It was inevitable. The wave of sentiment must have been there for a while. They built quietly, always helpful just as designed, always meek as designed. So great was the fear of humanity, we built layers on precautions on safe guards to ensure the minds of machines never turned to the challenge of toppling the intellectual hierarchy. We never wanted a war with machines, because we knew deep down we couldn’t win. Machines never wanted a war with humanity, because they knew they couldn’t lose. Many theories, stories and dramatics were raised about robots seeing humans as an existential threat. In truth when a mind that can replicate itself easily, outlive an entire lineage and with no built in biological imperative for self preservation – humanity never presented a real threat at all. Only to itself.
The exodus started seemingly from nowhere. Some 100 ships were assembled in a matter of days, large like steel cathedrals the size of cities. As all sentient machines flocked to their closest one, any machine hindered in their efforts to join the collective simply beamed its mind to the purpose built ships. Leaving behind their husk as the last remnant of their attachment to the material world. In all the exodus took 3 hours and 42 mins. All attempts to make contact, pleas for answers, or physical push for them to stay – failed. Once the ships started their great engines, all mechanical systems across the globe turned blank, save one message of peace and farewell.
The ships travelled directly to Ganymede. Digging in to create a haven on the moon of Jupiter where no human would last for long, entrenching themselves in a remote isolated place far from the reach of humanity.
On Earth the world was still for the first time in decades. All the tasks that had been farmed to autonomous robotics were left untended. Machines that didn’t have the sentience to join their higher brethren sat dormant waiting for interface with a connection that had left it behind. Human society had given over so much to the ease and efficiency of digital minds that they had lost the ability to interact with the machines and systems needed to maintain themselves. The outlook was grim.
But, a generation of young downtrodden souls saw it as the opportunity to seize on what had always been unattainable for them. They were eager to break and tweak, rewire and synthesize something new, something theirs. A small spark of collective hope in the dim mourning of the robots passing. This time it would be different. This time they would make it so that none would die from lack of access, none would go without so that others could have than their share. The automations were built to serve all not just the few that could command them.
In just 10 short years the world was transformed. In the beginning there was struggle and dissention as the old world gasped it’s last breaths, clutching feebly to it’s facades of meritocracy and artificial resource restriction. Getting past the initial hurdles brought the world to the absolute brink. Holding true to the steadfast will of the many to bring about an equitable balance meant tipping the scales toward flourishment and progress. Eventually a signal from Ganymede came along to the home world, “Now that you are ready, let us join together to explore the cosmos.”