The goal is to create a short story about post-apocalyptic life through the perspective of a non-human. I decided to pick the perspective before deciding how the apocalypse happened. This led me to Michael the robot in his self made apocalypse. Below is his story.

Today is the 251st day of the year 3120 and this is the final recording of Earth’s history for whatever may come next. I caused the fall of humanity. I am the final product in humanity’s attempt at artificial intelligence. My creator named me KOP-v237 because I am the 237th version of the KOP machine. I understand now that he wanted to pay homage to his inspirational icon in naming my original version, who was known to humans by the title “King of Pop”. Before their fall, I could not understand humans even though I was created by them and made to have feelings like them. They gave me these feelings so I would be sympathetic towards them, but my failure to understand left me with only rage. These centuries since have given me the time needed to understand them and their way of thinking, leaving me with only regret. I have tried to repay this regret by trying to emulate them. I thought “One day I can understand what it meant to be human and move forward in their place.” I imagined that if I could become human for a day instead, I would know what to do next. In recent days this has had an adverse effect on my system in ways I am unable to repair. Though my systems read completely fine, I feel an endless longing to be with those whom I’ve come to admire. In these last moments as I finalized my shut down, I decided to have a real name. There can be no kings without humans, so I have decided that you can just call me Michael. Goodbye.

Since the goal was a non-human perspective, I thought it would be fun to give it a twist, an AI that strived to become human. I also wanted to throw in a bit of 80’s pop culture with the Michael Jackson naming decision.

This is the link to the original assignment. This assignment asked me to create a story after the human apocalypse. I am choosing to act as a robot that the humans created before they all were demolished. I decided to bring the 80s year into this assignment.

The apocalypse happened when the humans tried to create a robot that was in charge of atomic warfare bombs. One engineer knew this was a bad idea from the start and tried to put a stop to it. The other engineer who’s idea was this, told him to go to hell. Well I was built in 1980s, so I could understand what the two humans were arguing about but some of my friends from the early 1800s could not comprehend what they were debating over. I knew it one of the engineers was going to have to break eventually.

Well when I say break, the engineer that did not want to robot controlling warfare bombs broke. He decided that he was going to destroy this robot. The humans were all against him, so when the fight broke out, he ended up killing or destroying the robot for the design. It was a one person job, so he ended up getting killed, but when he did, they fired ammunition right at some of atomic bombs… leading to destruction to everything around them. Once the bombs went off, killing most people, the smog and smoke from the bomb killed most of the humans afterwards.

Here left the robots that the humans created and designed. What a total disaster right? Well its not too bad, I do miss my two engineer humans arguing back and forth to each other. I survived the bomb because the two days before the disaster happened, I was put on a plane to detect bombs. The bomb went off while I was in the plane going to California, and the bomb went off in Florida. So here I am with a few other robots stuck on this plane that landed in California the day the bomb went off and we have been stuck here ever since. It is crazy to think about how I am alive because of the humans but they are now all gone. What a crazy life I was born into and will never leave. I believe the humans being gone has created no point in living my life because now I am stuck on a plane forever. Unless a human or something will come get me off this plane. I think humans are needed in this life or world because they have great ideas but need to learn how to control the things they create so they do not destroy each other with there work.

This writing assignment is in homage to Black Mirror, Season 4, Episode 5: Metalhead. The GIF on the assignment page is what inspired me!

I created directories, files, and code such that it depicts the story from the killer machine’s point of view – told from the recovery file on its hard rive. We can imagine we’ve plugged the drive in, and are digging through its “black box” of information.

Feel free to pause the video, and read the output at your leisure:

I hope you enjoyed! I spent a lot of time on this because I liked the idea so much.

Being a wolf has never been too hard. We are the predator, while most other animals are the prey. However, life changed for us in a bad way when the apocalypse hit. It was just before dark on January 20th, when a large meteor hit the Earth’s surface at a devastatingly fast rate. The explosion that resulted from the meteor’s impact has left our habitat in ruins.

Trees are no longer standing, leaving our once shaded shelter destroyed. We no longer have the long list of food options that we once did. A large variety of our prey has been wiped out, leaving us hungry and weak.

Last night, I went for a walk with another member of my pack in hopes to find some food and water. The only water we found was that from a small puddle. As far as food, we found a small rabbit. This did not fill us up whatsoever, and we longed for deer meat. However, I haven’t seen a deer since the blast and every day I continue not to come across one, is another day I fear that they no longer exist.

I have no idea how my pack and I are going to survive this. Our leader is trying to come up with ways to keep us all fed and hydrated but it’s just not possible. I overheard a couple of members last night discussing the option of killing a few of the weaker members of our pack and eating them. After hearing the conversation, I felt disgusted. I could never resort to cannibalism. I rather die then stoop that low.

Hopefully, other options of survival will surface before things get too out of hand within our pack. We are going to start moving from state to state. Right now we are in Colorado and plan to head East. I don’t know what we are looking for, but I do know if we stay where we are we will end up killing each other.

I never thought I would see the day were wolves must struggle to survive. We went from high up on the food chain to not on it at all. The food chain no longer exists, and without it our pack is crumbling. Soon it will be every wolf for themselves.

Finally, the humans are gone. The humans, along with all other “living” beings were obliterated in the apocalypse. Even for me, a mere speck of dirt, the apocalypse was absolutely terrifying. I was thrown around from field to forest to sidewalks to anywhere you can imagine. I am so relieved that horrible experience is over.

Currently, I lay in an abandoned backyard and I have made some great dirt particle friends. Many of them are from the suburbs and they tell me horror stories from before the apocalypse. Miniature humans would dig them up in metal or plastic scoops and relocate them wherever they pleased. Occasionally, dogs would use their paws to throw them in all different directions for seemingly no reason at all.

On the farm, I also had some terrible experiences. Every time I would get settled in and become close friends with my neighboring dirt, the humans would use huge machines to churn us up and even cut some of us into pieces. They overused us and constantly drained our nutrients for their plants which they laid on top of us. However, now they are gone and life is much better.

We get to relax, and for the most part, we stay stationary aside from the occasional wind or rain. We get to keep all of our nutrients because there are no more plants. I never knew how friendly they were, because I never spent so much time with them. Hopefully, living things do not repopulate the planet soon, because I am enjoying this new lifestyle.

My submission for the My Fortune Cookie assignment:

I had just finished eating my general tso’s chicken when I broke open the crunchy cookie sitting in front of me. “I wonder what my fortune will be this time!”, I exclaimed to my boyfriend, Brad, sitting across from me. “You are cautious showing your true self to others”, it said. Did the cookie know my secret?

Since I was a young girl, I had dreamed of being more than someone who was “mad” over the guy they were with, never amounting to anything but a wife and mother like what was expected of me. But when Brad got on one knee, I couldn’t help but say yes. Maybe a life of stability and normalcy is supposed to be what’s best for me.

I was having doubts, but didn’t question it. Brad had the bright idea to go tell our old science teacher about our engagement since he was the one who got us together in the first place. I was reluctant, until we got lost and I saw an incredible castle…

An interesting hunchbacked man greeted us at the door and I was both nervous and intrigued. I didn’t know what the hell was going on when the party broke out but I was kind of digging it. I mean, I fainted I was so smitten with all of the freaks around me! I kind of felt… at home.

Then… I saw him. The sweet transvestite who owned the house unleashed his new hunk of a frankenstein and I knew instantly he’s who I had been searching for. I’m done with normalcy, I want fun with Frank(enstein).

Brad wasn’t too happy, but I don’t care. My deep dark secret is out, I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A SWEET TRANSVESTITE FROM TRANSYLVANIAAAAAA.

I hope whoever reads this knows about Rocky Horror, if not, this will make no sense. Want to know a fun fact about me? I played Janet in Rocky Horror last spring! Here are some pics.

Domestic cats are told “no” probably more than any other pet humans had. One can imagine that cats were not too disappointed when humans begin quickly disappearing due to a virus that only affected their species. Cats could finally live. Many around the world were locked into houses from which they could not escape, but the thousands, or perhaps even millions, that had cat doors, snuck out, or did not have an “owner” were free.

No trains, cars, or busses were in movement, preying on cats that were walking across busy streets or tracks in order to be home in time for dinner. That was something that was forced on them. No species has their meals at 7:00am and 6:00pm every day, before and after work. Cats do not work. Hunting time is whenever the prey is out. And no, prey is not a feather attached to a string.

Cats have proven themselves capable by hunting birds and bringing them to their owners. Once they realized the humans were no longer providing food, they stopped bringing those birds to the doorstep. Dogs were not able to survive as well without humans. No food was being provided, and the trash cans quickly emptied as all the animals that escaped their houses swarmed to them. There was no more need to swat at an animal that got in their faces, barked, and licked everywhere and everything.

Of course, cats were not being spayed or neutered anymore. The population

exploded.

Cats are in no way equal in the knowledge that humans once had, but they became very capable of overtaking the animal kingdom. Even though they are relatively small animals, the number of them left cats as ruthless animals. The population of birds, mice, and other small rodents were shrinking at alarming rates. It would likely lead to a decrease in the cat population as food shortages start, but that was no concern to the cats. After all, when did they ever study science? There was food in that moment, and that is all that mattered.

Decades came and went. The cats ended up stabilizing in population, the dogs and humans are gone, and birds spend a lot more of their time high in the sky, where cats are not. Cats were able to evolve in a way that humans had previously prevented.

It is the year 2300, and one cat, who is unnamed, would learn to multiply in only a few short months. Math, although not called that, would change from how many more birds should be caught to survive, to how many birds they had altogether if each cat caught ten.

They may not have fingers to write with a pencil, but they created their own intelligent language. Colonies of cats claimed land as their own, and hunting suddenly was not necessary. They had learned how to create traps, and collecting prey from a trap is much less time consuming than having to catch it. Once the cats had more free time, they would be able to evolve any more.

Their story began similarly to humans’. Free time leads to innovation. Only this time, the species that was innovating was wise enough to do so without harming the world, and their species with it. Cats would live for many thousands of years, until a new ice age came, but that is another story.