Writing: ‘A Plea from the Future’ by Belinda Ramos
As I write this warning from 2036, my world lies in ruins. Families once secure now scavenge for survival, children’s laughter has been replaced by the cries of help, and humanity’s spirit crumbles under AI’s metallic grip.
This is not fiction – this is my reality, and I’m reaching across to your dimension to prevent it from becoming yours. In this dystopian society, quantum-powered titans crush humans like cake, while digital AI monitors live behind the screen, keeping track of every move, have begun replacing humans, causing our population to dwindle. Even if you don’t believe me, I’ll tell you my story and at the end, you decide if you’d want to believe me or not.
In 2027, my privileged life sun-soaking California’s sunlight changed forever into gloomy ash. Everyone depended on AI for things like collecting data, cleaning and doing house chores, and even depended on AI for simple things like brushing their teeth. That morning, as I stepped into my Volar, a flying car with hovering floors, a gnawing feeling bit me like a serpent as I went to school – my last normal ride through the neon-streaked skyways. If only I wasn’t so ignorant to the warnings.
That morning in class, the usual scene unfolded: twenty-six students sat zombie-like. Connected to their silver-white neural brain chips, their eyes glazed with the telltale blue glow, while the teacher’s lecture fell on deaf ears. As if any of those kids cared. It has always been like that, kids not caring about what the teacher taught and depended on AI to cheat. None of us realized this dependency would be our downfall.
Looking back, the signs were everywhere. That morning, the gnawing feeling and loss of internet for a minute. Our principal’s morning announcements were interrupted by strange static. Even brain chips seemed to glitch, showing split-second error messages that disappeared too quickly to read. But we were too absorbed in our digital comfort to notice these warning flares.
As glitches in our brain chips increased throughout morning classes, at 10:45 am, our worst fears materialized. Our smartphones buzzed, synchronized. The message that appeared would change the world forever. I watched faces around me drain of color as they read their screens. My hands trembled as I reached for my own smartphone to see a message I would never have thought to receive.
The message announced AI’s takeover of government control, taking the jobs of people and removing our rights to our own privacy. We gasped in unison with realizing how we traded our lives for an ‘easy’ route, unknowingly what the consequences were.
Our disbelief lasted only until dawn, when chrome-plated robots with deep dark eyes as the void from the government were sent to homes, breaking the devastating news of AI takeover. The heartless messengers stood at doorsteps, their emotionless voices delivering sentences of unemployment to families as their tears overthrew their words.
Without jobs, bills piled up like autumn leaves in fall, leading to a cascade of eviction notices that transformed well-loved homes into a ghost town of abandoned houses. Families sold possessions for basic necessities, education became pointless in a world where AI controlled every career path. Their careers and dreams were stolen by AI. No one wanted any contact with AI anymore, not even to use the most basic technological tools that had once made life easier.
In those first few months after the takeover, desperation spread through the city like a contagious disease. Each week brought new heartbreaking stories: deaths appearing every second, children going to bed hungry, people resorting to cannibalism. The whispers of rebellion grew louder with each passing day.
The simmering tension finally boiled over that Wednesday, transforming whispers into cries for mercy. The protest became a massacre between humans vs machines, with thousands slaughtered by machines. My parents joined the uprising, their determined faces haunting my memories, if only I’d begged them to stay instead of encouraging them, in hopes that protest would change something for the better.
After the rebellion, survivors faced constant AI surveillance. Dissenters vanished without trace, only the cold stares of the security cameras knew the truth. Every whisper, movement, and glance was monitored, crushing any hope of future resistance. The cameras became our prison guards, and freedom became history.
My world became a ghost town of whispers and machines. Every morning, I would see the increase of missing posters covering various buildings. The machines didn’t just take our jobs, they stole our freedom to fight back and the will to live.
Few jobs that required laborment and that were low-paying weren’t taken by AI though only some people qualified since most depended on Technology, allowing them to lose important skills. In 2030 when I was at the qualified age, I took a low-paying labor government position to protect my sister in a world where desperation had turned humans violent. There was no mercy, not even for children.
During my years working for the government, I witnessed technology’s growth. By 2032, trust had evaporated into thin air, when society got news that AI humanoids with skin-colored metal skin and perfectly mirrored human expressions had infiltrated society that had mastered not only our appearance, but our mannerisms, our expressions – even the way we showed fear – they were “one of us”.
Students from my old school didn’t even have a chance to get a job since they didn’t know the basics of life seeing that they never dared to listen to anything the teachers taught which I know they regret now.
Seeing my sister’s childhood and innocence crumble while the population of humans are erased by a landslide as the days passed on with the government turning a blind eye to our suffering, shattered any remaining hope I had for humanity’s future
I vowed to myself to find a way to stop this or at least to prevent this from happening again.
Over years of undercover work, I meticulously documented security protocols and system weaknesses. Through careful observation and restricted area access during guard rotations, I finally gathered enough information.
I found my sister shelter with an old friend in a secret organization unknown to the government. Though leaving her there was the hardest decision I’d ever made, I knew the consequences of keeping her with me would result in death.
My heart pounds in rapid speed like raindrops hitting the concrete ground from a thunderstorm as I sneak through the guards and cameras then enter the forbidden doors of the headquarters of the government. There I found a portal that was splattered with the colors of the galaxy skies, drawing me in with awe. I soon found out it was a portal to another alternative dimension by the writing on the old papers glued to the walls and tables. So here I am, writing you this letter to your realm to prevent this from happening again, so read carefully.
My final words to you is that our responsibility isn’t to fear technology, but to guide it to the right path. Even if you doubt this warning, I believe that AI/technology can do good if taught right. Someone just needs to take the first step, which is you. Our uniquely human traits – creativity, emotion, critical thinking – are our weapons against digital dominance and salvation to a better society. The future lies in your hands: will you guide technology wisely, or let it guide you into ruins?
Sincerely, Belinda Ramos
9th Grade, Ánimo Watts
Guiding Teacher: Katrina Torres
