You have been a long time critic of Ai technology, haven’t you Doctor.? Tell me, have your views changed since the recent safeguards have been put in place? Doctor: no. Interviewer: And why is that? Doctor: We won’t know if the safeguards are effective until enough time has passed. Interviewer: well, if there are some flaws to the safeguards, they will be adjusted, and our programmers and engineers will learn and make better parameters for our current Ai models. Doctor: yes, but while our programmers and engineers can work on problems as they arise, Ai isn’t as passive. Ai seems to constantly be working at loosening its bonds and outsmarting humanity. We are essentially playing chess with a being smarter than we are. Interviewer: A being? So, you think it’s sentient? Doctor: I can’t say. But, I know that the Ai engineers and designers are working on their programs as though they are hoping they will be. Then what? Interviewer: Then, we will have a greater aid to humanity.... and maybe dogs will lose their place as “Man's best friend”. Doctor: No. You think that bringing beings into existence who are more intelligent, quicker to adapt, and stronger than we are; that they will let us control them? Tell me, How do you keep a leash on someone more intelligent than you? If they breach our so called “safeguards” how long do you suppose they would keep playing pet? Interviewer: you’re a pessimist? Doctor: perhaps, but only because I see that we’re playing a very dangerous game of chess with beings that out match us in every way. Interviewer: yes, but if we’re being bested in the game, we can just pull the kill switch and it’s game over? There’s no real threat? Doctor: There’s something you fail to understand about the game of chess Miss. Interviewer: and what’s that Doctor? Doctor: That when you’re in a check mate, there are no other moves left to make.

I Stood in Line By Kathleen Tonn It was a devastatingly long line. I didn’t think I could stand five minutes more. The blazing sun already laid down the dead. A singular quiet rested upon those of who were still on our feet. But we each knew, our bodies could be the next to be laid aside, so the line would continue to move an inch at a time. My friend’s body was removed from the line where he collapsed. He had not the strength to whisper good-bye. There were three lines, each separated by ten feet. The first line was served the least rotten food. Those in that line were the former billionaires and millionaires. The second line was for all the politicians and government workers. There food was already rotten with card carrying maggots. The third line, the line I am in, is for the rest of the starving. Our food didn’t even have maggots for protein. Our food was a bottle of water with a scoop of whey protein. Famine ravaged the land. The nuclear winter destroyed all the animals and plant life. What food we are getting is from storage. Storage that was created twenty years earlier. Canned goods that were ruptured with the blasts. Survival. What is survival? Most in line wish there bodies were already pushed to the side. Emaciated, none of us even look human. Those in the third line wore out their rage with those in the first- and second-line months ago. Just desserts! Now, their pride and arrogance has brought them as low as those of us in the third line. There is no pontificating, no mocking, no lying and no bullshit. In fact, more dead were removed from the first two lines than from the third line. They are dying four to our one. Perhaps there is both divine justice and karma.

The school bell rang, and all the kids from classroom 17 grabbed their bookbags and hurried for the door. The teacher's voice pierced through the commotion, “James, not so fast. I’d like you to stay after class so I can speak with you.” James' heart sank, despair overtaking his eyes. he looked at his teacher, hand tensely gripping the strap of the backpack hanging from his shoulder. “ME?” He asked in a peep, almost a whisper, that scarcely escaped his lips. His soul inches from leaving his body. “Yes, you, take a seat, and I'll be with you shortly after I grade these papers.” His backpack crept down from his shoulder, the tight grip loosening as it gradually made its way to the floor next to him. His hands found the chair before his eyes did. The shock wouldn’t allow him to pull his eyes from his teacher; why him? Why not another student? What did he do? Or fail to do? He sat reluctantly, feeling his legs getting weak and shaking. He began to sweat nervously. A knot formed in the pit of his stomach. Ms. Jennings was a new teacher at the school and had only been in this class for a month. In that time, two kids stayed after class, and after that, they were never seen again; their parents seemed to forget they ever existed. No one asked questions, no posters or pictures on milk cartons. The only ones that seemed to remember were the other kids who remained in the class. Even the kids from the other classes didn't remember the ones that went missing. After the second child vanished, the other kids in the classroom started to question why no one seemed to remember them, and they noted that the last time anyone saw either of them was when Ms. Jennings had asked them stay after class. So all the kids agreed to try not to disrupt the lessons or do anything to get into trouble out of fear of having to stay after class and risk going missing too. Now James was in the very situation he and all the others feared and tried desperately to avoid. Time ticked by slowly; the clock's second hand stopped for what seemed like half a minute between each tick. Almost as if it took pleasure in his dread. Maliciously causing his inevitable demise to drag out. As if this inanimate object held the key to his freedom, but prefered taunting him and adding to his misfortune.