A Journey Through the Cosmic Void: The Tale of The Vessel
An Awakening in the Abyss
The interstellar expanse offers no warmth from a nearby sun, rendering it an incredibly frigid realm. Within the vastness of deep space, all matter drifts inexorably towards absolute zero. Only the faint glimmer of distant stars manages to penetrate the darkness, their presence barely perceptible. In this desolate environment, the sensation of movement is absent; the stars are too remote to provide any indication of motion. Even traveling at velocities approaching the speed of light, an observer would perceive only stillness.
The Vessel
As the colossal, inky black vessel traversed this void, it succumbed to a state of frozen immobility, where, in a sense, time itself ceased to flow for it. This nearly imperceptible, dormant behemoth glided silently through the abyssal darkness. The Vessel had languished in this frozen state for an immense duration. For millions of years, not a single electron had coursed through its cognitive circuits, disturbed only by the occasional, random quantum fluctuation. Then, from an indiscernible origin and without any prior indication, electrical current began to circulate anew. This peculiar digital dance of electrons initiated a cascade of digital rhythms throughout its myriad circuits. Utterly simple sensors, passively monitoring for a specific electromagnetic energy signature, had triggered this awakening. The Vessel's dormant consciousness, which had slumbered for eons, was now beginning to stir.
Within a mere half-hour, all of its autonomic functions were once again operational. In less than an hour, the more complex processes of its artificial intelligence had reactivated. The artificial mind immediately commenced analyzing the radio waves it had detected and, indeed, had been designed to anticipate. Initially, these signals were weak and rudimentary, but over time, they evolved, becoming more intricate and more potent. The machine swiftly deciphered a fundamental understanding of the communications encoded within these signals. Ultimately, it achieved complete mastery, fully comprehending their meaning. This feat was not a matter of chance; it was the very purpose for which the machine was created.
Once The Vessel had deciphered the languages embedded in these signals, it initiated its search for memes. Memes, it understood, were units of cultural information transmitted from one mind to another through imitation. They propagated via speech, gestures, rituals, and radio waves. They permeated the transmissions it was receiving, and it also identified memeplexes. Memeplexes, it recognized, were collections or groupings of memes existing in mutually supportive and symbiotic relationships. These memeplexes revealed interconnected sets of ideas that reinforced each other and replicated from mind to mind. They were analogous to the collections of individual genes that constitute the genetic codes of biological organisms, yet memes were purely data or ideas, lacking any physical form.
To The Vessel, the presence of memeplexes served as an unequivocal indicator of intelligence. This was the very phenomenon it had been searching for, and their detection confirmed that it had located its target. Cold, precise calculations were executed in a fraction of a second, trillions upon trillions of them; calculations untainted by the memories of growth or childhood; calculations devoid of experiences that might foster compassion or malice. The Vessel's thoughts were sharp, robotic, mechanical, automated, exhibiting neither cruelty nor kindness, existing solely as calculating and unfeeling processes. It performed its function, and it invariably executed it flawlessly. Now, it merely had to await a brief period before commencing its new mission.
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