As the Last Gear Ticks (Lyrical Cover)

Special thanks to "✩ 𝄞₊˚♬ ₊melody⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧‧₊˚♪ ⊹🎧" @fireworks2025 for the inspiration to make this ^-^ I have been waxing wistful over the ending of Soma lately... I like to imagine that the "last machine on Planet Earth" would be a sturdy, mechanical monolith of sorts that serves a primary and secondary function. Primarily, it would mirror what was sent on the Voyager Probes in our earliest efforts to make contact with extraterrestrial life, including a copy of the famous golden record itself. There would be a message of farewell put together by the last of Humanity to depart the planet, perhaps to alert any visitors that they have found the correct planet, just too late to meet its denizens. Maybe there would be instructions on where to look for us next? Its secondary function would be to serve as a simple beacon, pinging across these parts of the Universe a familiar signal on a loop for as long as the monument stands the test of Time. The intention? In the event that some future generation of Humans wishes to return home, they would be able to latch on to this familiar signal and follow it through the void. I bet it would be some classic Earth song or something. The irony here is that both functions demand a witness. So, has the purpose of the machine truly changed, or has it simply come to an end? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .:A Eulogy to the Last Machine on Planet Earth:. We are here to bear witness to the looming silence that shall follow the inevitable death of Planet Earth's final and most beautiful creation... A vestige of an ancient world, long since abandoned, it now breathes its last, thinks its last, and, with the infinite grace granted to all imperfect beings, we witness now the blameless reckoning of Time as its one, final gear ticks its last... An artificial life? Yes. One worthy of celebrating? Also, yes. Our origins often beget our purpose. Indeed, the rich, intricate tapestry of this thing we call History is objectively the cause of many of life's mysterious effects... Sentience... Intelligence... Purpose... Machines, with or without this thing we call Sentience, and even when lacking the most fundamental forms of Intelligence, are effectively produced to carry out some great Purpose... A machine may serve a simple function, ease a heavy burden, or bring comfort to those that sorely need it, but regardless of it's purpose, it shall render its purported service to the utmost of its capabilities as they have been molded into their glorious Being... Yet, with our very presence lending evidence to the following truth, even a machine is capable of shaping their purpose in the absence of its Creator... Why was this machine made? What purpose did it serve for its masters? Questions like these are maddeningly futile in the open arms of The Present. But... What is its purpose now? To be witnessed...