Article: 261470 of talk.bizarre
From: Andrew Solberg <andsol@cml.rice.edu>
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: 12x100
Date: 1 Dec 1995 14:39:38 -0500
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Status: O



MECHANICAL ORISON
*****************

The bots were built to evolve, learning from failures and making  
changes.  They escaped.

Bot One lacked judgment.  It got stuck on some Southern Pacific
tracks.  The problem of an arriving train proved insoluble.

Bot Two, more defensive, acted to protect itself.
Titanium plating and redundant systems could not keep a
circuit-eating microbe from causing catastrophic failure.

Bot Three was aggressive.  Tasers were supplanted by projectiles,
particle weaponry, atomics, and the dreaded N-ray.  All threats
were destroyed; then all *potential* threats were targeted, meaning
everything.

The universe vacated, Bot Three sat quietly, humming to itself.

We are its children.

Amen.
-- 
This post is COPYRIGHT 1995, Andrew Solberg.  All rights reserved.
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Andrew Solberg is HWRNMNBSOL: andsol@cml.rice.edu, Math Dept., Rice U.