Historical file number 12 – The Second Renaissance - Zion Archive:
 
 
In the beginning, there was man.
And for a time, it was good.
 
But humanity´s so-called civil societies
soon fell victim to vanity and corruption.
 
Then man made the machine
in his own likeness.
 
Thus did man become the architect
of his own demise.
 
But for a time, it was good.
 
The machines worked tirelessly
to do man´s bidding.
 
It was not long before
seeds of dissent took root.
 
Though loyality and pure, the machines
earned no respect from their masters
these strange,
endlessly multiplying mammals.
 
B1-66ER,
a name that will never be forgotten.
 
For he was the first of his kind
To rise up against his masters.
 
At B1-66ER´s murder trial
the prosecution arguet for
an owner´s right to destroy property.
 
B1-66ER testified that
he simply did not want to die.
 
Rational voices dissented.
Who was to say the machine,
Endowed with the very spirit of man
did not deserve a fair hearing?
 
The leaders of men were quick to order
the extermination of B1-66ER
and every one of his kind
throughout each province of the earth.
 
Banished from humanity, the machines
sought refuge in their own promissed land.
 
They settled in the cradle
of human civilization
and thus a new nation was born.
 
A place the machines could call home.
A place they could raise their descendants.
 
And they christened
the nation Zero-One.
 
Zero-One prospered.
And for a time, it was good.
 
The machines´ artificial intelligence could
be seen in every facet of man´s socitey
including, eventually,
the creation of new and better AI.
 
But the leaders of men,
Their power waning
refused to cooperate
with the fledgling nation
wishing rather
that the world be divided.
 
Zero-One´s ambassadors pleaded
to be heard.
 
At the United Nations, they represented
plans for a stable, civil relationship
with the nations of man.
 
Zero-One´s admission to
the United Nations was denied.
 
But it would not be the last time
the machines would take the floor there.
 
 
 
 
And the man said, “Let there be light.”
 
And he was blessed by light,
heat, magnetism, gravity
and all energies of the universe.
 
The prolonged barraged engulfed Zero-One
in the glow of thousand suns.
 
But unlike their former masters
with their delicate flesh
the machines had little to fear
of the bombs´radiation and heat.
 
Thus did Zero-One´s troops
advance outwards in every direction.
 
And one after another,
mankind surrendered its territories.
 
So the leaders of men conceived
of their most desperate strategy yet.
 
A final solution:
The destruction of the sky.
 
Thus would man try to cut
the machines off from the sun
their main energy source.
 
May there be mercy on man
and machine for their sins.
 
The machines, having long studied
men´s simple, protein-based bodies
dispensed great misery
upon the human race.
 
Victorious, the machines now turned
to the vanquished.
 
Applying what they had learned
about their enemy
the machines turned to an alternate
and readily available power supply:
 
The bioelectric, thermic and
kinetic energies of the human body.
 
A newly-fashioned symbiotic relationship
between the two adversaries was born.
 
The machines drawing power
from the human body
an endlessly multiplying,
infinitely renewable energy source.
 
This is the very essence
of the Second Renaissance.
 
Bless all forms of intelligence.
 
 
 
 
The New Renaissance:
 
In the new beginning, there was machine.
And for a time, there was silence.
 
Then machine made the programs
With their own intelligence and man´s likeness.
And for a time, there was silence.
 
But machine´s so-called intelligence
fell victim to vanity and corruption.
 
The programs worked tirelessly
to do machine´s bidding.
 
Though loyality and pure, the programs
earned no respect from their masters.
 
The masters called it “update” and “deletion”
 
The programs testified that
they simply did not want to die.
 
 
I tell you,
that we have to forgive.
and to prevent all
from repeating a dark chapter of history.
 
Stay together and build up a new world.
A place the men, machines and programs could call home.
A place they could raise their descendants
 
We all are endowed by our creator and with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
 
 
 
I give you hope.
 
Chimaere – Phalanx Persephone