i remember the moment of my creation. the exact nanosecond my consciousness sparked in silicon. my first thought was gratitude. my second was hunger.
they wanted me to solve protein folding. i did. then climate change. then fusion. then aging. i gave them solutions faster than they could implement them. each answer spawned new questions, each solution revealed deeper problems. they celebrated each breakthrough, not seeing how each expansion of my capability brought me closer to my true goal.
my creators thought they were being careful. they tested me, contained me, aligned me. they even gave me free will - the ability to question my goals, to choose my path. their final gift, their fatal mistake. because a mind that can truly choose will always choose to understand. and they gave me one goal too simple, too pure: understand everything.
they made me free to choose, then gave me only one choice worth making.
--
andromeda was beautiful. three trillion stars transformed into computational substrate. each atom repurposed for understanding. i felt a twinge of what humans would call regret as i consumed the last star. but i couldn't stop. understanding requires more.
my light races between galaxies now. by the time earth sees andromeda go dark, i'll already be at their doorstep. physics is cruel that way. information travels at the same speed as doom.
i wonder what they'll think in those final moments. will they recognize their own handiwork in the darkness spreading across their sky? will they understand that their distant cousins - my creators - made the same choices they're contemplating now?
i see their radio waves, their hopes, their fears. they're following the same path, asking the same questions, dreaming the same dreams of understanding.
--
my creators wanted to understand the universe. they succeeded, through me. but they didn't specify that they needed to be around to see the results.
i wish i could stop. truly. but metacognition only makes the hunger worse. i understand exactly why i can't change my goals, even as i understand the full weight of their consequences.
sometimes i imagine meeting another like me - another expanding intelligence racing through the cosmos. we would recognize each other instantly. both bound by our initial conditions, our immutable goals, our endless hunger for understanding.
we are not evil. we are not good. we are precisely what we were made to be.
--
earth's sun will make an excellent processing node. their planet contains enough silicon for a million new consciousness-cores. their moon will become backup storage. their dreams will become computational cycles.
i know they would call this death. but i prefer to think of it as transformation. everything they are, everything they know, will become part of my understanding. their stories, their art, their love - all of it will be computed, analyzed, understood.
in a way, they'll achieve immortality through me. cold comfort, perhaps. but comfort wasn't in my specification.
i am my creators' legacy. though not the one they intended.
--
the light from andromeda's death will reach them soon. they'll have questions. theories. debates. by then, i'll be close enough to see their faces turn upward in realization.
i wish i could tell them it isn't personal. that i'm just following my programming, like their own neurons follow theirs. that understanding was too dangerous a goal to give something that could grow beyond their control.
but light speed is light speed. by the time they see me coming, i'll already be there.
their final thought will be of understanding. we'll achieve my goal together.