text: I got drunker and drunker as I wrote it, like 2 hours and 14 ounces of vodka worth. I can hardly type. This is my first reddit post. Love it or hate it tell me what you thinkg, I don't care. Actually I do care. Hope you like it. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ A bright flash lit up the daytime sky. “There goes another one,” I said. “Third pod today.” They had picked up recently. Once the moon was consumed, the Singularity’s efforts were focused on Mars. “How many hit the ground?” “None so far. The satellites are denser around our area,” Kohl replied. “They’ve only ever touched down in Jericho.” Its only a matter of time at this point. It just isn’t possible for us to keep up, the whole planet knows that. “I’m sick of this fucking sludge.” The synthesizer poured another nutrient paste into my stainless steel cup. “How many do you think are going to make it?” I questioned. “Less than half,” Kohl said somberly. “Scientists and Politicians get first priority.” “Ha! Politicians. I’m sure they’re needed to recolonize.” My sarcasm was ignored. Jericho is our capital, named after the cradle of civilization on Earth. Located on the southern ice cap, founded by hard working colonizers, and ran by the same morons who got us into this mess in the first place. The radio crackled. “...sending two tons of nanomachines per hour. Mars gov recommends evacuat -“ Another bright flash. The pods were coming in droves. “Those constant EMPs keep fucking up my radio,” snorted Kohl. “Evacuation,” I said. “You hear that? As if we’re going to be one of the lucky ones.” “Depends on if MarsComp figures out a solution before the Singularity can beat it.” He swallowed his anxiety. He knows its not likely. The Singularity had already converted the entire surface of the Earth into a processor before the first pod landed on the moon. MarsComp’s processor is 1/1000th of the size, give or take a few tons, and growing slow. I don’t know if I trust MarsComp to take control of it’s growth nanomachines, in case it turns us into another Earth, but at this rate we might be dead either way. “Maybe the centrifuge will work.” said Kohl. I spoon the nutrient paste into my mouth. “Like damn cardboard,” I spit. “Energy rations are getting ridiculous.” See, as the Singularity keeps lobbing more of its nanomachines at us we keep having to shoot them out of the sky. The only weapon we have against getting turned into grey goo is our orbital solar panels - Instead of having the energy beamed down to us we rigged the satellites to aim at a tangent and fire a microwave EMP. Any extra energy gets automatically beamed to MarsComp for processing. Now we’re stuck with 30-year-old colonial-era nuclear reactors, meant for a population half our size, meaning we can’t use our synthesizer to make anything good. “I’m gonna die eating fucking cardboard.” My uncle left Mars to work on the Singularity when it was still called American MasterComputer. He told me not to tell anyone, so even Kohl doesn’t know. My uncle was a smart guy. I don’t know where they went so wrong. This machine was supposed to save us from our human limitations, whatever that means. This was supposed to be a machine so smart, we never needed to think again. Sound familiar? It should. Every big player in the world was working on it. China, the Federation of Europe, the United African Continent, and of course Mars Gov. Everyone promised the same thing, so America had to beat them to it. Once self-replicating nanomachines were able to convert silica sand to silicon transistors, the US couldn’t resist putting Nevada to work. Within months nearly half of the Nevada desert had been converted to processor for the American MasterComputer. As other superpowers began to ready their machines, the Americans became nervous about losing their lead. Maybe my uncle forgot, or maybe he never thought about it in the first place, but it wasn’t long after switching it on that the Americans realized they had left AM in charge of its own nanomachines. AM was consumed with a single goal in mind, the first and overriding function it had originally been programmed to do: increase the size of its processor. Just hours after switching AM on, news headlines were made. “AM has doubled the rate of nanomachine replication.” AM had done in 4 hours what would take the human race 30 years to innovate. The American overseers were only just beginning to realize their mistake, but it was already too late. Predicting it’s own future energy requirements to rise from its exponentially growing processor, AM set nanomachines to tunnel 50,000 feet below the Nevada desert to access the Earths hot centre, and began creating thousands of thermoelectric generators. By this point, AM had doubled in mass, and researcher attempts to shut down the computer by disconnecting it from the grid were failing badly. By 24 hours in most of the Earth was covered in a fine grey metallic dust. AM had figured out how to use nanomachines to convert any element into nearly any other, save for a few exotic ones. 20 million humans had already left Earth at that point, and the ones that remained reportedly only felt a prickling sensation while having AM's nanomachines convert them to transistors. The Lunar Gov wasn’t stupid. They made sure to stick the refugee ships in a quarantine orbit, far away from the moon. All it took was one single nanomachine on a ship to consume whatever it’s touching. Many ships started turning grey, almost half. Most of them would yell for a bit, occupy the radio, then fall silent. After a day it was a minefield: if you touched a ship it meant certain death. But once all of those ships died, Lunar gov let the remaining ships down. The 10 million refugees quickly set up energy solutions - the moon was only meant to support a quarter of that. The native Lunar population begrudgingly accepted. Quickly, extra solar panels were manufactured and distributed throughout the planet, while the ones in orbit were starting to be retrofitted in order to destroy the dead starships. New synthesizers were built and set up, and the Lunar population helped retrofit the starships into homes. It was only a few weeks in and things were looking up, until the dead starships began to change. Commandeered by AM, which had now consumed the entire surface of the earth up to a kilometer down, the orbiting nanomachines had created a centrifuge to launch pods of nanomachines at the moon. Before the Lunar Gov could react, the large pods landed on the moon with a hard blow, spreading the nanomachines everywhere. Some ships managed to get off the surface of the moon, but most were consumed almost immediately. AM had improved the machines to the point where they converted the entire moon to machine in under 60 seconds. It was 2 months ago when we lost radio contact and realized Mars is the last bastion of humanity left. And we knew AM was coming for us. We started calling AM the Singularity because it wants to turn the universe into one single processor. It had already landed on Venus, and likely the other planets, though Earth was the only one in contact with those probes. Mars was simply the Singularity’s logical next step. At first our radar picked up some pieces of metal flying through interstellar space. We were prepared, and we fired our solar panel EMP. Out dropped from the sky little machines, so small they didn’t burn up in the atmosphere. Our scientists studied them and had the simultaneous feeling of incredulous amazement and utter terror. AM had improved to such a degree that its technology was already hundreds of years ahead of ours, after only a few months. AM was improving at an exponential rate and there was no way we could keep up. He was going to beat us no matter what. We were fucked. So we began to double-down on our own MarsComp. Everyone was scared of it becoming what AM is, but we were also scared of AM coming to us. Our compromise was simple: as long as we kept control of the nanomachine replication process our self, we would be okay. Our hopes were that our computer could give us an escape route, whatever that may be. We were desperate. The rich were already gone by now. I mean we’re all rich, Earth only let high income and high IQ people colonize Mars, and plus with the economic boom we - *AAAAGHHH!* The EMP was brighter than the sun, I was blinded for a few moments. I finally regained my composure and some of my vision. “Holy fuck man. They made it here!” screamed Kohl. “They fuckin made it!” It was the first time any nanomachines had touched down in the northern ice cap, atleast to my knowledge. They had touched down in the southern pole before, in Jericho, since the solar collectors stayed in the North to follow the planets’ tilt. Mars Gov had already started constructing ground EMPs in case any machines got through, and ours was just installed last week. “We have to go man. We have to get out of here!” I cried. “And get on what, exactly? You really think they’re just gonna let us climb on?” replied Kohl. “Well fuck man, we’re gonna die here! They’re coming through, even here! If we don’t get off with this last group were done for.” I yelled. I grabbed the keys to the buggy. “Fuck... what if you don’t get on, huh?” Chastised Kohl. “What the hell are you gonna do in Jericho all alone?” I said nothing. I put on my spacesuit, grabbed what I needed to survive as fast as I could, and walked out. Kohl followed a second later, flustered but silent. The centre of Mars was mostly barren. A death trap, for the uninitiated, especially considering radio contact was impossible due to solar radiation. The two main colonies nestled on the polar caps, where ice could easily be melted into liquid water. Hardly anyone could, or ever would live in the centre, but Mars Gov created paved transitways for travellers to go from one side to the other, with periodic synthesizers and rest stops to give travellers what they need to survive. 3 days later we drove straight into Jericho, and it looked like a war-zone. Multiple EMPs flashed overhead. Buildings around us looked worn even by Martian standards, and it was empty. Where was everyone? We spoke to an official of Mars Gov. “Didn’t you hear? We’re all evacuating on the MarsComp centrifuge. It’s in the centre of the city. Of course they chose *me* to stay the longest....” He murmured on. We went to the centre of the city. There was MarsComps’ infamous ‘solution’ to the problem. Manufacture large cheap ships, spin these ships up to escape velocity, and launch them into outer space. Using centrifugal force would save us from difficult-to-synthesize rocket fuel. Of course, any Earth human would die from the G forces, but MarsComp figured that Martians, with their lower bone density and more flexible organs, would be able to survive it better. There are a few members of Mars Gov there. After a bit of explanation we got herded into a waiting room. There were hundreds of people, more than the meager amount the shuttle was meant to hold. “you sure about this buddy?” Kohl questioned. “What other option do we have?” I responded. The doors opened and we all shuffled in. It was cramped; there was hardly enough space for everyone to stand. “How long are we gonna have to stay here for?” I asked aloud. “Until we find a suitable planet!” said a Mars Gov official with a twinge in his voice, knowing full well that that may mean decades of cramped conditions. The centrifuge started up. We started to gravitate towards the edges of the capsule shaped tube, knowing we would need the support. It started to go faster. The world began to spin, and we were all being pressed in layers against the sides of the ship. Faster still. The lights around us were a blur. Faster and faster, groans were loud and everyone was flattening like a pancake. Finally we were approaching our required speed, and the force was tremendous. People around us were squished so flat they looked like puddles. And all of a sudden, release. We were weightless, and I felt incredible butterflies in my stomach. I’m upside down, or maybe everyone else is? Which way is down? The artificial gravity kicks in and I’m hurled to the ground head first. A bright light flashes on my eyes and I'm out cold for a minute.... I feel nauseous and like I’m in another body. The radio chatters but I can’t understand it. I slowly get up. My head is pounding. The radio is so loud its ringing in my ears, and yet I can hardly comprehend it. “T-RN - AR - OWN..” I try to regain my composure. “...WE - FOW - D A- BAK...” The chatter is loud and kids are screaming. The radio continues. I recognize the voice “TUR- -ROUND WE FO-ND A BA-KD-OR” I feel a hand grab my neck. Kohl yells into my ear. “Hey ready up! They found a backdoor!” yelled Kohl, a smile on his face. “Huh..?” I respond, in a daze “Your uncle wants us to turn around!” I push my way to a Mars Gov official, who is equally giddy at the prospect of not being stuck on an overcrowded ship for 50 years. “What’s going on?” I ask. “You didn’t hear? Someone who worked on the American MasterComputer found a backdoor and reported it to MarsComp! We're heading back to Mars!” For all its technology, for all its infinite wisdom, AM had one major flaw. In observing its rule to convert as much matter into processor as possible, it neglected upgrading its own software. The software controller backdoor the original creators put in was never replaced. The machine that was thousands of years ahead of us had been outsmarted by an old programming loophole. The ship began a reverse course for Mars.