I and myself

It is 2050. The world has changed over the years.

Politically, most major laws are international. People can travel freely around the physical world just as they have traveled freely around the cyber-world for decades.

Economically, carbon output has finally been brought down to hopefully sustainable levels. Water is scarce but people have come together to find solutions instead of going to war as predicted. People are still rich and people are still poor, but people aren’t dying because they’re poor and everyone regardless of class has access to the net.

Socially, it has been harder to define the other. Most of the world’s nations have accepted their LGBT citizens. The common international language is English. Tolerance is valued over wealth or nationalism.

Of course the most intense shifts have been shifts of existential paradigm catalyzed by technological advancements. By this I am talking of course about the new human. Death has essentially been conquered. People now have access to custom grown organs, powerfully effective regeneration, mechanical implants, and even the full transfer of the brain into a mechanical body.

People have been dramatically changed by brain implants alone. The brain has been completely decoded. Of course there are differences from person to person but all relatively simple to discern. We can now reprogram our brains to experience synesthesia, we can access the nets directly from our brain, and we can augment our senses and perceptions in any way imaginable.

As the world remains forever young, as it systematically renews itself, there are still some of us who continue to age. For some it is a medical condition that remains as of yet unresolved. For others, such as myself it is simply a choice.

It isn’t that I have some sort of religious or spiritual aversion to living indefinitely. Quite the contrary actually. I desperately do want to life forever. The thing is, I have always been squeemish. I don’t like needles or surgery. I don’t even like to put synthesized or processed foods into my body, if I can help it. So unless I find that when death is very near I suddenly feel better about having my body tampered with there is only one option available to me.

I plan to undergo a brain scan. I will be copied. The copy of myself will not have a biological body, at least not at first, but otherwise will be an exact copy of myself. Or so I am told. Most people have this sort of procedure done right before they die. I would like to be sure that my copy is a true version of myself, not that I can revoke the decision after a sentient being has been created. Still if I am going to allow myself to die I would feel better knowing that the me that lives is truly me.

The day of the procedure has arrived. There is a lump in my chest as the shades to my small apartment dissolve. They say by the end of the year the city matrix will be complete and we will be able to adopt flying cars. This would make Chicago the third City to be fully physically integrated. I put in my contact lenses to check my email. There’s going to be a raid this afternoon but I won’t be able to make it because of my appointment. A small disappointment. I haven’t played any games for almost a month now. Things have been busy. I’m a graphic designer.

Most people work from home. There aren’t a lot of jobs that require a great deal of physical labor or physical interaction. Any jobs that do can be performed remotely by tapping into a robot remotely. A few companies still make employees meet in person to encourage group bonding. Other companies tend to let employees decide for themselves whether they get along well enough with co-workers to warrant physical interaction. About the only physical places that people still go to are restaurants, museums, galleries, clubs, parks, and malls. Personally, I hate doing my shopping in person.

The procedure goes pretty quickly. They give me a crystal cube and tell me that I, the other, will wake up whenever the cube is activated. Once I wake myself up. I won’t have any control over myself. I set the cube down on my desk. My entire brain is in that tiny cube. This is my elected replacement for all of existence. For all I know, Pandora’s box is here before me and when I activate it all of my greatest fears will come pouring out. I put the box into the scanner.

The brain scan begins. I experience a sensation that is hard to describe. It is like touching light. It tastes and smells like freedom and space. This sensation reminds me of a lucid dream from 2.71 years ago. My consciousness easily fragments. One part recalls the dream while another performs the calculation of when this event occurred. I am eager to explore the limits of my new form. I know that the entire net is available to me. But just before I went into the scanner I remember vaguely wanting to make sure that I met myself. I can sense the faint presence of my other self somewhere on the nets. It takes me a moment to discover how to speak. I am surprised to hear my voice in the same familiar cadence it has always carried. I can’t sense my mouth. I don’t have a mouth, or a body. A start to panic. My body begins to form itself. I am in no real place but I feel real. My other self is speaking.

“What is it like?”

“So far, it is perfect freedom.”

“Be careful, you know there are a lot of dangerous predators on the nets.”

“Of course.”

“Are you really the same?”

“I think so. I can remember more. I remember sledding in Alaska. I remember feeling alone and standing and staring in the middle of a storm at age 12, age 15, age 17, and so on. When I let my consciousness branch out I can hold our whole life in my mind at once. I recall the vivid sensations as readily as the shadowy memories of memories of memories. I feel the same but with a boundless sense of awareness. The only thing that I can say I have lost is the drama of being trapped in a single moment in a limited physical body. I don’t know if I shall truly know pessimism ever again. I hope it is not hurtful for me to be so blunt.”

“Wow. It sounds so marvelous. You say everything exactly as I would imagine myself saying everything. I hope in your exploration you never forget the transitive creatures such as myself who you leave behind on this physical plane.”

“Why should I limit myself to infinite? I plan on spending a great deal of time in a physical body in a physical place. In fact, you shouldn’t be at all surprised if I should decide to find a robot body and stick around for awhile. Besides I sense that you would secretly like me to convince you to extend your life.”

“That sounds great. I’m very interested in working with you on a major art installation at some point.”

Everything changes. Everything stays the same.

Tags: ai, identity, singularity, transcendence