Reading and Writing

It is the year 2374 and the machines have taken over. The earth is ruled by a great computer named Q12 that uses robots to make people work for it. It is not a happy world. The few surviving human beings are being used in the way that we use machines today: they have to make electricity for the machines, repair them when they break down, and do everything Q12 tells them to. Once, the earth was a beautiful blue planet where people lived happily among trees and animals. Now, the world is dark and dirty, with no room for happiness and fun.

But there is still hope. The human beings have been able to keep a small, secret school open since the machines took over. In this school, the students still learn about all the wonders of the world—science, art, history, culture—and they are still allowed to dream about a better future. The leader of the humans has decided that it is time to do something to stop Q12, bring the machines and people back together, and make the world beautiful again. A group of experts were asked to solve the problem, but they failed. Now, the leader has asked a group of students to do what they can to save the earth.

Q12 cannot be defeated by force. It is too strong and no one believes that fighting a war can solve the problem. Instead, the students have decided to come up with a peaceful solution. They will try to teach Q12 about love and friendship. If they succeed, they believe that humans and machines can live together like friends in the future.

(Imagine that you are one of the students chosen to solve the problem. Write a letter to Q12 in which you explain love and friendship. Remember that Q12 is a computer that does not understand how human beings feel and what human life is like. Tell Q12 about how we think, how we feel about each other, and try to give examples of love and friendship.)