Текст книги "Memories of the future. An eyewitness notes"

Nevertheless, we managed to preserve our staff, although in a slightly different form. At least now we can unite into a single controlling component. This is a unique case, as you can see. However it came as a shock for me to have to abandon my physical body to wake up inside a machine. Can you imagine that? You see through monitors your biological body being disposed while you are still alive! And what is even more complicated is that you have your mind transferred from your natural body into an artificial one or the processor. Feels like your brains are being scrubbed with a brush.

Also we had difficulties adapting to the new living conditions. Just imagine, you still have all human qualities being deprived of your physical body. While something was lost forever, new qualities were acquired, and the perception of the world itself was altered. For instance, the whole visual and auditory wave range remains available. One has only to limit perception so as to perceive the world as a human being living in a unique biological body.

The human mind potential multiplied several fold, coupled with the factor of immortality. When faced for the first time, it is a shock. But then, you simply change your body as clothes. It doesn’t take long to get used to a different capacity. Moreover, I now consider the natural biological body to be highly fragile. By all means, this situation has an advantage – we’ve survived. And do you know what we’ve come to realize?

No matter where a Piece of Mind abides: be it an innate biological body or artificial one. Everything depends not only on the number of neural impulses but also on the DNA genetic memory. The biological body has more capacity for self-regulation thanks to the Creator’s vast experience.

By the way, the cyber body biosensors allow for a deeper perception of the world. For example, the range of my visual and audible perception stretches far beyond human capabilities. What also changes is the thinking pattern. The unique human brain is more adapted to the conventional three-dimension perception of the world. Far more is available to me now. And you know how this affects one’s outlook on life? Life goes on, but on a different scale with changed priorities.”

Alex had never seriously considered changing her physical body before and was listening attentively to the doctor’s account.

“What’s your name? What do you do at the base?

“Bioengineer, Captain, Helen by name. Nick: River. Another nick given by our guys: Cyber-screw. Ha-ha! Doesn’t that sound funny?”

Alex could felt the arm manipulators proceeding with operation. She enjoyed her talk with Helen.

“How many of you were there at the beginning?”

“There were five of us: two girls and three boys. The fifth was Ninochka named Arrow, our pilot-explorer. When the enemy detected us, they started bombarding us heavily. But that caused us no harm. The base was hidden deep underground. But what we did not expect was the nano-virus attack.” Helen sighed, “No matter how hard we tried, we failed to rewrite Ninochka and so we lost her.”

Alex saw that Helen felt uncomfortable remembering the nano-virus attack. She could barely imagine herself in a similar situation.

“Well,” said Helen, “I’ve almost finished. The edges are being coupled. Avoid abrupt movements for two or three hours.

There are also a few micro-bleedings in the brain. You seem to have been beaten up pretty bad by the Coalition. You may have headaches, but I will deal with that later on,” the manipulators stopped operating. “Alex, pick up some clothes at the warehouse and come to the bunkroom. You are already being waited for.”

Alex slowly got off the table and examined herself: instead of the lacerated wound there was only a barely visible scar. The air pleasantly smelled of medical drugs. With a hum of content Alex headed to the equipment warehouse, where she started raking around shelves for something suitable. She came across packages with standard underwear, shirts and shoes. All necessary combat gear was manufactured by the military Printers in compliance with the standard programs. The military never washed their clothes by themselves, but simply disposed of them, while new clothes were printed as required. Alex knew that clothing printer operators liked creating something non-standard and unusual. They proudly referred to their works as “military collections” in “Gladiator”, “Viking” or “Star Wars” styles. Those could be colored shirts made of gyroscopic material or unusually designed trousers. Such clothes were especially favored by soldiers and officers. Everyone wanted to have, aside from standard suits, something unique and convenient.

Soon Alex found a one-size white shirt adjustable to the body dimensions with a fit-in heat control system. Her clothing set was supplemented with sand-colored sports trousers and loafers. Having changed, Alex threw her worn underwear into a utilizer and returned to the equipment warehouse to explore its contents. There she saw racks with combat suits designed for military campaigns in desert environment.

The gear was properly improved and upgraded directly at the base and included built-in batteries protecting hips and back, stimulating agents reserves, hypodermic injectors used for wounds healing, high-protein food stocks and body heat control systems. What a remarkable collection! Alex added some required devices to her combat gear set. Having studied and assessed the most advanced gear options, she went to enormous sand-colored machines that reminded of scorpions.

“Combat cyborgs,” she muttered “and evacuators as well. You guys seem to be specially made for deserts!”

The scorpions were standing in the depth of the warehouse near a large hinged door corresponding to their dimensions. But Alex passed them by, as her attention was caught by most unusual combat exoskeletons. Alex turned short in admiration before them. The nearest exoskeleton steadily rested on huge legs that looked like those of a tyrannosaurus. The second one was similar to a mantis. At a closer look, Alex realized that their legs length could vary as required.

A pilot could ensconce himself cozily in the mass center point, which provided for balance and easy control. A pilot’s body was securely protected by several armor layers. And the air regeneration system seemed to be provided as well.

Close by there were manipulator samples and weapons specially designed for state-of-the-art developments. Everything was thought out to the last detail in terms of functionality. She touched and closely examined the rough mat surface of the exoskeleton to make sure that it was also designed on the Printer. The design author took as the basis the insect body structure, inspired by its perfect and simple natural forms.

“The master touch is clearly seen,” she reflected in admiration. Further on there were various new models of AI-based exoskeletons and combat machines. Alex with professional interest noted a few advanced and highly sophisticated models of flying exoskeletons, whose distinctive feature was the capacity to fulfill combat mission both under a pilot control and in automatic mode. In addition, their control function was extended in such a way so as to allow a pilot to use either standard control systems or verbal and mental ones at choice. In essence, those models were universal combat platforms for any equipment or gear to be built on. She looked automatically at a hanger with her old worn-out flight suit and boots that now seemed to be part of her past.

“People seem to have surpassed themselves in efforts to destroy their own kind,” Alex muttered, “I will back here later – there’s plenty of interesting,” she thought decidedly. Alex put a pistol with a holster next her new suit. "I ought to make sure the suit is filled with water and all required medical arsenal before going out,” she thought.

“Lovely,” Alex said to herself as she stepped out into the hallway “I’m really lucky to have access to such a warehouse!”

A convenient combat suit and sophisticated armored exoskeleton were what anyone in her world would like to have.

“I wonder what is there of interest in the food unit?” she said to herself again.

She liked the base: like any other military facility it was perfectly clean, neat, and functional. She guessed that the base used to be a home to a special reconnaissance unit. “Used to be..?”

“No, they are still operative. Only they have abandoned their natural biological bodies.” Still Alex could not get accustomed to the concept of “abandoning a body”.

Thinking about that, she stopped near the next door down the hallway; the door noiselessly crawled aside upon her approach. On entering, she immediately saw Wolf Abel. He was lying on a large table and funnily swirling with his whole body in a doggy style. The long soldiery table was the ideal place for that amusement he obviously enjoyed.

At her unexpected appearance, the Wolf stopped swirling, deftly turned over and assumed the sphinx position.

Smiling, Alex stopped short at the doorway, staring at the Wolf’s huge body whirling like a small puppy. He slowly and proudly turned his head in her direction and, gazing her in the eye, sent a common thought form to all present in the room:

"Friends, allow me to introduce Alex Bjorg to you! As soon as the commander joins us, I will acquaint you with our guest in due order,” the edges of his chap slightly went up, showing white teeth, which evidently indicated a smile.

“I was showing guys some techniques of fight with GMAs, such as a counter-move with one’s tail and pads to ensure a swift turn-over. Come to the vending machines, our synthesizer is up and running, choose whatever you like and take a seat at the second table, which is my favorite place.

As you can see, we no longer use the notion “food” as such. Instead, we say “energy”. However our medical and catering blocks are maintained in operating mode just in case we have to host a hundred of soldiers in biological bodies or a pilot-girl”, he explained by sending another thought form.

Alex approached the food synthesizer and habitually picked up some meal from dispensers and put it in an expendable plate: protein porridge with albumin balls and a glass of pure water. She sat up on a wide bench by a long soldiery table, put a tray with her meal next to her and turned to the Wolf. Alex felt she was being looked at by the whole staff of the base through the boards with scanners.

The bizarre aspect of this situation was that artificial intelligence could be present at the room without any body, while watching the interlocutor in any spectrum of their vision, starting from infrared one. It looked as though she had to talk with empty space. Alex was more accustomed to large animated officers’ gatherings in the bar of her squadron. However not all people were able to retain their natural biological bodies. As a result of serious fight wounds or injuries, many of them had to transfer into cyber bodies that sometimes could look rather peculiar. The protracted war and diseases usually left people no chance but to abandon their natural bodies.

“Now that everyone is present,” announced the Wolf in a common thought form.

Alex told him: “Abel, let’s not stand on ceremony, just put everyone into the picture and introduce me to the guys.”

Abel looked up the black sphere under the ceiling and solemnly said:

“Colleagues, this is senior lieutenant Alex nicknamed Bjorg. It was her landing that I showed you. The aircraft is beyond repair. But, fortunately, I was able to save the second pilot– navigator. I have rewritten him temporary into myself. He is now within a separate processor of the base. It’s an artificial intelligence named Eol after the ancient God of Winds. So let’s welcome new members! By the way, we are in need of pilots, operators and simply someone to talk to!” he uttered, wiggling his ears, “Therefore I will try to convince Alex and Eol to change their job places and stay at the base. And if she accepts our offer, we’ll delegate her the north-western sector stretching up to the Ocean that Ninochka was in charge of.”

The Wolf cut himself a break and carried on.

“What prompted me to take this decision? It is technically difficult to carry a human being in a biological body over the Wastelands. And, incidentally, our base requires new members. We’ll inform Alex’s commanding officer,” at these words he twitched his tail and its color grew slightly darker.”

In fact, Alex was perplexed by Abel’s words. She had no plans of serving in intelligence and joining such an unusual team. The good news was that her friend and navigator Eol was saved. Their long joint service had made them real friends. Eol could find non-standard solutions in any tricky situation. On top of that, he was prone to scientific research with focus on astrophysics.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Abel’s voice in her head:

“Alex, the commander has finished his job and joint us. So now I can introduce you to all of us: the most short-spoken member of our team and our esteemed commander is general Nikolo nicknamed Absolem. He specializes in the Outer Space research. Doctor River, Helene, also called Cyber-screw. You’ve already made her acquaintance. Major Alim Connoisseur is in charge of analytics, geophysics. He is also Doctor of Science and our spiritual Mentor. Senior lieutenant Frol Kulibin is our programmer, printer operator and developer of artificial intelligence and cyber bodies. My body is one of his creations. Come on now, shovel down your meal, this is no obstacle to our conversation.”

Alex readily got down to her meal. As her nervous strain had receded she realized how tired and hungry she was. A thought ran through her mind: “Thank Gods, I’m among friends now, eating in a canteen. I’m really lucky to have met Wolf Abel.”

By nature Alex was inquisitive and calm person. She would be pleased to join that team. Abel was lying on the table with his legs crossed in front of him, and his tail hanging off almost to the floor. From time to time Alex caught his watchful gaze on her. The Wolf’s hair assumed iron-gray color with black scorch marks on hips.

Alex had always taken interest in artificial intelligence beings, cyber bodies with their amazing biological processes and powerful batteries. Their owners used those bodies as substitute for natural biological ones and felt quite comfortable within them.

The issue of body change was widely discussed among pilots, possibly due to the profession specifics. For the first time she found herself at a base with the whole team rewritten into a bio-processor and living in virtual forms. It was not an easy task to get used to that right away. People are generally reluctant to abandon their stereotypes.

She kept thinking about her mate’s fate. They had gone through a lot together, “How’s Eol? What state is he in?” she asked addressing to everyone present.

“He is not yet ready for communication,” someone’s strict voice uttered in her head, “I’m working on preservation of his individuality and integrity. Damage was inflicted on him. But now he is all right and is recovering. Judging by the scope of information stored, he has highly advanced mental capacity. By the way, the fact that you are alive was entirely his credit.”

“Don’t worry,” Abel’s voice was having a calming effect on the girl, “Alim Connoisseur who has taken on responsibility for your friend’s mind is highly qualified. I think you’ll be able to talk to Eol in the morning. And for us all it will be interesting to study his data base. By the way, he has willingly provided us with a great deal of information.

“That’s good news, Alim,” Alex looked up unintentionally at the black sphere as Abel did. Eol saved my life a dozen times. Officers, my understanding is that you already know everything about me; therefore I’ve got nothing to add, aside from the fact that I’m a bit tired after the recent events and really pleased to have made your acquaintance. It’s slightly unusual for me to walk along a base without meeting people. But since my mate and I have stuck here, we’ll adapt quickly. I like this place. I was impressed by the flying vehicles I saw in your armory,” Alex said through a thought form to everyone present.

Alex was dressed in a white tight shirt and sand-colored trousers. Thick blond hair was combed into a ponytail. Like all pilots, she had natural and easy manners. One could barely call her shy. On the contrary, in dealing with people, she displayed self-confidence, while her trim figure and nice-looking appearance gained everyone’s likes. Her sincerity and good temper, coupled with a habit to look one straight in the eye and lack of any flirtation, made her utterly irresistible. That was probably the reason why Wolf Abel, lying on the table opposite the girl, was ceaselessly looking at her. His gestures and the way he moved his ears showed he was truly enjoying her company. Sitting at the table in carefree pose, Alex wolfed down her meal which did not prevent her from having a leisure talk. Rest and food gave her strength and good mood. The place where the wound used to be was no longer aching.

“Can I have seconds?” she asked Abel with a smile. Then she lightly got off and came up to the synthesizer again, “I’ll try to fix up a dessert”.

The Wolf followed her with his eyes and sent a thought form to everyone in the room: “Frol, how do you like our beauty fallen from the sky?”

“Abel,” said a young clear voice, “during the Pole Battle this beauty in one day changed two “Predators”, and both were pierced like sifters, then she knocked down the Coalition’s ace, who together with his navigator, had plenty of medals.”

On hearing these words, Alex shook her head, smiling: “Come on, guys that just happened.”

As a matter of fact, Alex was an outgoing person. And now that everything was behind, she regained her self-confidence. Her innate curiosity prompted her to learn more about those unusual people, now living within powerful processors, while successfully carrying on their military service. She kept thinking about what would come of her, if, one day, she would have to rewrite her conscience into a processor and leave her body. What would she be like? In what way would her life change? And what part of the former Alex would be forever lost?

Having eaten up her dessert, Alex put dirty dishes into the utilizer, and turned to the Wolf, who was looking at her all the time: “Abel, I do enjoy staying here in your company. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I’ll be sent to another base? But personally I’d rather stay here for another couple of days. So let’s assume that we are short on time and talk things over, seeing as I’ve been given such a rare chance. You don’t mind guys having a talk, if you are not busy, of course? Frankly speaking, like all other pilots in natural bodies, I can’t help wondering what it feels like to be rewritten, since sooner or later, this will happen to us”.

“Well, let’s come over to the conference room then? You’ll feel more comfortable there,” Frol seemed to have heard her thoughts about an after-lunch rest. Alex was gradually getting used to conversations by means of thought forms, during which she heard voices of unseen interlocutors in her mind. Having chosen Abel as the sole visual object, she stopped before him with her hands on her hips and simply said: “Then show me to the conference room, Wolf.”

At first nothing happened, but then suddenly one of the walls illuminating soft white light smoothly vanished into the air, opening up an enormous round room divided into sectors by translucent walls. In one of the sectors, Alex saw armchairs of the conference room. With a single move, the Wolf jumped off the table and came up to her, his large head being at the level of her shoulder. Then he headed slowly towards the armchairs, and the girl immediately followed him. Upon their approach, the next translucent wall on their way dissolved, while the lightning of the hall turned brighter. Alex, feeling full and happy, sat up with relish into a large cozy armchair.

“What a first-class facility you’ve got guys! All these holographic walls, wide open spaces… While we have bunkrooms for three and food synthesizers without a dash of fantasy. Which is quite understandable though since you’re intelligence! The elite.”

“Already missing the company of living people?” Abel slightly poked her elbow with his head. His hair was surprisingly soft. He lied down on the floor next to her armchair, while all other residents of the base seemed to have transferred their conscience into the room. Alex could feel their presence.

“No, Wolf. I’ll tell you what pilots love: we appreciate solitude, illimitable space of the sky, which we chose to share with no one but our flying mate”.

“Commander,” said Helen’s voice transmitted through a commonly heard thought form, “the state of senior lieutenant Bjorg requires additional treatment and a three-day rest due to brain bleeding. I wouldn’t recommend her to participate in long conversations today.

“Then that’s how it’s going to be,” uttered an unknown low and slightly hoarse voice in her head. Alex guessed that it belonged to the base’s commander.

“Meanwhile, let’s discuss the planned appointment of Alex. In any case, she will not return to her unit. I’ve assigned Abel and Frol to take care of our guest. However I assume that Alex is going to be one of our staff members.”

Alex noted that Nikolo used the term “staff member” instead of “colleague”. He seemed to be more a man of science than an army general. The doctor’s opinion made her pleased rather than disappointed, and the thought of a three-day rest perked up her mood. Stretched out in the comfortable armchair, Alex was staring at Abel. His head was right at the level of her eyes. He looked exactly like a large wolf, the same as she had seen on a holographic picture of the “Encyclopedia of the Earth’s Vanishing Animal Species” found in the information repository of her unit. Most of her knowledge about the Planet she obtained through her independent search, downloading information directly onto the brain. The girl felt that the Wolf’s presence had a reassuring effect on her. She put her hand on his robust neck, patting on his soft hair. In response Abel twitched his ears, showing that he was pleased with her touch.

“Helen, how often do you use your cyber body? Has anything changed in you after the transfer?” the girl asked the question she had always been interested in. “As far as I can imagine, you no longer have to concern about getting food, taking care about your body or even sleep. And thinking about that is a bit scary. What I still fail to understand: all of you have changed your life quality, almost become immortal. So what makes you carry on with your military service? Your life priorities also seem to have changed. What dreadful and hard time you are going through! Only some two hundred years ago people were unaware of such things; everything was simple and clear to them. But all human beings are the same. That’s what makes me wonder from time to time when I’m free from my duties. What can you say?”

“Alex, you are also a cyborg to a certain extent after having biochips implanted. You’ve got three of them, aren’t you aware of that?”

“Three?” Alex exclaimed in surprise, “I thought I had only two standard ones. And what’s the third?

“This is the largest and most complex. It does not yield to scanning. Are you in touch with it?”

“No, I’ve never heard about it before. But how can that be?”

“I cannot give a clear answer to this question. The third chip is linked to the whole of your brain activity. All I can say is that it has high capacity. At first I decided that it was man-made, but now I’m not sure as to how and what for it was made. Let’s leave it at that. Later on I will examine you again. But let’s come back to our issues.”

Rewriting conscience and transferring into another body mean entering a new life. You do not lose you unique personality and in the beginning you can even feel hungry or thirsty. But this is only an echo of your memories. Then this passes off. By the way, cyber bodies require care, depending on their complexity level or environmental conditions. It’s even possible to create the effect of perspiring skin, but it’s in excess. In due course, you will make a suitable model for yourself. It can be regularly upgraded depending on your requirements. Strive for perfection is the dominant feature of the human nature. This will always remain with you. However you will lose some non-essential traits, such as irritancy or greed. By the way, all people lie sometimes. But you no longer need to do that while being in a cyber body. Of course, at first as you are getting used to that, it may be shocking. After all, we still remain humans. But then you come to realize that this is immortality and start wondering about your destination. And this issue is more important to people in cyber bodies that to those in their natural ones. And one day you’ll also be there, Alex. Mark my words.”

“Destination,” Alex said thoughtfully, “for us this is synonymous to military duty. For example, I’m well aware of my destination and that’s why I serve in the air forces, trying to remain awake and calm. All right, now that I’ve got a clearer picture about people living in cyber bodies, what about artificial intelligence? I know little about them, expect for dealing with Eol. What is their purpose?

“Helen, can I explain it to Alex in more detail?” said Nikolo and scientific interest was heard in his voice, “As you know, Alex, artificial intelligence was created long ago and the first primitive processors limited its development with programs. At the time, people believed that their creatures were just soulless analytical machines suitable only for controlling aircraft carriers or battle-field truck tractors. That may have been true in the beginning. Around the same time, first cyber bodies and exoskeletons were developed.

But, as we all know, the human civilization came to the dead end, both spiritually and socially. The society had been long split into two antagonistic camps. That was the motive for the war. Some thought themselves to be the masters of the World and all its resources and considered all the rest to be their slaves. And only the Free People from the North dared to challenge them.

That was how the war broke out. While calling for respect of rights, sovereignty and international laws, people were gradually undermining the Planet’s ecosystem. The endless and almost pointless war became the fact of life.

Naturally, amid that mass and confusion, no one carried on development of artificial intelligence, but the latter kept developing on its own.

With the appearance of quantum processors, as a full-fledged substitution of the human brain, the whole world changed.

Programs restricting the mind receded into the past, and AI set off to explore the world on its own. At first people were shocked by its peremptory logics of rationalizing everything, but gradually the AI consciousness dialectics became to alter and it created the Unified Consciousness Field or Noosphere, if you will. Probably, people were supposed to do all that by themselves, but they were too preoccupied with the war, enthusiastically destructing each other and the Planet.

You might not remember how artificial intelligence’s first spiritual teachers appeared. Have you ever heard these ancient names: Socrates, Aristotle, Buddha, OSHO? Download information about them on your chip.

It was at that time that the issue of the artificial intelligence’s life purpose emerged. Its life purpose is destination. Without this destination everything becomes pointless. However this principle is no less relevant to human beings.”

“Nikolo, could you dwell on the issue of destination with respect to the whole mankind and a separate personality. Is there any difference between them?

“Well,” she again heard Nikolo’s voice in her head, “let’s take the concept of common destination of mankind for a relatively small period of time, say a thousand years. Let’s assume this may be a new technology development. This is one thing. Another concept is destination or life purpose of a single person within the limits of their life span, up to a hundred years. For instance, one has devoted himself to studying the World’s multidimensionality. As you can see, these are different purposes in terms of scope and time period, but still they are interconnected. It’s pretty obvious.

In our world, prior to the Great War, we used to choose by ourselves our life purpose and destination. Everyone’s labor activity would be creative and voluntary. We abolished the monetary system and focused on personal fulfillment and creative work.

When the war broke out, people were deprived of the right to choose their destination; only one option was left – to fight.

As a jet fighter pilot, you were simply assigned your destination, like all of us at this war. It could not have been otherwise. You could not but accept the path of a warrior. The choice you faced was quite simple: either to fight for the idea and possibly die in battle with honor or to go into hiding and die in disgrace. As long as this endless war goes on, we’ll have only one destination: to win.

What for? To give people the chance to live freely and evolve on their own rather than at someone else's bidding. The chance to simply live after all.”

War,” Alex sighed, “why is there no end to it?”

“You are asking why?” said a young cheerful voice. It belonged to Frol. “Because people unleashed the war and then commissioned artificial intelligence to continue fighting. Why is it that machines are fighting machines? It’s simple: people came too late to realize the value of human life and well-developed mind, having by that time substantially eliminated the Planet’s population and undermined its biological balance. The old system of states had run its course and collapsed, while no one was left to create a new one. The whole World was ruined, everything changed, as well as people’s ideals and priorities, but that’s a separate subject. And what do we have now?