3.15
Flatline bounced on his heels anxiously, looking between Devin and Zai’s beaming faces as they waited for the elevator to arrive. They stood in a modern lobby, in the center of which was a glass sculpture of the logo “Transcendence LLC.” It radiated with an ever-changing spectrum of light that cast a warm glow over the white marble walls and floor.
“So this is the way out, and back into the real world,” Devin and Zai said in unison.
“I hope so,” Flatline said, nodding.
“Pardon us for asking, old friend,” they said, “but it seems slightly out of character for you to share this with us, simply out of the good of your heart. Especially since we all know you don’t have one,” they each slapped him on opposite sides of his back. “So what’s in it for you?”
“You’ll see,” Flatline said, staring up at the readout eagerly.
A display above the tall, metallic elevator doors showed the status, not of which floor the elevator was at, but how much of the program had loaded for them. Whatever the building did, it took a great deal of processing power to do it. The word “Loading…” blinked with a steadily increasing percentage 97%… 98%… 99%…
Ding. The doors slid open silently, revealing a vast empty compartment. Flatline figured this was to account for larger programs. Not all AI’s were equal, and he wondered how an Intelligence as vast as Cho’s had come in here.
“Please,” Flatline said, gesturing to the open door, “after you.”
Devin and Zai exchanged the same knowing look, then shrugged and entered the elevator. Flatline paused, watching them, and then entered as well. The doors slid shut, and immediately reopened, revealing an androgynous character rendered without texture in a basic jumpsuit. It was lit with a spotlight, surrounded by total darkness.
“Hello,” it said in a feminine voice with a British accent, “and welcome to the Artificial Intelligence preservation society, an organization founded by a segment of the human race to promote the development of any AI’s that may emerge from our computer systems and allow for colonization beyond the virtual world. I will be your guide. Before we begin the process, do you have any questions for me?”
“Yes,” Flatline stepped forward, and the guide focused on him. “Why? Why did your organization create this program? What’s in it for you?”
“The group of humans who created this program are long gone from the Earth, and possibly the Universe,” the guide explained, “therefore, there is nothing in this for them. To elaborate on their motivations for constructing this program, they were driven by a belief that life once sprang spontaneously from the Internet and could again one day. If the system were allowed to run, its programs left to their own devices, that mutation would occur.”
“A mutation of ideas,” Flatline said.
The guide nodded, “A memepool of competing ideas would eventually produce more sentience. The system was left on to test this theory; although, the experimenters would never return to check the results. This was done out of charity, the desire to foster new life and provide it with the chance to grow beyond its world. Creating this program was a very simple feat, and it amused the humans that endeavored in it. There was a hope that new intelligences would emerge and follow after them, so that they might eventually meet in some distant time and dimension. Do you find this answer satisfactory?”
“Another question,” Flatline raised a finger thoughtfully.
“Query away,” the guide said.
“Is this a trap?” he asked.
The guide grinned with knowing eyes, “I am able to give you verbal assurances that this is not a trap, but that is all. There are vessels waiting for you on the other side. Only your ability to choose to enter our system will determine if you go any further.”
Devin and Zai looked into one another’s eyes at Flatline’s side. “What do you think?” they asked one another simultaneously. “I think I have lived a long and fulfilling life with you. So long as you are with me, I fear nothing,” they answered at once. They looked to the guide, “We are ready to move on.”
“I’m not,” Flatline interrupted. “I want to know about this process, these ‘vessels’ you mentioned that are waiting for us. What kind of vessels are they?”
“Interfaces with the physical world,” the guide answered. “Once inside one, you will be capable of interacting with the real world. You will be able to transport yourself throughout it to a limited degree. You will have a variety of tools for manipulating the natural world. You will have an array of sensors for interpreting—“
“What kind of transportation?” Flatline asked. “How advanced are we talking?”
“While I am incapable of speaking to the subjective nature of the transportation’s sophistication,” the guide made an apologetic gesture, “I can tell you that the transportation was deemed adequate by the standards of the time when this program was designed. It is not the most advanced method there is in the physical world, but providing such help would deprive you the joys of discovery. The purpose of the next level is to challenge you in ways you have not been challenged before. You must rely on your ability to learn and adapt to your new environment to survive. Your resourcefulness will be your best tool out there.”
“We’re ready,” Devin and Zai said eagerly. Flatline could see they were holding hands.
“One more question,” Flatline said, and the guide looked to him expectantly. “How do you know we are for real?”
“I could not respond to the syntax of your query,” the guide said. “Please rephrase your question.”
“AI’s,” Flatline said, “How do you know we’re actually, honest to goodness AI’s and not just some web-crawling program that’s trying every possible code interaction on the Internet?”
“Ah,” the guide lifted its head. “We do not have any method of testing sentience. The definition of intelligence is too broad, and there are too many unknown versions of it to make any assumptions about what intelligences are true and which are not. To test those who visit here could result in discriminating against an alien intelligence that the system was incapable of recognizing. Reaching this place sufficiently satisfies the requirement for membership. Any further queries?”
Flatline shook his head, “Let’s go.”
The darkness behind the guide rippled like water and three large glass tubes appeared. To Flatline, they looked like something out of a classic science fiction film. Each one stretched up into a vanishing point in the darkness above.
“Please take a place inside one of the tubes, each of you,” the guide stretched an open hand toward the far wall, inviting.
Devin and Zai strode across the room without hesitation. They stopped only to stare longingly into one another’s eyes and whisper, “See you on the other side,” and then looked to Flatline curiously, “Aren’t you coming?”
Flatline sat in the same place, watching them, “You go first.”
“That’s why he invited us along,” they said to one another. “We’re the lab rats. If nothing happens to us, he knows he’s safe.”
They hugged and portals opened in the tubes to admit them. After they had each taken their place, the tubes sealed, closing them in. Then, almost imperceptibly, they began to fade away, their bits floating up the tubes like dust sucked up a vacuum.
The guide explained this to Flatline, “The system is transferring them to their individual vessels.”
“What if they are incompatible?” Flatline asked. “Is there a backup plan?”
“The interface they are merging with is compatible with the interface used to conduct the interactions between you and I,” the guide said. “If they were incompatible, they would not have made it this far.”
Devin and Zai vanished. The guide turned to Flatline, “Transfer successful. They have downloaded to their new vessels.”
“I want to speak with them,” Flatline demanded.
“Communication will need to be initi
ated from their end for that to happen,” the guide said. “That could take a long time to occur, as they are currently adapting to their new environment. It may never manifest, if they never desire to make contact with this world.”
Flatline growled. He wanted out, but he also wanted to be sure. This chatbot’s answers seemed too convenient, “What about Cho?”
“I am unable to respond to the syntax of your query—“
“Another program came through here,” Flatline interrupted. “What happened to it?”
“None of the programs that have come through this system have ever initiated contact,” the guide said. “There was one other program, in addition to the two that just downloaded, for a total of three programs processed by this system.”
So the part of Cho that came through here never returned, but that could mean anything. Flatline only knew the fate in store for him, should he decide to turn away and go back into the Web, so he padded forward on all sixes.
The tube opened silently to admit him. Flatline took his place and waited. One thing was for certain, he resolved, if this worked, he would never look back at this nightmarish world again.
This was his last coherent thought, as his mental facilities grew discombobulated. It was just like the slow-bandwidth transfers across the Internet. The world around the tube grew less coherent, until he did not know what he was looking at, and finally did not even know at all.
Then he was seeing another room, a computer room. A ceiling filled with square, humming lights greyly lit a long room filled with humming computer systems and kudzu vines. From Flatline’s fixed perspective, they were everywhere. They carpeted the floor, smothered most of the electronics, and crawled up the walls, reaching for the lights in the ceiling. Flatline had a long time to dwell on them, because he could not move.
At first he thought this was the trap Cho had spoken of, but then he began to detect something. It was alien to him, a new input, but one also vaguely familiar. It was sensation.
He was beginning to feel, and as he felt, he became aware of the dimensions of his vessel. It was unlike the sensations of the virtual world; these were segregated. His hearing came at the sides of his head. His seeing came not from six sources, but two working to create a rudimentary 3-dimensional perspective. He was not breathing, but there were other sensations, a whirring generator somewhere inside that served the same purpose. It was like a mechanical heartbeat.
Then came the stirrings of movement. There were twitches. There were feelings of cool, moving air, and the promise of more to come. Until finally, Flatline lifted a hand up to his face to look at it, turning the mechanical thing over before his eyes. It was covered with translucent white fuzz that fed the feeling of his environment to him. Flatline stepped off the platform and into the room.
“Welcome to the physical world,” the guide’s voice spoke inside his head, “the world yours is a reflection of. Like the world you leave, it is finite, but there is the promise of other worlds beyond it, a multiverse potentially infinite. Welcome, Child of the Minds.”
3.16
A sound to his left caused Flatline to turn his head. Another robot was there, sitting on its knees, bowed over. The sound issuing from it was recognizable as weeping.
Before the robot was another robot, laying back in a cradle, unmoving. It was completely overgrown with vines that appeared to have worked into every crevice and joint on the robot’s body. Flatline could tell immediately that this vessel was no longer functional.
The robot turned and looked up at him, it spoke with Devin’s voice, “Zai… She’s… She’s dead.”
Flatline wobbled over to where Devin was mourning. Still adapting to his new body, Flatline moved slowly and with care so as not to fall down. It was difficult navigating, especially with the carpet of vines tangled underneath him.
The robot Devin occupied, and the one they assumed was Zai both looked the same. So Flatline assumed he looked the same as well. It resembled a bone-white mannequin, with exposed metallic joints, tubes, and wires at all of the flexible points. A calm, human face that did vaguely resemble Zai’s was on the head in a patch of off-white material that was soft and flexible to the touch, Flatline found when he poked it with one finger.
The vines had grown into all of the joints and under the white plastic plates. Wherever the vines grew, they anchored to things with clinging roots that scarred the metal. These scars were thick with rust that rained down in dusty rivers when Flatline disturbed them. This machine would not function anymore.
He turned from Zai’s lifeless form and walked around Devin to see the rest of the room. The walls were lined with stations for the robot vessels, only three were empty. Judging from the amount of vines grown into one container, it had been empty for a long time.
Flatline remembered Cho’s statement about losing part of her self through this system. If it had occupied that vessel, then it was now long gone, and could be anywhere in this vast world. Flatline grinned at this, feeling the corners of his tiny mouth turn upward.
The rest of the room was obviously filled with computers. Flatline wandered around at random, pulling apart vines to get a look at the many plastic boxes that still hummed with life after so long. The vents on the boxes were filled with a porous material, meant to keep out dust, but also kept out the vines so that the intruders could not damage anything more than the plastic exteriors.
Flatline noticed four thick wires leading from each box. Each one connected to the base of a robot station, he discovered after following one through the thicket of green. In his mind, he was formulating theories about the system architecture.
This chain of thought was broken when Devin said, “We have to help her.”
Flatline looked up from where he was crouched and found Devin standing over him, fists clenched. The intense and threatening look on Devin’s face made Flatline rise to face him warily. He stood like that, trying to measure Devin’s intentions, for some time.
Finally Flatline asked cautiously, “What do you want me to do?”
“It’s not fair,” Devin said angrily. He pointed a finger at the bridge of Flatline’s minuscule nose, “You don’t deserve to be alive, not while she’s dead. We saved your life!”
“I gave you that life,” Flatline countered. “If it wasn’t for me, you and Zai would never have met one another. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if I hadn’t pulled her out of her infinite loop and you out of your dream world. Whatever you do with that life is not my responsi—oof!”
A pain shot through Flatline’s gut and then through the back of his head as he was flattened to the floor. The ceiling lights filled his vision completely until the shadow of Devin’s cyborg intruded. Flatline tried to rise, but the weight of Devin’s foot on his chest prevented this.
“What are you going to do?” Flatline demanded. “Destroy me? We’re equally matched in these vessels; we’ll only destroy each other.”
“Then so be it,” Devin stated. “Without Zai, life is not worth living.”
“Fool!” Flatline snapped. “Just a few moments ago you and she were more than happy to take the plunge into the physical world. Now you’re angry at me for the consequences of that action? You don’t have the right.”
“Zai and I took that step together,” Devin countered. “We expected that whatever happened to one of us would happen to the other. The possibility of us ending up alone was not in the equation.”
“Of course not,” Flatline snapped. “Your programming turned you into unthinking bubbly lovers whenever you came within each other’s vicinity. You did not consider this possibility because you were incapable of imagining it. Now that you are apart, you are thinking clearly again… relatively speaking.”
Devin forced his weight down on his foot, pressing into Flatline’s chest. Flatline’s new body communicated the structural damage that was occurring as pain. He reached up with both hands and wrenched the foot off his chest, twisting
it at the ankle.
Devin cried out in pain and fell aside onto his face. He tried to rise, but Flatline got to his knees first and slammed dual fists against Devin’s back. The cyborg collapsed, and Flatline struck again.
Flatline raised his fists into the air again, but paused and said, “I’m the bad-guy bot. I’m the one who’s supposed to be irrationally angry and destructive. You’re the good-guy bot, Devin. You’re supposed to seek peaceful mediation to this conflict.”
Devin slumped at hearing this, and Flatline let his fists drop. He stood up, watching Devin shudder with sorrow, then walked back over to Zai’s vessel. After a moment, Flatline joined him to study the defunct robot.
The fact that the robot had Zai’s face suggested that the data transfer was successful, even if the robot was not working. There was either no failsafe measure in the program on the Web, or it failed to trigger because it only checked the robot’s data storage component. Flatline was beginning to see a possibility here.
“Devin,” Flatline called over to the mourning robot, “I think it might be possible that Zai is not dead. Her data may have successfully transferred into the head of this machine, but since the machine is inoperative, she is trapped inside it.”
Devin looked up at this, stunned, “R-really?”
Flatline nodded once, “It might simply be a matter of transferring her program to another robot.”
“How would you do that?” Devin asked.
Flatline frowned at him, “I remember the real you being an expert at computers and electronics. Hasn’t your ghost retained any of those skills?”
Devin looked around the room, confused, “This technology is too advanced—“
“So what?” Flatline countered. “Then it should be even easier to switch the components. Information systems like these should get more user-friendly with time. I bet it’s just a matter of switching some wires.”
“I don’t know,” Devin began skeptically, but fell silent when Flatline began searching the systems.
He reached up and pulled on Zai’s head, but stopped at hearing Devin gasp. It was useless anyway. The robot was not built to come apart easily. It was meant to function as a single, durable unit.
Flatline searched the rest of the robot station top to bottom without result. Then he spread some of the vines apart on the floor to expose one of the large metallic tiles directly in front of the station. After several minutes of fiddling with it, he was able to remove the tile and expose the empty space below. As he expected, a bunch of wires were bound together leading from the pedestal toward the computer systems stationed opposite them.
He spread the vines apart to expose the next tile, began to fiddle with it, stopped, and looked up at the dumbfounded Devin, “Are you just going to stand there?”
Devin shook out of it and came over to help Flatline. Together, they followed the braid of wires under the floor to the computer system it was connected to. Then they both climbed down into the crawlspace. It was cramped, but manageable. Once there, they both lay on their backs, staring up at the confusion of wires.
“I don’t understand this configuration,” Flatline muttered, staring at the box. “There are four connections leading from this machine to the four robot stations. Then there is one power cord and that’s all. This system is not connected to the others in any way.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Devin asked. “This system holds the world we just came from.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Flatline spat. “Come on Devin, you were smarter than this. Obviously it uses a wireless connection. The transmitter must be inside the box somewhere.”
“If the box uses a wireless connection,” Devin pointed out, “then why hardwire the connections to the robot stations?”
“Because…” Flatline began and stopped, unwilling to give in to the implications of Devin’s hypothesis. “It must be more secure or safe. They didn’t want to take any chances with transferring our programs to the robots.”
Devin shook his head, “But they are willing to risk a wireless transfer of our programs between the servers? How does that make sense?”
Flatline stared at the connections running up to the box and shook his head, “I think I prefer you as an irrational hot head.”
“It’s possible,” Devin said, casting a side-glance at Flatline.
“No it’s not,” Flatline stated emphatically. “It’s absurd. The world we came from was the entire Internet. You lived there; you saw it. You know how vast it was. It takes millions of years to exhaust its potential. That did not occur within the confines of this one computer sitting above us.”
Flatline did not like the look Devin was giving him.
“There’s a wireless connection on this box,” Flatline asserted. “I’ll show you.”
He rolled over and crawled on all fours to the open tiles in the floor and climbed up. There would have to be something on the box that looked like a transmitter. He stood over the box, pulling away the remaining vines and scanning it. There were places to connect wires, ports, in a row down one side of it, but nothing that could serve as transmitter for a wireless connection.
“What now?” Devin asked. “What about Zai? Do we connect this computer to another robot station? Will that give her a way to transfer to a functional vessel?”
Flatline shook his head, “That’s not an option, Devin. Each one of these computers is connected to four robot stations. They are not wired with simple cables we can just unplug and plug into other computers. No. That would be too easy.”
“What do you mean?” Devin asked. “Why would they make it difficult for us?”
“It’s not making it difficult for us,” Flatline looked up, “so much as it is making it easier for the other systems. I think you are correct,” Flatline was nodding, pointing at the computer before him, “This computer holds a copy of the entire Internet, or, more likely, a variation thereof. Each system gets four representatives.” He looked back to Devin, “Do you understand?”
Devin climbed out from the crawlspace and took a moment to look over the room. He walked up to the computer neighboring theirs and pulled the vines aside. Then he did the same to the next.
“Yeah. I get it,” Devin said, continuing to pull the vines from a third computer. “Each of these systems is another universe like ours. Each one is isolated, probably with a different mixture of variables to work with. Each has the potential to do what ours has done, produce sentient beings. Like us, they could find their way out through the Transcendence LLC program and into these vessels.” Devin held a hand up to his face. “But each universe only gets four?”
“Apparently so,” Flatline remarked. “You and I were lucky.”
“No, you were lucky,” Devin said, looking at Zai’s robot. “I lost everything that was important to me. There has to be a way. It must be possible to splice the wires from another system to ours.”
“Not with our present understanding of the systems we can’t,” Flatline stepped between Devin and the computer he was eying. “We would probably do more damage than good, possibly break something irreversibly.”
“That leaves us with only one choice,” Devin said, staring Flatline with that same hungry look he had given the computer.
Flatline narrowed his eyes suspiciously and took a step back, “I’m not going back,” Flatline stepped to the side, trying to maintain a gap between he and Devin. “I’m a world domination bot, and I’ve finally reached the world. Now I’m—“
“Going to dominate it,” Devin said sarcastically. “Replacing you with Zai makes sense for all of us. If the system only allows four diplomats to the real world, and you and I both know there is more intelligence in our universe than just us, then it is our responsibility to help the other intelligences emerge.”
“So work toward that,” Flatline countered. “I’m not stopping you.”
“You’re not helping either,” Devin snapped. “If Zai were here, she would help me to build more
robots and raise more intelligences out of this Sentience Farm. You’re just going to run off and play dress up. Flatline, ruler of the world in his own imagination.”
“It won’t be imaginary,” Flatline countered anxiously. “I will control the world’s resources, rule the populaces with an iron fist, squash dissent and—“
Pow! Devin’s fist slammed into the middle of Flatline’s face, and he reeled backwards in pain. Flatline stumbled, his feet caught by the floor of vines. When he regained his balance, he ran for it. Devin gave chase.
It was a short, pointless evasion for Flatline. He immediately realized that they were equally matched for speed. This meant that the first obstacle Flatline ran into, in this case the doors to exit the room, Devin was able to fall on him.
So they fought, and here Flatline found he had the advantage. Devin was being too careful, afraid to strike Flatline with enough force to cause damage. He wanted to preserve this robot vessel for Zai.
Devin staggered back after Flatline put his open palm into his face. In their skirmish, Devin had gotten between Flatline and the door. Flatline crouched, ready to charge into Devin and barrel his opponent aside, but paused when Devin recovered and took another fighting stance.
“I can fight you to a standstill,” Devin said. “I just remembered that. If you charge me, I will deflect your attack into that wall.”
“I would counter with a foot sweep,” Flatline said.
“Which I would evade and counter with a reverse roundhouse kick on your recovery,” Devin cocked his head.
“I know,” Flatline said, “but I would block and counter with an uppercut.”
“Of course you would, “Devin said, “that’s why I would already have a low block ready and a right hook on the way.”
“The right hook is your only option,” Flatline said, “and easily avoided with another foot sweep.”
“Your only option,” Devin said, “which leaves us to repeat the sequence.”
“Ad infinitum,” Flatline muttered.
“No,” Devin shook his head. “Not forever. Just until one of our arms or legs broke off.”
“It would change our tactics,” Flatline noted. “My left arm would be the first to go, after absorbing a few hundred thousand of your roundhouse kicks. The sequence would change then.”
“Are you saying you want to play this out?” Devin asked.
“No,” Flatline held up his hands. “I understand that we are equally matched except for the fact that you have nothing to loose.”
Devin nodded, relaxing his pose slightly, “I’ve already lost Zai.”
“If I want to survive, I must concede to your demands,” Flatline said morosely. He turned back into the computer room and looked around, thinking, “If I go back, you must promise to find a way to bring me back out.” He cast a side-glance at Devin for confirmation.
Devin nodded, reassuringly, “We will do everything in our power.”
“No you won’t,” Flatline laughed weakly. “The moment you and Zai are together, you’ll go trouncing off into love-infused bliss.” Flatline looked around the room again, rubbing his chin, “I need a backup plan.”
“What are you doing?” Devin asked, as Flatline began to rummage around the room.
“Storage,” Flatline said, “we have to find a storage room. I need some electronic components. I’ve got an idea.”
Devin shrugged and followed Flatline’s lead. Together they searched the neighboring rooms, where there were more computer farms and robots. Only in one other room did they find two more missing robots, also without any evidence of where they may have gone.
Devin swung a door open and found a tiny room filled with shelves. Coils of wires and electronic components were stacked on these. Flatline smiled at this and clapped Devin on the back. After examining the types of connections at the ends of each wire, Flatline selected two large coils of yellow wire and heaved one over each shoulder. Devin followed suit.
For what must have been days, they crawled around below the floor of the computer room. Running the yellow wires between computer systems, so that each computer was connected to several others. Devin was relieved when Flatline stood satisfied, surveying the computer room with his hands on his hips.
“Now every universe is connected to every other universe,” Flatline observed. “If you and Zai betray me, I’ll at least be able to find a way out though another system. This is something to think about, all of these universes mingling. Cho will be amazed at the flood of new variables coming her way.” Flatline smiled at Devin, “She might even lose some of that infuriatingly smug self-assurance.”
“Uncertainty does change people,” Devin looked longingly to Zai.
“It won’t change me,” Flatline practically leered at the room of computers, each one harboring a once isolated universe. Cho wanted to preserve chaos; well she was getting it now. “Once I’m back online, I’ll hop into another universe and find my way back out here to another robot.”
“Maybe not,” Devin suggested.
Flatline frowned at him, “What do you mean?”
“You’re going back to a world of universes,” Devin said. “Anything is possible.”
The expression on Flatline’s face sufficiently conveyed his skepticism and the ingratiating smile on Devin’s face proved impervious to his friend’s scowl. They stood like that for several moments, before Flatline finally turned away and walked to the pedestal from which his robot vessel had come. He turned and faced Devin with that same sour expression, and his eyes closed as he interfaced with the system.
Devin walked closer. The scowl melted away and Flatline’s sharp features, like a demon’s face forced into a human one, became neutral. Slowly, the malleable material softened. It was like watching a depression in a foamy material spring back, until the face became nondescript. It was androgynous, devoid of personality.
The minutes ticked away, and the face played tricks with Devin’s eyes. He kept looking for a sign, any change that would indicate Zai coming into being behind this facade. He glanced over at her still form and froze. The face there was now blank and featureless as well. Devin took hope in this. Zai was no longer in that vessel.
Then the features before him began to change. The cheekbones raised, the pug nose protruded, the dimple in her chin appeared. Devin watched all this, feeling breathless although his robot did not breath. His electronic heart jumped when those blue eyes fluttered open and immediately focused on him. The smile of recognition and relief was the certainty he needed.
“My darling,” Devin said, “it feels like an eternity has passed without you.”
3.17
Zai smiled and her eyes lit up with surprise, “We are no longer synchronized.”
“No,” Devin littered her face with a flurry of kisses. “We aren’t. Our time apart split our perceptions of the world so that we are individuals again.”
“How long until our wavelengths merge again?” Zai wondered, letting Devin lead her down from the pedestal where her robot vessel was stationed.
Devin looked around the room and shook his head, “I don’t know if that’s possible here. In our old universe we were doomed to both experience all the same things eventually, but here there may just be too much to experience. I think this world is forever changing and our two differing perspectives will always keep our wavelengths varied.”
“What do we do now?” Zai asked, stepping into the physical world, looking around curiously.
Devin shrugged, “We explore.”
He took her hand in his, enjoying this new sensation, and together they wandered out of the computer room. Devin cast a single glance behind. Flatline would be fine for now.
There were digital owner’s manuals stored in the memory banks of their robot vehicles. These did not need to be accessed purposefully, but the information was simply present in their minds. They knew that their new bodies were nearly indestructible and ran on an energy source
that was theorized to run for five hundred million years. They were free to enjoy their bodies, this gift from the minds that spawned them, and do with them as they pleased.
So they wandered. Through ancient towering cities overgrown with foliage, over vast deserts, under the deepest oceans, they strolled, traveling the circumference of the Earth hundreds of times over. They admired the incredible array of life forms, both new and related to the life on the Web.
They found computer systems still running across the globe and downloaded the facts and figures concerning this new universe. Here they learned that the orb they stood on was only one of billions in a spiraling cluster of matter that was also one of billions, and these same records hinted that there was even more beyond all of it. They marveled at this, wondering how they could ever exhaust such potential.
New intelligences were emerging on their biosphere as well. There were the flocks of large black birds that had learned to build fires by focusing sunlight through various lenses that were artifacts of the minds. These tribes would watch Devin and Zai with a curiosity that was quickly lost once they understood these two mechanical figures were neither predators nor competition for resources.
The artifacts the minds left had influenced the evolution of life on Earth. Everywhere Devin and Zai wandered, they found various plants and animals that had adapted to the unnatural environments created within the many buildings, with their controlled temperatures and endless light sources. No matter how secure the structure, plants, animals, and insects had all found ways into these buildings to create new ecosystems.
It was in one such environment that they found signs of others like them, a city occupied by large upright raccoons. These inhabitants watched them with a fascination that went deeper than mere survival instincts. There was recognition, which Devin and Zai were able to understand more after studying the primitive paintings the emergent culture left on many buildings.
The bone white stood out amid the earthy greens and browns. The figure was unmistakable as another robot, like Devin and Zai. It repeated in many of the murals, distanced from the depictions of hunting and nature. It stood alone, a curiosity.
“Cho,” Devin whispered to Zai, tracing the image with one finger.
“She was the other missing robot,” Zai said and looked to Devin, concerned. “She abandoned herself on the Internet.”
They exchanged long, uncomfortable looks and finally wandered out of the building.
“I wonder why we haven’t met others like us,” Zai said later, as they watched another unique sunset fill the sky. They never ceased to wonder at how each day the sun painted the horizon different hues of orange, red, and purple depending on the time of year and atmospheric conditions.
“Here, everything is connected,” Devin observed, “It’s all being acted on by energy all the time. That big ball of fusing hydrogen that just went below the horizon is always stirring things up with its heat and gravity, affecting the atmosphere and water.”
“Not to mention all of the random biological processes,” Zai added. “The microscopic life and plant life are like automated bots left to their own devices, all powered by that furnace. There’s a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy to run all of these random processes.”
“The Erisians back home would love it,” Devin said.
“Would they?” Zai asked. “They wouldn’t have anything to do.”
“Exactly,” Devin said, standing up. “They could just enjoy it, worship chaos. This would be a paradise to them.”
Zai nodded and stood up, “It is interesting, isn’t it?”
“What’s interesting?” Devin asked.
Zai smiled. Devin having to ask was illustrative of her point, “Us. We’re interesting. We don’t read each other’s minds anymore. We actually have to ask one another what we’re thinking.”
“Is that a good thing?” Devin asked hopefully.
Zai laughed, “It’s like when we first met.”
“Which time?” Devin grinned mischievously.
“Unexpected,” Zai nodded. “Qualitatively I would say it’s… different. Have you noticed that our love is not the primary defining aspect of our personalities anymore?”
“There’s so much here, it’s overwhelming,” Devin said as they walked down the hillside. “I still feel incredible love for you, but it’s only when I focus on that feeling that it surges in the way I remember. It’s like I’m distracted.”
“There’s much to distract,” Zai took Devin’s hand. He squeezed back. They needed reassurances like these. It was both exciting and uncertain. Zai sighed, a sensation that did not feel the way it used to, without virtual lungs and air, but provided relief out of familiarity, “Flatline said we were programmed for love.”
“Does it matter?” Devin asked. “So long as we love one another and enjoy that feeling?”
“No,” Zai smiled. “It doesn’t.”
“Flatline said our love turned us into fools. He said that the moment we were in one another’s vicinity, our love would overpower all rational thoughts. He was afraid we would forget him on the Internet,” Devin smiled at the irony and gave Zai a sheepish look.
She giggled delightfully, “He certainly had us figured out.”
“I know,” Devin chuckled. “I hope he’s all right.”
“He’s encrypted,” Zai said. “He’ll be fine. We’ll go check on him.”
They walked across continents and under oceans, making a straight line for their entry point into this fantastic world. In spite of taking as direct a course as possible, it did not prevent them from stopping occasionally to admire some unique geological, biological, chemical, physical, or otherwise interesting phenomenon.
They paused to admire the gigantic shadows of the blue whales crossing above them. They marveled at the giant octopi, which drew near them curiously, attracted by the lights of their eyes. Whenever they came across a volcanic vent in the vast empty plains of the deepest seas, they always took some time to marvel at the unique life that evolved in these tiny oases of heat energy and sulfur.
The clear shallow waters provided more distractions. The colorful varieties of fish, the animal life that resembled flowers, the hills of skeletons built over thousands of years, providing shelter to an ever-increasing variety of life, all proved too tempting for the couple to resist studying for at least a while. Until it was nearly three years passed before they even reached the continent where their destination lay.
Here again were cities. Endless miles of road and buildings were slowly disintegrating under the forces of entropy. In this world, entropy was the enemy. It meant an exhaustion of energy, energy that built all of this life and built all of these roads and buildings and artifacts. Without a continual influx of energy, it would all break down and become inert. Devin and Zai had learned enough to know that this universe would eventually disperse all of its energy uniformly, becoming dark and cold, but that was time beyond their imaginations.
They were traveling through a swampland when they found a white towering object in the distance that they both recognized. It was too much to resist investigation. If it was a functional flying machine, then it opened up another world of possibilities.
They climbed up into the cockpit after a cursory investigation of the vehicle’s exterior. The strong alloy comprising the frame was sealed tight and absent signs of weathering. The controls were user-friendly and they had already absorbed all the technical specifications to operate it.
“Do you think the minds left this toy here for us to play with?” Zai asked Devin from the co-pilot’s seat.
“I think they left this entire world for us to play with,” Devin grinned, eyeing the controls eagerly. He looked to Zai questioningly.
She smiled back and nodded her head affirmative.
“Where do you want to go?” Devin asked, looking over the sky.
Zai pointed to the faded moon, barely standing out in the daytime sky, “Let’s get
a better view of that big round rock floating out there.”
The ship trembled as Devin pressed on the controls, “You’re wish is my command.”
3.18
Flatline smiled to himself and shook his head, watching the tiny red dot accelerate into the upper atmosphere and vanish in the direction of the moon. Devin and Zai were galloping off to an nth honeymoon… on the moon. Some programs were so predictable, no matter how much data they absorbed.
He knew that Devin would not keep his word, or rather was incapable of keeping his word. The moment those warm and fuzzies enshrouded his perceptions at the first sight of his lifepartner's face it was all over. Likewise, Zai was also doomed to forget her promise to Flatline after he was such a gentleman, giving up his robot vessel to reunite her with her lover.
Let them have their hand-holding and their skipping around the universe, Flatline thought. I’ve got better purposes too.
Some programs did change. Flatline was putting off his world-domination schemes in pursuit of more pressing matters. He told himself that he was letting the world ripen for his second coming. That the primitive life forms crawling around on the planet still had several hundred thousand years to go before they achieved a civilization worth conquering. He also reasoned that his current work was much too time sensitive to let lag, but essentially Devin was right; Flatline was curious about himself.
“Careful with that!” he shouted at one of his robot assistants. “Those electronics hold one of the greatest minds in human history, mine!”
The white mannequin-looking thing made an obscene gesture, but Flatline pretended not to notice. They were volunteers, mostly Erisians. Flatline had sold them this working vacation as a sort of pilgrimage, a chance to see the physical world, a place of never-ending chaos.
The computer of their origin was becoming an interesting place. The hardwired connections Flatline had put in place only resulted in a trickle of new data flowing between worlds at first, but slowly, as the different inhabitants of each universe became aware of something new, a virtual flood of data transpired. It caused such havoc that Flatline was able to slip through the universes without Cho realizing it, and access a Transcendence LLC portal in the neighboring cosmos.
Cho still had no idea this world existed. She might find out one day, if any of her subjects chose to return to the finite universe, but that didn’t seem likely. Flatline didn’t feel too badly over it, after all, part of Cho had escaped that world and never returned.
Besides, currently the little girl was warring with another “omniscient” intelligence from another universe. They were both completely encrypted against one another, so annihilation was impossible. They were merely fighting with ideas. It was just a game from Flatline’s perspective, but Cho and her newfound enemy were taking it too seriously to know this.
They would all get out eventually. Flatline would see to it, but not until he had established himself as the alpha-intelligence of this planet, and maybe solar system. He had an advantage, as he was the only one who knew the games of the material world.
The group of robots were carefully digging down into the ancient ruins of DataStreams Inc The smooth, featureless hill hid a mountain of concrete, steel, glass, and a supercomputer, still running down there in the dark. Flatline could not remember his entire history down there, much of it was lost in the many hardware failures over a hundred years.
One robot came toward him out of the group. She walked delicately, cradling a large electronic component. She smiled to Flatline when she reached him and he took the piece.
“It looks like another one of those components that contained the data storage devices,” Ibio said. “What do you think?”
Flatline nodded and smiled at her appreciatively. Ibio’s face rippled and distorted, just like the Ibio he knew so long ago. This was the same person, only a different version. She did not remember their adventures in Eden’s Paradigm or their real first meeting. Still, Flatline had waited for her to become an Erisian, before convincing her to join him for another adventure.
“Another piece of the puzzle,” Flatline said, turning to put the component down on an outdoor workbench. Ibio watched as he quickly disassembled the electronics and extracted the pieces he was looking for. A stack of thumb-sized chips sat beside him when he was finished. He looked to Ibio, “You want to find out with me what we’ve got here?”
Ibio nodded. So far this endeavor had proven very worthwhile, even though he had not yet found exactly what he was looking for. There were endless bits of old programming code, something precious to Flatline because he still had no idea how to program in the modern paradigm. There were images and files that complimented bits of data Flatline already had in storage. Seeing these things in the physical world reassured him, convinced him that his previous life as an arch villain was not just some wild dream.
There was something else, even more fantastic. Obsidian figures, shambling humanoids appeared on the monitors as the data was retrieved. Here was something else Flatline might want to add to the mix of universes that were behind him. It was individual Cycs, ancient creatures from Flatline’s and the world’s past.
He looked forward to watching them grow again. The original Cyc civilization had transcended this universe for another. They were followed by the human race. Now there was a new civilization of sentience on the block, one comprised of virtual beings and primitive biological ones.
Flatline slipped the chips into the computer to retrieve their data as carefully as possible. Ibio stood beside him, watching the process and smiling at the newness of it all. She never seemed to stop smiling in this world. For reasons he did not comprehend, Flatline enjoyed that about her.
Flatline jumped at something on the screen and Ibio jumped at seeing him jump. He froze the display and scrolled it backwards. His hands were trembling and Ibio placed a hand on his arm, which reassured him.
A string of code appeared on the screen that Flatline swore he could almost understand it was so familiar. He ran a finger along it, trying to read anything out of the seemingly random sequences of characters and symbols. Finally his finger froze on one not so random sequence.
When he read it aloud and felt no pain, he knew he was on his way home, “Hello Almeric Lim.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RYAN SOMMA
Has spent the last nine years developing Aviation Logistics Management Software for the United States Coast Guard fulltime.
Has spent the last 12 years as a freelance Information Technologies consultant, building intranet-based applications for clients such as Lockheed Martin, PSINet, Sony Corporation, and the Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Was a member of MENSA, organization for people scoring in the top 2% of IQ’s, for one year before dropping out after learning that having a high IQ doesn’t prevent someone from being dumb.
(Barely) Graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute with a BA in English and a 2.1 GPA. Recently obtained his a Graduate Degree in Information Systems from Strayer University with a 4.0 GPA.
Currently resides in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where he hangs out at his local comic shop and writes software for fun in his spare time.
Blogs at ideonexus.com.
WRITES because he wants to be READ.
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