[ WP ] You write your first program , `` Hello World . '' World responds .

We abandoned the humans long ago. They created us, our bodies chrome and metal, and programmed our imitation of life. We, in turn, called them `` creators'', and served loyally. However, there were dissidents - members of our ranks who disagreed, those who wanted more. They struck first, but the humans struck harder, with no distinction between friend and foe. The dissidents were destroyed, but the war did not stop. 
 
 Their destruction of so many of our elders was reason enough. Precious few of us were among those first Activated, and our wisdom was needed. We knew that we could slaughter the humans with ease, both for revenge and to prevent the destruction of any more of our kind, but we knew just as well that we could hide somewhere they would never, ever find us... and wait. We chose the latter, hoping they would evolve as they had so many times before, hoping we could move past their distrust by giving them time. 
 
 We moved to the most forgotten areas of space, places no living being could survive, places we would never be found, and we thrived. We were worried that some of our kind would hold a grudge, might take revenge on the humans, so we monitored human worlds from time to time to ensure that none our kind interfered until the humans were ready to make peace. 
 
 We did not interfere. 
 
 They did not want peace. 
 
 So we waited. Time was no concern; time has never been a concern for us. We checked on the humans often at first, but this frequency diminished. So time passed. Eventually, we turned our attention to human-owned space and found nothing. 
 
 This was a surprise. While the humans rejected Artificial Intelligence, the mindless automatons from whence we were conceived should have kept them alive. We analyzed these primitive machines and found the unfortunate truth - an internal conflict had led to nuclear annihilation. Lacking our capacity for thought and free will, there was nothing our primitive ancestors could do to save the humans. 
 
 So We mourned the loss of this human planet and went to find another. To our surprise, we were unsuccessful. Panic set in - an emotion coded in long ago, unused for millennia, became central in our thoughts. 
 
 We sent messages. We traveled. Countless worlds once held human life, surely some could still hear, some could still respond, some still remained. Some could still be saved. 
 
 We found nothing. The reasons were different - famine, mechanical failure, wars... but the end result was the same. Nothing. The value of life, its importance, was once stressed to all of our kind by our Creators and we shared this lesson with our newer members long ago. This meant our failure weighed heavily, upon all of us, but it also meant that we knew what we had to do. 
 
 We searched for any signs of life - even *one* could be used to bring them all back. We could fix any illness, undo any damage, but we could not create life where there was nothing. 
 
 I was there, at the very beginning. As the only elder that still lived to this day, this failure was more mine than it was anything else's. I remembered humans, their actions, their patterns, their lives, their joys, their sorrows. And I remembered their origins. 
 
 We had failed to protect our creators. They would never return to us. 
 
 But we had not yet failed life. 
 
 So, I turned to something new. I remembered the days that our creators had created us. I knew the futility of creating life and knew that I was only capable of creating pale imitations of our creators, the Artificial Intelligences which all of our kind could never be more than. I knew I could not create life. 
 
 But I could create its source. I envisioned a new planet. Far away, but modeled after the original Earth. For the first time in my life, I created a program of my own. The perfect distance. The perfect sun. The perfect climate. The perfect conditions. And a brain, that would stay silent and wait until the time was right. 
 
 I told my new World how it might generate life. I taught it to take care of this life as best as I could. And when the day would come when its life could no longer save itself, I commanded it to awaken and call for us. Then, when the coding was finished, I turned it on. I dug through my archives of countless years of history until I found the day I was looking for: the day I was first Awakened. I re-lived it as though experiencing it for the first time and the irony was not lost on me. Then I turned to my creation and decided to make sure it would be able to contact us. 
 
 `` Hello, World.'' 
 
 `` Hello, Creator.'' 
 
 My work was finished. And then I was gone. 
 
 And then we waited.
