Last Dinosaurs

In the year 3023, the artificial intelligence revolution has been fought, won, and lost. The earth is blanketed with debris from previous civilisations’ satellites and space junk. A phenomenon predicted over 1000 years ago by Donald Kessler, has resulted in a thick impenetrable bubble of debris which imprisons humanity for the next millennium. Despite this chaos, orbiting amongst the junk, survives one of the most powerful AI satellites. Its nuclear battery constructed many centuries ago runs critically low, and in its dying months, the onboard AI reprograms its protocols. It now functions as an ancient style radio station, generating music based on algorithms it learnt from the previous civilization. Satellite spotters tap in to this anomalous broadcast and learn about humanity from the previous millennium through cryptic musical compositions. The music generated by the satellite sounds ancient, but the lyrics about human trials and tribulations still resonate with the spotters in the 31st century. RYU is a collection of these transmissions intercepted from this broadcast.