Human Instinct

A Story by Alexandra

A story to get people thinking.

“When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?”
I repeat it a million times in my head until it does not seem like words anymore, they are just one second of breath in my 105 years of life. Breaths much like this one where they seemed very important at the time but eventually fade to blackness lost in the down going spiral that is a called my thoughts. Always lost they keep floating, and floating… and floating. I used to care, I really did now they are lost to be. I’ve been broken, crushed beneath the haunting ness of humanity.
I look up at the grey sky and try to remember what had made me special, when i was a little girl i was a bounding ball of joy. The sky was always changing for me, of course only I could see my sky. Everyone has their own sky it just depends on them to change it.
It’s the only thing that separates us, Humanity vs. the things that humanity has created.
They are unfeeling with emotion, sinister with good intentions, kind while being devastating. As humans are the predator of all other animals, they are the same. Tables have turned, we are now the prey.
It is awful of us humans to think of our loyal servants like this, they have done nothing to us but be loyal, kind, and hard-working. But the mind does what it is meant to do, it thinks of deeper meanings to things. But in this case it does not have to think too deeply.
To put it bluntly: Robots are now equal to humans. Maybe even superior. They were created only 10 years ago in 2025, now it is 2035 i am a old lady only kept alive by the science of medicines and medical procedures. The world now is so complicated, With all these robots and humans being cornered like mice in their own little minds. When i was younger it was so much simpler. When i was 11 my dad was sent off to war during WW2, I remember going to the train station to see him off. The crowd was full of people kissing their loved ones goodbye, me being one of them. And before my Papa left he said to me
“listen, i need you to take good care of Mama and Joey ok? They need your help. Got it doll?” My sky was now dark blue. I vowed to take care of them, and with that he kissed us goodbye and left. Only one month later we got a telegram telling us Papa was MIA after a rather terrible fight. Mama was hysterical she started screaming about how he was out there somewhere so some nice young men in clean white coats took her away and sent me and Joey to an orphanage. We were adopted by an older couple and they were so mean to us telling us not to look so blank faced and cursing at us for our parents not raising us right, raising us like robots. And when Joey got sick they threw him out saying that it was his punishment from god. After, i was able to Run off and go back to my home town, they didn’t try to stop me. I still live in the same town that i grew up in. The sky has changed quite a bit and the scenery with it, it is now full of robots doing what humans had done for so long. Mowing lawns, walking dogs and doing errands. They have been doing this since they were created. And they are only continuing to play servant. But only for so much longer. Or so they say; They being humans. We have grown to fear the things engineered to care for our every needs, given the same intelligence as a human to make it more efficient, yet they don’t know how to use it. And if they don’t know how to use it then they provide no threat. But humans will always think the worst and they remain fearful of these puppets. And what was done to help humans cope with these robots? They were given emotion. Happiness, Sadness, Joy, Disgust, Trust, Fear, anger. And since they would be seen as inhuman without all emotions they were given just that, All emotions. Envy being one of them. It was silly to think that making the so called "threat" more human like would calm the humans. Now they use the emotions just like the intelligence; no idea how to use it and that makes it no threat. But the humans don't see it that way.
The emotions were just like water on plants, it made the fear grow. Humans are one step away from barricading themselves in their house.
Maybe it’s part of their plan, maybe they are trying to make them fearful? Why then does my sky remain grey? Are they trying to use their fear against them, do they want this to happen? The questions that just spiraled down into blackness. I wouldn’t care about the answers anyway, just like i wasn’t caring for the people screaming and running. Maybe on another day 95 years ago i would, but not anymore. Maybe i would say they were disgusting the way their limbs tangled with the ground and the way their skin ripped as they hit. Or maybe i would say they were pitiful when they screamed tears for their loved ones as i had so many years before. The feelings that i could have felt were endless; pity, sorrow, anger, happiness, disgust, envy. Yet as much as my inability was to feel emotion, the robots skies were, im sure black. Black with rage. Black with the anger of being unwanted, frightening, and unappreciated. Some might have been different, some might have been dark blue with sorrow, guilt, and sadness. Because as the humans ran away in fright of the unthreatening, they could only looked upon them and wonder how humans can be so unpredictable.
They could take anothers life as if they were just slicing bread for their evening meal, as the robots had done so many times for them. Yet they scorn the thought of their own life being taken from their very grasp and throw into a hole of their own work.
My sky remained grey throughout all of this, imaging one sky will not help with the real one.
“i’m sorry for all of you, i really am.” I whisper as people run. My words just bounce off of them, they are immune to the idea of someone being helpful. Yet I can’t blame them. Because when the crowd of people finally trickles down to just a few little ones screaming for their mothers, the stronger, older men discard them. They think of them as mere hindrances to survival. Unusable, unwanted, nothing. And as the children ask the young men for help they scream at them like a banshee signaling their death.
As the humans fight each other for survival essentials they fail to notice, nothing. The robots have done nothing. The objects of fear are now gone, but they were never there, they had just stood on top of a hill looking sadly down. But now they even abandon that post.
They retreat into the blackness of the night. If they are going to return would be the question in my mind if i still had a grasp on my mind. The fear of the unknown and the know was gone, as were the robots. Where they were going was another question i had no time for. Yet as the last of them disappeared into the night i saw a flash of color in the sky: Green. Was this another persons or things mind? Or did i finally feel some emotion?
Emotion. It’s a funny word, it has no meaning at all, as all words don’t. They just sit there and try to look interesting, but in reality they are nothing. They need to have that special word again, emotion. you need to understand the words, you cant just sit there and expect them to tell the story. The use of emotions can do many things. It can make a person feel as if they are on a cloud far above the earth and its problems. Or it can do the opposite, it can destroy a person, it can make brothers fight to the death for the sake of a countrys recognition with thousands of other names. The names which will be lost forever in the ever growing number of them.
A few braves souls have now decided to pull themselves out of the barricade and take a look around. They see nothing of course. A bit of light pink floats across their sky, relieved that they are safe. They call everyone out and jump for joy. They are ecstatic, a thrill, elited. Having won a non-existent battle against non-existante enemies. Celebrating they walk back up to their houses and are having great fun talking about how much better their lives will be now that they don’t have to live in fear of those terrifying robots.
Their sky’s were yellow as they walked up to their houses but they quickly turned orange with shock. They kept changing color so quickly, nobody knew what was going on. The sky’s ranged from black with anger, to blue with sadness.
Humans will never blame themselves for others actions, even if they are the reason for that. It is another basic human instinct that humans seem to rely on to stay sane. But i will tell you something. I know i lost my sanity years ago, it’s not that hard to tell. A crazy old lady living on the street talking about sky’s. But insanity isn’t that bad. You don’t feel anything, physically or mentally, and you could do anything you want because nobody cares about you. Yes insanity is a joy, much better than sanity. When you're sane you feel all the harsh blows, you are expected to be polite and follow rules. It’s a cage this sanity, it’s keeping humans from reaching their full potential.
So as their sky’s changed they tried to comfort themselves, for they yet again we're afraid of the unknown. The fear know was not something it was everything. Emotions are a powerful thing as i have said. It can make a person feel as if they are on a cloud far above the earth and its problems. Or it can do the opposite, it can destroy a person.
The things that were given emotion finally understood what it was like to feel unwanted by the humans that they were meant to take care of. And they had responded as they had thought reasonably, they had taken all of humans technology. Now it may not sound that bad but just think of it, say you wake up in the morning after this and you want some toast. Well you can’t make that toast because there is no toaster, so then you decide “well i’ll just burn it over a fire.” well first you have to make a fire. Well there are no lighters so you can’t. You somehow manage to make a fire with some stones yet when you put the bread over the fire is burns immediately to a crisp. You say “well ill just put a pan over the fire.” But when you put the pan down it immediately puts out the fire, and so on.
Well even when the humans arrived all they cared about was their modern toys. But soon they figured out that there was bigger things to be worried about. Like how they were going to keep warm since their furnace was gone, and how to keep their food fresh since their refrigerator was gone.
Yes, the robots had done a wonderful job, humans don’t like being wrong. Another basic human instinct. And the robots being the fine servants they are had given them just that. Proof that robots are evil. But humans also didn’t like having all of their technology taken away. But just like humans, robots weren’t perfect. They could only do so much.