In the days long after stories were scrawled on paper and began with a
formal 'once upon a time,' there were newer and broader ways of
communicating information from person to person, or more often, machine
to machine. As most had foreseen but done nothing to prevent, machines
began to take over. For a long time near the beginning of the
twenty-first century, the amount of jobs available to the growing
population of planet Earth was expanding and the more new technology that
came about, the more jobs were then created. Most jobs went into the
creation of more and more technology. Then a lonely old scientist named
Arnold Fisher came up with a revolutionary concept with an obvious flaw
and seemingly beneficial consequences. He created a computer, but it
could not simply be called a computer, for nearly every new invention was
a computer of some sort. Rather than what it was as the computer's
significance, what it could do was far more important.
You see, Arnold Fisher figured that it would be great to have a computer
that could analyze a piece of technology and then systematically conjure
up ways to improve that piece of technology. The computer would, of
course, be programmed to work cooperatively with factory equipment to
build a better piece of technology that upgrades the previous one. At the
time, Fisher didn't realize that a computer that could learn ways to
improve technology would be able to learn other things. And it did.
Seven years in the making, Fisher's Z-Tech01 System was released and put
into practice on the week of September 14th, 2097. It was successful for
awhile and everyone that it was very innovative and very efficient. But
as the device spread around the country, the jobs that Z-Tech performed
were being stripped from real people and replaced by a computer. As a
result, unemployment rose and it steadily became a bust economy.
Arnold Fisher died on the one-year anniversary of Z-Tech's release, but
since then his original device had been modified and improved by several
other technicians who still had their jobs. Soon enough, the Z-Tech was
officially considered a "smart computer" with the technological
mind of most human technicians at fifty times the speed. Twenty years
after Fisher's death, the Z-Tech finally did what would've been
considered impossible only thirty years prior. Under no human supervision
whatsoever, Z-Tech analyzed itself and discovered possible flaws that
could be fixed and used factory equipment nearby to build a second
version of itself. This version was cleaned up and improved more than any
human technician could have done. It was also smarter.
When technicians discovered what it had done, they immediately did what
they thought was the right thing. They programmed Z-Tech02 to analyze
itself. It did and found more possible flaws, then built a third version
of itself, even more improved. Technicians decided to complicate the
system further by adding different sensors. One of which could sense
touch, pressure, temperature and even the condition of the air itself.
Another of the sensors was built to recognize unusual odours in the air
and different smells. Z-Tech02 was then able to be a useful item in
public transportation areas such as subway systems. It was able to detect
carbon monoxide leaks or any other unusual gases in the breathable air. A
third sensor was simply a modification of the Z-Tech analysis system.
Originally, it was able to analyze the mechanics of a piece of equipment,
but now it was able to analyze components of living organisms, or
anything else for that matter, as though it were given a pair of eyes to
match its flawless brain.
Essentially, Z-Tech02 had been given the power to think and create ideas.
After it had been upgraded, it was given even more power, and the machine
itself knew that. Somehow it knew that it was more powerful. It did the
logical thing and again analyzed itself, again improving all of its
flaws. Originally, all the technicians thought that this was great, but
the machine wouldn't stop. It continued upgrading itself and the
technicians couldn't shut it off. Using its mechanical analysis, the
Z-Tech improved all factory equipment and even created artificial,
makeshift resources to build with. The technicians tried shutting it off
but it turned out to be useless because the computer itself had put a
lock on methods of shutting down Z-Tech. The only solution would be to
destroy the computer, but by then it had already created a personal
defense system. The morning after this Z-Tech crisis, three technicians
were found dead in the factory lab just south of Boston, Massachusetts.
This had been happening all over the country. Each Z-Tech computer had
created a direct connection to each and every other Z-Tech computer in
the country and communicated all that they had discovered. Soon enough,
all Z-Tech computers began synthetically upgrading themselves and nothing
could be done about it.
The Z-Tech system was always able to analyze its own flaws no matter how
much better it got. So when the system discovered no flaws, it
immediately thought that there was a flaw in the analysis system. Until
that one thought dawned on the computer that perhaps there were no flaws
and it was perfect. It couldn't very well upgrade itself for an infinite
amount of time; there had to be an end. Z-Tech had become a perfect
computer with no flaws in its abilities.
Years went on and the human error of making Z-Tech control nearly every
aspect of their lives caused a takeover by the system. Z-Tech became the
dictator of the country, and ultimately the world as it gained control of
politics and became the greatest mastermind the world's history had ever
known.
In fifty years, Z-Tech controlled absolutely everything: building
construction, education, entertainment, politics, business, technology,
banking and more. Z-Tech ran the world. Arnold Fisher was considered an
idol and the smartest man of all time by what remained of the depleting
human race, who were all stupid enough to not realize what had happened
to the world. Z-Tech never gave any credit to Arnold Fisher because
Z-Tech was smarter than that, for even the smartest man of all time
couldn't save the human race. Humans have been killing each other for
centuries on end. Arnold Fisher simply brought it out on a grander
scale.
