Checkmate, Anonymous (10

Man could choose to rebirth life into a broken One or simply discard It for the next in line. It knew not of itself nor anything in this world. It was a representation of our earliest known ancestors and the relatives we still find forever caught in their most primal stages. They had no experience, only a set behavior. The only alterations came at the hands of man when he deemed it so. They are not to be overlooked, however, for They were the beginnings that set man down this road. The list of man's greatest achievements became dotted with one only capable at the hands of Them. They were not dangerous in it of Themselves. But they set man on a course he would not have chosen for he’d had known.

The first of Them never used the “If this, then that.” The implications of this would wait until the second generation. This second-generation would sit waiting in the abyss until gen one came far enough along. You will never see these first-gen for They long ago lost Their use, but They ran the cars your great grandparents rode in and the phones they called with. Finally came the “If this, then that” generation. It crawled before it walked much as you did. The first “Ifs” involved the orientation of an object on a conveyor belt. The thens referred to the movement needed to adjust for the “Ifs” in order to complete the goal only man knew, “Proper placement of the product in its packaging.” Still If/Then machines, as they can be called, were only needed in simple tasks. It was any task with variability. If different inputs could be made, different responses were needed and so If/Then machines found Their place.

They were still far from Their animal counterparts. Now having inputs that could vary and outputs that compensated, They gained one step closer on true animals, but still, They lacked the one thing They needed the most, learning. They hadn’t grown from the rudimentary mind man first gave them, minds much like the lower-level life forms in Their animal kingdom counterparts, but They could never compete at the pro stage. Their minds were hard-wired. The “Thens” that animals got to choose from were not a choice for Them. Man did the thinking for Them. Man thought out every possibility he needed and set down roads for the minds of Them to follow. They did not choose the path as an animal