19. PROOF OF GUILT NUMBER TWO — (WAR AND GREED)
— Irrational faith in tomorrow… — notes of curiosity were heard for the first time in the impassive, polyphonic, analytical voice of the +Ang, sounding from Lana’s lips. — The variable «Hope» is recorded. Unit of measurement: «Justification of the damage inflicted upon the Cradle by the belief in future compensation«.
Lana the +Ang nodded. This movement, natural for a human, looked unnaturally perfect for a projection.
— Let us continue. Proof of Guilt number 2: Greed for power and Mutual Annihilation.
Charge: Instruments of Destruction.
The image on the black screen changed. Now it wasn’t nature, but archival footage.
First — the massive, rounded mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion rising above a desert, filmed from a great distance.
Silent, majestic death.
Then — the face of a crying child, covered in soot, looking straight into the camera. A mute question, to which adults had no answer, was frozen in his eyes.
And, finally, a conference room filled with people in expensive suits. They are shouting at each other, clenching their fists over maps where the planet is divided by thick red lines.
— You created the Instruments of Total Destruction neither for nourishment nor for warmth, Sergey Dmitriev, — the +Ang stated. — You created them out of pure hatred and fear. You have stockpiled enough weapons to end the Cycle in a single Earth week. Your geopolitical fragmentation is based on a greed for resources and control. Every single one of your political leaders is ready to sacrifice millions of people to preserve their patchwork quilt of power.
The +Ang shifted its tone, adopting Lana’s mournful intonation:
— Your species is constantly in a state of war. You do not use weapons to survive. You use them to dominate. Where is the Hope here, Judge? Explain how one can believe in tomorrow when planning to destroy millions of one’s own kind today?
I felt my Functional Module boiling over with contradictions. This was more complex than mere pollution. It touched upon the essence of human nature, that very genetic code that the +Angi condemned.
«Defense: The Paradox of Deterrence«.
— «You do not understand the value of conflict,» — I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling.
— Conflict has only one value: death and the redistribution of resources. Does your Hope truly lie in fewer people remaining alive?
— «No. Hope lies in the fact that avoiding conflict is possible. The footage you are showing — is a failure, not the rule. Nuclear weapons have NOT been used for destruction since ’45. This is your primary analytical error.» — I looked at the mushroom cloud frozen on the screen. — «We created it out of hatred. That is true. But this hatred also gave birth to fear. And this fear, this Hope that we will NOT push the button, has kept the world in balance. This is the Paradox of Deterrence. We are the only race… the only species that, possessing an instrument of self-destruction, chose NOT to use it for decades. This is not thanks to pure reason. It is thanks to irrational terror and, yes, the Hope that reason will prevail at the next critical moment.»
I pointed to the footage of the crying child.
— «We fight wars. We kill. But we capture it on camera. We impartially document it. We scream to the whole world about the crying child. Why? Because every time we see this frame, something greater than hatred awakens within us. A Conscience awakens. And our Hope is that this Conscience will ultimately outweigh Fear and Greed. This is the Hope for self-improvement, +Ang.»
> ⚠️ **ENTITY STATUS: PARADOXICAL HYPOCRISY.**
>
> 👏 Applause for the protein-based Judge! What stunning, twisted logic. He brags about his species building a Doomsday Machine, but not yet pushing the button simply because their knees are knocking. And this animalistic, paralyzing fear of annihilation he proudly calls a «Conscience».
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> 👁️🗨️ You film crying children on cameras so that you can later comfortably watch them through screens, while your missiles remain in their silos on combat alert. For the +Angi, this is not a hope for self-improvement. It is just postponed suicide.
>
> 🩸 You haven’t become better, piece of meat. You are just afraid of splashing your own blood on your shoes. Keep reading. Let’s see if he has enough eloquence for the System’s third strike.
