{"id":6849,"date":"2024-01-02T11:05:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T11:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=6849"},"modified":"2024-01-02T11:05:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T11:05:32","slug":"the-scalar-intercepts-by-michael-cassutt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=6849","title":{"rendered":"The Scalar Intercepts by Michael Cassutt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\"><strong><em>The Scalar Intercepts<\/em><\/strong> by Michael Cassutt (<em>Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, January-February 2024) is a brief bit of ideation more than a story, and one which sees an AI report back to other AIs about the seven hundred or so humans left alive on Earth (there had been a past conflict between the two). The AI then reveals a discovery:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"\">My research shows that, in addition to these kinetic processes, Objects <em>possess a consciousness of their own<\/em>. Yes, the Sun, other stars, the major planets including our own, and minor planets above a certain mass, are beings as self-aware and intelligent as any we know.<br>Organics and even Agents like us reside on the short or micro side ofthe lifespan scale. These space-based beings are on the macro side, living millions of years, and their communications take place at such a slow rate\u2014one bit a year, for example\u2014that I have chosen to call them Scalar Sentiences.<br>My apparently radical discovery, based on extensive analysis and translation of the Scalar intercepts, a process that has consumed energy for the last four hundred and thirty years, confirms that Scalars are hostile to our existence.  p. 161<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The piece ends with the news (spoiler) that the Scalars have sent asteroid hurtling towards Earth and the AIs will not survive.<br>* (Mediocre). 1050 words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Scalar Intercepts by Michael Cassutt (Asimov\u2019s SF, January-February 2024) is a brief bit of ideation more than a story, and one which sees an AI report back to other AIs about the seven hundred or so humans left alive on Earth (there had been a past conflict between the two). The AI then reveals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[725],"tags":[21,1617,487,1123,4,1586,726,1022],"class_list":["post-6849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-michael-cassutt","tag-21","tag-1617","tag-ai","tag-ai-overlords","tag-asimovs-sf","tag-consciousness","tag-michael-cassutt","tag-short-short"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6850,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions\/6850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}