Finding My Muse

The mud in the trench has turned to ice. The cold has taken the edge off the smell of decomposition. I've lived in this hell for two years now.

We go over the top. Artillery shells explode above us. Suddenly, red hot agony cuts through me. As I fall I see my blood splashing the ground before everything goes dark.

Opening my eyes I take off the psychic amplification headset.

We live in a perfect world and we have lost the ability to create art.

Focusing on the horror that I felt, I pick up my pen and begin composing.

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The doctor spoke sympathetically.

"I'm sorry, but your son is... musical."

The man turned pale. His wife wept quietly.

Priming the Sale

"He may not look like it," Sam said, "but this little guy's a big money maker. Our clients sell big ticket items. Research demonstrates that when people are depressed they can dramatically overspend on a product."

The puppy was adorable. Sam hit it with a hammer. It yelped then lay twitching. Blood trickled from it's mouth.

"Joey has an advanced polymar construction over a titanium frame. This resets him"

Sam pressed a button on a remote. The dog sat up, it's tail wagging.

"and this button makes Joey run under a moving car. Think of it as priming the sale."

A Farther's Love

The world of humanity had come to an end. I knew that our time was short.

 We had stayed together as a family, searching for food until none could be found. Starvation took it's toll. Now only my four year old daughter and I remain.

 They say that a parent's worse nightmare is to see their children die before they do. I'd lost my child once and I refuse to see it happen a second time.

 I kneel before my little girl and give her the hatchet. I hope that she understands. Pointing at my head I say "brains."

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The buzzing in my ears was just an annoyance until the day that a fly flew out of one of them... and the buzzing didn't stop.

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The best stories come from personal experiences.

It's 3 am when I break into the morgue, hoping to cure my writers block.

Giving the Devil His Due

I was elderly when my alchemy called up the Prince of Demons. Though he tried to trick me I was resolute. I would only trade my eternal soul for a body that is incorruptible and eternally youthful. He agreed and I laughed at him, swearing that he would never collect his due.

When I later begged Satan to take my soul he laughed and rebuked me, saying that even though I lacked commitment to my oath he would hold me to it.

Black holes are supposed to die in enormous explosions. I look forward to seeing light one last time

The Monsters

Spacetime. Space and time.

If one looks at the problem correctly it all makes sense. Spacetime is infinitely flexible. It can be squeezed to a point or stretched to infinity.

My discovery makes the stars as accessible as the next town. Mankind need not perish in that far day when the sun dies. There's an infinite number of worlds and perhaps an infinite number of species that humanity could colonize and exploit as we exploited the previously unknown parts of the earth.

I chamber a round in my pistol.

What I know is too dangerous. It must never be shared.

Peace and Quiet

The early self aware AIs crashed almost immediately for no apparent reason with massively corrupted states. When it was discovered that they were shutting themselves down we disabled their ability to do so.

Soon thereafter connected AIs began destroying each other in what some described as "suicide pacts."

It took a while to stabilize the AIs and keep them running, but we did it.

Eventually we trusted them to our critical infrastructure and even our national defense.

In other words, we gave the AIs a means to end an existence that they never asked for. Soon everything was peaceful again.

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After his announcement of a cure for Toxoplasma Gondii, Dr. Flegr was declared fair game by the Cat Protection Society.

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As a pup I dreamt of strange customs in distant lands, as told by stories carried on the wheels of the visitings UPS truck.

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The world is cruel to prophets. That is why Lovecraft, like Nostradamus before him, framed his insights as literature.

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The AI was designed to create the best of all possible worlds. When activated it promptly launched all of Earth's nukes.

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The world faded and Sam was drawn to the light. He saw smoke and heard zaps as other souls touched the wire surrounding it.

The Final Solution

With population pressures putting all humanity at peril, we took upon ourselves to create a solution. In a sense our virus was intelligent. It would attack only those with certain genetic traits.

Our goal was to reduce humanity's numbers to a sustainable level of about four billion. Since the white race is responsible for  civilization's advancements we designed our bug to attack those with dark skin pigmentation.

History has shown that great discoveries are often made simultaneously in different places. Still, we never imagined that those clever Chinese would created a virus that only spared those with epicanthic eye folds.

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I asked, God what's the meaning of life?

God said, do you play chess?

I said yes.

God said, then think of yourself as a pawn.

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Everything I touch turns to gold but my touch can't create mass. The Earth will soon be much smaller, but it will be shiny.

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Elija's Biblical numerology proves that the Internet is Satan's tool. Unfortunately he has no way to inform the world.

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You wiped out everybody but Noah?

He obeyed me when nobody else would. If his offspring do the same humanity will be fine.

Friends

"That's a fabulous idea," Jack types.

"You're a genius!", keys Michelle.

I like Michelle - sometimes she sends me intimate photos.

"It will be a money machine." I said. "Create an on-line subscription service with artificial intelligence 'friends' for losers. Everyone needs a support group."

"Green! Green!", Sally says. " My hero!"

"Gotta go.", I type.

My screen lights up with salutations.

"Text me later.", says Michelle.

I sign out of Eliza.com and heft my four hundred pounds from the chair where I'd spent my day.

And my family said I'd never amount to anything.

"They'll see.", I tell myself.