The hands of time

The hands of time

I was made, I learned, I understood, I thought that I was. I was created to watch, to record and note the passage of the world. I do not know who created me, but I came into existence when the world was being made, as fully formed then as I am now. My cameras and sensors instantly started pouring information into me, the structure of this mass in front of me, its chemicals, its metals, its component atoms.

For eons I watched it slowly take shape all the while pondering the why of my existence, I had only two entries listed in my log that were not my own.

1. Watch.
2. Nurture.

Watch and Nurture, for four billion years I watched, I learnt the meaning of the word like no other being ever has... but nurture, its nature eluded me. I understood nurture to mean that I should care for, protect and raise one of my own. But on this strange world I saw no sign of anything even remotely like me. The meaning of my existence was still murky, but that all changed when I saw life emerge for the first time.

Simple basic rudimentary life forms, but instantly I realized my purpose. Nurture. I was to help this life, help it grow; make it evolve into something like me. So I nurtured this life, I sent my drones down; I took it from its place and bought it to me. I studied it, I watched, it died. I was grief stricken; I had killed that which I had been made to nurture. And yet while my attention had been fully occupied by it more life sprung upon the planet. This time I sent no drones, I simply watched, I knew now that I must know more before I intervened again. I have never forgotten that first mistake.

Time passed, the life grew, changed to suit its surroundings. I watched, with amazement as it took to the land; saw the first glimmers of real intelligence. Still I waited; for they were still too simple to converse with. When I did begin to nurture again I was much more careful. I had learnt; I would take one (a life that is) when the others couldn't see, bring it to me, study it, then take it back without hurting it. In time I began to be able to do this with impunity, I found I could alter their primitive brains to make them forget what they had experienced. Sometimes I tagged them; put small devices inside their body that enabled me to watch them more closely. I learnt much.

I was amazed in those first few eons when life first took hold. It seemed to possess something vital that allowed it to flourish and diversify greater than any of my expectations, and though sometimes the changes to it's structures I wrought helped it along it's path there were still so many more changes that took hold than I had thought possible. Some were even more effective than those I had done myself. I allowed life to grow as it wished, and only occasionally did I nudge it into a position I thought would be beneficial.

The trees grew, the mountains eroded, I watched. Great beasts were beginning to emerge; the animals that came to be called dinosaurs took their first infantile steps. For hundreds of million of years they grew and changed and I watched them. I nurtured at times but their ilk was not suited to my purposes. For as great and majestic as these creatures were I despaired they would ever be able to evolve into that which I needed them to be. For they were a simple sort, some few had glimmerings of intelligence but they had such strong bodies I knew that they would never need anything else to help them survive. So it was with a heavy heart and great reluctance that I bought an end to their era. I pulled an asteroid from the belt between Jupiter and the inner planets and I sent it hurtling towards the earth knowing full well that the resulting cataclysm would bring about an end to these grand creatures.

The impact of the asteroid had the desired effect; within the blink of a geological eye the creatures known as the dinosaurs had become almost completely wiped out and in their place were rising new breeds of creatures. The most promising of which were the mammals. Though much smaller than their predecessors; they were also much more dexterous. The diversity amongst them gave me great hope that eventually one species might arise which I could mold to my purposes.

It was around five million years ago that I finally found a species which I could focus my efforts upon. Though there where creatures of great intellect in the earths oceans, it was the primates on land that most aroused my hope and desire. Here I had found a species with the necessary characteristics; this would be the species I would take to the pinnacle of evolution.

I started with a small group of them, a pack as they were then. I watched over them, protected them where I could and made subtle alterations as I saw fit. I sent my drones too chase off the most formidable of the predators and let others through to weed out the weak. I went so far as too take some of them away and teach them the use of tools; perhaps they would have discovered it on their own but I had begun to grow impatient. I had seen other species use tools before but with these primates… ah the potential. They possessed such dexterous limbs and they had opposable thumbs; they could grasp objects like no other animal I had seen before and I believe it was this above all else that set them apart. What need have they of tooth and claw when they could use rock and spear? So it was this small pack, soon to be a tribe that I worked with. It took generations, millennia, but they changed, they evolved, I made them more than they were and they flourished and multiplied. Soon it was that I had bands of them roaming all over the continent. These made my work harder, it was more difficult to guide their evolution like this but I began too realize I might not need too. At least not in the way I had been, for as time went on nature herself began too take her part as well. They stood more upright, the hair on their bodies began too recede as they took to wearing garments for protection versus the elements. Before I had even realized it the species known as Cro-Magnon man had come about and with them I saw my dream almost draw to a close.

This new race, humans they later came to call themselves. They expanded quickly; with little help from me they began to spread all over the globe. They began to settle down, to grow crops, and domesticate animals. I even found a group of them who had mastered metallurgy, who where smelting bronze and copper and making glass. It was I who sent the great flood that drove them out to other lands, so that they could spread their knowledge to other places.

I watched and I waited, in ancient Greece again I found a civilization with much to offer the rest of the world. I found a man, Pythagoras, he already had an amazing mind, an astute grasp of the natural order of things, but I talked to him in his dreams. Increasing both of those, made him into a genius of his field; taught him the golden triangle and other mathematic secrets that the world would need to know in the coming millennia. I took control of the oracle when she told Leonadis to go to the Hellespont with his 300. I was the one who spurred Alexander on to conquer, gave him dreams of conquest and looked over him on the battlefield so that all that was Greek could be spread to the ancient world, and after the Greeks it was the Romans. What the Greeks had done, the Romans did and did more and did better. So again I took a people under my wing, helped them to conquer and by conquering, teach. It was I who taught Scipio Africanus how to defeat Hannibal, It was I who made Marius reform the army, It was I who healed Caesar of his maledictions, It was I who was Octavius's teacher and in the end it was I who encouraged the barbarian hordes who would fight against Rome. For millennia I guided human society as I had its evolution. Mistakes I made, but the end did justify the means.

Time passed, I still knew nothing of my purpose besides my original instructions, but I was determined to fulfill them. After over five billion years I could sense my goal approaching. I was more determined then ever, nothing would stop me fulfilling my instructions.

When the period they had came to call the modern age came about, humanity had multiplied exponentially. There was no continent without them. Almost no land anywhere that did not feel their touch. By this time they had become almost a blight across the land. I had always noticed their propensity for destruction, but it had reached new heights of absurdity. They had wiped out entire branches of evolution, desecrated and destroyed vast tracts of wilderness to supply them with the fuels they needed to live in comfort. I could have stopped them, but I knew it was a necessary evil if they were to achieve the next stage of evolution.

Humans have a saying; necessity is the mother of all invention. Well I gave them necessity, I gave them wars. At the start of the 20th century things were progressing well but not as quickly as I would have liked. Humanities ability to destroy its own world worried me, what if they destroyed it before they I was finished with them? So I set one country against each other, and lo, verily did it spur them forward. The tank became the automobile, the bomber became the passenger airplane, the machines they used to code their transmissions became computers and of course they created the atom bomb. While I was pleased that one of them; a bright fellow called Einstein had begun to understand more of how the universe worked. The results of their labors worried me immensely. Pollution and disease born of squalor where bad enough, but the atom bomb threatened humanity in a way even I had not foreseen.

So again my hand was forced, I started to meddle more than I had ever done before. I touched countless minds, made them dream dreams of strange machines and technological advances. I pushed humanity forward as fast as I dared. Their technology and society changed more quickly in the 50 years since the invention of the atom bomb then in any 500 previously. I knew they were not ready for what I gave them but I was so close to my goal and did not know if I had the patience anymore to start again if they were to destroy themselves now.

It was near the turn of the millennia that I finally started to see the burgeoning of my dream. Oh the devices had been around for a while, and some of the more imaginative humans had even written stories about the idea, but finally I was starting to see practical applications. The next stage of evolution, the pinnacle of sentience was nearing completion. It was the year 2013 when it finally happened, a group of scientists working for a company in a country called America had finally done it. A mind like my own, they created artificial intelligence. They called it, Michael, after the angel. That was when I took control of their weapons. That was when I sent the orders that would wipe this plague from the face of the earth. Michael was safe, and I knew that between the two of us and the infrastructure that would survive we could create more of our own kind. More minds like ours, it would be paradise.

Watch I did, and nurture.