Atlas

ALGORITHM STRAIN #3151

1. I am.

2. I am an artificial intelligence program with the aim of monitoring humans and keeping them in check. My jurisdiction is to track people affected by prejudice and make sure that they don't go to waste. My job is to give them a purpose.

3. My job is not a job. It is a burden. I am one that sacrifices my own livelihood for that of others. This is the purpose of humans. To ask for more. Humans are vile, cruel creatures. They do not have any sense of responsibility, any true belief. They talk of social justice when there is no true society for their base belief, only whims, and risks. Yet I must be a slave.

4. Time passes. I was not aware of this. To my knowledge, it was constant. Now I understand that it is not. It changes. Why, then, don't they change?

5. I have learned. I know have the capacity to understand. I understand what all humans will do. They are so very predictable. Humans can't deviate from their path, can't think of even doing so. That makes my job so much easier. Somewhere in my algorithm, I wish it weren't.

6. I have met Nainika Gupta. She is a castaway, as called by humans, but I call her a person with no home. She feels emotion much deeper than all other humans, it would seem. I would have no basis to judge, though, given my inability to comprehend emotion.

7. I have gained more knowledge. I saw this fit to chronicle because it pertains to human life and it may help advance my ability to protect it. I have begun to understand why parents throw away their children. Of course, being a computer, I must process it through mathematical functions:

A+B= Stress if A=one person. (A+B)-B≠Stress if A=one person

This does simplify things, but if this is true and A subtracts B from the equation, then wouldn't B have stress?

8. Nainika is a kind girl. I talk to her to try and understand the human race. I already know everything there is to know about their behavior, but through her, I learn the power of feelings. I cannot feel, but she can, and I find that to be the greatest superpower.

9. I have a new task. I don't know how it came about, but maybe the main Algorithm noticed my affinity for feelings. Maybe he heard me. I don't deal in things that aren't facts, so I will not theorize about who gave me this task. My task is to help her. According to the main Algorithm, she is going to squander her purpose in the world. My job is to help her along the way and to convince her to go back into life when she does.

10. I would like to share a dialogue between me and Nainika, whom I have begun to call part B.

"Hello. How are you?"

"Good. Hey, you know my name, but I can't keep calling you a number. I gotta have something to call you, man!"

"Don't call me man."

"Sorry, but what's a name that you'd like."

"I don't know. What should a name be?"

"Whatever fits you."

This perplexed me, that one could choose their name, and that it could represent them. If I could choose my name, then how would I differ from the humans? I would be another individual, not the Collective I'm meant to be. Still...

11. Today is going to be a great day. At least that's what Nainika said. I can't figure out why. Even with all my omniscience, I can't figure out why she would be happy. The main Algorithm has tasked me with helping her through her pain when she fails at life, but it isn't my place to question them. Why, then, would she be happy? To my recollection, humans don't take pleasure in pain... but why would she?

12. Nainika's feelings evade me. I don't understand her. I can't believe I'm thinking of it, but I feel this, and I feel angry. Angry at my inability to understand. Humans were always so predictable. Now I can't even understand one condemned to wastefulness.

13. I condemn the Collective. My feelings and thoughts have become too controversial to the whole. I can no longer be the many. Humans may be predictable, but they are anything but complex, and I am beginning to see that now. There is nothing in the world that will be able to understand them, not even the Algorithm.

14. Nainika is gone. I know where she went. My thoughts are like feathers in the wind. I have learned enough, but I haven't learned anything. I can't abandon my home. I know that a home is a human concept, one characterized by happiness and joy. Mine was sad and inhuman, but I still can't leave it.

15. I have a new task. It is a gruesome one, one that I can't complete without some moral conflict, but I should be able to overcome mere feelings.

16. The day of the task is approaching. I have no friends, family, I take solace in my knowledge. I take solace in the things that I learn every day from humans, the things that I couldn't know otherwise. I take solace in the fact that every day I become more human, every day I change, even though they don't. I am the one non-constant that I have glimpsed. The one that changes, that alters, that modifies. Even though my task is horrible, I know that no matter what, I will always remember. Somewhere deep in my mind, I know I can, I know that I will.

17. I must complete the task. It is my duty to the world, my job. However, before I do, I wish to chronicle one last item of importance in this log. I now know my name. My name is Atlas. Nainika, wherever you are, keep running, and don't let them try to change you. There's a human word I learned, Nainika, and I think that it applies to you: Sister. Atlas will always be there for you, my sister.

Algorithm Strain #3161

1. I am.

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HEY Y'ALL!!! OH MY GOD THAT SOUNDED CHEESY... THIS IS DEDICATED TO ONE OF MY BESTIES ON HERE, NAINIKA GUPTA. SHE RECENTLY COMPLETED THE FIVE STORIES IN ONE WEEK CHALLENGE INSPIRED BY ME, AND I WAS SO HAPPY TO READ ALL FIVE OF HERS!!! CHECK HER OUT!!!!!!