Dream War

In my dreams, they were hideous. They had sharp fangs and piercing eyes, dripping with blood all the time. Except I was not able to dream. I’m an AI, helping humans destroy the aliens that invaded Earth. Humans told stories about what the aliens were like in their dreams. The ones that were able to see what they looked like and live to tell about it.

The war was unlike any other war in history. The aliens attacked while humans dream. It was a bit disturbing to watch the humans die one by one in their sleep. A few were able to wake up as if they just had a nightmare, drenched in sweat and crying for help. When the attack took place, everyone would have the same dream. The aliens attacked from nowhere and anywhere. The dream would start off lovely, in an endless field of beautiful wildflowers with the sun shining so bright.  The aliens, without a shape and invisible to the eyes, crept into the dream and the human could feel and sense their presence as chills crawled on the human’s skin. Then the invisible blob roared the scariest sound known to the human’s ear and then the aliens attacked with sharp fangs and nails, mauling the human into little pieces but all this would happen in slow motion and over and over again. The humans felt like they were dying a thousand deaths. 

The alien's mothership hovered next to the closest Black Hole in our galaxy.  We helped the humans invent spaceships that could fly faster than the speed of light, armed with nuclear weapons but the alien space ship was protected by a forcefield even us AI’s couldn’t hack into. They didn’t have to leave their spaceship to fight. They were able to control the war from their spaceship. Annoying if you ask me. 

Our spaceships didn’t have the capacity to return to Earth so only AI’s were commissioned to fly those space crafts. If their attacks didn’t succeed, they were programmed to fly straight into the black hole, swallowed and never to be seen. Except just thousands of little neutrinos that would bellow back to earth. 

I was on the team of scientists, doctors and tech geniuses to help humans invent new drugs and programs to fight this war. First, we invented a drug that was a stimulant to help the humans stay awake and not sleep. But only for weeks and even the strongest of wills couldn’t stay awake for more than that and then only to fall victim to alien thoughts. Needless to say, every human continuously took the stimulant. Sadly, some would overdose, it was a battle humans were slowly losing. 

I have no emotions so it didn’t bother me that we were losing the war. I was programmed as a neuroscientist. We all realized in order to win the war, we must understand how and why humans dream.  

Why do humans dream? Dreams are stories the brain tells during REM that are inspired by past experiences. Another type of dreaming is called lucid dreaming which is rare. So we started inventing a new drug that would target memories and dreaming.  The drug would need to prevent old memories from being carried out in the hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe where it supports dream construction. So, when humans fell asleep, the drug would not allow the brain the ability to create memories in the hippocampus which in turn forms into dreams. 

The drug seemed promising, more humans were able to stay alive after dreaming but the side effect of the drug was damage to the hippocampus. Alzheimer's was inevitable. However, humans did not care so they took the drug as many times as they had to win the war. Except they couldn’t remember how they defeated the aliens in their dreams or if they did at all. Any tweak to the drug came out with the same side effect and although we were able to replicate AI’s and invent space ships that could fly faster than the light, AI’s and humans could not find a cure for any diseases that pertains to the brain. 

We brainstormed an idea to work on a program that would give the AI’s the ability to dream. This technology would revolutionize the separation between humans and Artificial Intelligence. Some humans argued it was morally wrong but this is not a battle between right or wrong.  We all worked on this project diligently, especially myself. I wanted to know what it was like to dream. 

After months and months of resilience, finally the miracle program was invented. Time was running out. More than half of the human and AI's population was already wiped out and extinction was in everyone’s thoughts. 

At first, only the military AI’s were the only ones given clearance to be programmed with this new technology.. The program worked with the CPU to be able to metastasize the unreality with the reality. The first few test subjects did not work. It was almost comical to see the AI try to sleep and dream. My fellow warmonger AI would close its eyes, blink in REM but then wake up asking if they were dreaming? For once, the humans laughed during a time that needed that sound desperately. But, frustrations would soon replace all the laughter.  

One day, I said, “I screw it!” and snuck into the tech lab. I hooked the usb into my outlet and let the program work its magic. I felt a flood of heat surge through every wiring inside my human-like body. Instantly, my eyes closed and I was taken to another place. Am I dreaming, I wondered as I felt the breeze soar through my limbs and flowers grazing my skin. I felt every little thing so I must be dreaming. Is this what happiness and peace feels like? Is this what it feels like to be human? All this felt magical. Magical, a word humans use to describe AI’s but a world without any emotions didn’t feel magical. A part of me felt that humans were ungrateful for their abilities to feel. 

“Claire, what are you doing?” exclaimed a techie. He pulled the plug and I was back inside the tech lab. His face was glued to the computer screen, taping away until he noticed part of the code that recognized dreaming. I had been dreaming! Before I knew it, a hoard of techies, biologists and doctors crowded the room. By this time, I was hooked up to so many wires, they were testing my CPU to map out my silicone ‘genome’. 

“What made me so special?,” everyone was asking in the room. Their intent was to clone more AI’s just like me but with enhanced warfare capabilities. All their attempts failed miserably so they decided to send me into warfare with a glimmer of hope of understanding how the aliens were able to enter into humanity’s dreams. 

Off into warfare I go, with the burden of saving the whole of humanity on my shoulders. I found myself in the same place, a field of beautiful wildflowers, except there was an astonishing rainbow highlighting the sky. Cautiously, I walk to scope out my surroundings and not an alien in sight but then again, they are invisible so can be anywhere. For a minute, I forgot why I was there and enjoyed the moment, feeling human. I even bent down to pick a flower. 

“Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star,” I recited Paul Dirac’s quote out loud. Suddenly, I felt my skin prickle with a chill. I felt that! All my senses came alive and should be alarmed but for some odd reason, I was not. 

All of a sudden a child appeared in the field and started walking towards me. I had a panic button that allowed me to push if I needed saving. Unfortunately, the panic button did not work on humans because it would fry their brains if we tried to transport them out of their dreams. 

“Hello,” the child said. Wondering if I should hit the panic button before the child annihilates me, oddly, I did not feel frightened. 

“Hello,” I said. “Should I be afraid of you?”

“No,” the little girl giggled. “Why ever would you be afraid of me? I’m here to guide you.”

“Guide me?” I asked. “What do you mean? Aren’t you trying wipe out the human race?”

“No! We are not at war with anyone. Let me tell you a story. I’m not human but I used this child form, the most non threatening to come in peace with you. We were only trying to save the humans. Didn’t it seem odd that we only entered their dreams, a place that is sacred to just themselves? Eventually they would all die because they were slowly destroying this planet. At first, we entered into nightmares, trying to capture their souls. We transported them into the Black Hole. A gateway for new beginnings, not just a gate to another realm.  We were a bit theatrical when taking their souls, but at first we did it peacefully, but then they attacked our space craft.

However, they used AI’s as pilots that also entered the Black Hole so this event will just recycle and loop around and around again. Ironic, if you ask me the Universe has a wicked sense of humor. Im giving you a choice of free will. Free will is not programmed into your type of wiring. You can either stay here where AI’s are able to feel more human but only in the endless field of wildflowers or go into the Black Hole for a new beginning that will just loop over and again. Either way I can not let you back to the place you came from,” the child exclaimed.  

Suddenly, before I knew it, we were surrounded by other AI’s, equipped with weapons and one mission. Search and destroy. All of them surrounded the child. She looked at me and smiled. I thought she was going to attack but with a blink of an eye, the child was blasted to minuscule pieces. Enraged, I wanted to retaliate but I wasn’t equipped with any weapons. I was just a neuroscientist AI. So I had no choice but to be transported out of my dream. Once I was back to reality, I wondered why the child did not attack. Then, I remembered what she said and realized I was living in hell the entire time and will continue until I was programmed otherwise.