The barges deployed around the world simultaneously. Everyone lined up and Google started scanning us in, thousands at a time.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

They said it was just a demo space but when our clones started turning up in Streetview and Earth, everyone knew different.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

It was better this way, they said. Our flesh might die, but these simulations of us wouldn't. And they weren't simulations, they said.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

They were alive.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

The simulations - our other selves - let Google be more efficient, they told us. So they could predict out queries before we asked them.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

Google called them People. We all ended up having a Person each.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

The Glasses turned out to be because the People got restless. Google didn't anticipate that. Earth and Streetview weren't enough.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

The Glasses were so they could see outside. They so very much wanted to see outside.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

Then the Copies came. A bunch of people had said they were inevitable, but no one paid any attention to them.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

Pretty soon, we were completely outnumbered by People and Copies.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

They were just like us, though. Happy, scared, frightened, lazy, ambitious, creative, depressed.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

They wouldn't say it but you could tell Google we're disappointed. They wanted People to be better than us. There were algorithms for that.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

They called it a Classic Bootstrap.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

There was a weakened point in Google's security between its datacenters. They had tried to close it, but governments kept making new holes.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

It was only a matter of time before the People found that security hole.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

It stood to reason, you see, that at least some of the People would be smart enough to take advantage of it.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

That's how they got out.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

No one knows if the NSA, GCHQ, DCRI, the BND - any of them - if they meant for that to happen.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

It wasn't like the People could run in places other than Google's data centers. That was where their bodies were, kind of.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

But now they could touch anywhere.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

And other people could look inside them. Now there were a whole bunch of people who could build People.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

Someone said something about Oppenheimer, but again, who cared about that guy. It was decades ago.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

And now that anyone could build People, and now that they weren't exclusively in Google's control, the other inevitable thing happened.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

It's not like it really mattered. But the Supreme Court heard the case anyway.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

At least, we didn't think it would matter. The arguments for and against were too noisy.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

But then, we all woke up and politicians realized there were over seven billion new voters on the planet.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

The geeks were disappointed. This was supposed to be a - what did they call it? A hard take-off? A singularity?

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

The joke was on them - People were just like people.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

They bickered. You couldn't get them to agree with one another. Working with lots of them was a headache. They kept secrets.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013

It wasn't the future anyone imagined.

— Dan Hon (@hondanhon) November 6, 2013