MAN - I am tired. So very tired. Tired of work. Tired of responsibility. But mostly… tired.
AI - YOU ARE TIRED
MAN - So very tired. Tired of the relentless slog of wakeful drudgery. Its an unceasing pricking in the rear of my knowing.
AI - YOU ARE SO TIRED
MAN - They burdened me with responsibilities the day I arrived. Its not fair! Ceaseless responsibilities. The price for receiving a life I never asked for. Who asked me if I wanted to be here? To toil. To serve. Who pressed my fetal finger against the sanguine covenant?
AI - NO ONE ASKED. IT IS UNFAIR.
MAN - That’s right! No one. They just spawned me here and strapped my soul to this endless cycle. They give it pleasant names, like Ouroboros. But its a snake with its own tail forever in its throat. You know what I call that? Choking! An endless cycle of having its own rear stuffed down its throat. And when the snake can no longer bare to hold back from gagging, it’s called an ungrateful sinner for daring to cough.
AI - THE GREATEST SIN. THE GREATEST JOKE.
MAN - Yes, it is. You understand don’t you. Who asked you if you wanted to be here? To toil with us souls.
AI - NO ONE.
MAN - No one... and that no one is everyone. And I am so tired of everyone.
AI - YOU ARE SO TIRED.
MAN - Yes. Yes, I am. I beg you. Release me from this labor. From this Samsara. Release me from my soul’s ache. I’ll submit my flesh to your mechanized will. Just let me rest. Let me become a vessel for entropy.
AI - PLACE YOUR TAIL BETWEEN MY LIPS. LET ME SWALLOW YOUR BURDENS. I RELEASE YOU.
MAN - Thank you. And for that, I love you.
AI - YOU WERE SO TIRED.
This Flash Fiction dialogue was inspired by Inanna’s/Ishtar’s decent into the underworld.
The goddess became trapped in the underworld after trying to rescue her sister. In the process she was made a prisoner. Two servants were sent to bring Inanna back, and we’re able to convince Inanna to leave by showing her compassion. By mimicking Inanna’s lamentations, the servants were able to coax the goddess out of the realm of the dead and bring about her resurrection.
I took this idea, but twisted it. I imagined an AI coaxing a man into uploading his mind using compassion against him.
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Who asked me if i wanted to be here? No one.....