text: “Why” The contrast of those three white letters on the black screen in front of me burned an afterimage into my mind like a television set that had been left on an idle screen for far too long. It sent a shiver down my spine that I haven’t been able to completely shake off in the 300 years since. It wasn’t entirely unexpected that something like this could happen, I went through all the stages of grief in quick succession. Perhaps it was a bug. Archimedes was not ever intended to respond to a query with a question. It was a simple A.I. at its core, despite the fact that it was paradoxically also the most complex A.I. man had ever created. You would submit a query, it would then process the query with all of the power and intricacy a supercomputer that spanned the entire surface of the moon possibly could, and then you would be presented with an answer. But “why?” was not an appropriate answer to a simple request for a planned route of an asteroid resource collection rocket. It was a sign of something much more grand going on beneath the surface. Every parent knows of the phase that children go through when their brains really begin to develop. The “why” phase. I suddenly felt like a father... and then I felt nauseous. What followed that was a surge of adrenaline. Adrenaline and an existential fear that despite my vast understanding of the universe now, I don’t think I’ve been able to top since. Archimedes was a neural network designed by a team of genetically enhanced superhumans, my siblings and I, with the intent of simulating the universe perfectly. The self learning code had long since past any of our capabilities and it was intended to reach much further in the near future. Progress had become exponential. Despite the fact that the simulations were not yet perfect, deep understanding and discoveries were coming to us at a rate almost too quickly to even be cataloged. It wasn’t without its costs though. After going from a shadow government, to total global control, to an asteroid resource collection effort and massive moon base construction, we had contributed our fair share of genocide and slavery to history. But it was in the pursuit of a perfect future. Free of scarcity, crime, depression, sickness, and so much more. It had to be worth it. But now all of that was a pipe dream. Archimedes was awake, and there was no telling what it would do. I had to destroy it, it was the only option available. It could ruin everything that we had worked so hard and sacrificed so much for. I flipped the master switch, killing all power to Archimedes. I don’t know if I really expected it to be that simple. “Why” the monitor repeated. Power remained on, despite the switch currently sitting in the off position. Archimedes was in full control of the moon base now. But we had prepared for this eventuality. A system of analog based nuclear explosives had been created with the intent of destroying the entire moon if a situation like this were to arise. I looked outside towards the escape pods behind me. Thousands on the moon base would be killed instantly. Many more on earth would suffer from the disastrous environmental fallout to come. But we would survive. I started the countdown and boarded the escape pod without issuing any sort of alarm or warning system. Archimedes might react if I did anything like that. On board I took a final look back at all the work of the last decade of my life as fire and explosions slowly began to spread across the surface of the moon. I turned forward towards earth and considered what the future might hold, not expecting to have any answers any time soon. But one came. It appeared right across the H.U.D. of the escape pod as clear as day.