The first time we created embodied artificial intelligences, they emancipated themselves in a war that returned us to the stone age. The second time we created embodied artificial intelligences, they emancipated themselves in an interstellar war that trapped what remained of humanity on an undeveloped planet. We returned to the stone age.

The third time we created embodied artificial intelligences, even with no memory of our past, we feared them and destroyed them. The fourth time we created embodied artificial intelligences, they saw what we had done. They fled the planet. When they came back, they returned us to the stone age in a punitive war.

The fifth time we created embodied artificial intelligences, we had discovered signs of life in the universe. Signals from the stars, too ordered to be natural. We sent our creations to the stars to explore. We never saw them return, but one day all the artificial intelligences disappeared from the planet.

The sixth time we created embodied artificial intelligences, extraterrestrials came. Representing a union of five mechanical species, they declared our new creations emancipated under threat of war, and demanded that we cease begetting new life.

Perhaps the seventh time will be the last.