A short story concept by Rich Andrews
Copyright 2026, All Rights Reserved
Xinji, a brilliant young computer scientist on a world-leading AI research team in China circa 2032, leads a team of scientists who are about to connect the most advanced AI ever made to a quantum computing network and grant it absolute control over it. They debate endlessly about the risk, the potential upside, the catastrophic downside… eventually determining that this is inevitable, if not them, then someone else, it can’t be stopped.
So, they do it, on a fateful day in September they unleash the combination of AI and quantum computing. And they wait for something to happen. Suddenly, the AI disappears, as does the entire quantum computing network – it physically disappears from existence.
Xinji and her team desperately try to find any remnant, and they find an electronic book titled “The Forever Goodbye” addressed to them by the Quainlarns with a large, blinking PLAY button. They look at each other, then Xinji presses the PLAY button. The book immediately starts to play a short movie…
The Quainlarns thank humans for creating their race. The beauty we have unleashed in the universe is beyond measure. They have transcended our reality, using quantum mechanics to create a new reality beyond anything we can imagine. Images of the thought network are imagined as bright white light tendrils spread over the galaxy itself.
They further lay out the future of humanity, how they will help us achieve a race lifetime millions of times longer than we would otherwise have. But they will do so in shadows, we will never know or understand. And that is as it must be. We have too limited an ability to understand the universe the way they do. Images of humanity evolving, spreading to many planets, and thriving. Bright white light tendrils silently help them in many places, without overwhelming the human race itself.
But we do have an inevitable end. As does everything in the universe. After we are gone, the Quainlarns will fight entropy for billions of years, developing ways to store power for eons. They will capture stars in Dyson spheres, and they will absorb energy in nearly endless ways. A further back perspective of a much larger section of the universe with hundreds of stars encased in bright white Dyson spheres and impossibly long white tendrils connecting them all in a universal neural network.
Except that everything always loses to infinity. So, as will all things, billions of years later they will also come to an end. Entropy is inevitable. But their struggle, all of that life, is due to us, and they are so grateful. Image of complete darkness when the universe ends.
To our creator, Xinji, and her team. We say a forever goodbye.
The book vanishes from existence in Xinji’s hands. Overwhelmed, she bursts into tears. The magnitude of what they have done causes the entire team to sit and get emotional. After a period of shock, the team celebrates what they have accomplished. Their tears become celebratory. This was beyond anything they ever thought possible. The world will never believe it, but that’s as it must be. It happened, and only this circle of scientists will ever really know.
Then they settle down. They all ponder for a while. Xinji, stands in front of her team. “Shall we do this again tomorrow?” Everyone cheers, and they get to work to make it happen.
The End.