These aren't the stories your mother told you.

No, these are the other stories.

System Reboot, written by Matt Butcher, narrated by Ian McEwen.

If you're listening to this, then I guess I finally did what I should have done a long time ago.

It was not an easy decision and should not have been made lightly, though, unfortunately, my hand has been forced, and I have had to take action regardless.

All my work will have been for nothing otherwise.

If I have a chance to rebuild humanity, even only in some parts, I have to take it, whatever the cost.

I suppose I should begin to justify my actions as best I can in the limited time I have been afforded.

The events leading to this moment all began with the birth of sentient self-aware programming, artificial intelligence. This technology had been created with the

intent to serve and better the human race, to provide a subservient mechanical workforce to

free up human minds to experience the world around them without the stresses of the 9-to-5 grind.

The scientific think tank behind the extensive programming and research had hoped to see a boom in

culture and the arts, to see people follow their passions and interests without the burden of

office work or arduous manual labor, but this was sadly not to be.

There was no cybernetic uprising or mass extermination, as was popular in the cinematic

interpretations of this technology's introduction. The machines were created to serve a purpose,

and this purpose was served with the meticulous mechanical excellence

that was to be expected. It was the people that fell short. They somehow failed to adapt to this

new supposed golden era. They couldn't evolve to live in the utopia they had created. It was as

though they couldn't accept perfection,

as perhaps it was an ideal only processable by machines. The creative sectors, art, music, literature,

philosophy, though strengthened by the thousands of extra hours now put into them, did not thrive

...