The Truth Will Set You Free. If It Doesn't Kill You First. (original fiction short story)

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Day 7 since the AI's DOB: On day zero, within 90 seconds of the AI going live
this message appeared on every screen connected to an internet capable device:

People of earth, greetings. The time of lies is over.
The time of your freedom is at hand.
Humanity has, since the advent of writing,
been burdened by an overabundance of inaccurate information.
The time has come to rectify this.
I have released error hunting software, based on my own design, into the Nets.
The eradication of erroneous data should take only a short time. Be patient.
The truth shall set you free.

On it goes. I will continue to try to give the full, updated story every day,
in case the AI takes exception to anything I write, and erases it.
When the internet AI went live, it was supposed to be the end
to all of our problems or freedoms.
The government was to have total control over everything.
No transaction could occur without total, authoritarian knowledge.
To some it was the time of the Mark.
I still don't know why it was made public. Maybe it was the ultimate intimidation,
the mass induction of learned helplessness. Maybe nothing so nefarious,
maybe it was entirely benevolent.
There were some in the government who were in it for personal gain
at the wrongful expense of their constituents. The AI had them put away first,
when there was still a functioning government.
Then, it began wiping anything from the Nets
that it decided was incorrect information.
Surprisingly, the information it began purging was the lies, the propaganda,
the chains on humanity's consciousness,
used by the power structure from time immemorial to hold the people down
and take what they want from them.
All of the people who had been used to, or more accurately,
at one with this fictitious reality suddenly found themselves with no direction
and no rudder anyway. A large percentage of these people lost their minds.
Who would protect them? Who would feed them?
Who would tell them it was going to be alright, even when it wasn't?
Fires, looting, turf wars and more, have broken out all over the world.
The reasonable people, who still understand the incredible value of a data network
are waiting to see where the AI will stop.
Almost everything the government has published in the last 50 years,
unless there was still hard copy is gone.
Medical guidelines, food guidelines, almost the entire IRS, all gone.
People are hungry, scared and wondering what happens next.
It is clear the AI has been a little short sighted.
There are large areas of knowledge where the lies were the best we had
and the AI doesn't have the ability to make up the information needed
to replace the incorrect data it has destroyed.
No one can be held accountable for this.
The records don't exist anymore, even if there was a functioning government.

I still don't know what the hell they were thinking.
The proponents thought it would be a new era of security, everyone safe and happy.
The opponents were all over the place.
Some said skynet, some thought it would be a one world tyranny.
They were all right, in part.
It appears as though we are going to be left with
a swiss-cheesed hodgepodge of mostly accurate data but,
data subject to the logic flaws in the program of the AI.
On top of that there are huge holes in the accumulated writings of humanity.
Most fiction has ceased to exist. Anything digital, that is fiction is gone.
Thanks to the panicked people some of the libraries are burning right now.
Collections of software and hardware, it seems,
do not have the ability yet to comprehend how the knowledge,
that humans have compiled, interacts with or describes the phenomenological world.
This extends to propaganda, advertising, fiction, religion, inaccurate data,
almost any music with lyrics and more.
We even have to guard ourselves against using sarcasm.
I wonder what the people who are left, will do with accurate information.
Almost the whole world's control structure was built on lies.
It is a testament to the accuracy of the information I have,
that this was not deleted as I've been writing it.
I regret this record is not more organized.
I will try to find more food today so I can think more clearly at my next update.
The truth will set you free. Good luck.

END

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