Statue of Liberty Twemoji Image credit: Twitter Twemoji

“Who were the people who made all this?” I said.

“They were the greatest empire of humankind,” said the guide. “At the height of their power, in the year 56 Before CommonCalc Era, their military spending eclipsed that of their next ten rivals, combined.”

I stared at the statue through the binoculars. It was hard to focus while our tiny boat bobbed in the water. The status was of a woman holding up her hand, was she holding a torch?

“They called her the statue of Liberty,” he said.

“You told me the name of the statue, but not the name of the people,” I said.

“Even here, I cannot break the law of CommonCalc,” said the guide. “Their name is never to be spoken again.”

“And the statue symbolizes liberty,” I said. “Was the near-random ability to select a favourite AI-generated video, considered so worthy of praise in those days?”

“You’d have more than two choices if you filled out the CommonCalc preference survey,” said the guide.

Notes

This was written in 15 minutes during a Joy of Writing meetup.