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The key was a virus
13 March 2019 14:07The alien space invasion we’d all feared came in the form of a virus that invaded our minds.
It was a clear day when the first strike happened. It was a small meteor storm with seventeen tiny ones making it all the way to earth, impacting harmlessly away from populated centers. Being somewhat unusual, enthusiasts and professionals went to the more accessible sites to record what had happened.
They came back changed, a little dreamy and unfocused. Nothing too alarming. Most put it down to the wonder of seeing an event like this up close.
It wasn’t until their colleagues and family became bleary as well that the center for disease control got involved. But by then it was too late.
The disease spread over the planet in a matter of days. One hundred percent communicable and airborne, it even survived in the water table and plant life. It went up and down the food chain into the animals as well as us humans. Total absorption.
And then it switched on.
As one, the earth became one mind. But no one was in control.
The virus didn’t destroy us, its host, and it didn’t have a directive. It wasn’t out to annihilate the planet. It had done this to thousands of planets so far. We had the memories of those conquests in our heads now, along with the thoughts and secrets of every person on the planet. Our miniscule senses of self were drowned in a tsunami of other identities.
We became a groupthink with the added data of nearly three thousand other planets’ worth of animals, plants, and data we couldn’t even begin to classify.
But the virus had never taken over a lifeform with a consciousness. Up until now, it had taken over the equivalents of plants and simpler, baser beings.
Now it had a brain. Now it could reflect. Now it could plan. Now it could track where it had been and it could catalogue all that it had seen.
It was an overwhelming moment of sentience for the virus and a deeply religious moment for us humans.
For the first time, we could act in accordance with complete efficiency and a complete lack of secrecy. Money disappeared immediately.
First off, we organized enough food for everyone and kept our numbers sustainable. That took four years.
Then we built ships.
We had the maps in our head. We could backtrack to those previous worlds and colonize them.
The virus continued to spread forward and we backtracked where it had been.
It was the dawn of a new age.
tags
It was a clear day when the first strike happened. It was a small meteor storm with seventeen tiny ones making it all the way to earth, impacting harmlessly away from populated centers. Being somewhat unusual, enthusiasts and professionals went to the more accessible sites to record what had happened.
They came back changed, a little dreamy and unfocused. Nothing too alarming. Most put it down to the wonder of seeing an event like this up close.
It wasn’t until their colleagues and family became bleary as well that the center for disease control got involved. But by then it was too late.
The disease spread over the planet in a matter of days. One hundred percent communicable and airborne, it even survived in the water table and plant life. It went up and down the food chain into the animals as well as us humans. Total absorption.
And then it switched on.
As one, the earth became one mind. But no one was in control.
The virus didn’t destroy us, its host, and it didn’t have a directive. It wasn’t out to annihilate the planet. It had done this to thousands of planets so far. We had the memories of those conquests in our heads now, along with the thoughts and secrets of every person on the planet. Our miniscule senses of self were drowned in a tsunami of other identities.
We became a groupthink with the added data of nearly three thousand other planets’ worth of animals, plants, and data we couldn’t even begin to classify.
But the virus had never taken over a lifeform with a consciousness. Up until now, it had taken over the equivalents of plants and simpler, baser beings.
Now it had a brain. Now it could reflect. Now it could plan. Now it could track where it had been and it could catalogue all that it had seen.
It was an overwhelming moment of sentience for the virus and a deeply religious moment for us humans.
For the first time, we could act in accordance with complete efficiency and a complete lack of secrecy. Money disappeared immediately.
First off, we organized enough food for everyone and kept our numbers sustainable. That took four years.
Then we built ships.
We had the maps in our head. We could backtrack to those previous worlds and colonize them.
The virus continued to spread forward and we backtracked where it had been.
It was the dawn of a new age.
tags
