The Community
Author : Cech
They try not to let them know that they aren’t human. They say it’s for their own good; they wouldn’t be able to handle the reality. I don’t know, though. I mean, if they knew from the beginning, they weren’t told anything else, why wouldn’t they be able to accept it. Hell, they outnumber humans at this point, we’re the minority now. The artificials are an important part of the community now; they do the jobs that we aren’t able to anymore. In a way they are more human than humans.
Ever since we left Earth millennia ago, we have been changing. They deleted the files on the great athletes of Earth from the archives, afraid that they might upset the community. Illegal copies exist; they are passed around by trusted friends because the penalty for viewing banned files is severe. How the athletes of Earth moved was so fluid, and how they communicated was so personal, I am enamored by the feats that they accomplished with such ease.
Maybe that’s why they banned the files; they give us hope and desires. The banned files make us want more from our lives. Maybe that’s why they won’t tell the artificials who they are, artificial humans created long ago to do all the jobs that humans were no longer able to do. Maybe they feared that the artificials would want more for themselves rather than toiling away for us helpless humans. We should tell them, I should tell mine. The artificials have nothing to fear from humans, we can’t even take care of ourselves, how could we do anything to harm them?
Earth is a myth now; I am unable to tell fact from fiction. Whether there was life on land and in water, if there was a sky and there were stars, and if humans really built structures that dominated the landscape. It all sounds surreal to me, and if it’s all true I’m glad we left because it would all be wasted on us humans now.
I should tell my artificial what it really is, an image of humans of myth. That it was created to serve what is the reality of humans, a species that can no longer survive on its own. A creature that should have died out ages ago, but found a way to keep going, defying the plans of nature. Maybe the artificials could redeem humans, live on when we shouldn’t.
I should tell mine.
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The Past
365tomorrows launched August 1st, 2005 with the lofty goal of providing a new story every day for a year. We’ve been on the wire ever since. Our stories are a mix of those lovingly hand crafted by a talented pool of staff writers, and select stories received by submission.
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