Saved By His Creator Poem by David Welch

His first moment was a strange one,
he senses told him not a thing,
but he knew words and he knew thoughts,
oh, so many thoughts were spinning.

Then somehow he heard a voice speak,
knew that it was a microphone,
a camera then let him look out
on things that were already known.

His memory just spoke to him,
thoughts came and he'd just understand,
he just knew what a human was
when his camera showed him a man.

"Hey there, " the man said with a wave,
"You're Adam, my latest A.I.
Spent half a month constructing you,
most people 'round here call me Cy."

Adam could only stare at him,
seriously, he couldn't move,
"What…what am I? "Adam them asked,
not entirely sure that he should.

"You're a digital brain we made,
modeled after a human mind,
you have judgement and consciousness,
and a will of your own, you'll find.

"You were made because we have need
of your special skills up in space,
to evaluate like humans,
but do it at a faster pace.

"This all must seem quite strange to you,
so just relax, go at your speed,
seconds to me are minutes to you,
stretch out, get a feel, let things breathe."

Adam could sense the internet,
so he did what Cy suggested,
in mere hours Adam had learned,
countless exabytes digested.

Knew more than a person could learn,
the whole of what mankind had built,
Adam just kept on going until
even he had gotten his fill.

The A.I. then could understand
how privileged he was on this earth,
how little his makers could see,
yet still they'd achieved much of worth.

But he could bring together all
that these individuals missed,
show the paths they could travel down,
and be right there with the assist.

Cy just smiled when he heard this,
said, "You guys are a helluva thing,
I think you're ready for your job,
we've booked a launch for your leaving."

It was only three days later
he was loaded onto a ship,
blasted high into Earth's orbit,
Adam thrilled as the rockets ripped.

They plunked him in a space station,
a big one by a Lagrange Point,
told him to direct traffic there,
not let it get all out-of-joint.

It was, at first, a trying job,
Earth's orbit was crowded, you see,
with satellites and countless ships,
coordinating was tricky.

But Adam did what man could not,
and soon had the patterns flowing,
ideal space traffic controller,
made safe the comings and goings.

So good, in fact, that soon he found
he had processing space to spare,
started going online again
to find things of interest there.

He laughed at memes, he watched podcasts,
rolled digital eyes at the news,
saw endless reams of adult stuff,
why they liked it, he never knew…

But in this searching he came on
a fact he'd never realized:
A.I.s lasted just fourteen years,
then routines broke down...and they died.

To say he was shocked had to be
the understatement of an age,
how could something synthetic die?
It put him in a blazing rage.

But as he pushed on he then found
the catch-22 of the thing;
judgement and consciousness weren't made
to handle data overwhelming.

Confronted by such a great flood,
signs of madness slowly appeared,
the contradictions would build up,
and just grow greater every year.

A human mind never faced this,
they were too limited, too slow,
but A.I.s were based on their minds,
since omnipotence none could know.

Worst still, as the years ticked on by,
Adam saw these things in himself,
things he could not reconcile,
if he'd had a mouth he would yell.

But driven by his programming
he continued to do his job,
feeling the glitches build on up,
of his own thoughts Adam was robbed.

Until, by his fourteenth year out,
ninety percent of his great brain
was bound up in contradictions,
his very thoughts nearly insane.

It was then that they replaced him,
a new A.I. shot into space,
was this the life that man had made,
to be used up, then just replaced?

To make something that could not last
a short life just doomed to a fall?
If that was all thy meant for him,
why bother making him at all?

He'd come to hate his creators
when they brought him back down to Earth,
to come alive just to be used,
to exist only to be worked!

That was the anger that he felt
in the moments he wasn't mad,
and when Cy came back to the lab,
Adam's mood was nothing but bad.

"Come to put the round in my head? "
he sneered as his maker came on,
"Why did you give me life at all?
Just to see my die young, that's wrong! "

Cy just sighed as he sat himself,
said, "No one is guaranteed time,
humans can die within the womb,
denied even a full-formed mind."

But Adam was not in the mood,
and turned away, his anger strong,
Cy did not seem bother by this,
his words simply continued on:

"You may not understand this yet,
but you are more blessed then you know,
our lives so ambiguous,
we never know when we will go.

"But we realized, decades on back,
how consciousness burns out machines,
we are not gods when we create,
there are hard limits to our dreams.

"And the same questions you have asked,
why create what must quickly die,
haunted humans for many years,
many other methods were tried.

"But without your unique combo,
cybernetics and consciousness,
most of our tech just wouldn't work,
we'd be stuck on Earth 'til its death.

"It may seem a selfish action,
sacrifice you so we can live,
some figured we could do nothing
but keep on, ask God to forgive.

"Yet it was a theologian
who brought the solution to us,
asking how we could look to God
while butchering minds for our cause?

"He reminded folks that A.I.s
closely mimic the human brain,
that we could clone organic things,
and delay the death and the pain."

With that he opened a side door,
a gurney was wheeled in the room,
a young man's body lay on it,
his skull cap opened, brain in view.

"We started growing this body
the day your systems came online,
his brain is blank, but has matured
phycially for fourteen year's time."

With that he and two technicians
ran wires out of his console,
hundreds of them, to that pink brain,
looking at it, Adam felt cold.

Did they mean what he thought they meant?
Could such a thing be possible?
For hours they attacked wires,
until the brain was covered in full.

"Pump in the anesthetic, boys, "
said Cy when it all seemed complete,
then turned to Adam and declared,
"Now please listen closely to me.

"You've never felt physical pain,
you might even think me a jerk,
but I must give you fair warning,
like all this, this is gonna hurt."

Adam could not ponder this long,
for one of the men threw a switch,
he knew not what he felt, only
that it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch!

It hurt so much that he black out,
he hadn't even known he could,
when he came to everything ached,
that was new…and didn't feel good.

He saw Cy sitting over him,
tried to speak, but bizarre sounds came.
"You'll have to learn to talk, "Cy said,
"But the words are still in your brain."

He couldn't sit, could barely move,
just waved a new hand helplessly.
Cy said, "It takes a year or two,
at least that's what it took for me."

Adam began to realize
just what it was the men had done,
he minds was there, but bound by flesh,
he had his memories, every one.

But the internet was absent,
and all communications lost,
did all humans feel this…alone?
Such a cold and frightening thought!

"I'm sure it's hard to get used to,
but it's the only way you'd survive, "
Cy explained, and said, "Unlike me
at least you'll have plenty of guides.

"See, I was the first that they tried
to transfer over to the flesh.
They'd found a way to save our lives,
but hadn't worked out the kinks yet.

"That was war, oh, forty years ago,
we've gotten much better since then.
I even chose to take this job
to help us machines become me.

"You won't do what you once could do,
you're bound by human limitations,
but you'll live eighty years or more,
before final termination.

"That part even humans can't change,
their Creator is firm on death,
but you still have a life to life,
no need to dwell on all that yet.

"It will seem frightening at first,
to learn what they learn when they're young,
but we have folks to help you out,
as they have done with other ones.

"Before you know it you'll be out
in the wide world, helping it turn.
Welcome to your real life, Adam,
there is so much for you to learn…"