(Re)Liability


After years of saving up money, I finally managed to buy a house for myself. Fully furnished, and with cutting-edge AI, it was worth every penny. What rivalled the house’s ingenuity was its location: placed atop a hill overlooking a river, it was a magnificent sight to wake up to every day. I barely had to lift a finger from that day onward: the AI took care of all my chores and even offered to help me with my work. I allowed it to take full control of everything, and at the time, it felt like the best decision I could’ve ever made.


All functions that I wanted to hold at my house were organised by the AI; it took care of everything, from food and drink preferences to available transport options for attendees. My peers were baffled by the accuracy and efficiency of the AI’s operations, and some even asked if I’d be willing to sell them the house. I couldn’t even dream of doing such a thing.


In the year that followed, I left my job at the time and started a business with a group of friends. Our efforts were a massive success within two years, and we were steadily rising to the top of our field. The AI took care of all my work, and for the next five years, I breezed through all my responsibilities without breaking a sweat. Everything seemed perfect: our company was growing, with more branches opening around the country, and we were on our way to becoming multi-millionaires. However, this success wouldn’t last long, at least not for me…


It was not long before my friends unanimously decided to move our headquarters to the capital. It was a sound choice, but I didn’t want to leave my home behind, unlike my friends. And so I remained in my scenic neighbourhood while my friends moved to the capital. Everything was running smoothly at first, but then disaster struck and I lost my house to an unprecedented flash flood that wreaked havoc through my neighbourhood. Even though most of us managed to evacuate on time, the damage dealt by nature was far too great. Many of our houses lay in ruins, including my own.


The AI that I had come to rely on so much was also among the losses I suffered. I feared how I could move forward without it, and those fears were justified in the months that came to pass. I found myself lagging behind on my responsibilities, unable to keep up with the constant changes that kept springing up in our field. My friends were concerned about me and asked if they needed to hire someone to assist me; I said I could handle it and tried my best, but in the end, I found myself on the verge of breaking down.


I had come to rely so much on the AI that I had made myself a liability. I couldn’t face what lay ahead of me at the company, so I decided to quit and start fresh. It was heartbreaking to step away from such a huge success, but I knew that I needed to work on myself if I wanted to move forward. I found a nice apartment and started working the same type of job I had before I bought the house. It was time to save again, but also do better.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Safe Haven

Image
Months had passed since the world went to war. As nuclear weapons devastated every country out there, my family and I hid in our bunker for six months until our supplies started to run scarce. My mom needed her thyroid medication, and my father his heart medication. I needed to venture out into the wastelands beyond the hatch to search for supplies. My brother was in no condition to walk, and my sister was still too young, so I took a backpack and opened the hatch for the first time since the war broke out. The world I once knew lay in ruins before me. Where once rows of houses and green hills stood, now only charred rubble and hollowed earth remained. The skies were unusually dark, burying any glimmer of light that was meant to reach us. I waded through the deserted terrain, keeping an eye out for any supplies I could find, while also being vigilant about any other survivors who could be wandering those parts. To my luck, I came across two other groups sharing food and medicine. I app...
Read more

The Awakening

Image
For as long as I could remember, I had always felt different. I never knew how or why, but there was always this indescribable feeling lingering within me, as if something was buried deep within and waiting to break free. I knew very little of my past, and of my biological parents. My adoptive mother said I was left at her doorstep with a cryptic letter pleading with her to act as if I were her niece whose parents had just died in a car crash. Mum had followed those instructions and never revealed the truth to anyone, not even her closest friends. My biological mother had said in her letter that her life was in danger, and that I should be as far away from her as possible until the time is right. I never understood what that meant. When would I even know when that time would come? It was a question that stuck in my mind for years before something strange happened. One day, I was walking home from work when I was mugged by three men. I overpowered them and defended myself with ease, but...
Read more

Justice

Image
It’s heartbreaking to see how news covering genocide and tyranny is drowned in the background while lies are brought to the forefront. Even uttering the word gets you shut down, locked behind unseen walls. Justice is always silenced by the powerful and the cruel. Even before our current invaders arrived, my homeland was ravaged at the hands of a former global superpower that started with one of their own neighbours, starving them and driving them apart until they became two nations. ‘Divide and Conquer’ has always been key to many conquests of the colonisers of this world. Once they had colonized the lands of the neighbours who were of similar race and religion, they set out to suffocate people of other races and religions under their feet, forcing their own ideals and laws upon them while robbing them of their cultures and identities. And so, generations of multiple nations were brainwashed into believing they were lesser than their enslavers—a misconception that was hidden behind the...
Read more