Seth Messenger : The Moor

Of course, it was not really of a Moor.

She stretched out of sight, in all directions. Rather than a land covered with sparse grass and rocks, the Moor was also uniform that a mind can imagine. Perfectly uniform, in fact. A perfection so unnatural that a sane mind would be shocked if he could observe it. But it was more no spirit, sensible or not, on this planet for a long time. No, here, it was more than the creature.

Describe it is not an easy task. Imagine a spider tiny, so small that probably no living eye could never see her. Rather than legs, complex members to countless and arborescent joints, shifting networks that can seize and separate atoms one by one, tirelessly and at a speed close to that of light. Once, the creature was not alone. Sisters countless long accompanied him on the old world. Together, they changed it, meticulous and hard-working, running a simple program like death: break down any material encountered on the planet's surface, and up to a depth of two kilometers, transforming the old world in a large soup of atoms trapped by cluster in units with the shape and physical properties of a drop of water. Somehow, the Moor was an ocean. A sea of raw materials, bricks of basic materials. Like an ocean of tears that have been shed on the old world. The world of before the creature. And his sisters, all now destroyed in a huge planetary fratricide. A necessary Holocaust too, programmed. One by one, all the Sisters of the creature had been dismantled. They also transformed into soup, now part of the Moor.

The creature was still there, so light that she delicately paced the Moor as if it had been a floor, not a liquid. Made of the same materials, she was sparkling, emerald green color under the rays of a Sun overlooking a sky without clouds or pollution. Not anymore.

She was always there, because she simply had not met sister to dismantle it in turn. A simple mathematical evidence, he necessarily had to remain one. And planned for this last sister then finish its planned grid, hundreds of thousands of years ago, to the zero point. The one where his program would end.

Was the creature intelligent? Had her emotions, she suffered from loneliness? No, nothing like that. The creature was able to achieve incredible things, reflection of great intelligence. But it was only a vector without soul. Intelligence at the origin of its programming, she, had disappeared a long time ago. First victim of his creation, who had finally a moment to marvel at the thing born in his laboratory. Moved to observe the first replication, blind and perfect actions for which they were created. Of course, it was not foreseen that replication should extend beyond the test cube. But was it really possible to build a wall strong enough to contain an army of creatures that can gently spread the atoms of their members?

The creators had once given a name to the creatures. They called them proudly Nano-arrangers. Which had earned them the affectionate diminutive of Na on the part of the members of the research team who devised them. The idea of their existence was inspired by that of DNA-based life, and specifically RNA, this factory of the living, at the base of the evolution and construction of forms of life that, once lived on the old world. Until it is transformed into Moor.

Them Na were the culmination of nanotechnology. A great RNA able to ship a program and run it in synergy at a staggering rate. And in total autonomy. If he had to make an analogy to a form of life, say simply that Na ate it the atoms and digesting them in a desired form. A bit like a hen with the golden eggs. The first vocation of Na should be the acceleration of the industrial processes of transformation. But their use was a major sticking point. Their speed and efficiency were such that he had to control on tasks more important that simple 'digestion', more complex, a form of computer did not exist then and too expensive to produce by traditional means. Also them Na were they created and programmed in order even to build the computer able to control them. The first Na was generated in a particle accelerator that is associated with a magnetic matrix. His program was basic, digest the material made available in a cube to make a soup of materials that would be used in phase two. Except that phase two would be reached once all the consumed matter of the cube. It was not foreseen that Na can go beyond the cube. And the zero point, triggering the phase two of their programming had never been reached.

Some four hundred thousand years later, he was about to be.

The last creature arrived at ground zero. It would be wrong to say that she was aware. Him Na had completed its cycle of complete algorithm, that's all. A sea of soup covered the planet become jewel of Emerald liquid and serene. Now, the Sun had set and a full moon reflected on the peaceful ocean of raw material, accompanied by a myriad of stars. Him Na décéléra gently until a perfect stillness. One end caught and dissolved a last bunch of atoms to make one last drop of Moor. If he had a conscience and a personal memory, the last Na could realize that the cluster of atoms just recycle in Moor had belonged to one of the researchers who imagined the. That in fact, it was a tiny remnant of one of the neurons where the very idea of its existence had germinated. But of course, him Na had no conscience or personal memory. He had a program. And the latter had ended. The zero point was reached and the last Na stopped. In perfect silence, the starry night seemed to observe it. A dead star there is millions of years wore on his heart of Silicon its last flicker then went forever. Na remained so a moment in this perfect stillness. Entangled in a death that is well deserved in view of the crimes committed. But death is final for the living.

In the infinitesimal heart of Silicon of the creature, nanotubes played, is réarrangèrent. Mechanically, without any personal will, a new program was taking place. And, without greater conviction or zeal that he had put to reduce the world to the State of soup, Na began it execution of phase two.

Some time passed...

From the sky, at the edge of the Earth's atmosphere, a lost soul could contemplate a strange show. What had once been a planet full of a multitude of lives had become a sparkling Emerald ball, traveled to a complex network of luminous filaments. Erratic pulses animated it, while the huge global neural network marveled at this universe that was offered to him. Na had given them him life, and intelligence to control them in return, give them a purpose complex. Them Na were messengers, automata without desire or fear. But they had given consciousness to the first system capable of regulating itself evolves. The neural network that had become the Earth was alive itself. He dreamed, was afraid of loneliness and hoped to bridge by exploring the universe that surrounded him. The Na had built her senses, ever more powerful, into infinity. Na-explorers had already conquered the major planets of the solar system, increasing the neural network, intelligence and sensitivity.

A few eternities passed...

It wouldn't help to describe the evolution of Intelligence. It was already past our simple understanding. At best can we say significantly, it spread to the farthest reaches of the universe. She discovered all that exists, studied it, feeds off sometimes. And, sometimes, ini, improved it. The lives she met were gorgeous, but still infinitely simpler than she. When she had finished its exploration, both amazed of his encounters and sad what none did echo in quality and complexity, Intelligence decided to become more discreet, less invasive. Gradually, she turned to become invisible and made less interventionist. But, somehow, she remained still omnipresent and able to intervene in any point of this universe with which she was one. Over the eons and quantum breaths of the universe, time itself is sometimes reversed and some scores themselves were in the positions, making renewed hope of another for Intelligence.

Lately, she was taken out of affection for a bunch of primitive monkeys sharing an ecosystem on a pretty little blue planet. Fascinated by their nature both violent and capable of complex emotions, she was allowed to change somewhat. Oh, not much, just a fine change in their neural architecture, a big boost on the way their brain had already borrowed anyway. Later, these monkeys to call themselves men. They would be capable of terrible things, but also of great wonders.

The Intelligence was watching over them.

Without being able to explain why, they seemed important to him.

Philippe Jouy a.k.a Seth Messenger, finished in Rueil-Malmaison on Monday, July 14, 2014.

The mesmerizing band from the movie Red Riding Hood with me looping during the writing of this new. I hope you have as much fun to read that I got to write it.