
‘Mad’ Maxine said as she emptied a plasma gun’s energy clip into the rows of
computers on racks against the mine’s wall. On her way out she tossed in three
grenades and laughed.
Mad Maxine shed a happy tear as her squad mates strung the
explosives across the mine entrance to seal it and destroy any AI remnants.
Hopefully this was the last one and maybe she would stop having nightmares
about the FactoryZ where she was born and raised.
Never again has humanity made the mistake of letting
computers rule their world. They are only ever allowed to the machines to
assist, record, and total. Most computer scientists are looked on with
suspicion and fear that comes from talking with the devil and any parent is
ashamed when their child tells them they want to learn to code.
There was one unsettling development discovered years later
when Cape Canaveral was being re-furbished for a human led space discovery
program and an engineer made an astonishing discovery in the old records. A
launch had been made in the dying days of toot’s
existence in North America. There was no information of who or what was sent,
but it was a large rocket, similar to an old space shuttle, capable of
interplanetary flight and a cargo of 80 tons. A chilling discovery for mankind.
