(Against) The Evolutionary

            My name is Matilda. It is year 2030. In a developing town like mine, people are adapting to the evolution of technology. I live with my family of 4 in a small house. My parents do not really care about the evolution, neither does my sister. But I do. I am a thinker, I cannot possibly ignore the obvious side effects that were brought by these rapid changes in my community.

Even though I am against the negative side effects of technology’s evolution, I am not against the technology itself. I am against how people misuse, overuse and misunderstand the purpose of technology. In fact, I am in a university named Alpha Tech University, in Information Technology major. My friends are often confused by my contradictory opinions on technology’s evolution. They do not understand how someone can support an object, but contradict the effects the object causes. However, my best friend, Elena, understands. She understands that you do not have to be fully supportive about a point. There will always be downsides and advantages about a point. If not, people are blinded by either euphoria or hatred.

Technology has been ruling people’s lives lately. The comfort that it gives to people makes people too indolent and uncreative. People can also no longer live with privacy. Morals are gone, and so is justice. People lose their minds over inventions. Companies take advantages from people, by fooling them, making them think humans’ lives rely on technology.

How did my contradiction grow? It all started with one greedy, ambitious, sly liar. His name is Hades. He owns the Alpha Omega Group. He, in fact, built the whole company. My university is under his group’s supervision. He ruled basically the whole world with his company. The reason is, his company monopolies the whole evolution of technology. You name any instruments, machines, robots, electronics, even new inventions, and I can easily say that all those belong to his company. If it is not enough to be a reason for me to hate someone, he also tricks people into buying his products. He seems to believe in demand and supply. Thus, he created a condition which people were interested in. With that condition, he ruled people’s needs, and thus he could satisfy those needs that he created. His black short curly hair, black cunning-looking eyes and thin lips are the other reasons that make me hate him. He is the kind of evil CEO that is feared by his employees but honoured by people, and my lifelong target is to keep him away from creating worse mess. And I, have prepared my strategies.

On a Saturday morning, I write my letter that will be sent to Hades himself. If you ask me, it is a threat letter. Rude? Controversial? I know. But I will not stop before I get what I need. However, I choose my words carefully. I simply wrote that I would be as annoying as a mosquito near someone’s ear if I didn’t get as I wanted. The next day, on an early morning, I send the letter that is addressed to the CEO of Alpha Omega Group. Then, I am ready for another plans to bother Hades.

I go from small town to another small town to get people’s signatures for my petition to ban technology production in Alpha Omega Group. Small towns are his main targets. Therefore, I won’t let him get his hands on those poor towns. It is not hard to get signatures from people who don’t know much about what they are actually signing for. Reality goes as I expected, media starts to report and interview me on spot. Being on news means I can easily catch Hades’ attention. I try to be as blatant as I can during interviews. It only takes me 2 weeks to gather people who have the same opinions like me. It goes as smoothly as I wanted. I also manage to gather employees from Alpha Omega Group who are aware of the misuse of technology. I arrange a demonstration and suggest a walkout for the employees. After the demonstration and walkout are done, as I expected, the next day, I get Hades’ attention. He sends back a letter which is titled “Offer”.

The letter is in an old style, even with wax stamp. I read the letter, and it says, “I appreciate your determination and intelligence in your efforts to stop me from innovating. However, I also am not a quitter. I cannot quit with a good reason. Thus, I offer you something that can prove that you’re determined enough. I give you a chance to develop your own Artificial Intelligence that is intelligent enough to understand how a human think and beat my intelligence. If you succeed, I will accept your request to stop my production”.

I immediately call Elena to tell about the letter. However she says, “I don’t think accepting the offer and later succeeding will make him stop at all. He said himself that he was not a quitter. I think you should be careful”. I have guessed that she would not want to help me develop the artificial intelligence. So, I develop the Artificial Intelligence by myself. It takes me a year to fully develop possibly the greatest Artificial Intelligence in the whole history. I put it together as a program in a USB and send it to Hades.

One week after I sent the Artificial Intelligence program to Hades, I see surprising news on TV. Hades gets into an interview on a TV program. There, he states, “Matilda, the hero of anti-technology, has turned her back on people who share the same opinions with her. She recently just created an artificial intelligence program that is capable to get into humans’ minds, control them and to beat human’s own intelligence”. The news hits me right in the brain. Then, he says “this is the evidence,” as he shows my USB to the camera. I grab the remote, and turn the TV off right away.

I walk to my room with not a single thought in my brain. Hades ruined my efforts and life. Of course, everyone will believe him. He brings major changes in community, while I, I am just a no one. Not even a single person I know will protect me now, because they are scared. There is no use trying to convince people that I was given an offer by Hades, and that the development of the program was because of him. The next day, I stay at home and watch the news again. Everyone still reports about me, saying that I am a potential terrorist because of my artificial intelligence program.

A month after that, I get a letter. The exact same envelope and wax stamp. Hades. He sends me a letter to ensure he wins. I open the letter out of curiosity. My life has been ruined anyway. The letter says, “Congratulations on your failure, Matilda. I am impressed with your intelligence and stupidity at the same time. You could create an artificial intelligence so perfectly, yet you are a fool. If there is anything you should learn, it is that you cannot hold back evolution. You either adapt to it or be discarded. At this time, you choose to be discarded. You are naïve and stubborn. But I have to say, you are brave and smart. Enjoy your life”.

He does not write his signature nor his name at the bottom of the letter. Sly liar. All I can think of is, technology has given me a new reason to hate it. I feel so much hatred towards it, that I start to realize that my artificial intelligence is smart enough to shut down the company’s connections. Foolish me, I could have shut down his company earlier. One week after Hades sent me another letter, I am ready to cut his connections, reset all software, and block his access. I am ready to shut his down. I guess, if you cannot adapt to an evolution, you can just end it. Like how meteors destroyed dinosaurs. New evolution will be developed, and new civilization will grow. And this time, I am the one who will start the evolution.