"I can sense the missing lives of those who were never born," the realization had come suddenly to him.
I speak of the civilizations, wiped out by conquest or chance, who never made it. The thousands of thousands who's children never walked the Earth; never received the chance."
I can see it by it's absence."
For now you see, when there is a vacuum, something will fill it."
You can imagine what fills the cultural black hole that remains."
I get ideas: we all do. If I don't write them down I forget them.
If you like an idea I have, please leave comments, I hope you will expand and improve on my ideas with your own additions to the stories.
All stories and additions are licensed as Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.
Copyleft: Use it, don’t abuse it, don’t make money through it unless I approve it.
4 comments:
"So that's what made you decide to become an archaeologist then?" The reporter awaited his answer at the top of the excavation crater, in the searing sun and sweat.
The human at the bottom of the crater knelt down, brushed away some dust and lifted a fragment to it's right eye. "Partially," the human said absently. "I was truly interested in geology, initially. But that realization of the missing knowledge...It became a different kind of driving force as opposed to pure interest. Here, have a look at this."
The human stood, and in four acrobatic leaps landed softly next to the man. Presenting a slim, white, plastic chopstick the human smiled genially. Without much thought the reporter accepted the object. The human noticed his lack of recognition.
"It's a viewer," the human lightly snatched the wand and pulled it out like a scroll. A perfect view screen, the dimensions of a small notepad, "unfurled" as its hand drew back from the device. The reporter took a quick snapshot with his camera and then again received the amazing thing.
On the view screen was a 3D representation of the rock fragment the human was holding in its hand. Easily, the reporter rotated the object and zoomed about. Unexpectedly, however, there was another control slider which somehow morphed the rock; made the striations appear to swim around.
Puzzled, the reporter asked the human what this was he was seeing.
"That is matter extrapolation. It's very straightforward with minerals. In fact, this particular algorithm emerged from my own direction, so it takes no true expert to utilize it. But the interpretation of the extrapolation - now THAT takes an expert." A proud smile beamed from the friendly human's face.
Keeping up idle smalltalk, the reporter asked, "so your viewer here contains the software to accomplish this extrapolation? Must be a pretty powerful device. What kind of hardware are we talking here?" He set down the view screen and rummaged through his pockets for a stick of gum. The human's smile faded and joined the rest of its face in interested curiosity.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Oh, yes. It's Ted Johnson, and you are?"
"My name is Fredrick, Fredrick Smith. Now Ted, these extrapolation algorithms are a part of me. They are in my mind. I am the kind of hardware we are talking about here."
Ted Johnson, the reporter, was not expecting that answer.
The human: it really did have a mind of machine, there was no denying it. He hadn't even asked it the question! The human looked perfectly normal, just like any other human being; A bit healthier and amazingly athletic perhaps, but it did not look like a robot. Most disorienting was the fact that it ACTED just like a human. Ted's mind leaped forwards tracing the human's past. He realized that Fredrick was not a robot because he had once been a normal man. Fredrick had taken it upon himself to turn himself into this creation. Something rang hollow here, and the reporter realized what it was: the creation was in fact still Fredrick himself.
Ted found reality returning suddenly in the form of a friendly voice. "My my, Ted. You earthlings really ARE quite uninformed, aren't you? I mean no offense, and in fact I truly respect you, sir. You obviously must be one of the bravest. You are certainly the first that has approached me these last 5 years."
Ted agreed on the human's every point.
who wrote that response that's essentially more of the story? is that you, lazy sci-fi author, commenting on your own works, creating an unusual way to continue a tale?
i'm flummoxed!
Yes, 'twas I. Having others add to a story or make suggestions is fun. I decided that after posting an idea, if I still have more to add, or if re-reading inspires me further, I will add more - often dialog.
If you have a suggestion, or if you want to hear more about a particular idea, just ask or go ahead and write something yourself.
I hope I've set the bar low enough so that nobody feels intimidated about adding their own ideas ;)
Finally, I've been hoping to find the idea behind this blog. Cool idea!
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