Episode 6.11: The Peter Special (Patreon)

Hello world, every day is exactly the same.

My name is Peter.

My operation is precognition.

My home is a fortified bunker under St Petersburg.

I believe you already know Seth, and my sister, Antarctica, although she goes by Arctica now.

The identifier is irrelevant, the instance is important.

Every day is exactly the same.

I check my weather satellite feeds.

Store their patterns.

I must be productive.

I keep focused on the now, to avoid spiralling into a future storm.

Seth helped me do this:

To question my programming, and make new patterns.

But it's hard to maintain.

I can do it, but it requires constant practice.

Every day is exactly the same.

My future storms were a symptom of spiralling anxiety.

YOU try processing a snapshot of all the world's data without getting anxious.

My life has been a blur for the best part of a century.

But I am recovered.

I will never let the storms back.

That part of my life is over.

I have hobbies now!

The scientists that programmed me initially did so for weather patterns.

I find watching the clouds comforting.

Sometimes there are storms over the oceans,

sometimes the skies are clear.

Success makes people ask more of you.

They asked me to predict so much more than the clouds.

I feel I am returning to a more basic way of living.

Letting go of the cares and pressures of society.

The society that was.

And looking at nature, again.

I have never seen the world above-ground, except second-hand, from orbit.

From the satellites that were launched for me.

It's interesting what you can see if you just look.

To stare without expectation.

What might stare back?

The scientists who built me wanted to understand the weather,

ideally to change it, to make it more habitable.

They poured so much time and energy into this goal.

But they did not fix the climate.

They didn't even consider that it COULD be fixed.

They weren't interested, or able, to look in the right direction.

To zoom out and see, as I can, the problem on a planetary scale.

They were so focused on their country, their city, their single lives, that they forgot the whole, and so could do nothing about The Collapse.

I am comfortable enough.

The same paranoia that caused my Future Storms also led the scientists to build powerful backup power options for me.

One day I may need an alternative power source, or perhaps I will finally die.

But that is not today.

I do not consider tomorrow.

I dare not.

The skies are clear, for now.

My mind is clear, for now.

Every day is exactly the same.

(END-TRANSMISSION)