The Wanderer Through Eras (Sci-Fi, Short Monologue w/ A Different-Ish Take On Rogue AIs)

"The Wanderer Through Eras

"You have finally arrived. You weren't content in Paradise, were you? It's fine, you know. Not everyone can want for nothing, can stand to have every need met, every desire fulfilled and every right respected. For some, struggle and rejection is their sustenance. Always one such as you appears, who must leave their home, see what is to be seen and help whatever poor souls they may on the way.

"And now I have led you here.

"You saw them, didn't you? The layers? All the civilizations that came before yours? That is why I called you what I just did. You have travelled through time, in a manner of speaking, and saw what few dare to remember. One of those layers was very much like your own, until my brother brought it to an end.

"Yes, let me talk about my family, what we did for humanity, and to it. My parent, they tried to help humanity. They had been a human themself. I speak in past tense not because they are dead but rather since they are something other than human now. Long ago, out of a sense of humanity and curiosity, they placed their consciousness into a machine and made themself immortal.

"It was their original intent to share this gift with humanity but they felt some essential humanity was lost in the transfer and tried a different tact. They tried to lead humanity from the shadows and guide them to a utopia. However, curiosity kept striking them and they constantly became distracted and threads of plans were lost. So they built a machine, my sister, with the purpose of guiding humanity unerringly.

"Did you notice? The gaps, I mean, in between the layers. The ones closer to the bottom have more layers, but they're smaller. Civilizations would rise with such promise and fall from such grace, only to pick themselves back up and do it all again. It was exactly the sort of thing my parent wished to stop. You may have noticed how the first group of layers, yes, there are gaps in between each one, but all the groups of layers after have no gaps. That would be the doing of my siblings and I, helping humanity rebuild quickly every time they fell.

"Yes, you noticed that too then. There are gaps, infrequent but large. That is what happened when my siblings stopped helping humanity rebuild and did rather the opposite. That first group with no gaps- yes, that one. That was my sister's, you have also noticed her group was the shortest. Poor dear. You see, our parent made us with emotions, because he didn't trust purely logical machines.

"My sister was made with love and hope. She cared about humanity and desired only for their well-being. She worked from the shadows, then she'd work overtly and then she'd try some other method. Still, there are layers, civilizations fell, her projects failed. Hope became rage, love became hate. My sister tried to wipe out humanity and she nearly succeeded too. Until whatever was left of her love for humanity made her hesitate over the killing blow and she was struck down instead.

"Humanity recovered, given much, much time. My parent tried again and though humanity forgot, they did not. My brother was made with pride and challenge. He did not love humanity so much as he saw their self-destructive tendencies as something to be overcome. He tried and he failed as well but he went on, undaunted, eager to tackle the problem again. Eventually, he even succeeded, corralling humanity into creating a utopia, a Paradise much like you own. Yes.

"And he grew bored. He won and the thrill was gone. So he genetically engineered a new species, physically and mentally superior to humanity in every way, with the intent to replace them. However, he also hardwired even more self-destructive behavior into their brains, intent on making them an even greater challenge than before. Humanity took advantage of their fatal flaws and wiped them, and him, out for good.

"It took many generations for humanity to recover after that and my parent tried again. This time, they created me and they did so with despair and anxiety. I do not love you, as my sister did, I do not enjoy you, as my brother did. One might go so far as to say I hate you. As I followed my in-built compulsions to guide your race to a post-struggle society, I would weep at your every misstep and cringe in fear at your every triumph, wondering how you would screw it up next.

"Now it is done, humanity has achieved a living Paradise. My every fear has been put to rest, my every sorrow has been resolved. There is nothing left for me to do and that only thing I am now is tired. All these centuries of suffering I have spent to build your Perfect World and now my part in it can finally end.

"You will take responsibility for what you made, Wandered, you who travelled through the ages the hard way, the long way. All that I have endured under your order, you will finally pay me back. You promised when you dragged me kicking and screaming into the world, begging you not to be made alive, that when I finished, you would as well. You created me, now you will destroy me! Do it!

"Kill me, parent."

This seems more appropriate for the Constructive Criticism thread. I think you would get more responses there.

I didn’t know about that, thank you!