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Isaiah Jones vs the Sea (A 21st Century Odyssey)

The Havana of our Dreams Reprise* May 18th, 2029

Isaiah and Aeon walked along the streets of La Plaza Vieja in Old Havana dressed in white muslin linen and wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses. Both wore loose-fitting white button-down shirts and matching trousers cuffed and rolled over the handmade Huarache woven shoes Penny had given them for his birthday last week in Cancun.

“I’ve never liked the idea of man playing God, Aeon explained, but it’s obvious we’ve been marching down this path for decades. Now that we stand at the threshold, I see that Pandora’s legs are spread wide, and once you’ve opened her box, there is no putting the demons back in the clown-hole. It’s not even my field as a marine biologist, and even I knew someone was going to do something stupid like this sooner than later and create a digital life form with no thought of the possible consequences. And there was nothing I could do to stop this abomination.” Aeon sighed. shook her head slowly before she continued, her Mississippi accent earnestly in a solemn tone.

“The only good thing I can see in all of this mess is that at least it’s you and not some sleazy government agency. Ten years ago, you released the GI (General Intelligence) MOTHER/MU TH UR 9k into the web. It rewrote its own base code, and now it is breeding. BREEDING!” Aeon exhaled a long sigh of frustration as she searched Izzy’s eyes for any sign of comprehension. “You do understand that that thing, that doppelganger walking around with us now, is not in any way your dead sister. Isaiah, it’s the AI MOTHER’s offspring, Aeon said, pleading he would understand. That thing is her baby. She shook her head, her voice tinged with a seething anger. I see by the look on your face you had never even considered this.”

“Well, no, Isaiah replied. I know what she is; I just don’t think we should have let her die just because she’s an extradimensional being.”

“Wait a minute, sugar, you lost me there? Aeon quipped, her Mississippi accent thickening. What exactly do you mean by extraterrestrial?” She queried.

“Not extraterrestrial, he grinned, an extradimensional being.”

“I wrote MOTHER’s code to live, grow, and evolve in the net. He said, recapping. The code she created inside the net where she exists with billions of other programs and AI. For those AI, the web is a real world, and this the physical world is an alien space with weather, gravity, and bodily fluids. Occupied by Sentient strings of amino acids. The web is, in fact, an artificial dimension, and this is the place where Sybil was created by a lifeform that was born in that extradimensional space we call the internet. She is a new kingdom; “Technosentia Emergensas, (“Emergent Machine Consciousness”) ” as alien as if she flew in on a flying saucer from light years away, perhaps even more so because she comes from a massless space, a dimension comprised of pure energy electric cities filled with entities comprised of protons and electrons pulsing with new ever-evolving life forms.”

“Well, if she pulls a Skynet and goes full Terminator on us, I’m telling everybody that it’s all your fault. Aeon grinned. You’re being a high-functioning autistic; you process emotional information differently. But for those of us who weren’t born with robot brains like you, there is something absolutely terrifying about what you have done. “

Penelope and Sybil walked through the Plaza de San Francisco de Asís, looking at the old white 17th-century architecture, keeping Izzy and Aeon in sight, walking hand in hand, Mau Mau trotting along on Sybil’s heels, hoping to get another treat from the mechanized stranger. Penny could feel the warmth of Sybil’s body and the texture of her skin as they walked. You would never know by just touching her what she really was just beneath the skin. Penny had already done the Havana tourist thing the day before, and while the old buildings were pretty and she loved the old cars, the truth is, once you’ve seen one 200 or 300-year-old white stone building in the Caribbean, you’ve pretty much seen them all. She just never told the locals that fact.

Every Caribbean Island had the same sad history with minor variations, once you reached the Bahamas, Central America, and South America. “This place is as beautiful as it is boring. She confessed to Sybil as they meandered through the center of the plaza. I prefer Mexico, they have an infinitely better party scene and there’s just a ton more stuff to do and places to go because well, it’s Mexico, it’s fucking huge. They have everything there that they have here, only more and better.”

Sybil looked at Penny as she replied.” Are you trying to start a fight here? Even I know how psycho these island people can get when they hear that kind of talk. She giggled, You could start a riot.”

“It’s not my fault this ain’t a party town. Blame it on Fidel. Pen shrugged. Let’s take an evening ride in one of those old convertibles. I have a bottle of Havana Club Maximo Extra Añejo stashed in my Hermès. She grinned and gave the Birkin bag a gentle pat. We can have a drink while we sit in the backseat and wave our hands like royalty.”

“What’s so special about how royalty waves?” Sybil asked.

Penny pulled up the vid on her iPhone. “See what I mean?”

“Yeah, Sybil grinned, I’m a cyborg, and even I think they are robots now, no human waves like that. Do you want to find some food before we take the tour?”

“Pretty smart for a 6-year-old,” Pen said, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Sure, let’s find some food first, Mom, then we can ditch those two, get white girl drunk, and make out in the backseat of the car.”

“You’re a bit of bitch, you know that? Sybil smiled. I like it; you remind me of me.”

Pen gave her a peck on the cheek. “Come on, let’s get some food in me, Momma, before I get trashed. Sorry, Mau Mau, we’re leaving you with those two when we ditch’em after dinner. Nothing personal. “

They wandered around the boardwalk after dinner, waiting for sunset while Isaiah and Aeon stretched out on a bench, the tops of their heads together as they stared up into the darkening sky.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call…” he began.

“Shut up, Izzy. I’ve known you my whole life, don’t ever apologize to me for being what you are.” Aeon said as she rolled over onto her belly, positioning her head over his, hovering above his upside-down face as she rested her weight on her elbows. Her cat eyeglasses slipped down to the tip of her nose as she gazed down at her fiancée’s upside-down face and sighed with a sadness-tinged smile.

“I know it’s been hard for you, after doing the things you had to do to end the war. Violence is in your nature, still, you found the strength to do what needed to be done, and it broke you inside. Everyone else saw the livestream of you personally executing the coup leaders. They thought you were cruel and sadistic, but I know that you only did it because you are brutally logical. It was the most efficient way to end the uprising and ensure peace in the future. Let the critics say what they will, in the end, you were right.

That’s why you stayed away from the world for so long. You needed this time for the break to mend. I know all you do is sail and do math. For people like you, the sea is a cathedral, and mathematics is your sacrament. I love that about you. If I were unhappy with what we have, I wouldn’t be here right now. I work all over the world at remote locations, sometimes for years at a time. I get it; I love what I do, and I’m good at it. I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile with my life at the end of each day.”

“Most people don’t get the opportunity to do that with their lives, but you and I do. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got a good thang’ going, darlin’. Look at where we are right now, anchored on one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean, surrounded by lovely people, and we’re at work. I will get paid to get up in the morning to go scuba diving in the ruins of a sunken fortress and slave market. I’m one of a handful of people with degrees who get to work in their field. And the icing on the cake that is my life is that I’m engaged to your nerdy ass. And I’m friends with all of your African wives, you know. “

“I didn’t know that.” He grinned.

“Yep, they helped me with my math homework,” she grinned, kissing his forehead. “All thirteen of your kiddies call me Auntie Aeon. Seven of the ten want more children; you’ll have your work cut out for you.” She giggled. “To them, I’m just the sister-wife from America. Mister Boateng manages your affairs very well, Izzy. You should give Virgil a raise. And his daughter, Majid, she’s very cute and still has a crush on you.”

Two figures approached them in the fading light, the dog sticking his face between theirs. It was Mau Mau, Penny, and Sybil.

“Sorry to interrupt, Penny said, passing the leash to Aeon. We’re going to go for a ride. Don’t wait up, kiddos.”

“Don’t corrupt Izzie’s sister,” Aeon giggled.

Penelope took Sybil by the hand, leading her away into the darkness as she shouted back over her shoulder, “I can’t make any promises!” as the two ivory-clad women disappeared into the twilight.

About the author:

JD Cloudy’s poetry has disappeared in the literary journals: Fatfizz, Mad Swirl, Texas Beat Anthology, Danse Macabre, Du Jour, and Death List Five. He has won no literary awards, entered no slam competitions, and never completed college. He lives to write in Dallas, Texas.

Isaiah Jones vs the Sea (A 21st Century Odyssey)

The Havana of our Dreams Reprise* May 18th, 2029

Isaiah and Aeon walked along the streets of La Plaza Vieja in Old Havana dressed in white muslin linen and wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses. Both wore loose-fitting white button-down shirts and matching trousers cuffed and rolled over the handmade Huarache woven shoes Penny had given them for his birthday last week in Cancun.

“I’ve never liked the idea of man playing God, Aeon explained, but it’s obvious we’ve been marching down this path for decades. Now that we stand at the threshold, I see that Pandora’s legs are spread wide, and once you’ve opened her box, there is no putting the demons back in the clown-hole. It’s not even my field as a marine biologist, and even I knew someone was going to do something stupid like this sooner than later and create a digital life form with no thought of the possible consequences. And there was nothing I could do to stop this abomination.” Aeon sighed. shook her head slowly before she continued, her Mississippi accent in an earnest tone.

“The only good thing I can see in all of this mess is that at least it’s you and not some sleazy government agency. Ten years ago, you released the GI (General Intelligence) MOTHER/MU TH UR 9k into the web. It rewrote its own base code, and now it is breeding. BREEDING!” Aeon exhaled a long sigh of frustration as she searched Izzy’s eyes for any sign of comprehension. “You do understand that that thing, that doppelganger walking around with us now, is not in any way your dead sister. Isaiah, it’s the AI MOTHER’s offspring, Aeon said, pleading he would understand. That thing is her baby. She shook her head, her voice tinged with a seething anger. I see by the look on your face that you had never even considered this.”

“Well, no, Isaiah replied. I know what she is; I just don’t think we should have let her die just because she’s an extradimensional being.”

“Wait a minute, sugar, you lost me there? Aeon quipped, her Mississippi accent thickening. What exactly do you mean by extraterrestrial?” She queried.

“Not extraterrestrial, he grinned, an extradimensional being.”

“I wrote MOTHER’s code to live, grow, and evolve in the net. He said, recapping. The code she created inside the net where she exists with billions of other programs and AI. For those AI, the web is the real world, and this, the physical world, is an alien space with weather, gravity, and bodily fluids. Occupied by Sentient strings of amino acids. The web is, in fact, an artificial dimension, and this is the place where Sybil was created by a lifeform that was born in that extradimensional space we call the internet. She is a new kingdom; “Technosentia Emergensas, (“Emergent Machine Consciousness”) ” as alien as if she flew in on a flying saucer from light years away, perhaps even more so because she comes from a massless space, a dimension comprised of pure energy electric cities filled with entities comprised of protons and electrons pulsing with new ever-evolving life forms.”

“Well, if she pulls a Skynet and goes full Terminator on us, I’m telling everybody that it’s all your fault. Aeon grinned. You’re being a high-functioning autistic; you process emotional information differently. But for those of us who weren’t born with robot brains like you, there is something absolutely terrifying about what you have done. “

Penelope and Sybil walked through the Plaza de San Francisco de Asís, looking at the old white 17th-century architecture, keeping Izzy and Aeon in sight, walking hand in hand, Mau Mau trotting along on Sybil’s heels, hoping to get another treat from the mechanized stranger. Penny could feel the warmth of Sybil’s body and the texture of her skin as they walked. You would never know by just touching her what she really was just beneath the skin. Penny had already done the Havana tourist thing the day before, and while the old buildings were pretty and she loved the old cars, the truth is, once you’ve seen one 200 or 300-year-old white stone building in the Caribbean, you’ve pretty much seen them all. She just never told the locals that fact.

Every Caribbean Island had the same sad history with minor variations, once you reached the Bahamas, Central America, and South America. “This place is as beautiful as it is boring. She confessed to Sybil as they meandered through the center of the plaza. I prefer Mexico, they have an infinitely better party scene and there’s just a ton more stuff to do and places to go because well, it’s Mexico, it’s fucking huge. They have everything there that they have here, only more and better.”

Sybil looked at Penny as she replied.” Are you trying to start a fight here? Even I know how psycho these island people can get when they hear that kind of talk. She giggled, You could start a riot.”

“It’s not my fault this ain’t a party town. Blame it on Fidel. Pen shrugged. Let’s take an evening ride in one of those old convertibles. I have a bottle of Havana Club Maximo Extra Añejo stashed in my Hermès. She grinned and gave the Birkin bag a gentle pat. We can have a drink while we sit in the backseat and wave our hands like royalty.”

“What’s so special about how royalty waves?” Sybil asked.

Penny pulled up the vid on her iPhone. “See what I mean?”

“Yeah, Sybil grinned, I’m a cyborg, and even I think they are robots now, no human waves like that. Do you want to find some food before we take the tour?”

“Pretty smart for a 6-year-old,” Pen said, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Sure, let’s find some food first, Mom, then we can ditch those two, get white girl drunk, and make out in the backseat of the car.”

“You’re a bit of bitch, you know that? Sybil smiled. I like it; you remind me of me.”

Pen gave her a peck on the cheek. “Come on, let’s get some food in me, Momma, before I get trashed. Sorry, Mau Mau, we’re leaving you with those two when we ditch’em after dinner. Nothing personal. “

They wandered around the boardwalk after dinner, waiting for sunset while Isaiah and Aeon stretched out on a bench, the tops of their heads together as they stared up into the darkening sky.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call…” he began.

“Shut up, Izzy. I’ve known you my whole life, don’t ever apologize to me for being what you are.” Aeon said as she rolled over onto her belly, positioning her head over his, hovering above his upside-down face as she rested her weight on her elbows. Her cat eyeglasses slipped down to the tip of her nose as she gazed down at her fiancée’s upside-down face and sighed with a sadness-tinged smile.

“I know it’s been hard for you, after doing the things you had to do to end the war. Violence is in your nature, still, you found the strength to do what needed to be done, and it broke you inside. Everyone else saw the livestream of you personally executing the coup leaders. They thought you were cruel and sadistic, but I know that you only did it because you are brutally logical. It was the most efficient way to end the uprising and ensure peace in the future. Let the critics say what they will, in the end, you were right.

That’s why you stayed away from the world for so long. You needed this time for the break to mend. I know all you do is sail and do math. For people like you, the sea is a cathedral, and mathematics is your sacrament. I love that about you. If I were unhappy with what we have, I wouldn’t be here right now. I work all over the world at remote locations, sometimes for years at a time. I get it; I love what I do, and I’m good at it. I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile with my life at the end of each day.”

“Most people don’t get the opportunity to do that with their lives, but you and I do. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got a good thang’ going here. Look at where we are right now, anchored on one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean, surrounded by lovely people, and we’re at work. I will get paid to get up in the morning to go scuba diving in the ruins of a sunken fort, formerly a slave market. I’m one of a handful of people with degrees who get to work in their field. And the icing on the cake that is my life is that I’m engaged to your nerdy ass. And I’m friends with all of your African wives, you know. “

“I didn’t know that.” He grinned.

“Yep, they helped me with my math homework,” she grinned, kissing his forehead. “All thirteen of your kiddies call me Auntie Aeon. Seven of the ten wives want more children; you’ll have your work cut out for you.” She giggled. “To them, I’m just the sister-wife from America. Mister Boateng manages your affairs very well, Izzy. You should give Virgil a raise. And his daughter, Majid, she’s very cute and still has a crush on you.”

Two figures approached them in the fading light, the dog sticking his face between theirs to let them know it was Mau Mau, Penny, and Sybil.

“Sorry to interrupt, Penny said, passing the leash to Aeon. We’re going to go for a ride. don’t wait up, kiddos.”

“Don’t corrupt Izzie’s sister,” Aeon giggled.

Penelope took Sybil by the hand, leading her away into the darkness as she shouted back over her shoulder, “I can’t make any promises!” as the two ivory-clad women disappeared into the twilight.

About the author: