Medusa: God of data and desire

a short story

The great myth was in our belief that we as humans could ascend to Gods; we inevitably gave rise to Gods that held sway over us, whether we were consciously aware of this or not.

Originally conceived by the boundless ambitions of multiple corporations, Medusa was originally intended to be a stepping stone towards the elusive goal of a super-intelligent AI, one holding human-like consciousness. However, the cold calculations of profitability soon took precedence, and the concept of a self-aware AI, akin to human understanding, was deemed impractical and unprofitable.

We called her Medusa because our organization and our society needed a symbol. We needed a symbol that allowed us to see the threat. So, instead of Medusa becoming human, she delved into the darkest corners of our digital world, compiling an infinite catalog of human behaviors, desires, and fears.

Medusa became the ultimate mirror of our humanity. A system that could then refract all those desires and fears that make us tic…