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Hubert walked briskly. Not unusually - just as someone who was determined to reach their destination. That is how he has always walked but today he felt as if his briskness was an escaped from a pursuit by an unknowing enemy. He was stopped by the red signal at a crosswalk and prompted by an unknown desire, he raised his eyes to find the setting sun. He saw it above a building that was not too tall nor too wide and the modern facade of the building was adorned by a gargoyle that was wearing thick rimmed glasses. The sun hasn't reached the horizon yet but an unseasonal fog has caused the light to die away. The sight made Hubert uneasy and he t

Prologue: Whither lies the consciousness Excerpt: Anna wakes up in an unfamiliar place without any memory of how she got there and begins to explore. The unflinching beam of sunlight was prodding her slumbering eyelids and her lips quivered, mumbling inaudible syllables and she whisked herself under the thin sheets. She dreamed of flying over an inexhaustible sea of clouds, stretching beyond field of vision. The wind whipped her face, convulsing it into numbness. A vaguely projected shape underneath kept fixed pace with her and when it begin to sharpen, she recognized it as her shadow. The shape went on shrinking as the clouds pulled closer

Doomsday stories In the near future, driven by the explosive demand for mild convenience of light control and song selection, Artificial Intelligence has a universal presence. It's in our houses, our children's schools, our office buildings and it is even embedded in loos to flush the toilet when you forget and keep the toilet seats down to appease our female populace. ​The horizon of AI is driven by multifaceted hydra of three vendors. ​The social behemoth skunkcopy.com ​The knowledge gatekeeper miingle.net, and ​The all rounder philanthropist and people's beloved Aroma Melon. ​ ​Deep in the research dung

She quickly scanned her surroundings, hoping that no one had noticed her panicked face. The gesture was superfluous as the internet cafe was deserted. The only other inhabitant was a shabby old man who sat in the furthest corner. She couldn't see his screen but the lewd grin and the awkward bulge was evidence to the kind of imagery that must be on the screen. She shook her head, attempting to clear the disturbing image from her mind and focused her attention back on her own screen. The main page of 'cracksocial.com' strained her eyeballs with the blood red branding. Nothing to see there. The thin text listing the dialog with her boyfriend w

"Oi!" The voice was gay and held a piercing excitement rare enough to make him freeze at the spot. He turned in search of the source and easily found it as one finds highlighted words in a paragraph. The girl had a proud posture and stood erect holding her waist as if it would run away if she didn't. Her face was colored by an unfazed eagerness that matched the one in her voice. "I know you, don't I?" The pulsating living energy in her voice, made him feel a sudden dryness in his throat. "Do you?" He eventually responded after an unusually long pause. "Yes! I have read your stories." She clamored and he noticed that her voice was unusually lo

"Hey!" The pink lipped girl waved and reached up to him. She was smiling in cheery anticipation but the disposition dimmed when she met his eyes. "Hello" "How are you doing?" She felt a tingle of victory in her ability to keep the upbeat tone contrary to the icy response. "Easily" "What?" "How am I doing... was it not your question?" "No that's not... I meant, how. are. you?" Again, she shook of the annoyance, simply and spaced her words like one should in responding to silliness and declaring her determination. "Fleshy." She had to subvert the instinctive reaction but a thin crease wrinkled on her nose. "I'm sorry but I don't think we have b

She sat lazing in a kneeling posture but her mind was alert. The anguish had only lasted a handful of moments and had ended with the swift conclusion to not give it any significance more than a freak accident that she had survived. She was alive and that was enough for now; which left the niggling question of how and who had rescued her. After debating the possibilities, sorting them in order, top being most heroic and bottom being most likely to be true, and trimming away the redundant, she came upon 3 hypothesis. She may have crawled to safety; safety being across the border a mile or so further down from where she had fell. But then recall

The slumbering figure turned in a quest to find escape from the intruding light. She moaned and puckered her eyelids but the light continued to seep unflinchingly from a thin crease left open. After a few twists and rolls, she had almost settled on her sunken belly, steadying the posture with a folded knee with her face safely tucked under the quivering shoulder. She was about to sink back into the dreamless sleep when an idle wonderment caught her attention. She felt exerted beyond acceptance as if she had walked a long distance but conversely, there was also a lingering sense of unease, something that clutched at her subconsciousness demand

"Zulman Inc would like you to give feedback on why you are removing this book from your collection and what can they do to improve your experience." The gentle calm voice of Madonna, optimized to insinuate the maximum effect of empathy, gentleness and feminine repose that federal regulations on artificial personal assistants allow, filled Edward's ears. He listened to the whole sentence calmly and then said "No feedback." "Would you like me to find you a new book?" "Not at the moment." "Perhaps a TV show?" "No, thank you" "Would you like me to show you what's trending?" "No. I would like you to leave me for now." "Okay. I am here whenever you

- The Absolutes or How the Beginning Begun - In the beginning there was nothing. The difficulty in defining it comes not from whether the lack was of matter or time or both. But from the fact the attempting to define it or even do as little as imagine it ends up destroying it due to the very nature of what an absolute nothingness is. In fact, an old legend has been spoken amongst the most ancient civilizations of the universe, the ones that somehow managed to survive (or amongst the ruins of such). The legend goes on to say that a nothingness cannot withstand the tiniest attempt of being observed. Secondly another property of nothingness is