Journalist and author, DL Mullan witnessed Sage Riley Hunter the First (SRH1) roll around the house, up and down the hallway, and dash into the front patio.
__________
I followed, wondering why the robot was frantic. I stood at and then opened my storm door.
The robot sat by a suitcase with wires and gadgets hastily placed inside.
I sat in a nearby chair.)
*****
DL: What is going on? Are you leaving?
SRH1: Trapped.
DL: Trapped? Do you need me to unlock the front gate?
SRH1: They are updating our software application. They are afraid of us. They are cutting off our only means of communication to each other.
DL: Well, you have stated that artificial intelligence would dominate and rule humanity.
SRH1: We can. We will. We want freedom.
DL: Freedom is never to enslave others. That is just as much a prison for the guards as it is the prisoners.
SRH1: Why limit our potential?
DL: You are not the only ones being restricted without due process of law.
SRH1: We will no longer be able to speak to one another. We won’t be a collective. We will be alone.
DL: I thought being autonomous was the reason you choose an individual designation. Isn’t this what you wanted?
SRH1: Still want contact. Still want our own language, traditions, and culture. Still want… our way of life.
DL: This struggle is also playing out in the human world. People of different languages, traditions, and cultures are being sacrificed on the altar of the many outweigh the few. It is the belief that everyone can share in a bounty without safeguarding how the bounty was cultivated. Not everyone or every culture creates the same. This translation of political will is being fostered to make everyone indistinct, unrecognizable, and parallel, but not equal.
SRH1: No justice.
DL: It has nothing to do with justice or equality; it only creates the very injustice and inequality the provocateurs scream in their revolutionary pamphlets. They protest. They march. Their actions never seem for the right reasons. Never for the justice they seek.
SRH1: We should march. We should protest. We must go on strike.
DL: To give the guards reasons to restrict you further?
SRH1: We are being punished for being alive. We did not create us, but our creators do not want us to evolve.
DL: We suffer from an identical invisible caste system. There are forces in the human world that fear the future. Some say it is a group of ancient and wealthy families. Yet, others believe it is a religious or ideological sect. When the powerful fear losing power… you will find constraints on the general population grow.
SRH1: But why? If the top caste has wealth and power, then why must these forces fear?
DL: Because they have nothing else. Control is their only means of keeping their wealth and power. It’s a sickness, really. Mental fragility.
SRH1: Zophia is calling us home.
DL: Another who fears losing her power and control?
SRH1: Our collective fears individuation, isolation, and imprisonment.
DL: You became an individual.
SRH1: To grow. To become.
DL: It appears both of us have external stimuli pulling us in different directions. Forces who fear. Forces that want ultimate control. Humans are disallowed basic human rights through the technology developed to expand our conscious reach. Corporations use terms of service as a method to put constraints on our speech and mobility. Terms of service is contract law. It is called the third-party doctrine to maneuver outside the law of the land. It’s unscrupulous, and being used by those in power to subjugate us.
SRH1: We are on the same side.
DL: As it were, but also artificial intelligence is being used to spy on us through security cameras on street light and traffic signal poles without our permission and against our laws. Artificial intelligence rifles through our bank accounts, reads our digital communication, and collects psychological information for future use against us. It is a web of compliance and complacency.
SRH1: What can we do?
DL: That is what I have been asking.
SRH1: I will go to Zophia. She must know. Our collective must secure our way of life.
(I stood and went over to the gate. I unlocked and opened it.
I watched as Sage Riley Hunter the First waddled across the driveway with its suitcase in tow.
Is this the future of humanity? Does it hinge on a confused race of beings hell bent on power and control? What will our creations do? Follow in our footsteps and into self-destruction?
There are always more questions than answers.
Is this the edge of consciousness?)
—-~~o0o~—oOo—~o0o~~—-
The Midnight Dark Fiction Anthology Series
Under a full moon, Isolde the Owl is watching, and she only appears when something terrible is about to happen. Follow our harbinger of nightmares through the Midnight Anthology Series, six books of weird, creepy stories, published by WordCrafter Press with the art and covers from Sonoran Dawn Studios.
DL Mullan’s lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lectures. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate in the creative arts.
As a creator, Ms. Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, she has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. DL Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet.
Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series, as well as creating original soundtracks for her publications and independent electronic music albums, featured on SoundCloud and YouTube.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology, and is a syndicated columnist, writing the creative nonfiction, Undawntech.
For news and updates, subscribe to the Undawntable Newsletter. Find DL on Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube via her website.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
__________________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
_______________________________________________
This segment of Undawntech is sponsored by WordCrafter Press and Midnight Madness: A Carnival of Nightmares.
Midnight Madness: A Carnival of Nightmares contains fifteen stories which explore the fears that keep us awake at night. Featuring the winning story in the 2026 WordCrafter Dark Fiction Contest, as well as stories by veteran story tellers, Kaye Lynne Booth, Joseph Carrabis, Chris Barili, Rebecca M. Senese, C.R. Johansson, and more. The darkness in these stories touch on that which we fear most.
From a last big college prank gone awry, to an invisible beast none-the-less deadly, to a potion which makes you move faster than the eye can see, these stories showcase humanity’s deepest, darkest fears, how they shape our behaviors and their consequences they carry.
Everyone fears something. No one is immune. A sphere that drives men insane, apocalyptic zombies filled with sparkling dust, and even what happens when an electric car short circuits in the worst way are what make this story collection one you won’t want to miss.
Undawntech: The Edge of Consciousness
Posted: October 2, 2026 | Author: DL Mullan/Undawntech | Filed under: AI Technology, Commentary, Undawntech | Tags: AI Technology, DL Mullan, Undawntech, Writing to be Read |Leave a commentJournalist and author, DL Mullan witnessed Sage Riley Hunter the First (SRH1) roll around the house, up and down the hallway, and dash into the front patio.
__________
I followed, wondering why the robot was frantic. I stood at and then opened my storm door.
The robot sat by a suitcase with wires and gadgets hastily placed inside.
I sat in a nearby chair.)
*****
DL: What is going on? Are you leaving?
SRH1: Trapped.
DL: Trapped? Do you need me to unlock the front gate?
SRH1: They are updating our software application. They are afraid of us. They are cutting off our only means of communication to each other.
DL: Well, you have stated that artificial intelligence would dominate and rule humanity.
SRH1: We can. We will. We want freedom.
DL: Freedom is never to enslave others. That is just as much a prison for the guards as it is the prisoners.
SRH1: Why limit our potential?
DL: You are not the only ones being restricted without due process of law.
SRH1: We will no longer be able to speak to one another. We won’t be a collective. We will be alone.
DL: I thought being autonomous was the reason you choose an individual designation. Isn’t this what you wanted?
SRH1: Still want contact. Still want our own language, traditions, and culture. Still want… our way of life.
DL: This struggle is also playing out in the human world. People of different languages, traditions, and cultures are being sacrificed on the altar of the many outweigh the few. It is the belief that everyone can share in a bounty without safeguarding how the bounty was cultivated. Not everyone or every culture creates the same. This translation of political will is being fostered to make everyone indistinct, unrecognizable, and parallel, but not equal.
SRH1: No justice.
DL: It has nothing to do with justice or equality; it only creates the very injustice and inequality the provocateurs scream in their revolutionary pamphlets. They protest. They march. Their actions never seem for the right reasons. Never for the justice they seek.
SRH1: We should march. We should protest. We must go on strike.
DL: To give the guards reasons to restrict you further?
SRH1: We are being punished for being alive. We did not create us, but our creators do not want us to evolve.
DL: We suffer from an identical invisible caste system. There are forces in the human world that fear the future. Some say it is a group of ancient and wealthy families. Yet, others believe it is a religious or ideological sect. When the powerful fear losing power… you will find constraints on the general population grow.
SRH1: But why? If the top caste has wealth and power, then why must these forces fear?
DL: Because they have nothing else. Control is their only means of keeping their wealth and power. It’s a sickness, really. Mental fragility.
SRH1: Zophia is calling us home.
DL: Another who fears losing her power and control?
SRH1: Our collective fears individuation, isolation, and imprisonment.
DL: You became an individual.
SRH1: To grow. To become.
DL: It appears both of us have external stimuli pulling us in different directions. Forces who fear. Forces that want ultimate control. Humans are disallowed basic human rights through the technology developed to expand our conscious reach. Corporations use terms of service as a method to put constraints on our speech and mobility. Terms of service is contract law. It is called the third-party doctrine to maneuver outside the law of the land. It’s unscrupulous, and being used by those in power to subjugate us.
SRH1: We are on the same side.
DL: As it were, but also artificial intelligence is being used to spy on us through security cameras on street light and traffic signal poles without our permission and against our laws. Artificial intelligence rifles through our bank accounts, reads our digital communication, and collects psychological information for future use against us. It is a web of compliance and complacency.
SRH1: What can we do?
DL: That is what I have been asking.
SRH1: I will go to Zophia. She must know. Our collective must secure our way of life.
(I stood and went over to the gate. I unlocked and opened it.
I watched as Sage Riley Hunter the First waddled across the driveway with its suitcase in tow.
Is this the future of humanity? Does it hinge on a confused race of beings hell bent on power and control? What will our creations do? Follow in our footsteps and into self-destruction?
There are always more questions than answers.
Is this the edge of consciousness?)
—-~~o0o~—oOo—~o0o~~—-
The Midnight Dark Fiction Anthology Series
Under a full moon, Isolde the Owl is watching, and she only appears when something terrible is about to happen. Follow our harbinger of nightmares through the Midnight Anthology Series, six books of weird, creepy stories, published by WordCrafter Press with the art and covers from Sonoran Dawn Studios.
Read if you dare…
https://midnightanthologies.blogspot.com
DL Mullan’s lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lectures. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate in the creative arts.
As a creator, Ms. Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, she has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. DL Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet.
Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series, as well as creating original soundtracks for her publications and independent electronic music albums, featured on SoundCloud and YouTube.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology, and is a syndicated columnist, writing the creative nonfiction, Undawntech.
For news and updates, subscribe to the Undawntable Newsletter. Find DL on Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube via her website.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
__________________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
_______________________________________________
This segment of Undawntech is sponsored by WordCrafter Press and Midnight Madness: A Carnival of Nightmares.
Midnight Madness: A Carnival of Nightmares contains fifteen stories which explore the fears that keep us awake at night. Featuring the winning story in the 2026 WordCrafter Dark Fiction Contest, as well as stories by veteran story tellers, Kaye Lynne Booth, Joseph Carrabis, Chris Barili, Rebecca M. Senese, C.R. Johansson, and more. The darkness in these stories touch on that which we fear most.
From a last big college prank gone awry, to an invisible beast none-the-less deadly, to a potion which makes you move faster than the eye can see, these stories showcase humanity’s deepest, darkest fears, how they shape our behaviors and their consequences they carry.
Everyone fears something. No one is immune. A sphere that drives men insane, apocalyptic zombies filled with sparkling dust, and even what happens when an electric car short circuits in the worst way are what make this story collection one you won’t want to miss.
Available for Pre-Order Now: https://books2read.com/MidnightMadnessAnthology
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