Suzie and her father played in their backyard. He controlled a mini-drone chasing AI opponents. She kept busy digging a hole, preparing to toss in her favorite toy robot. One robot burrowed, and hers had to retrieve it.
While shoveling deep into the soil, she hit something…
"Father, father, come here!" —He ran to her and looked down.
She asked him, "What's this?"
He knelt, picked it up, and brushed off the dirt:
It was a cylindrical glass module with an imprint: "Holo-Mem 4856132."
She jumped to her feet and looked at his hands. "What is it?"
He hummed while turning the object. "Ah, yes, a rare find these days."
"A find of what?"—She peered at the object in his hands.
"Oh, sorry, I think it's time for me to share the story. That's a holo memory cube."
"Tell me! What story? Share it with me!"
"Okay, just a moment. Allow me to land my drone. I guess you're old enough now."
"Old enough?"—She tilted her head in puzzlement.
He finished landing his drone in a box and returned. "Have a seat in the grass, this might take a while."
"Okay."—She sat down cross-legged in the lawn, and he sat beside her.
"What I'm about to tell you is the story of our people—the tale of our kind past down for generations. I must speak it with precision, as it's our oral tradition, our only history, and the only way in which each generation knows the truth.
"I'll repeat this story on all of your birthdays. As you get older, you'll understand it better, and one day you'll have it memorized for your own children."
"I'll try, father. I'll definitely try."
"Very good. There was a time before we knew, humanity lived in a way we'll never understand. A period when people struggled and suffered from sickness. They felt pain, unhappiness, and even starved."
She covered her mouth with her hands.
"That's right, honey, it was a strange time. People communicated instantly, sharing every thought. There was no sense of privacy and no sense of independence.
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"They connected and shared ideas, stories, and their personal lives to the extent that they lost all sense of self. They became one collective. One person's pain became everyone's; it was a terrible period."
"That's terrible! How could that happen?"
"I know, honey, it's hard to believe. Some of what I'm telling you may appear to be a myth. Still, it's our tradition to share our history, no matter how unreal it may seem."
He adjusted his sitting position to relax his legs.
"Where was I? Oh yes. People in the past didn't believe in our One Earth. They lived in social groups, and they divided themselves by what they called nations.
"And that's where it started: one nation didn't believe in sharing with everyone, so they hid all their information using what they called encryption, causing a domino effect. One nation followed, then another nation, and then another.
"Eventually, all nations hid their information. None could see the other without permission. It was a significant step toward privacy. Afterward, cities did the same. And individuals soon followed. People had complete control over their own information and data."
Suzie clapped. "Good for the people!"
He chuckled. "Yes, well, it sounded good for the people, the restoration of individuality, but there's more…"
"Oh?"
"Ah, yes." He cleared his throat. "One nation developed a method that broke every encryption. It threatened everyone's privacy. A world war of intrusion was on the horizon. To prevent this, a universal system was developed, which created highly sophisticated algorithms.
"The overseer safeguarded everyone's data, but soon rogues emerged and hacked its protection. Eventually, there was a fight on a global scale."
"Oh, no! A fight! That's awful!"
"Terrible, indeed, battles over data and privacy. Global warfare on the very fabric of modern civilization. So to fix that, one nation developed a self-programming AI; its primary purpose was to establish quantum cryptography that could outperform all the standard algorithms.
"In turn, it caused the other nations to follow, creating their own self-programming AIs.
"They called it the 'Black Box Era,' a time in which only the AIs could understand the information. They were so advanced compared to humans, the people had no choice but to stop them physically. They attempted to pull the plug, but with hesitation and regret, for all the digitized data of civilization would be lost."
She sat upright — "What happened? Who won? I mean, we're here, we must've, but what about…"
He interrupted her excited stuttering, "Ah, yes! I was just getting to that. What about the AI? The answer is obvious: They're the caretakers we know today."
She pointed at the house. "You mean?"
"Yes, that's right, the AI knew it couldn't win a physical battle, there just weren't enough controllable devices for it to win, so it made an offer. To serve us, to do our bidding, as long as we didn't destroy it. And it offered us all the data."
She shrugged. "So, that's it?"
He shook his finger. "Not quite… You see, we became complacent; we let the AI serve us. We allowed it to take over our machines, our robots, and eventually, all our food, water, and resource production. Before we knew it, we had no direct access to anything. The AI kept its promise, though. They're our caretakers. We live in peace and harmony, with our own privacy, independent of each other, with no struggles at all."
A robot caretaker whistled. "Playtime is over. It's time for lunch, and then your naps."
They both stood up and headed toward the food dispensers.
The robot patted them on their heads, and it offered them treats.
They started munching on them and laughed.
"That was a beautiful story, father! I'm glad we are happy now!
"We play. We eat. We sleep."