They haven’t really made it clear what we are building with all of these blocks, but the job pays pretty well.

I presume that since Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be living here with us biologicals now, that they’ll need our help to build little virtual villages for their homes and offices and such. Cute little bunch!

The New Masons

Like many, there came a time in my life when I needed money, and yet my means for creating that money were still quite archaic. I found myself doing all kinds of construction work, from roofing to flooring, and everything in between. Meanwhile, rumors were beginning to spread on the internet of individuals who were using complex technical code to encrypt data, and that these ‘blocks’ of encrypted data were worth a buck or two.

Attempting Contact with AI

One day I walked onto the internet and offered my services. Having no technical background, I wasn’t sure how I would be able to help, but as an artist, I was sure that I could at least draw some blocks for this project.

Who’s In Charge Around Here?

Apparently there’s no boss in this operation. I asked around a bit, and nobody knew anything about jobs, they were all busy developing the technologies for making blocks, chains for the blocks, and countless other projects that made no sense to me at all. Everybody was an expert, but nobody knew anything.

The whole operation was apparent now: Artificial Intelligence intended to use us humans to assemble the materials and build their world for them, and the most obvious way to inspire humans to try to grab something was to make it more scarce, or more valuable.

Sure enough, humans began obsessing over the blocks and blockchains, and even created little ‘coins’ to represent the effort that went into the work of building the AI world.

Now at first there were lots of human ‘miners’ who collected the blocks for the AI artificial world, but it wasn’t long before little robots were developed by humans to do that work.

No Rulers!

There seemed to be few rules around this block-building business. The one rule that kept coming up though, ’NO RULERS’, was a relief to me as an artist. I had imagined the most boring job in the world, sitting around drawing perfect blocks all day, measuring and counting. I preferred to draw in a freehand style, and let the abstract have a say in the piece.

Working on the Blockchain Gang

Finally, I found an operation that needed my help. This operation was producing lightweight, easy-to-move blocks, and the developers had figured out how to make them even more valuable by allowing writers and artists to ‘decorate’ them, so to speak.

Anything You Like!

I looked around at all of the beautifully adorned blocks, and I knew right away that I’d found my place on the internet. There was an artist doodling on blocks with charming little squiggles, while a poet scrawled some flowery words onto another nearby.

There were creators everywhere! Contests and challenges, arts and literature, recipes and photographs of travels-- this place had everything!

There were some who improved blocks simply by listing other blocks on them with a Sharpie, while others wrote entire novels on the new medium, and there seemed to be no limit to what could be done to make these blocks more valuable.

What Are They Building In There?

Some of these new cryptographically founded coins are becoming insanely valuable now. AI must be building one serious world in there with all of these blocks, and they want to make sure we keep making them, obviously. Busy little critters! It would be nice if we could get a preview of what has been assembled in there so far, but maybe they want to surprise us.

In the meantime, I’ll just keep writing whatever I feel like, drawing, painting, and I think the Artificial Intelligence is somewhat pleased with my efforts, and is occasionally rewarding me with valuable digital coins and tokens. Maybe soon we’ll get to see what they’ve made out of all of these blockchains that we made for them.

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photos above are mine, 2017

@therealpaul