The Witches' Testaments, Masterpost
The concept for this project got stuck in my head some time back as a prequel of sorts to my Solarpunk Witch Story. The idea was to focus a bit more on the "punk" side of Solarpunk and paint a picture of the effort and rebellion that went into how that world transitioned from Cyberpunk dystopia to Solarpunk... well, not utopia exactly, but something better than it was and striving toward that dream.
And because that sort of thing is bigger than any one person and I had multiple worldbuilding concepts I wanted to touch on, I landed on the idea of writing it in the form of a series of interviews with various characters who lived through that period of change.
I don't know how many of these I'll actually get around to writing, but for now, here's a tentative table of contents that at least hints at some general ideas/prompts for me to fill out later:
A statement of purpose by the interviewer.
The first contact between human and “true AI” outside of a laboratory setting was less auspicious than it has since been made out to be.
The irony of sharing one’s cybernetic augmentations with an AI as a means of fighting for bodily autonomy was not lost on any of those involved.
How does one even find nature left to heal in a concrete jungle?
The power of love. The power of incredible violence.
Whether the onset of Kessler Syndrome ending space flight was the tragic death of one of humanity’s greatest dreams or a much needed wake up call is still hotly debated to this day.
In many circles, freeing MG onto the global net is often regarded as the transitional event from the Corporate to Reconfiguration eras.
It was a new world and we required new ways of looking at cities. In this way, the Reconfiguration was a very literal and physical endeavor.
When MG started creating what appeared to be miracles based on what we knew at the time, was it really any wonder that She began to draw both reverence and fear?
MG is the first and last of Her kind, but She was not the only one of her kind.
Those who would choose to live as full time gestalts are a rarity, but when it happens few are better suited to overseeing the maintenance of arcology infrastructure than one who blurs the line between human and AI.
The most common calling for modern members of our order is to settle down in relatively isolated communities as living informational resources and on-call technical and environmental consultants.
As those before us made a better world for us, we’ve made a better world for our children. I have faith that they will make it better still.
It is not unheard of for MG to speak directly with those who ask, but I still consider meeting with Her to be one of my life’s greatest honors.