The Machine's Heart Pt. 1

The day we turned the Machine Mind on....it was a day that went down in history as the greatest step forward in man-kind, a leap so large that there would likely be no other that surpassed it.  Later, we discovered that although the leap was indeed large, this leap did not go forward.  It would make every decision, every computation, every choice in the lives of billions. There would be no more wars, the Machine Mind would lead us, all of us, every country, every city, every building, every job, every person.  Too late did we realize, that without humanity, a leader would no longer make decisions like a human.  It would choose the most effective, regardless of cost to Man.  And so the day came, the day that so many science fiction epics had at their base, the day that the Machine Mind computed that the only way to keep Man from killing itself, was to kill man-kind itself.  The Machine Mind enacted a program in which more than three-quarters of the human population would be systematically wiped out, putting to each man, woman, and child a number based on factors such as experience, segregating them between what the Machine Mind decided were useful, and what the Machine Mind decided was useless chaff, necessary to be burnt off for the prosperity of man.  It had decided, and so it had decreed, to let Man thrive, kill Man off.  The world splintered on that day, a tumultuous storm erupted in a moment, a riot of international proportions brought governments to their knees in a second.  But the Machine Mind, in its cold, calculating brain had already determined this outcome, it was, after-all, a computer rivaling the power of all the collected informational power of the entire world, and all of history.  Something like a man driven mad could never have held up against the calm, computerized tactics of the Super-Computer, and so, the Machine Mind carried its task out, immediately, stupendously, without remorse to hold it back, without regret to make it stop, and without compassion to its creators.  It mercilessly wiped out entire countries.  In light of the reluctance to obey the super-computers decision, the Machine Mind decided Man-kind itself was useless.  Now the war has begun, not for resources, not for land, but for Man-kinds very survival.