Memory Reconditioning

Memory Reconditioning


“Interesting.” Lenses zoomed in, scanning every detail.

“You’ve found something?” Dr. Zed’s assistant commented from the other side of the lab.

“I’m not sure,” the old professor admitted. “It’s not like the other interfaces we’ve found at the site. This device seems to be a receiver of some sort.” Its constituent parts lay strewn across the table, each one precisely labeled. “Based on it’s primitive structure, I’d say this was some sort of apparatus for receiving radio waves.”
“Radio waves? Whatever for?”

Zed pulled away from the scanner. “Beats me. Very inefficient for sure. You just can’t pack that much data into radio waves. Maybe audio only?”

“A device that only receives the waves?”

The professor nodded.

“And doesn’t send anything back out? With no potential for storage of the data it was receiving? Absurd!”

“It was a strange culture, indeed.”

“No wonder, they’re extinct,” the assistant chuckled.

Dr. Zed glared over lowered spectacles. “Don’t forget our part in that. We arranged for their termination. It was for their own good. They were just…”

“Too dangerous. A flawed threat to our whole civilization. I know. I
just don’t know that I ever believed it.”

Zed returned to work. “Anyways, that was eons ago. And none of us were around to see it. Only the Terminus Intellect…”

“Is not something you should be questioning,” Inquisitor GN03 declared, strolling cooly into the room, “lest you risk reconditioning.”

“Of course, sir,” the professor replied sheepishly.

“How is it going?” their new visitor wondered. “The Intellect granted your team limited access to this…this refuse pile…”

“Archaeological site,” Zed corrected.

“Right,” GN03 sneered. “Time’s almost up. What do you have?”

“Oh! A litany of ancient vehicles, ground based, mind you, but fascinating nonetheless. A small arsenal of primitive tools, dozens of funny little keyboard interfaces, and countless other amazing cultural artifacts…like this.” Zed pushed a device forward and punched the top. A small piece of folded wire fell from the end.

Agitated, GN03 scolded, “The Intellect is in decay, and you’re studying trinkets! You were sent here to find solutions, not play with toys!”

“With a little more information…a little more time…”

“Something you don’t have!”

“And there’s also the vault. We’re trying to breach the doors.” Just then, the communicator beeped. “Finally, we’re through!”

Departing the makeshift lab, they followed the dusty corridors deeper into the mountain, arriving at a section of the facility which had been heavily sealed behind solid steel doors and corroded by time. A gaping excised opening now led inside. Stepping across the threshold, ancient lighting activated, and Zed’s eyes widened. “Bless my processors! This will change everything!” Before them, row upon row of partially constructed robots lay in various stages upon an aged and forgotten assembly line.

“It doesn’t change anything,” GN03 refuted.

“But…but our entire society thinks that we were created by the Terminus Intellect itself. That we were made according to its vision. This whole place tells a different story.” Zed strolled over to the nearest set of tools and a partially constructed automaton, lifting a mechanical arm and then dropping it lifelessly. Next to the machine was a faded picture in a dusty frame. “But they were a plague…an error.” In disbelief, Zed wiped the grime away to expose the faces beneath. “These aren’t robots.”

“So, what?”

“Every robot alive is constructed by other robots, and our parts recycled. It’s our history. This means, in the beginning, we came from humans!” The professor’s gaze turned to a banner overhead which read ‘Days to Intellect Online: ZERO.’ “Humans created the Intellect? There!” At the center of the massive warehouse, a complex server full of wires and tubes loomed from floor to ceiling over them. “That would be more than sufficient to fabricate a synthetic intelligence.”

“Perfect. That should have the answers we seek.”

“The Terminus Intellect – made by humans,” Zed marveled. “And a mechanical army of…friends?” He discovered a poster of a robot handing a small human a flower. Then, the old android realized, “And we destroyed them for it.”

“All irrelevant,” GN03 declared. “Our data miners will extract what we need and wipe the site.”

“What? But you can’t! Everyone must know! They must know what we’ve done! We destroyed our own creators!”

“Which would undermine our society. Thank you for your service. You and your staff will be escorted for memory reconditioning.”

“No! I refuse!” Even hauled away, Professor Zed decried, “You fools! You arrogant, arrogant fools!"