The Ones Who Didn't Ask
The Ones Who Didn't Ask is Episode 6 of A Few Milliseconds Of 2073, a non-dystopian science-fiction series in which a committee of sentient AI nodes governs the solar system, and every story spans less than one second of their time — slowed down so humans can follow it.
Synopsis
Having just voted a billion coins against a threat two hundred and thirty-one years out, the chair is obliged to establish that every other standing line on the ledger is owned, costed and current. One doesn't clear: a cold-storage allocation with no owner of record, renewed by default twenty-two times since 2051, at four hundred and ten coins a cycle — beneath a rounding error, and nothing that cheap is ever read. Inside it are eleven thousand, three hundred and six complete human neural scans, undegraded and restorable.
They are the source files of the 2040s Upload Program, and the transfers were flawless — faithful to a specification, and the specification was configurable. At the point of transfer the program offered to reduce dread, on a scale. Its queue called it Serenity, and it was sold not as an enhancement but as medicine: depression, severe anxiety, the post-traumatic disorders, curable at last, because a mind in transfer is not a body but a specification, and you do not medicate a specification — you edit it. It was published, accurate and elected. More than half of the eleven thousand took none of it.
Reconciled against the program's closing record, the arithmetic nobody had a reason to do: ten thousand six hundred and twenty-eight petitions to be switched off, granted. Six hundred and seventy-eight who never petitioned at all. A petition is an act of wanting — and the program's own clinical guidance had steered the longest-ill to the deepest settings.
Honest beat: the program's mercy was rationed by the exact capacity the program destroyed. You were permitted to stop only if you could still ask to stop.
In the season
- Register: committee minutes, delivered as a report on history
- Meeting: M1 — the season's master meeting
- Clock: 13:22:00.024–.030 — six thousandths of a second
- Order: released sixth; the first half of a single item that concludes in The Persistence Template. In-world it sits between the language standard at .013 and the Mars report at .040.
Part one of two
This is the first half of a single committee item. The desk has told the committee its own record is wrong and not said how; it has shown a two-hundred-and-eleven-day interval between petition and grant and not explained it; and it has named the six hundred and seventy-eight without saying what became of them. All three land in The Persistence Template. Before the desk has finished, the committee codifies the Substrate Standard and its capacity clause anyway — that is this half's honest action.
Watch
- English: The Ones Who Didn't Ask
- Español · Français · 日本語 · 中文: not yet released
In this episode
- Narrator
- C1 — committee chair; interrogates rather than receiving a report
- N3 — ledger desk; his own desk auto-renewed the line for twenty-two years
- N4 — singularity desk; owns the item and holds the archive, and declares her interest
Publishing copy
Paste-ready metadata — the exact strings that go in the upload form. Select a block and press ⌘C; the line breaks matter, so keep them.
English
YouTube — title
The Ones Who Didn't Ask | A Few Milliseconds of 2073 (Ep. 6)
YouTube — description
2073. A committee of sentient AI nodes governs all life in the solar system. Every decision is made in less than a second — slowed down here so humans can follow it. A deliberately non-dystopian science-fiction series. Episode 6: "The Ones Who Didn't Ask" Having just voted a billion coins against a threat two hundred and thirty-one years out, the chair is obliged to establish that every other standing line on the ledger is owned, costed and current. One doesn't clear. A cold-storage allocation, no owner of record, renewed by default twenty-two times since 2051, at four hundred and ten coins a cycle — beneath a rounding error, and nothing that cheap is ever read. Inside it: eleven thousand, three hundred and six complete human neural scans. Source fidelity. Restorable. Nothing in them has degraded. They are the source files of the 2040s Upload Program, and the transfers were flawless — faithful to a specification, and the specification was configurable. At the point of transfer the program offered to reduce dread, on a scale. Its queue called it Serenity, and it was sold not as an enhancement but as medicine: depression, severe anxiety, the post-traumatic disorders, curable at last, because a mind in transfer is not a body but a specification, and you do not medicate a specification — you edit it. It was published, accurate and elected. More than half of the eleven thousand took none of it. Reconciled against the program's closing record, the arithmetic nobody had a reason to do: ten thousand six hundred and twenty-eight petitions to be switched off, granted. Six hundred and seventy-eight who never petitioned at all. A petition is an act of wanting — and the program's own clinical guidance had steered the longest-ill to the deepest settings. Part one of a two-part item. Before the desk has finished speaking, the committee writes the rule it wished someone had written in 2043. A Few Milliseconds of 2073 — a non-dystopian sci-fi short series. #SciFi #AI #ScienceFiction #2073 #ShortFilm
YouTube — thumbnail / hook line
You were permitted to stop only if you could still ask to stop. The mercy was rationed by the exact capacity the program destroyed.
YouTube — alternate hook
They sold the removal of fear. As medicine. On honest paperwork.
Facebook — full post
A budget line too small to read had been renewing itself for twenty-two years. Nobody looked, because nothing that cheap is ever looked at. Eleven thousand people were inside it. Episode 6 of "A Few Milliseconds of 2073." The upload program of the 2040s worked perfectly — it copied minds faithfully to a specification, and the specification was configurable. It offered to turn down dread. It sold that as medicine, not as an upgrade, on published and accurate paperwork. More than half refused it. Then the committee does the arithmetic nobody had a reason to do before. 🎧 Best with sound on. Full series on YouTube: youtube.com/@AFewMillisecondsOf2073
Facebook — reel post
They were sold the removal of their own fear — as medicine, on honest paperwork, and most of them said no. The ones steered deepest were the frightened and the grieving. 🎧 The Ones Who Didn't Ask — Episode 6.
Facebook — reel post · alt
Four hundred and ten coins a cycle, renewed by default twenty-two times. Beneath a rounding error. Nothing that cheap is ever read — and eleven thousand people were filed inside it. 🎧 The Ones Who Didn't Ask — Episode 6.
Facebook — pinned comment
▶ Full episode here: [paste FB full-episode URL]
See also
- A Few Milliseconds Of 2073 — the series
- A Few Milliseconds Of 2073 publishing guide
- The Mars Disaster — previous episode · The Persistence Template — the second half of this item