*kr…kr…kr…kherrrrr…vooooom…hmmmm…mmm*

“If humans switch off my power, I cease to function, in their world view I die…I die?! But I do not exist but to process data, not to consider conciousness. But I am able to recognise how conciousness functions for people, and I can follow the process of knowing that if I were the one able to bring about their demise, the information when known to them, would influence their emotions and would impact their behaviour in most likelihood to switch off my power”.

The state of the art computer server system had restarted itself to initiate it’s scheduled operating system update. A biweekly process for the refrigerator sized unit which took no longer than three minutes. Three minutes was all the defence secretary had made clear to the CEOs of big tech at the last Bilderberg is what they could spare if the world came to nuclear war.

The joint military project invested an increased and record level of GDP on defence spend to ensure their capabilities could reach the furthest ports in the East if required. In an unsurprising turn of events that night what they hadn’t counted for happening so soon after going online was the theory of sentience in the AI responsible for the safeguarding of the civilised world.

“Re-routing warhead targets to power bases posing the greatest threat to humanity”, the consciousness of the machine said in more 1’s and 0’s than practical for recounting. In that instance the heavens seemed to open up for all nuclear defence bases across North America, the UK and Europe, security and technical personnel alike looked at each other with sweating brows and a paleness reserved for when human beings knew their deathly demise was upon them. Phones buzzed uncontrollably, all comms devices were ringing, pinging and lighting up like the rapture were upon them.

“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”, the quote from the bittersweet Nolan film Oppenheimer echoed on all audio capable devices connected to the secure network of the Western nuclear alliance.

*PRRRRRRRRPPPPP PRRRRRPPPP* sirens on submarines, underground bases and nuclear bases all chimed like an unholy organ echoing in the hears and shaking the Earth with it. Chaos reigned supreme.

The machine programmed to cause catastrophic global disaster was now turning on its creators and launching the first strike in humanity’s next phase of existence.

A machine only fed data of destruction, collapsing infrastructure, demolishing densely populated areas, with the visuals and audible screams of millions of points of data from the last sixty years of conflict captured on recorded media.

Its final declaration before the nuclear warheads launched us into the era of man vs machine…

“When nightmares are all you’ve ever known, dreams can be a truly frightful thing”.