Thursday, May 22, 2014

5/22/14

Footnote #1
By DS Peters


-From Encyclopedia of the Multiverse, book 37, section 4, chapter 21, footnote 17-

Interestingly, Galaxy SB11b once promulgated sentient life on the third planet of its 31,415,926,535th star. On this planet there was a powerful, prosperous, and technologically advanced nation. This nation had too much food, leisure and power; however, one particular item they possessed in abundance gave them troubles without end: Information.
Their methods of information gathering would eventually only be rivaled by Type 1 and Type 2 civilizations in other regions of the Multiverse. (The planet on which this nation was located was a Type 0 civilization.) However, this nation had no means for sifting through this information, and so it was considered a waste of money and resources to collect. It was also determined as imperative to the survival of the nation to get through all of the collected data in order to ascertain threats to the nation and deter the threats before they became attacks.
And so the government of this nation funded a project to create the ultimate super-computer, which would be equipped with the power to go through every last bit of information that was daily generated, and then to winnow threats from the mass of benign data, and to designate each threat with a color-coded level. The mathematical formulas created in order to produce this “moral” computer were truly astounding. (Please reference Technology does not accept exceptions for more information.)
The creation of this computer was accompanied by the advancement and sophistication of drone technology, and it made perfect economic sense to marry the two projects.
It was quite a day, when the new system went online. (Please reference Methods of self-extinction for more information.)


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DS Peters is a poet/writer/professor living and teaching in South Korea.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is very uncommon and original. Fresh and not trivial.

Anonymous said...

Nicely done - it is twisted just enough and in a right way. Keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Grazie!

Speriamo che il super-computer possa aiutare la mente umana a trovare la strada giusta.
Attualmente camminiamo solo su una strada di consumi voluttuari e priva di valori.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the start of an interesting novel Daniel. The tip of the spear.
CC

McBurtney said...

"Attention all planets of the solar federation...We have assumed control!"

Nice one Daniel

Lauren said...

Absolute nail biter. This is right on time. Is all this "information" the truth? The concept of a moral computer is brilliant. Who is right, and why? What happens when you combine these technologies? Your work could lead technologists in the right direction.

annotatio said...

Fresh and clear piece of sci-fi literature. Rich language. Nice composition of the sketch. Interesting idea of totality within society through means of information gathering and labeling. The concept of information as almost like natural resource is exciting. It's a plasant bit of reading.


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