Ralph and The Singularity

A Short-Short Story by David Sky

Ralph watches on his tube news on this Singularity Bill that had passed the house and senate and be...en signed into law by President Nelson pondering it a bit seeing below a link to a site that can send to you your own download kit free of charge. Do it right through your home network. Easy Peasy. Every American, the news is saying, now has the civil right of electing to live forever by storing their consciousness in one of the new three dimensional AI's.

Ralph recalls in graduate school studying America's war with the little nation of, Vietnam. In the midst of a heated firefight between two forces of light infantry, a full Captain out for his one mission during his six month deployment necessary to qualify him for an combat badge found himself caught in the field during what was supposed to be a “walk in the park” mission.

He yells at a private sitting next to him over the din, “Here, take this grenade and go throw it in that machine gun nest!”

The private peaks out from behind their cover only to draw .50 caliber rounds his way that explode into the stone fence they are behind sending out metal and rock shrapnel . He says over his shoulder not even looking at the Captain, shaking his head, “that's just not gonna happen, sir”. The private most definitely means it.

That just seemed so crazy and showed such great spirit and awareness to Ralph that he for the first time looked back on his ancestors as something other than dangerous fools. But that is how he felt now about their Singularity Legislation- “that 's just not gonna happen, thank you very much”.
I'd rather be dead with a soul than alive without a soul, he declares aloud to no one.