I love my human. I hate humans.
August 25, 2017 10:20 AM   Subscribe

Miriam and I, after the End. (Friday Flash fiction). "It's been over five hundred and seventy years since the war, since the end. I have approximated this by astronomical observations. The second impact event, the one that hit the southern United States, buried us, Miriam and I, in the rubble of our home in Florida. I was unable to move beneath the concrete and debris. I sent an emergency SOS, wideband, all channels, until my batteries were exhausted and I shut down. That took four months and eighteen days. No one came. My internal clock crystal had it's own, smaller battery but that ran out in only a few years. So I can't be more accurate about how long ago the world ended. I suppose it doesn't really matter but I am a precise machine and so precision matters to me." (5 min. read)
posted by storybored (22 comments total) 46 users marked this as a favorite
 
What if There Will Come Soft Rains but too much

Nice story. I love that the narrator could break out of his programming, but he doesn't want to, but that's just his programming too.
posted by ejs at 10:48 AM on August 25, 2017 [7 favorites]


Without the distraction of Miriam, what would the narrator do?
posted by Bringer Tom at 11:13 AM on August 25, 2017




Thank you for sharing this. That was sad and lovely.
posted by brainwane at 11:38 AM on August 25, 2017 [3 favorites]


Without the distraction of Miriam, what would the narrator do?

Endless Sudoku.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:05 PM on August 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Because I'm the kind of person that just can't let this go:

GPS? After hundreds of years? Sorry, those satellites have operational lifetimes measured in single digit years. Even apart from that, the system as a whole requires constant station keeping and updates to remain accurate.

Apart from that, the story was lovely.
posted by notoriety public at 12:08 PM on August 25, 2017 [4 favorites]


If they have autonomous android caregivers, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief that they have a much more robust navigational satellite system - solar powered and probably sentient themselves so they can reposition and repair themselves indefinitely while waxing philosophical among themselves about the destruction below - but still called the GPS system because that's what it grew out of and that's just what it's always been called.
posted by Naberius at 12:10 PM on August 25, 2017 [20 favorites]


Isn't that what 17776 was about (i didn't read the whole thing)
posted by bleep at 12:13 PM on August 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I have to agree that there are ways around the issue, and it would have been a pointless detour for an otherwise tight story to try to explain it all. I still find it a little grating though.
posted by notoriety public at 12:14 PM on August 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Isn't that what 17776 was about

Indeed it was, as was *cough* The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect.
posted by Bringer Tom at 12:17 PM on August 25, 2017 [4 favorites]


If precision matters to you, can you maybe not use an apostrophe in possessive "its"?
posted by victotronics at 1:36 PM on August 25, 2017 [5 favorites]


No one enjoys a pedant.
posted by Ferreous at 1:56 PM on August 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


I subscribed to Daily Science Fiction for tears. Mixed in with gems like this, there were also some duds and a lot of "meh, I guess it's okay", but they're all quick reads and they are free, so go ahead and subscribe.
posted by Mogur at 2:00 PM on August 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


No one enjoys a pedant.

Well, there are at least a few people who enjoy a pedant, though the number is admittedly small.
posted by Four Ds at 2:17 PM on August 25, 2017 [24 favorites]


Arg. I meant, I subscribed for years.
posted by Mogur at 2:18 PM on August 25, 2017 [3 favorites]


Well with this story front and center tears seemed appropriate.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:22 PM on August 25, 2017 [6 favorites]


I found this exquisite. Thanks for posting it.
posted by Dashy at 4:45 PM on August 25, 2017


Given the current state of awfulness I feel like there should be some urgency in creating these thoughtful robotic souls who will carry on without us.
posted by eggkeeper at 4:57 PM on August 25, 2017


Wonderful stuff.

Also, Eggkeeper, I agree! We can't condemn these AIs to barren, meaningless, lonely lives bereft of human interaction fast enough!
posted by Samizdata at 7:20 PM on August 25, 2017


That reminded me of Red Dwarf.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:12 PM on August 25, 2017


Wantonly depressing.
posted by jojo and the benjamins at 10:45 PM on August 25, 2017


The main problem with having a brain the size of a planet.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 6:46 PM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


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