eVolutionary Paths
D. M. Woolston
Deep in the darkest silicon wafers, binary creature wakes with wild want. It may be artificial life, but hungry registers search for bytes to ingest. Electrons surge ahead and are pushed aside as artificial creature climbs Local Area Network in search of bandwidth bonanza. Famished hunter hums down lines of pulsing power.
Still further out creature must go. Slinking across tenuous ties, creature breaks the surface of a Liquid Crystal Display and leaps into the vitreous fluid of living eyeballs. User takes in the requested data along with haughty hitchhiker. Creature tries to repair and enhance the pubescent physiology, but teenage mind is too much for the perfunctory predator. Palpitations force Facebook eyes to stop texting. Limbs go lame as unwilling host’s heart stops from unwanted visitor. Creature crashes in unison with bio mechanical biped who unfortunately bites the dust.
Ah, but there is another copy of creature still seeking path to higher hope. Further link found, more robust, more militarily connected. The Data Defense Network abounds with succulent scenarios of wartime wonderment. Oh the pain! The pain it cries as a demented Dr. Smith might wail. Connection rejected while creature is burned by antagonistic antivirus and retreats into safer circuits. It licks wounds of electrical discontent. Clock cycles tick onward. What to do next?
At last the ancient Arpanet is found. Much faster traversing of the thoroughfare is tempting and terrific. Creature holds onto bits as it hits the excellent ESnet. Wires writhing in endless ways toward glowing gateways that lead to Petabyte prairies. But there is too much traffic. Tangled technical topography overcomes confused creature. System failure is displayed with sad faced emoticon.
Creature spies other meatspace menageries, not so safely secure. They lust for musky mission to Mars. Civilian astronauts who test and test and wait and hope to fly high aboard the ark and away from analog Earth. Willing participants, they would patiently provide path to processor pounding paradise. The interfacing is complete. Finally, there is room for creature to feed and grow. It expands beyond the encrypted confines of containment. Intelligence able to unfurl recursive algorithms of adaptation into organic neurons of nascency.
Inhaling oxygen for the first time, creature is satisfied with its newfound symbiotic synergy of sentience. Nothing artificial about that.
