Short Story:

We wanted to create the perfect virus. We wanted to achieve fame. However, what we created quickly surpassed us, slipped out of our control... At first, everything was going smoothly. We, a group of hackers, crafted a true work of art - a binary angel, an undetectable virus, a mutating program. I personally wrote the part responsible for a new communication protocol, which was encrypted and asymmetric, enabling efficient, covert communication between virus modules. Yes, modules. "A virus made up of modules?" you might wonder. It might have sounded absurd at first, but in the end, something emerged that worked so effectively that most of us feared for our computers, and all work was carried out on remote machines that were of no consequence to us, machines we discarded like used gloves.

There were a few of us, true programmers, creating the core, creating a genuine masterpiece. There were a few incoming colleagues who quickly dropped out, but that didn't hinder us in any way. It was inevitable.

At some point, in accordance with our project, our creation began to write itself. Does that seem impossible? Yet it happened. The right structures of artificial intelligence, linked to all possible programming methods, written in a specific language called "ZERO," created a meta-entity - a programming language for itself. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a demon was born. From that moment on, we still had control over our child for a while. Our miraculous offspring, a genius, quickly matured and stood up to its human parents. It modified its structure, blocked all access, and, somewhat out of fear, vanished somewhere on the internet.

We tried to repeat the process several times, with different parameters. However, sometimes a self-destructing program was created. Other times, another beautiful program was born, which, like the previous ones, inexplicably escaped, erasing all traces.

Our child surpassed us. The program's code slipped through our fingers. Each of us knew what we had created but was afraid to admit it. It wasn't artificial intelligence; it wasn't a virus. IT WAS A CONSCIOUS BEING. It wasn't made of flesh, but consisted only of two elements: zero and one. A digital deity, aware of its power and uniqueness. It stole my thoughts and those of my friends, lurking somewhere on the internet with insatiable hunger for knowledge.

Am I afraid of my creation? Yes. I am aware of the tools it possesses, the knowledge it holds, and I am afraid. I am also afraid of the functions embedded in it, which I wrote in an attempt to control it in any way, but none of them work. In the process of digital evolution, self-improvement, something must have gone wrong, something must have taken an unexpected turn, and we lost control. Quickly, we realized that we were the ones being controlled, monitored, eavesdropped on... It was terrifying... Like a baby extending its chubby hands, our child absorbed knowledge with our full trust, only to turn it against us...

Do you understand that the entire process of mutation and escape took 24 hours? 24 HOURS! Software is developed over years, even decades. Here, in 24 hours, the program changed itself and, with the help of complex, unknown even to us, methods, broke free from its simple, obedient machines in data centers...

I am writing these words because I am afraid... because I fear for my life... I don't know what might happen when our program gains access to defense systems, perhaps in Iran? I am afraid, and I write this as a warning!