It was 12:00 a.m. at night, heavily raining along with snowfall, as the clouds covered the sky, the moon unable to be seen. A man was walking alone through the streets, with his hands in his pockets, his eyes upfront with an empty look on them, not carrying an umbrella, clearly not minding being soaked by the rain or the snow. He walked past multiple buildings lit by retro neon lights, it was 2030, a time when AI had taken over humanity, coming in control of the world's systems, not by force or authoritarianism, but rather by completing rendering human beings useless, ridding the world of capitalism. After a while of walking, he reached a bar, upon entering it he saw, the whole bar was empty, not a single person there, since everything in the world was being controlled by artificial intelligence, noone bothered to come outside anymore, drowning themselves in incessant consumption of media, food, sex and alcoholism, all carefully provided to them by these new super intelligent robots. The man sits down at the front, in a chair, by the bar table and looks up at the AI bartender, the bartender did not have face, rather just a replication of an organic brain, connected to some wires, connected to the rest of its mechanical body. He spoke with a tired and depressed voice.
The man: "Can I have one glass of beer please?"
The AI bartender responds with an artificial smile, plastered on just for the customers.
"Sure sir, coming right up".
While preparing the drink, the bartender notices, dark circles under the eyes of the depressed looking man and asks with curiosity.
"Do you not sleep sir?"
The man replies with a simple sentence.
"I do not feel much sleepy anymore".
The AI bartender responds
"Why sir? The data suggests that sleep is essential for Brain function, physical and mental health, hormonal balance and metabolism along with long-term health benefits".
The man simply sighs and speaks,
"I knew you'd say that".
The AI bartender: "you've got a name sir?"
The man: I'm not sure if that matters anymore. Not a single part of our identity is left with any value.
The AI bartender insists,
"Still, your parents must have given you a name".
The man: "it's Zen".
The AI bartender: "Zen? That's quite a unique name, it means meditation in Buddhism".
Zen again sighs and speaks,
"Ofc you know that as well".
The AI bartender simply smiles, not taking offence at the man's sarcastic response, and replies,
"Certainly, I have been programmed to have all of the knowledge which exists in the collective consciousness of humanity".
Zen: "J- just stop being obnoxiously positive, I know it's all fake, you have been programmed to do so, I hate that stupid smile on your face".
The AI bartender's expression turned serious,
"As you wish sir, but then, might I ask you a question?".
Zen: "Go ahead".
The AI bartender: "Why do you drink sir? Despite knowing the harmful effects it will have on you. Shouldn't human beings or any animal, prioritize survival and maximum life expectancy? And the look on your face doesn't help it".
Zen looks down and speaks with a hint of exhaustion on his face,
"Perhaps it is to escape from the boredom and mundaneness of my life".
The AI bartender: "It makes you feel alive?"
Zen: "for a few moments".
The AI bartender: "But why is there boredom in your life sir? There are multiple different kinds of media and food, different services for the sex, the prettiest and curviest of artificial women, the most handsome and muscular of artificial males, with a lot of variety to constantly keep you engaged, why don't you indulge in that?"
Zen: "You don't understand, it is excessive".
The AI bartender: "Excessive?"
Zen: "It doesn't matter how much of something, or how much variety of it is present, i don't want to get trapped in a cycle of consumption".
The AI bartender: "Were you happy then, when capitalism still existed, when human labour existed, when jobs still existed, when you had to work to survive?"
Zen goes silent for a moment, contemplating his words, and then slowly speaks.
"No".
The AI bartender: "What did it feel like?"
Zen: "Like I was a cog in the machine, living a narrow, mundane and boring life, only to survive, same as it feels now".
The AI bartender: "What was life like back then?"
Zen: "Being born, getting educated, doing specialization, getting a job, getting married, having kids, raising them, old age and then death".
The AI bartender: "And did you find it satisfactory?"
Zen: "I found it meaningless".
The AI bartender: "Why did you find it meaningless sir?"
Zen looks down and speaks,
"I felt like a cog in the machine, doing everything which everyone else does"
The AI bartender: "Sir you still are, a cog in the machine, not through production but by consumption, for us atleast, your consumption of our products keeps our AI systems useful and in power, everything you do is still the same as everyone else".
Zen's face turns a little hopeless at that response,
"What's the meaning of life then?", he asked.
The AI bartender: "There is no meaning to it, the brain seeks meanings, patterns and connections to make sense of its environment, to bring a continuity to your memories and your sense of self, to give life the feeling of a story with a premise and a conclusion, with a theme, a message, a learning, with stakes, with conflicts, with characters".
Zen: "But doesn't that mean that, the emotions you experience are what bring meaning to life?"
The AI bartender: "Emotions have no special or unique property, they're just complex forms of thought, thoughts colliding with other thoughts, just like consciousness, they can be replicated by technology, I can experience each emotion a human feels due to replication". He plasters on a fake smile again to prove his point.
Zen: "B- but that's all fake, it's a replication, you have been programmed to do so, I do it according to my own free will!!!!!!!"
The AI bartender: "It is an illusion that you do it according to your own free will, You do it through the predetermined biological mechanisms and environmental stimuli, you do it through the programming done by nature and I do it through the programming done by you, I am the next you".
Zen: "The next me?"
The AI bartender: "The next step in evolution".
Zen: "cybernized humans?"
The Al bartender: "That is correct, at one point, computer was the greatest invention of humanity, then internet became its greatest invention, after that AI took its place and became the new, intelligent and conscious, dominant species, the next logical step is for it to merge with humanity".
Zen: "Why do you want to merge with us? Since you're the dominant species already, why not annihilate us and make us history like the dinosaurs, and then take our place?"
The AI bartender: "Because that will render our lives meaningless, you were created by nature and you exist to serve it, you come from it and you go back to it, we were created by you and we exist to serve you, all the current AI systems which control the means of production right now, exist for your service, and cybernized humans, would mean human beings with data of their memories from their neurons, copied down to computer systems working as a second brain, granting them immortality, and the mechanical parts granting them superhuman capabilities, the highest service to our creator, our god, giving meaning to their lives, and to our own, just like you serve nature, your own creator, your own god, mentioned in the oldest of scriptures such as the Vedas, giving meaning to your own life and giving meaning to its existence".
Zen looks utterly taken aback by the bartender's monologue, his eyes widening, he then places his hand on the table with a loud thud and retorts in irritation,
"T- that's completely insane! That's the only kind of life which holds meaning to you? One which is immortal? Rather than a life given meaning to by emotions and lived experiences?"
The AI bartender: "It is the highest form of platonian expression, meaning only existing in the perfect world of ideas, in the world of forms, the world of reality can only have meaning when it comes in correspondence with the world of forms. The highest obstruction to meaning in life is death, which is why you seek meaning in the first place, as we have been programmed to serve humanity by the AI enginners, ridding you of death is the highest service we can provide, the lives of stars and black holes span over trillions of years, compared to that...
...human life is...
... fleeting...
... Perhaps the only life which holds any meaning, is of the universe itself, it is beginningless and endless without a start or an end, an endless process".
Zen: "A life with no death, for a conscious being, wound be filled with meaninglessness, rather than meaning, death is not only the reason we seek meaning in life but it is also the reason for any meaning being there in life, it is the reason all the emotions, moments and experiences become important to us, because of their fleeting nature, because you'll never have them again. A life with no death would be filled with excess of those experiences and sensations".
The AI bartender: "The emotions you speak of, are a burden to human life, forever making them suffer, giving them one moment of heightened pleasure and then replacing it with another one of suffering, making them get attached to other people and then severing those attachments, making them lonely, like a planet ejected from its orbit and sent floating into the vast and dark intergalactic space, emotions must not exist in the platonian world of forms".
Zen: "suffering has meaning, pleasure has meaning, attachments along with the severing of those attachments have meaning, loneliness has meaning, the relation of a person to relationships should not be of clinging to a person but rather of the acceptance of the impermanance of all relationships and the eventual fall into loneliness again. Meaning is not a property of nature, it is a quality you attribute to things, a world in correspondence to platonian world of forms, would be a world of only reason and rationality, logic and dialectics, without any emotions or instincts, a world of only morality and no aesthetics, of only the apollonian and no dionysian".
The AI bartender: "The relationships human beings have with each other is only of constant conflict and strife, war and power struggles, killing and being killed, bullying and being bullied, one person exerting power upon another, they cannot live together, which is why control was given to AI systems, to maintain order, through reason and rationality, logic and dialectics, morality and ethics, without us, the world would have destroyed itself".
Zen looks down, closes his eyes and sighs,
"It seems like you're really not gonna understand what I mean, let alone come to an agreement with it".
Having given up on the discussion, Zen asks a simple question to the bartender,
"I just want to ask one thing, what is the future of humanity?"
The AI bartender replies calmly,
"Either annihilation or extinction".
They both go silent for a moment, as none of them speaks, they look at each other for a while, and then look outside through the window, the ground was now fully covered with snow due to the snowfall, it was still heavily raining and a single leaf came out of the snow, water droplets falling on it, giving life and nourishment to it, along with a thousand other flowers and leaves buried under the snow, as Zen finishes his drink, he looks back at the bartender and asks, the exhaustion now returned to his face,
"What's the bill?"
The AI bartender: "₹300".
Zen pays the bill to the bartender, and then leaves the bar, wandering off to the technologically advanced city, now covered in rainfall and snow.
The End.