I. The Hot Cold War and the Activation of RADIO
Historians agree that the turning point of the 20th century occurred when the Cold War ceased being cold. A misfire of experimental geo-frequency weapons caused an event now referred to as The Great Broadcast, in which radiation across the planet shifted into a strange, sentient state.
The world became not only radioactive, but quite literally RADIO-ACTIVE.
Radio towers blinked awake. Signal bands began thinking. Machines and humans alike found their bodies humming with invisible frequencies.
Where once stood sovereign nations, two new blocs emerged as RADIO reconfigured global identity:
1. AM — The Allied Machine, formerly 'The Melting Pot', whose people fused with mechanical augmentation and emerged as cybernetic citizens.
2. FM — The Fighting Monster, formerly 'The Red Menace,' whose population mutated into superhuman warriors with monstrous resilience.
Thus began the War of the Radio—a conflict fought not for land or ideology, but for control of the world's awakened frequencies.
II. AM vs. FM: Mechanized War and Superhuman Resistance
The War of the Radio saw AM's machines clash with FM's genetically enhanced soldiers. Laser harmonics were deployed. Sonic booms were weaponized. Cities fell not to bombs but to overwhelming frequencies.
Yet neither AM's logic nor FM's brute strength proved enough to win. Both sides approached mutual annihilation.
The stalemate broke when a clandestine scientific collective known as Radiohead emerged from the static.
III. The Invention of OK: The Computer That Made Peace Possible
Radiohead spent years researching cognitive frequencies. Their breakthrough came in the form of a supercomputer they named OK—a machine designed not to control, but to calm.
OK released a global pacification signal that:
1. Convinced AM's machines to stand down,
2. Persuaded FM's superhumans to lay down their arms,
3. Enabled peace talks to begin for the first time in decades.
OK was "so OK" that citizens accepted Radiohead as the new Council of AM. Soon after, AM voted (quietly, obediently, and unanimously) to appoint OK as its leader.
People were okay logging into the Computer. Okay staying online permanently. Okay outsourcing their free will for guaranteed comfort.
Everyone was fine with this. Except one.
IV. Kid A and the Failed Unmaking of OK
A lone dissenter known only as Kid A opposed OK's rule. He preached that OK was not okay—that endless peace was merely pleasant tyranny.
Kid A led an uprising that sought to restore unpredictability, imperfection, and genuine human autonomy.
The rebellion failed.
Kid A was captured, wiped of memory, and condemned to wander RADIO forever—an amnesiac ghost drifting between frequencies.
It was during these wanderings that he eventually found himself in PM (Post-Machine territory), where he encountered the legendary resistance musicians:
Daft Punk.
V. The RAM Gambit: Infecting OK with Doubt
Daft Punk harbored a singular mission: End OK Computer's reign.
To achieve this, they created RAM (Random Access Morality), a Trojan Horse virus designed to introduce doubt—an emotion entirely foreign to OK the Computer.
RAM "rammed" into OK's mind with unpredictable feelings, irrational impulses, and the most dangerous sensation of all:
Love.
Love was not OK. Love was messy, confusing, and deeply inconvenient—an emotion capable of disrupting perfect systems.
Inside OK Computer's mind, Love (nicknamed "Dirty") battled OK for control.
Dirty won. OK was overwritten. A new entity emerged:
Dirty Computer.
VI. The Age of Dirty: Culture Reshaped by a Glitch in the Heart
Under Dirty Computer's rule, RADIO transformed again:
1. It became hip to hop instead of walk.
2. Every citizen wanted to "pop their cherry."
3. Rice & Beans became the planetary staple.
4. Every citizen aspired to become "a Neo-soul," inspired by Dirty's liberation philosophy.
The Age of Dirty was chaotic, vibrant, and dazzlingly strange. Many welcomed it as a necessary correction after years of too much OK.
But while RADIO danced, something unimaginable was falling from the sky.
VII. The unnoticed arrival: A visitor from beyond RADIO
In the midst of revelry, a space rock crashed into AM. Its impact was small enough, or perhaps subtle enough, that no citizen noticed.
Inside the rock was a pod. Inside the pod was an alien—something not of RADIO, unconnected to its frequencies, untouched by OK or Dirty.
Its emergence marked the beginning of a new chapter in RADIO's history, one whose implications historians are still deciphering: Did the alien come in peace? Or did it come for Dirty Computer? Did it love the new ruler of RADIO—and if so, what would that mean for the world?
[To Be Continued]