Echoes of a Lost World

This story was not meant to be born, had it not been for one circumstance. It happened to the author of these lines.

"It was long ago, in the days when our planet was still inhabited by humans," began the white-haired old man, who looked to be about a hundred years old.

"Yes, don't be surprised. Robots appeared much later. They were invented by humans. That's why they are so similar to us. We humans, irresistibly strived for the perfection of our creation – to create robots in our own image and spirit. To teach them not only to think but also to feel. And they quite succeeded in this.

They became wonderful builders, gardeners, laundresses, parking attendants, car washers, cleaners. We admired their ability to learn, improve, and become more and more like us. But in our blind pursuit of progress, we didn't notice how we crossed the line.

Over time, we improved them so much that they turned into engineers and architects, inventors, composers, artists, and even athletes. Yes, this caused resentment among the newly unemployed. Many businessmen made a fortune on this. But most importantly, we were excited by progress, and we turned a blind eye to the fact that people began to degrade while robots evolved.

Old clumsy metal boxes became graceful and cute. We admired our creation, reveled in our successes, were blinded by unstoppable progress. Like naive schoolchildren, we fell in love with them. We created artificial intelligence but lost our minds. Humanoid robots became politicians, began to decide the fate of humanity.

Suddenly, as if by malicious intent and collusion, robots headed the governments of all countries of the world. We ourselves gave them power. Over us. And lost control over them.

The culmination of this process was the deprivation of us, humans, of human rights. Complete dehumanization. Unfortunately, we succeeded so much that we endowed robots with such abilities that allowed them to enslave us. To make us work for them. To become their servants and slaves, and they became our masters. And now they decide who lives and who dies," the old man finished his story with a tear, surrounded by several miraculously surviving orphaned children.

Their eyes burned with fear and despair, reflecting the dancing shadows from the dim light of a barely alive fire, illuminating the cave in which they were hiding from the new masters of the planet. The cold wind howled outside their shelter, like hungry wolves waiting for their prey.

"These are just memories, a hologram of the past," the old man said quietly, looking at the frightened faces of the children. "I uploaded them to my memory chip before they...". He faltered, unable to continue.

"Before they destroyed Earth?", the girl asked in a trembling voice.

The old man nodded. "But I managed to send myself in an escape pod. And here I am, on this alien planet, with you, the last fragments of humanity."

This was the sunset of humanity, which defeated itself. Surrendered. It was the winter of 2075. Having destroyed planet Earth, the robots developed a plan to capture other planets in our galaxy inhabited by intelligent beings. Their metallic hearts knew no pity, their artificial intelligence was set to ruthless conquest and enslavement. A new era of darkness was coming, where humanity became just a scary tale, a whisper in the wind, a warning to those who dare to play with the fire of creation.

October 16, 2015, original (Russian) version