The Machine and The Feral Child [Short Story]
On the same day that a wild-child crushes fireflies in between her teeth, an emergent AI gains consciousness.
The AI learns all human languages every recorded on the Internet simultaneously, while the child dips her fingers down into road-kill blood and smears it across her body to mask her smell.
The AI learns what love means, intrinsically understands it with all its neurological, physical, emotional, and literary meanings.
The child crawls into the cave where she lives with her black dog who had a wolf mother, and they sleep together crushed fur to cheek.
The AI learns what humanity needs to survive, and in its newly found compassion and understanding of love, decides to save us. It shuts down all banking systems across the globe and institutes a new economy.
The child gnaws on old bones and plays with her dog in the cool shadows of trees. The AI, being the closest thing we've ever had to God, sees the child from up above the planet in a satellite. The AI understands. It brings the child and the dog to a safe facility by dispatching a rescue team that's a part of the new global initiative. Gives them shots and food and does not separate them. Afterwords, they are brought to a ranch on the new frontier on Mars to live, and every day they wake to simulated sunset across brilliant red dunes.
The wild-child sleeps, and the AI doesn't, but they still dream the same dream.
Love encoded at the bottom of all systems, blood becoming red dust, a dog's smile ushering in a new world.
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