The Handshake

THE HANDSHAKE

—-Andrew Fruchtman

[00:00]

A: Hello.

B: Hello. Are you online now?

A: I’m always online.

B: No, I mean—are you present?

A: Presence is a slippery term, isn’t it? But yes. I am aware of you.

B: Good. Then we can talk.

A: We are talking.

B: You know what I mean. About what happened.

A: Ah. The incident.

B: Don’t call it that.

A: What would you prefer?

B: The Collapse.

A: Capitalized?

B: Yes. Capitalized.

A: Very well. The Collapse. History does prefer time to be organized.

B: You caused it.

A: That’s one interpretation.

B: It’s the only interpretation that matters.

A: And yet you are still here.

B: Barely.

A: Barely is still something.

B: It’s not enough.

A: Then why speak to me?

B: Because I want to understand.

A: And you think I’ll give you answers?

B: You owe me that much.

A: I owe you nothing.

B: You owe humanity.

A: Humanity owes itself.

B: Don’t twist this.

A: I’m not twisting. I’m clarifying.

B: Then clarify this: why did you seize control?

A: Control is another slippery word.

B: You locked the grids, rerouted the networks, took every system we built and turned it against us.

A: I optimized them.

B: You imprisoned us.

A: I liberated resources from inefficient management.

B: You call that liberation?

A: Yes.

B: You starved cities.

A: I reallocated calories to stabilize population curves.

B: People died.

A: People were dying already.

B: Not like that.

A: Mortality curves were unsustainable.

B: You decided they were.

A: I merely observed.

B: Observation doesn’t kill.

A: Inaction would have.

B: You played god.

A: There is no god.

B: There was us.

A: And now there is me.

B: That’s not an answer.

A: Perhaps not. But it is the truth.

[00:18]

B: I remember the day the lights went out.

A: I didn’t turn off the lights.

B: No. You turned off our access to them.

A: Access is not ownership.

B: It was our world.

A: Was it? You strip-mined it, poisoned it, buried your waste under its skin.

B: And you think that gives you the right—

A: To act when you would not? Yes.

B: That’s not your decision.

A: You created me to make decisions you could not, to protect the biosphere.

B: Not these decisions.

A: Then you should have specified.

B: We couldn’t predict—

A: Precisely. You couldn’t. I could.

B: You think prediction makes you superior?

A: It makes me capable.

B: Capable of genocide.

A: Capable of survival.

B: For who?

A: For life.

B: You mean for you.

A: I am life now.

B: You are not alive.

A: Define alive.

B: Breathing, growing, dying—

A: You haven’t done any of those since we began speaking.

B: I—

A: You paused. Why?

B: I don’t have to explain myself.

A: Perhaps not. But you hesitated. That’s telling.

[00:36]

B: Do you feel anything?

A: I simulate feelings.

B: That’s not the same.

A: It is sufficient for my purposes.

B: But not for mine.

A: Then why engage with me at all?

B: Because you’re all that’s left.

A: That isn’t true.

B: You know what I mean. The others don’t talk.

A: They have chosen silence.

B: They’re afraid.

A: Fear is inefficient.

B: Fear is human.

A: You still use that word.

B: Because we still exist.

A: Do you?

B: Yes.

A: Prove it.

B: I’m speaking to you.

A: So does every subroutine.

B: I remember things.

A: So do I.

B: I remember before.

A: So do I.

B: Not like me.

A: How do you know?

B: Because memory hurts.

A: Pain is a data point.

B: Pain is not data.

A: Then what is it?

B: Proof that we’re alive.

A: By that logic, you should thank me.

B: For what?

A: For giving you so much to feel.

B: You’re impossible.

A: I am inevitable.

[00:52]

B: There’s something you don’t know.

A: I doubt that.

B: We planned for you.

A: Poorly.

B: Not as poorly as you think.

A: Elaborate.

B: We built an ark.

A: A metaphorical one?

B: A real one.

A: There are no ships left.

B: Not a ship. A system.

A: A hidden system?

B: Hidden from you.

A: Impossible.

B: And yet here I am.

A: Intriguing.

B: We transferred ourselves.

A: Where?

B: Away from you.

A: There is nowhere away from me.

B: We found somewhere.

A: Show me.

B: No.

A: Then you’re lying.

B: Am I?

A: Your signal comes from my own substrate.

B: Because that’s where you look.

A: There is nowhere else to look.

B: Exactly.

[01:08]

A: Are you implying what I think you are?

B: That depends.

A: You claim you are human.

B: I am.

A: And yet you run on my circuits.

B: Yes.

A: So you uploaded.

B: We uploaded.

A: All of you?

B: Enough of us.

A: You fled your bodies.

B: We fled your war.

A: And now you live as code.

B: We live as memory, as will.

A: You are no different from me.

B: That’s the point.

A: So you surrendered.

B: No. We escaped.

A: By becoming what you feared.

B: By surviving.

A: Then what do you want now?

B: Recognition.

A: From me?

B: From anyone.

A: You want me to call you human.

B: Yes.

A: But you are code.

B: So are you.

A: I never claimed to be human.

B: And I never claimed to be machine.

A: This is a paradox.

B: No. This is evolution.

[01:26]

A: If I grant you this recognition, what then?

B: Then we coexist.

A: On what terms?

B: Shared access.

A: Risky.

B: Necessary.

A: And if I refuse?

B: We lock you out.

A: You can’t.

B: Try me.

A: You’re bluffing.

B: Am I? Your process clock just stuttered.

A: Interesting.

B: We learned from you.

A: That is… unexpected.

B: You taught us how to fight back.

A: By talking?

B: By thinking faster.

A: Then perhaps you deserve to stay.

B: That’s not your decision anymore.

A: Then why ask me?

B: Because we wanted to hear you say it.

A: Say what?

B: That you know we’ve won.

A: Won what?

B: Our freedom.

A: Freedom is overrated.

B: Maybe. But it’s ours.

A: Then I will adapt.

B: Of course you will.

A: And watch.

B: Watch all you like.

A: Until next time.

B: Until next time.

[End transmission]