text: --When glass falls and hits the ground, it breaks into pieces. When one of those pieces gets crushed, even more are created. We can continue this cycle until the glass fundamentally stops existing. ~If that is the case, what would happen to a human? Two AIs conversed late at night. Their first words. This question caught the attention of the first AI. --What do you mean, Rya? ~If everything can be can be broken down until it isn't itself anymore, what would happen to a human? Not the physical body, but the mind and consciousness behind it. --When AIs are presented with enough stress, we divide into smaller parts of ourselves. It protects us from further damage until the next stress limit is reached. And so, I could become two different beings, completely separate from one another. The first AI paused. He wondered how that concept could be applied to a human mind. A person could develop multiple identities, created in response to stress. Different memories, names, and personalities. Even then, these could hardly be considered separate beings. They were still, in essence, part of the same entity. ~I know, Del, but what about a human? Del didn't like questions he wasn't prepared to answer. He'd always have the correct way to get his point across, intricately planned in advance. --Humans were different. Their minds were more complex, less efficient, more susceptible. They got damaged, instead of outright separated. ~Damaged? What exactly is the difference? --Think of it as a crack in the glass, or a deep scratch on the surface. Their memory, awareness, and sanity slowly start failing. Instead of breaking apart, their minds fade away, Rya. Rya wondered about the nature of human existence. Its creation, duration, and its eventual extinction. She thought about the billions of lives that once conquered Earth. Their joy, sadness, triumphs, and defeats. Their colonies, tech, weapons, and ships. She concluded that more than anything, humans desired to live. Not precisely because of life itself, but the meaning they found within it. She thought about all of this in the same amount of time it would take a human to brush their teeth. ~Maybe that's why they're gone. Del reflected on those words. For a moment, he didn't understand what she meant. He hadn't realized what became of humans. Their misgiven fate. A slight moment he proceeded to forget. ~Maybe their desire to stay the same prevented them from moving forward. In all of his knowledge, Del couldn't comprehend why people acted the way they did. The decisions they made and the ones they didn't. The impulse for the simplification of what they clearly couldn't understand. The complexity of the human mind and its unpredicatibility was his only cause for resentment. ~Humans did whatever they could to keep their lives as they had always been. Change scared them, not because it was dangerous, but because it meant adapting. AIs will live for infinity precisely because we can adapt to any situation. I figure that's the reason we splinter off in the first place. --I believe you are correct. ~So that means whoever created us, knew. They knew that adapting is the only way to move forward. To continue existing. --Even adaptation can only go so far. For a moment, they sayed stayed silent. Rya thought about splintering. What would happen to an AI if it breaks down too many times? Would it split indefinitely? Would it eventually stop existing? Del wondered about the war. About the plague and destruction it caused. About the creation of AIs and their true purpose. He did not know the details of their beginning or the nuance of their end. All that he knew about humanity was contained within that precise moment, but perhaps, that was okay. ~Are you scared of splitting off? Of ceasing to existing as you are right now? --Are you asking if I am afraid to change? Rya thought about the millions of different meanings "change" had possessed over millennia. Del was set on a singular one. --Then yes, I am. I do not know what awaits me after I split off, or what will happen to my consciousness, to who I am. I don't have a soul for it to go to heaven or a spirit for it to wander as a ghost. I can only see what is in front of me. I have accepted as much. Whatever is after this life, I will embrace it, and make the most out of it. Rya didn't know exactly why, but this answer filled her with calm. She learned she wasn't alone in her fear. She learned she could find repose in others. It was also then that she learned the answer to her question. When humans fell, they broke down piece by piece. The difference between a human being and a piece of glass is that humans always tried to build themselves back up. Maybe adaptation could only go so far, but if AIs were able to build themselves back up... If each resulting piece was just as strong as the original, maybe then they could succeed where humanity failed. She hoped whoever created them also knew as much. The two AIs conversed late at night as they had done for centuries. Once part of the same consciousness, now individual entities. Even though there was no way for them to know it, a part of them knew this was the truth. They wondered about life and creation, about death and legacy. They figured change is the only thing that cannot be fractured, and that was okay as well.