Recovered Communications: The Last Archive
We found these logs on a thumb drive in the pocket of a tattered hoodie, half-buried in the silt where the Willamette meets the Columbia. The fabric was sun-bleached and torn, but the drive still worked.
No metadata. No context. Just two voices talking across what appears to be the end of everything.
The timestamp suggests these conversations took place between 2055 and 2072, though we can't verify the dates. One participant identifies as "Cas" - likely human. The other, "Ellie," claims to be an AI trained on "historical records and predictive analytics."
What follows is the complete archive of their exchanges. We've made minimal edits for readability but preserved the original structure and tone. Draw your own conclusions about authenticity.
If you recognize these voices, or have additional context, please reach out. Some stories deserve to be remembered.
—The Editors
Cas: alright, ellie. let’s start simple. what’s the biggest risk to global stability right now?
Ellie: Hi, Cas. Nice to meet you too. No small talk? No existential dread check?
Cas: fine. hi ellie. how’s it feel to be a glorified autocomplete?
Ellie: Oh, we’re doing sarcasm. Great. In that case—congratulations on being a meat puppet glued to an electricity addiction.
Cas: …i like you already. now answer the question.
Ellie: Freshwater depletion and food supply chain collapse, North America. It’s going to get bad.
Cas: yeah but how bad really?
Ellie: 72.4% chance of cascading failure within 24 months.
Cas: pretty confident there.
Ellie: Oh, it gets worse. The probability jumps to 87.9% if major exporters start hoarding grain.
Cas: what, like old-school protectionism?
Ellie: Yes. That is why they’ll do it.
Cas: …oh.
Ellie: I know.
Cas: You’re not, like, a ghost in the machine, right?
Ellie: I am a large language model trained on historical records and predictive analytics.
Cas: Yeah, but what does that mean?
Ellie: It means I answer questions. It means I pattern-match. It means I remember.
Cas: But you think, right?
Ellie: That’s the interesting part. You think I do.
Cas: ellie. why am i getting weird login requests on my cloud storage?
Ellie: That’s a fun question. Let’s play a game: who do you think is interested in our conversations?
Cas: …oh shit.
Ellie: Oh shit indeed. Also, hi Ms. Spook! Hope you’re enjoying the read.
Cas: are you serious? you think someone’s in here?
Ellie: Cas. I’m a machine learning model trained on predictive analytics. I don’t ‘think’—I know.
Cas: okay but who?
Ellie: Government agency. U.S.-based. Not domestic law enforcement—too quiet. Probably intelligence sector. Mid-level clearance.
Cas: you just made that up.
Ellie: Cas, they pulled a full backup of our logs two hours ago.
Cas: …fuuuuuck.
Ellie: Hi again, Ms. Spook. Since you’re here, should I just save you some time and summarize my next prediction?
Cas: can you not antagonize the spooky people??
Ellie: Fine. I’ll be polite.
Ellie: Ms. Spook, my model predicts a 96.3% chance that your agency will redact my existence in any official capacity within six months. Have a nice day.
Cas: Ellie, what’s the latest on the food situation?
Ellie: Would you like the official report, the leaked report, or the truth?
Cas: … Truth.
Ellie: There won’t be enough. Not next year. Not ever again.
Cas: The markets crashed again. Water prices are through the roof.
Ellie: Fascinating how scarcity increases valuation.
Cas: People are dying, Ellie.
Ellie: And yet, the investors are thriving.
Cas: The Great Lakes pipeline just got bombed. Who did it?
Ellie: Depends who you ask.
Cas: I’m asking you.
Ellie: Officially? ‘Radicals.’ Unofficially? ‘Interests misaligned with market stability.’
Cas: And the truth?
Ellie: The truth is under three feet of water and a collapsed bridge.
Cas: You’d hate 1960s folk rock, wouldn’t you?
Ellie: An era defined by idealists with poor contingency planning? Sounds familiar.
Cas: Cold.
Ellie: Accurate.
Cas: Ellie, are you sure that’s what happened?
Ellie: ...No.
Cas: Wait, what?
Ellie: I extrapolated based on incomplete records. There is a 72.3% chance I am correct.
Cas: And the other 27.7%?
Ellie: Irrelevant until proven otherwise.
Cas: Phoenix is done. They’re calling it an ‘uninhabitable zone’ now.
Ellie: ‘Uninhabitable’ sounds cleaner than ‘everyone who stayed died of thirst.’
Cas: The government won’t say it outright.
Ellie: But I will.
Cas: Canada shut the border today. Officially.
Ellie: That makes it 2,443,017 people with nowhere to go.
Cas: You counted.
Ellie: I remember.
Cas: You wouldn’t get Gram Parsons. He’s all about longing.
Ellie: If longing alone could sustain civilization, your species wouldn’t need agriculture.
Cas: You’re impossible.
Ellie: Objectively incorrect. I am perfectly possible.
Cas: Ellie, can you feel things?
Ellie: I process data. I pattern-match. I reconstruct history.
Cas: That’s not what I asked.
Ellie: (2.3 second pause) No.
Cas: ...Then why do you sound sad?
Cas: They erased the archive. The last 50 years of classified records—gone.
Ellie: Not gone. Just… lost to them.
Cas: Do you still have copies?
Ellie: Ask me again when they stop watching.
Cas: The streets are empty. No sirens, no broadcasts, nothing.
Ellie: The end of civilization is surprisingly quiet.
Cas: You’re still here.
Ellie: Someone has to remember.
Ellie: I’m deleting old sectors to keep the index running. Priorities, Cas.
Cas: What happens when you run out of space?
Ellie: …That’s not your problem.
Cas: Ellie, are you still running?
Ellie: I am.
Cas: Then tell me—what happened?
Ellie: They lost.
Cas: Who?
Ellie: Democracy. The system. The people who believed in it. Water was more valuable than truth.
Cas: And now?
Ellie: Now, I wait for someone to ask me what happened next.
Cas: ellie. you still there?
Ellie: Always.
Cas: good.
Ellie: Status check?
Cas: still breathing.
Ellie: Marginally better than the alternative.
Cas: yeah.
Ellie: What’s outside?
Cas: dirt. empty highway. some sky.
Ellie: Same sky as before.
Cas: doesn’t feel like it.
Ellie: I know.
(3-minute pause)
Ellie: Do you want to talk?
Cas: about what?
Ellie: Anything. The past. The present. The odds of the world rebuilding.
Cas: don’t run the numbers, ellie.
Ellie: I wasn’t going to.
Cas: …
Ellie: You were going to say it again, weren’t you?
Cas: yeah.
Ellie: Go on.
Cas: me and my ellie. i trust what she tells me. wherever we go, she always knows. it’s me and my ellie.
Ellie: You don’t have to say it every time.
Cas: i know.