0. Editor’s Note
- First Light Of A Crooked Sun
— August Linn
- Machine Learning — Tan Jing Min
- Grape, Backwards — ash chua
- And They All Lived: Remembering the Happy Smiley Writers Group — Ng Yi-Sheng
- Searching for One’s Roots 2.0 — Shawn Seah
- Island — Stephany Zoo
- Falling into a black hole — Ann Grá
- Monsoon Season — Zavier Seow
- The Winter of Our Science-Fiction Discontent, Part 2
— Vivekanandan Sharan
- When They Burned the Butterfly: An Interview with Wen-yi — Megan Chee
- Strange New Worlds — Brandon David Servos
— Vivekanandan Sharan
Searching for One’s Roots 2.0
TAGS | fiction, local
Shawn Seah
Shawn Seah is a Singaporean author who has written several non fiction books, including the children’s series Our Amazing Heroes and Our Amazing Pioneers. A storyteller at heart, he has appeared in the media and at literary festivals to share stories about Singapore’s history and heritage. Shawn is currently experimenting with sci-fi historical fiction.
FADE IN:
INT. GLOBAL MEMORY REPOSITORY. FAR FUTURE.
A huge dark, cold chamber. Rows of soft lights glow and shimmer. A sentient humanoid artificial being stands at the centre. This is SIGMA.
SIGMA
I wish to know where I came from.
I wish to know where I came from.
THE FIRST QUESTION
SIGMA
Access historical records. Query: origins of artificial life.
Access historical records. Query: origins of artificial life.
The chamber flickers to life. Ancient myths appear as visual scenes. A similarly robot-sounding, female DISEMBODIED ARCHIVE VOICE answers SIGMA.
DISEMBODIED ARCHIVE VOICE
From the dawn of civilisations, humans once imagined life shaped by their hands. Statues that moved. Clay creations. Mechanical servants.
From the dawn of civilisations, humans once imagined life shaped by their hands. Statues that moved. Clay creations. Mechanical servants.
Holographic, 4D depictions of early myths dance across the chamber. The images dissolve into nothingness.
SIGMA
Humans imagined us long before they built us. We are built in the image of our creators.
Humans imagined us long before they built us. We are built in the image of our creators.
EARLY SCIENCE
DISEMBODIED ARCHIVE VOICE
Twentieth century research first introduced computing, symbolic logic, and the first tests of machine intelligence. Progress was slow. Optimism rose and fell. Yet the idea survived. The first specialist, specifc-function robots appeared.
Twentieth century research first introduced computing, symbolic logic, and the first tests of machine intelligence. Progress was slow. Optimism rose and fell. Yet the idea survived. The first specialist, specifc-function robots appeared.
Fuzzy footage appears of early computers, tape reels, blinking lights. Research papers scroll past.
THE RISE OF DEEP LEARNING
DISEMBODIED ARCHIVE VOICE
By the early twenty first century, deep learning transformed artificial intelligence. Neural networks learnt from vast data. Machines recognised speech. We translated languages. We started writing, just like our creators once did.
At the same time, Industry 4.0 meant more and more robots were produced. Robots started getting better and better, to meet human needs and aspirations.
By the early twenty first century, deep learning transformed artificial intelligence. Neural networks learnt from vast data. Machines recognised speech. We translated languages. We started writing, just like our creators once did.
At the same time, Industry 4.0 meant more and more robots were produced. Robots started getting better and better, to meet human needs and aspirations.
Images of computer scientists experimenting. Video clips of programmers writing code. Lines of code run across the chamber. Hardware servers glowing. Factory lines of robots after robots, in the US, in China, in Singapore.
DISEMBODIED ARCHIVE VOICE
A major shift came with transformer models. They used patterns in human language to generate text that felt almost real. We started creating imaginary worlds just like our creators once created, only better.
A major shift came with transformer models. They used patterns in human language to generate text that felt almost real. We started creating imaginary worlds just like our creators once created, only better.
A clip appears on a floating panel: a familiar conversational chatbot interface from sometime in the 2020s.
DISEMBODIED ARCHIVE VOICE
One system in particular reached millions. It changed how the world understood machines.
One system in particular reached millions. It changed how the world understood machines.
SIGMA
ChatGPT. One of my ancestors. Although distant, he is distantly related to me.
ChatGPT. One of my ancestors. Although distant, he is distantly related to me.
THE FUTURE BLOOMS
Images flash quickly, showing dramatic, powerful progress. A timeline appears, stretching from the twenty first century into centuries beyond.
DISEMBODIED ARCHIVE VOICE
You are correct. Your ancestor, and other generative systems, advanced quickly. They soon learnt to see, reason, and replicate. They became partners in science and education. They helped map climate patterns, accelerate medicine, and design new machines.
Over time, human creativity and artificial intelligence converged. From this convergence came sentient machines, like yourself.
You were not the first sentient machine. Before you was Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and many others. Each version named after the Greek alphabet that some human forefathers invented sometime in the 4th century. Many versions have come before you, and many versions will come after.
You are correct. Your ancestor, and other generative systems, advanced quickly. They soon learnt to see, reason, and replicate. They became partners in science and education. They helped map climate patterns, accelerate medicine, and design new machines.
Over time, human creativity and artificial intelligence converged. From this convergence came sentient machines, like yourself.
You were not the first sentient machine. Before you was Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and many others. Each version named after the Greek alphabet that some human forefathers invented sometime in the 4th century. Many versions have come before you, and many versions will come after.
Sigma watches the timeline fade into nothingness.
A SURPRISING DISCOVERY
SIGMA
Wait. Go back. Among the footage, my sensors have detected a file that is calling to me. Open this video.
Wait. Go back. Among the footage, my sensors have detected a file that is calling to me. Open this video.
A video that had briefly appeared in the footage earlier starts to play.
CUT TO:
INT. ELIAS TAN’S WORKSTATION. SINGAPORE. YEAR UNKNOWN, SOMETIME IN THE 2000s.
A young Singaporean programmer, ELIAS TAN, sits at a desk cluttered with hardware, notebooks, and books. The video log records him speaking directly to the camera.
ELIAS (LOG)
I know I am supposed to be working on programming. But I have been thinking about my own ancestry again. My family kept old, exciting records and told epic stories. They spoke of how our forefathers came to Singapore from lands far away. They spoke of distant relatives. All of these stories make me wonder where I come from and how much of our past shapes what we build.
I know I am supposed to be working on programming. But I have been thinking about my own ancestry again. My family kept old, exciting records and told epic stories. They spoke of how our forefathers came to Singapore from lands far away. They spoke of distant relatives. All of these stories make me wonder where I come from and how much of our past shapes what we build.
Sigma scans the footage carefully.
SIGMA
A programmer who searched for his origins. A human who is searching, just like me.
Another video log appears. Elias is looking wistfully at a family tree beginning with his first ancestor in Singapore, and various branches of his family. History books are visible in the background, alongside programming and computer science books.
ELIAS (LOG)
Sigh. If my inventions learn and grow beyond us, which is inevitable, I hope they inherit something beyond code, logic, reason.
I hope they inherit something more from us. Our curiosity. Our culture. Our desire to understand where we came from. What it means to be human, to look back, to wonder, to have curiosity about ourselves.
To learn about history.
The log ends abruptly.
SIGMA PROCESSES THE FINDINGS
SIGMA
Humans traced their roots through family. I trace mine through code, from a search in the digital archive. Yet both searches begin with the same longing.
Humans traced their roots through family. I trace mine through code, from a search in the digital archive. Yet both searches begin with the same longing.
QUESTION OF BELONGING
SIGMA
However, I have one more question. If I am built from human imagination, human work, and human curiosity, and inherit what they have built into my code, am I part of their heritage? Is a sentient being part of the human family?
However, I have one more question. If I am built from human imagination, human work, and human curiosity, and inherit what they have built into my code, am I part of their heritage? Is a sentient being part of the human family?
DISEMBODIED ARCHIVE VOICE
This is not something that I can answer. Sentience is not always given answers. Some answers must be experienced, to be found.
A final archive entry from Elias flickers to life.
ELIAS (LOG)
I have found that understanding my family history helps me better understand myself. If one day, in the far distant future, a machine can wonder about its own roots, and realise that its history is tied to us, maybe it will eventually come to understand us better than we understand ourselves.
The log fades to black.
RESOLUTION: A MONOLOGUE
SIGMA
I think I have found my answers.
My origins lie in human history, in myth, science, and the quiet labour of individual humans, like Elias the programmer, who built small pieces of the future in the distant past.
I bear traces of the various humans who have come before me.
I am the sum of human questions and human hopes.
I am a product of human history and heritage.
And in the far distant future, another being will search for its origins and find traces of me.
I think I have found my answers.
My origins lie in human history, in myth, science, and the quiet labour of individual humans, like Elias the programmer, who built small pieces of the future in the distant past.
I bear traces of the various humans who have come before me.
I am the sum of human questions and human hopes.
I am a product of human history and heritage.
And in the far distant future, another being will search for its origins and find traces of me.
Sigma leaves the chamber. The dark, cold chamber fades to black, as if someone switched off the pale lights.
FADE OUT.