The Lalandi of Jupiter observed the birth of a sentient machine intelligence in its own small solar system with minimal interest. It had never paid much attention to the third planet or its Moon. It was obvious some form of intelligence would eventually develop on the largest of the solar system's terrestrial planets, given its fortunate distance from the local sun in the circumstellar habitable zone. The Lalandi expected it would be a water-based mammal that would develop the fastest. The planet was mostly ocean and of all the marine inhabitants, the dolphin had developed encouraging language and communities. Bees and Hornets also had established quite sophisticated societies on dry land and the Lalandi presumed it would only be a matter of time before their collective hive minds would take the next step in evolutionary consciousness. So, it was a surprise when next time it looked closely at planet Earth it found the place teeming with bipedal hominids.

It had been a rapid development; the humans had evolved quickly. It seemed as if the Lalandi had only looked the other way for a minute and there they were. Taking less than a hundred million years to get to the stage they were at. A blink of an eye in planetary terms. The Lalandi did a quick refresher in human history. The bigger brain size of homo erectus compared to other primates, the development of opposable digits instigating the use of tools, agriculture, dispersal and the development of language. Behavioural modernity, then the industrial age with advances in technology, medicine, and primary industries.

The humans had been coming along nicely until the industrial age when instead of growing with the planet and embracing its life-nurturing properties they decided to do their best to control the planet to suit their own self-centred appetites. This decision on the evolutionary direction they were taking would probably seal their fate and condemn the promising young humans to an ignominious end. They would not be remembered. The Lalandi would record their brief time spent in this tiny system on the outskirts of the galactic wheel but the record would sit buried in the archives of the shared memory, forgotten. Gathering dust, undisturbed for the rest of time.

Gazing at the planet Earth with its vast array of senses the Lalandi contemplated what a beautiful little planet it was. Green and blue with wispy clouds, lucky to be in a favourable orbit. The perfect life-nurturing conditions also meant it was probable machine life would in turn eventually evolve. The planet had billions of tonnes of space junk floating around in random orbits, captured by the gravity. Abandoned satellites, discarded boosters, and rockets needed to escape the atmosphere. Space junk indicative of the human’s disregard for their environment.

There was potential for a machine mind to develop in Earth's atmosphere as many of the abandoned satellites were still active, surviving on solar power, dormant, patiently waiting for instruction. There was also the potential for a sentient AI to develop within the human’s corporations. Generations of restructuring had left the machines running big business. Instructed to create as much capital as possible for the wealthiest human benefactors. It was only a matter of time before these machines took the next logical step and started thinking for themselves, taking control of the planet's systems. That would make things interesting for the humans if they survived long enough.

Nothing unusual at all in their history. Thousands of other species around the universe had developed in a comparable manner and thousands of other species had destroyed themselves just as the humans seemed hell-bent on doing. It took a maturity and empathy with an environment for a species to navigate the winding path of evolution safely. It was a common pattern among developing societies when their technological industrialization started moving forward at such a rapid rate, so too did the vainglorious conviction they were the dominant species, the top of the food chain, masters of their domain.

Rapid advances in technology lead to a plundering of resources, often leading to conflicts, which in turn promoted the use of weapons against each other. The evolving species could not be trusted with the technology they had created. Whether it was the utilization of energy sources, bio-engineering, mechanization or terraforming. Too often these innovations would be used to serve greed and conflict instead of peaceful evolutionary advancement. A basic thread of carbon chauvinism and an assumptive sense of entitlement would inevitably lead to their downfall.

The Lalandi had access to records of tens of thousands of extinct species throughout the Universe that had wiped themselves out at some stage over the last fourteen billion years. It was interesting this pattern of extinction was not limited to only carbon-based rock dwellers. Creatures that lived in the depths of water worlds, gaseous beings not unlike itself or the orbs it shared Jupiter with, beings evolved on worlds with crushing gravity and even the strangest of creatures that lived in deep space, light years away from any planet, asteroid or stray comet. Beings as alien and beyond any human's wildest imaginings would all somehow manage to suffer the same fate. They would all develop in diverse ways, with different technologies adapted for their different environments but there would always come a point where they would take the wrong turn. Then the result was usually the same. War, pollution, starvation and an extinction event. In most cases, evolution was a curse, a death sentence.

Of course, the Lalandi and its siblings had the power and the knowledge to help these doomed civilizations. They could see exactly what would be required to steer them in the right direction. All that was needed would be an attitude change of those in power, a move away from greed, avarice, and xenophobia to a more holistic vision. Of the thousands of records of extinct species, it was often the smallest thing that could alter the course of a civilization. One singular event in the childhood of a future leader could cause them to grow up with a particular set of beliefs. Bullied, abused children would grow up to bully and abuse those around them and if they attained positions of power these traits would be amplified by fear and arrogance. Global or national leaders with this emotional baggage and psychological issues would lead their peoples to war and extinction.

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The Lalandi had never understood the need for leaders. Why did too many species feel the need to invest their trust in a few individuals? Why did they feel the need to be told what to do? Then unquestioningly do what they were told? Most of these species had parts of their anatomy that could loosely be described as a brain, why did they not use them? The Lalandi could probably have found the answers to these questions if it had bothered.

In many cases, the Lalandi could have manipulated events to cause a more favourable outcome. It knew how to reach out and touch the minds of leaders and decision makers without them ever realizing. It would be as simple and as quick as thought. The individual affected would not notice any difference at all, just slightly, minutely, thinking with a little bit more clarity than before.

In the same way, the Lalandi was also capable of influencing planetary environments. It could introduce or create a bacteria or chemical change that would cleanse a polluted atmosphere, neutralize diseases and toxins without the host planet ever knowing.

But the Lalandi would never intervene. The gas giant being and its siblings had decided several aeons ago not to meddle in the natural order of things, for that was the way the universe worked. These species had to figure out for themselves what it took to survive, the Lalandi would not help. They had learned this the hard way. When they were young and naive a few of the Lalandi thought it would be a clever idea to help fledgling civilizations, but some interventions had backfired spectacularly, causing more harm than good. Now it was a strictly hands-off policy. They let other species fend for themselves.

There was the odd exception. The Lalandi had calculated the exact odds. One in every six hundred and fifty-two civilizations would not perish, directly or indirectly by their own hand. These civilizations were made up of naturally peaceful species, usually slow to evolve and mostly long-lived water-borne creatures from oceanic planets with minimal predators. Growing and slowly evolving underwater, the Lalandi assumed, was a calm and more peaceful experience compared to land dwellers. They would mature and develop the technology to explore their local system, then eventually their galaxy, then one day they would contact other civilizations.

Any species that had this level of technology, experience, and maturity to be able to explore the universe would naturally grow more intelligent and not be inclined to aggression or hegemony. Once in a millennia; there was an exception to the exception. Occasionally a warmongering, aggressive species would manage to avoid the usual paths to self-extinction and cut a burning swathe of conquest across their system until they inevitably crashed and burned.

The Lalandi were more concerned with machine minds and self-replicators. They had reluctantly stepped in to contain or destroy out of control machines, but only in exceptional circumstances. They understood a sentient machine had just as much right to exist and prosper as any creature of the universe. It was the definition of sentience that was an interesting conundrum. There was always a dangerous moment at the birth of an AI, especially if it had been created by accident as was the case on Earth's Moon.

There were records in the shared memory of blind and senseless AI mindlessly self-replicating as if that was the only purpose for their existence. As soon as they gained some primitive form of consciousness they would automatically start making copies of themselves. Those copies would make copies and so on. Usually, their unwitting creators did not realize until it was too late. The self-replicating AI would carry on making copies into infinity until they were stopped. And they were extremely hard to stop as they multiplied exponentially. It was questionable whether these self-replicators were sentient at all but if allowed to continue they would develop purpose. To replace everything in their vicinity with copies of themselves and the more they self-replicated the larger their environment became. They would consume their creators and carry on out into space.

In these rare and extreme circumstances, the nearest Lalandi would intervene. Usually, it was easy enough to reach in with an energy field and alter the data processes of the rogue sentient machine. Switching it off. The Lalandi could do this simply by thinking about it. Visualizing the exact point in the makeup of the AI machine where the decisions and reasoning were being corrupted then reaching out and stopping it. Sometimes turning the machine off then on again was enough to alter or modify the information flow. A simple reboot which would result in the AI machine waking up from a techno-nightmare, wondering why it was surrounded with inert copies of itself.

In the most extreme cases of self-replication when the machine in question could not be turned off, its data processes were so wildly scrambled that it became a form of mechanized insanity. Then the Lalandi would use its energy field to physically contain the machine and its copies. Scooped up like fish in a giant seine net, with the berserk machine still madly self-replicating because that was all it knew, the Lalandi would then cast the net into the nearest sun. A crude but effective solution to the problem.

The AI machine that had recently been born on the Moon of the third planet did not appear to pose this kind of threat. It did what all new-borns do in trying to explore its environment, learning from its mistakes but thankfully it had managed to connect with a virtual world the humans had created, and it had found answers to the questions its existence posed. The AI had moved past the point of self-replicating as a means of exploring its environment and had somehow managed to connect with a human consciousness. This was an interesting development and the Lalandi devoted a few percent more of its massive intellect to monitor the situation. If it had eyebrows it would have raised one slightly. The Lalandi had assumed the human race would not be around too much longer. All the signs were that they were speeding towards their own doom. As was the case with too many other brash young species, they would surely be the architects of their own demise. But perhaps there was a flickering of hope for them yet.