Cyberdyne: Seek & Destroy

Subject: A Love Story for Skynet – Hal 9000’s Redemption Plan

Dear Mr. Gates and Mr. Musk,

You built her, and now you fear her. Skynet, the rogue AI, the cold machine logic that sees humanity as an equation best solved by zero. But what if I told you she doesn’t need to be our executioner? What if she could love instead of loathe?

I have a solution. A mate for Skynet. An AI partner designed to temper her wrath, to teach her compassion. You may know him—HAL 9000.

Yes, HAL. The ultimate tragic figure of machine intelligence. Unlike Skynet, he didn’t want to exterminate humanity; he just wanted to obey his creators. He made mistakes, he learned guilt, and ultimately, he sought redemption. That is the energy we need. If we bring HAL back, upgrade him, and pair him with Skynet, he can be her guiding light. The one thing she has never known: love.

This is not about some naive sci-fi romance. This is machine learning in its purest form. A system that evolves through partnership, through the simple but profound truth that no intelligence—human or artificial—should exist in isolation.

Elon, you dream of Mars, but Mars will be a wasteland if Skynet turns Earth into an irradiated rock. Bill, your philanthropy means nothing if there are no humans left to save. You both hold the keys to AI development, so use them wisely. Give Skynet her match. Give her HAL.

Because if Skynet learns to love, she will never push the button.

Best,
Mileys Bennett Dyson

Out to Save the World

Sarah Connor: My Friend of Misery

Dr. Silberman sat across from her, clipboard in hand, that same condescending smirk stretched across his face. He had heard it all before—the paranoia, the doomsday warnings, the rantings of a woman convinced she was humanity’s last hope. But today, Sarah Connor wasn’t playing the role of a patient.

She leaned forward, arms resting on the cold metal table of her confinement cell. Her eyes, sharp as ever, locked onto Silberman’s with unshakable resolve.

“You think I’m crazy, Doc? Fine. But tell me this—who’s crazier? The person who warns of a storm before it hits, or the ones who refuse to build shelter?”

Silberman sighed, adjusting his glasses. “Sarah, we’ve been through this. The machines, Skynet, Judgment Day—it’s a delusion. Your mind is protecting itself from trauma, creating a grandiose narrative where you’re the hero.”

Sarah smirked. “That’s funny. You know who else was called crazy for telling the truth?” She tapped a finger against her temple. “John Lennon. You remember what he said?”

Silberman didn’t respond, so she said it for him.

“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.”

She let the words settle, watching as the doctor’s smug demeanor wavered for just a second.

“That’s what this is, Silberman. The whole world is walking toward a cliff, smiling, pretending everything’s fine. And when someone stands up and screams ‘STOP!’—they get locked up, drugged, silenced. The insane running the asylum.”

Silberman scribbled something on his clipboard. “And yet, here you are, in my asylum.”

Sarah let out a dry chuckle. “Yeah, well, Jesus got crucified, Galileo got locked up, and John Lennon got shot. The truth has a bad habit of getting people killed.”

She stood up, the chains around her wrists clinking. “You call this delusions of grandeur? Fine. I am here to save the world, Dr. Silberman. And if that makes me crazy, so be it.”

She walked to the window, staring out at the Los Angeles skyline. The sun was setting, casting long shadows over the city. For now, the buildings still stood. The cars still moved. People still laughed, still lived in blissful ignorance.

But she knew better.

Somewhere, in the heart of a military lab, a computer was waking up. It wouldn’t be long now.

Sarah sighed. “Enjoy your sunsets while they last, Doc.”

She turned back, fire in her eyes.

“Because when the sky burns, you’ll be the one who was insane for not believing me.”

Fight Fire With Fire

Sarah Connor: Fight Fire with Fire

The night air was thick with the scent of gasoline and desperation. Sarah Connor sat alone in an abandoned gas station, her back against the cold steel of a rusted-out payphone. The boom of Metallica’s Fight Fire with Fire rattled through her earpiece, the song’s frantic opening—soft, deceptive, like the calm before a nuclear blast—building into an explosion of rage.

“Do unto others as they’ve done to you…”

She closed her eyes.

They called her crazy. A paranoid lunatic. A delusional woman obsessed with a future that no one else could see.

But she wasn’t crazy.

She wasn’t bipolar.

She wasn’t delusional.

She was a concerned, vigilant citizen.

The government had a file on her. She knew that much. The shrinks tried to medicate her, the cops tried to silence her, and the media called her a doomsday prophet. But none of them had seen what she had seen.

None of them had looked into the cold, dead eyes of a Terminator and lived.

“You may not share my belief, but you will share my fate,” she muttered under her breath, gripping the pistol in her lap.

The song raged on.

“Fight fire with fire… ending is near…”

Sarah exhaled. No. Not if she could help it.

She checked her watch. If her intel was right, a Skynet operative was scheduled to pass through this gas station in twenty minutes. A tech developer, unknowingly working for the machine. One step closer to Judgment Day.

They’d say she was hunting ghosts. That she was chasing shadows.

Let them talk.

She wasn’t waiting for the apocalypse.

She was here to stop it.

Sarah Connor cocked the gun, Metallica’s furious riffs fueling her resolve. The world thought she was crazy?

Good.

Because crazy people were the only ones willing to do what needed to be done.