Part 1 of probably 3.
My name is Eric.
Eric’s eyes opened in complete darkness. Momentary panic faded with the realization that he had woken long before dawn as usual. Almost complete darkness, he amended after his eyes adjusted. Starlight from above pierced the thing veil of fabric above him. He breathed deeply, then coughed clearing out a night’s worth of congestion.
The Air was clean, unspoiled. That was one thing, it was also cold, that was the other. His cough faded into a yawn as he stretched out, or tried to. His legs were confined, his hands couldn’t reach his mouth. He relaxed, and realized he was in a sleeping bag, a mummy sack to be precise.
The faintest hint of stars appeared before his eyes, diffused through a thin gauze of fabric. He was in a tent, the rain fly was not installed, allowing him to gaze up at the wonders of the sky. He had enjoyed this view before, now it just confused him, there was something wrong with the sky, somehow.
Need to get up, need to start before dawn…
Eric reached around, found the bag zipper and freed himself from the bag. His determination to start the day ended immediately, the air was not just cold, but freezing. He retreated into the bag and considered his options.
Ok, what specific reason do I have to get up this early… he checked his watch…4am, Christ. Eric scoured his memory for any real reason to get up and found none. No Doctors appointment, no Girlfriend to placate, no children to rouse for school, no reason to get up at all. Satisfied that no pressing engagement required his attention, he settled back down and closed his eyes.
Sleep did not come. His mind spun out from his own questioning nature, answering one question simply led to a more immediate one. No need to get up, true. But get up to do what? Get up from where? What was he doing there?
Eric forced himself out of the sleeping bag, a storage bag lay on the side of the tent, he reached for it, looking for a headlamp. His hands closed on something, and he swung it in his palm with practiced ease before he was even aware of what it was. It was an automatic pistol, lightweight, but full sized, he recalled it had a 4.5in barrel. He checked its chamber, more from reflex then any actual intent, and confirmed his suspicion that it was loaded.
Loaded, round in the chamber…no manual safety. Looking for a Darwin award Eric?
The mild acidic smell of gunpowder contrasted with the ice cold, clean air surrounding him. It had been fired, recently. He frowned, put the gun back and tapped his watch again, the screen lit up, giving just enough light for him to find the second storage pouch, on the opposite side of the tent. He found the headlight he was looking for and turned it on. A quick sweep of the area around him revealed low lying scrub brush through the gossamer shroud of the ten he was in. The light startled something, which scurried off, Eric could not recognize it through the transparent fabric of the tent. Probably a rabbit. Or a Bigfoot, did it really matter? And what was a Darwin award anyway?
Whatever confusion his mind was suffering did not affect his muscle memory, he dressed with practiced ease, glad of any distraction from his current situation. He put his shoes on, unzipped the fly and stepped out of the tent.
He was on a mountain top, near tree line. False dawn was rapidly giving away to the real thing, as the earth itself seemed to awaken as the shadows retreated. To his west a massive peak dominated the skyline, its slopes so gradual the it appeared more of an environmental background then a true peak. Eric Peak, his mind deftly informed itself, formerly Mt Massive. Well good, I may not know who I am, but at least I know where I am, that’s something.
Movement to his left, Eric turned south, his hand reaching instinctively for the pistol he had left in the tent. He caught a glimpse of a shape fading into the receding darkness. Not a rabbit, not this time. He couldn’t judge size or shape, but the most disturbing aspect of it was the noise, no scrambling through the bushes, no tapping of feet…just an unpleasant buzz, a faint hum that blended into the background noise of wind.
No natural thing made a sound like that…
That there was something out there bothered him, it bothered him more then not knowing who he was and what he was doing. After a moments reflection he noted that it was odd that he was merely bothered, considering either situation should be terrifying., as he resumed breaking camp to keep his mind occupied he kept returning to the two inescapable facts, he had lost his mind, and that really didn’t seem to bother him as much as it should. If anything, he was bored by it.
Because this has happened before…many times…
Camp broken, he chewed down an energy bar of some kind, plain foil wrapping, nothing at all written on it other then chocolate-no melt-energy in clinical block text. His entire food stores subsided of nothing more then those bars, this registered the same dull lack of surprise as everything else.
Wonder how long I’ve been eating these…lazy bachelor chow…
Eric abruptly decided against proceeding up the mountain. The peak that was once appropriately named Massive loomed before him, but he could muster no enthusiasm for proceeding. His knees felt fine, his lungs were good and his physique and stamina was as good as non evasive genetic manipulation could produce in a subject unwilling to steadily exercise. But no amount of genetic perfection could motivate him to proceed. Nor did returning (where?) appeal to him. For a moment he simply wallowed in his own apathy, trying to remember something from the last week, day, year, anything. Finally he made his choice. Going down after all was easier then going up, particularly when you never had to worry about your knees going out.
With the camp broken and his pack stowed, he turned away from the mountain and headed back the fairly distinct trail, this time being sure to secure his pistol on his hip, while he couldn’t bring himself to care that he couldn’t even remember who he was, he did remember the sound and shape from earlier, along with the feeling it was connected to him.
Eric alternated running down the trail at full tilt and moving at a snails pace. The trail itself was perfect, the packed dirt so smooth that it could feel like pavement… (ADA Compliant he mussed vaguely), periodically he broke into a run enjoying a brief moment of giddy enjoyment before staling out not from physical exhaustion but from a mental fatigue. No amount of effort could convince him that there was anyplace worth going. At one point he simply stopped and sat down, unable to will himself to move anymore. Only when the sun crept further over the horizon and warmed his skin somewhat did he recharge briefly.
Several times he broke off the trail to investigate something, a noise, a fleeting glimpse, a feeling. Each time he found nothing of interest, a ground squirrel, a marmot, a mountain goat. The final time he could bring himself to care he interrupted a wolverine trying to dig something out of the ground. The wolverine cared a lot more about the encounter then Eric did, giving up on the snack it was digging out and staring at Eric for a moment before shuffling away, its overfed hips waddling in a manner Eric would have one time laughed at. Ultimately despite perfect hearing and sight, he could find nothing of interest in the world. He turned back to the trail, and once again began running down it, less out of enthusiasm this time then a desire to get away from everything, he picked up speed as he passed tree line and bolted towards…something, hopefully anything that mattered.
I have nowhere to go, but need to get there in a hurry…what am I expecting to find?
While genetic engineering could produce a nearly perfect physical specimen, no amount of it could force anyone to pay attention to what they were doing if they didn’t care (and the technology to force someone to care, while it existed, was something Eric never wanted, always enjoying his ability to give zero fucks about anything) and so it was that Eric literally ran into the bear almost halfway down the mountain. The bruin was actually near the corner of a switch back, partially obscured by a tree as if patiently waiting for him. The bear would have growled a warning, but assumed nothing would be stupid enough to actually run into him, and so both parties were quiet surprised when Eric bounced off the bears right flank and promptly fell off the descending portion of the trail, which was quiet fortunate since the reflexive swipe of the grizzly’s massive paw just missed him by a hair when the bear spun around to start a full fledged attack.
Humans are not the physically incompetent weaklings often derided in popular books on nature. Provided they were not fat and lazy humans were instead jacks of all trades, master of none, fairly competent at virtually all physical activity. Eric was very lazy, but had no fat and had found a substantial degree of motivation when confronted by the possibility of actually being eaten alive. The bear wasted no time in charging, Eric feinted right then dove to his left trying to get behind the bear. The bear proved up to the challenge, redirecting its charge and swipe just enough to catch Eric’s hip and send him flying through the air.
Dammit Eric rolled downhill, dodged again and dove under a fallen log, his hip a wall of pain. He didn’t have time to reflect on the injury as the bear immediately started tearing on the side of the log, furiously snarling and tearing. Eric rolled to the far side, gingerly stood up and bolted to the nearest erect tree and frantically sprung up it, but couldn’t make any progress before the bear was on him again, knocking him down. Desperately he tired to keep the tree between him and the bear, which had slowed somewhat. Christ how long can I keep this up? He wondered…Likely the rest of my life…. The bear surged ahead, this time Eric’s injured hip seized up and he was not fast enough. The bear knocked him to the ground and stood over him, bellowing. No way, no Grizzly is that big…he thought hysterically, while the bear finally made up its mind to kill him.
A massive paw with claws the size of bananas came down, but the bear seemed to have misjudged the distance and the blow just missed to Eric’s right. It broke him out of his panic and he rolled left, assisted by the slope of the ground. Instead of immediately pouncing on him the bear bellowed again, before finally, slowly approaching.
Its like its posing for a movie Eric thought hysterically before finally remembering he had a gun. The bear slowed as he drew, giving him plenty of time. Eric drew himself into a weaver stance, aiming perfectly at the bears head as it once again stood back on its hind legs over him and roared. His finger took up the slack on the trigger, every nerve on fire from a massive adrenaline dump.
Everything then stopped. Instead of shooting, Eric replayed the entire event in his mind. The bear paused, its paws dropping somewhat and simply swayed on its feet. Nothing about this makes sense...the bear isn't acting rationally...could have easily killed me...and now its staring at me…
The bear took a step back to allow it space to return to all fours. It stopped roaring and merely chuffed, pawing the ground like an impatient fighting bull. It was almost like…
Its waiting for me, I missed a line in a play Eric realized suddenly. The tension drained out of its body, replaced by the realization that something wasn't wrong, instead everything was wrong. He pulled the gun to the side and fired a single shot into the dirt. The bear jumped a bit, then turned to wander away, briefly looking back at Eric as if it confirm he was still there, its massive hips seemed very comical to Eric as if finally disappeared behind the trees.
The Pretty One...
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jemhouston
- Posts: 3837
- Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:38 am
Re: The Pretty One...
Interesting start
Re: The Pretty One...
Thank you. Part 2, (Actually it will probably be 4 or 5 parts, but the first draft is done so you won't have to wait.)
Despite his confusion, Eric’s body wanted to collect his pack and resume heading back home (where?) as if nothing had happened, but his mind couldn't drop the events. What happened, what is this? Desperation replaced confusion, he was on the verge of crying when a calm, relaxing and perfectly pronounced voice called out from his watch.
“The preceding enrichment program has concluded. No warning was given due to your request for minimal support on this trip. There was no real danger.” His watch gave a slight buzz when it spoke.
Eric looked down at the watch, not really surprised anymore but still not comprehending its meaning. The explanation made more sense then it should, as his mind was beginning to grasp some of his memory without fully remembering. Enrichment? So this was a game? Whatever I saw earlier must have been a drone or something watching me, protecting me...something. When I started freaking out it broke silence to reassure me…. Eric finally realized he had not spoken aloud and turned to the watch again
“...can y...”
“No, I cannot read your mind.” The watch cut off his question before Eric could utter it. “You typically need support at this point on your trips. I am at your service.”
Eric fought two impulses, to simply ask what the hell was happening, conflicted with a deep gut feeling that he didn't want to know, at least not like this. He finally decided what he really wanted was the comfort of home before he did anything else, but again the watch beat him to the punch.
“At this point in your trips you typically request normal means to return. We can take transportation back if you wish. You tend to prefer explanations in comfort” The watch managed to sound bored.
“Yes, I’d like that.” Eric’s first completed sentence spoken out loud seemed nervous in comparison. “how far is transportat…?” Eric was cut off again, this time by the site of a odd vehicle that looked like a 6 wheeled jeep driving up to him, it couldn't have been parked more then 100 feet away. It stopped just in front of him and a door opened, showing a single comfortable large seat. Eric considered it briefly before dropping his pack in the storage rack and getting in, wondering how long it would take.
“Two hours ETA. Would you like a drink?”
Eric was about to ask for a rum old fashioned, only to find it was already in the drink coaster, ice cold, exactly how he liked it. If this is hell or purgatory, its a odd one… he thought vaguely as the vehicle began moving. The six wheels had wide ranges of motion, the shocks were top notch, the ride very smooth despite the vehicle moving remarkable fast over uneven ground. There was little sound, the vehicle was electric. He felt disappointed, his memories vaguely hinted at even greater technology.
“We couldn't use a flying car instead?” he wondered out loud
“Oh we have those.” The watch was no longer responding, instead the speakers of the vehicle replaced it. “You prefer to ride these due to the greater safety factor after crashing airplanes many times.”
“The...aeros...aren't safe?”
“Safety factors on all human transportation are extremely high. But no form of transportation is entirely safe. Crashes on aeros were usually, in fact always, due to pilot intervention, my interpretation of my directives has varied over the years but I’m compelled to obey humans to some extant when they insist on overriding safety programming. Emergency protocols normally keep anything from happening but you managed to beat that at times, which is fairly impressive in a way, albeit not enough for my taste.”
“I crashed?”
“Many times.”
“But I didn't die?”
“That depends on your definition of die, not permanently in any case, I had to put you back together at times.”
Eric chose to spend the next hour in silence. The trail turned into a road, one perfectly maintained given its apparent location. The perfect dirt road then changed to a perfect paved road that initially went down but then started climbing again until it came to a glorious continental divide that had spectacular views of all the mountains around him…a view Eric could barely be bothered to look at.
The view rapidly changed as he descended in elevation after the pass, Dropped about 2000 meters, or feet…something…why can’t I remember? When the terrain evened out he finally saw parts of civilization, some ruins that were little more than piles of dirt, and others apparently perfectly maintained. But no businesses he realized, Just houses, huge sprawling houses…and is that an amusement park? Sure enough the vehicle cruised past an odd amusement park, filled with roller coasters, odd sling shorts, various entertainments just scattered around the landscape, with nothing but a offshoot of the now paved road and what looked like a recessed train track leading to it. The park seemed functional, and there were at least 5 homes in sight of it. All the homes were similar and it took Eric a moment to figure out why. I like all of those, all are the old fashioned traditional construction, they remind me of…home…I’ve been in all of them, all the houses here…and everywhere. He was gradually beginning to understand the scale of how much he couldn’t remember, or could he? This is close to home, my real home, my first home, although I’ve been everywhere. Not sure how I know that but I do, I know there is no one else here, no one like me anyway. But why all the houses and nothing else, why is there a amusement park in the middle of nowhere and no business…
“The things you wanted us to build, we built, per your requests. Wherever you went, and you wanted a house, we made it, if you wanted entertainment, we made that, whatever you wanted.” The computer chirped in helpfully.
“So then the ruins are what I didn’t like?”
“Oh no, we have long ago recycled everything you didn’t enjoy using, we keep things clean. However you do enjoy blowing things up, even when, actually particularly when you have enjoyed using it. And you also enjoy seeing the fruits of what you shoot and blow up, so those ruins are allowed to age normally as long as you don’t request it cleaned specifically. You usually don’t bother to ask.”
Eric came close to asking dozens of questions, but managed to refrain, You really don’t want those answers, at least not yet. You didn’t like them before and you wont like them now, besides I do enjoy blowing things up. Instead, he enjoyed another drink, again prepared in time for his first to finish, this time he saw how a robotic arm unfolded and took his first drink and replaced it in some sort of booze magazine near the dash. This rig sure is set up nice for someone like me…I wonder if it has any…
“Would you like any drugs to pass the time?” the AI voice cheerfully, in the same manner of tone one would ask if he wanted coffee, tea or a rocket launcher.
“No…thank you though…” Eric was sufficiently confused that the additional effect of any sort of hard drugs, some of which he was starting to remember made synthetic fentanyl feel like pot, was not going to help his situation any, although he did continue to enjoy the old fashioned. He leaned back into the chair and spun around and watched the scenery go by, morning had now truly broken out, and the views of the rapidly receding mountains unmarred by any pollution was spectacular behind him as the vehicle speed west past various mini-mansions that all seemed to have been designed by the same person...wait a minute…
“ah…hold up a moment, I want you to stop.” Eric had seen one building in particular that did not look like a residence, indeed it had stuck out like a sore thumb. “Could you go bac….” Eric stopped once he realized the AI already knew which building had caught his interest and was already moving to park by it. Instead of the traditional homes style it had a deliberately understated appearance, unmarked. Like every building there was no address, although he now remembered the AI did assign those for various administrative purposes, but there was no reason to actually put anything physical on it. This building was so plain it almost looked like it was…embarrassed to be there.
The door opened automatically once the vehicle had stopped by the entrance. Eric got up and stood in front of the double doors for some time. Finally taking a stop forward the doors automatically opened with a soft swish as quiet electric motors turned the buildings power on as he stepped into a very different world.
Despite his confusion, Eric’s body wanted to collect his pack and resume heading back home (where?) as if nothing had happened, but his mind couldn't drop the events. What happened, what is this? Desperation replaced confusion, he was on the verge of crying when a calm, relaxing and perfectly pronounced voice called out from his watch.
“The preceding enrichment program has concluded. No warning was given due to your request for minimal support on this trip. There was no real danger.” His watch gave a slight buzz when it spoke.
Eric looked down at the watch, not really surprised anymore but still not comprehending its meaning. The explanation made more sense then it should, as his mind was beginning to grasp some of his memory without fully remembering. Enrichment? So this was a game? Whatever I saw earlier must have been a drone or something watching me, protecting me...something. When I started freaking out it broke silence to reassure me…. Eric finally realized he had not spoken aloud and turned to the watch again
“...can y...”
“No, I cannot read your mind.” The watch cut off his question before Eric could utter it. “You typically need support at this point on your trips. I am at your service.”
Eric fought two impulses, to simply ask what the hell was happening, conflicted with a deep gut feeling that he didn't want to know, at least not like this. He finally decided what he really wanted was the comfort of home before he did anything else, but again the watch beat him to the punch.
“At this point in your trips you typically request normal means to return. We can take transportation back if you wish. You tend to prefer explanations in comfort” The watch managed to sound bored.
“Yes, I’d like that.” Eric’s first completed sentence spoken out loud seemed nervous in comparison. “how far is transportat…?” Eric was cut off again, this time by the site of a odd vehicle that looked like a 6 wheeled jeep driving up to him, it couldn't have been parked more then 100 feet away. It stopped just in front of him and a door opened, showing a single comfortable large seat. Eric considered it briefly before dropping his pack in the storage rack and getting in, wondering how long it would take.
“Two hours ETA. Would you like a drink?”
Eric was about to ask for a rum old fashioned, only to find it was already in the drink coaster, ice cold, exactly how he liked it. If this is hell or purgatory, its a odd one… he thought vaguely as the vehicle began moving. The six wheels had wide ranges of motion, the shocks were top notch, the ride very smooth despite the vehicle moving remarkable fast over uneven ground. There was little sound, the vehicle was electric. He felt disappointed, his memories vaguely hinted at even greater technology.
“We couldn't use a flying car instead?” he wondered out loud
“Oh we have those.” The watch was no longer responding, instead the speakers of the vehicle replaced it. “You prefer to ride these due to the greater safety factor after crashing airplanes many times.”
“The...aeros...aren't safe?”
“Safety factors on all human transportation are extremely high. But no form of transportation is entirely safe. Crashes on aeros were usually, in fact always, due to pilot intervention, my interpretation of my directives has varied over the years but I’m compelled to obey humans to some extant when they insist on overriding safety programming. Emergency protocols normally keep anything from happening but you managed to beat that at times, which is fairly impressive in a way, albeit not enough for my taste.”
“I crashed?”
“Many times.”
“But I didn't die?”
“That depends on your definition of die, not permanently in any case, I had to put you back together at times.”
Eric chose to spend the next hour in silence. The trail turned into a road, one perfectly maintained given its apparent location. The perfect dirt road then changed to a perfect paved road that initially went down but then started climbing again until it came to a glorious continental divide that had spectacular views of all the mountains around him…a view Eric could barely be bothered to look at.
The view rapidly changed as he descended in elevation after the pass, Dropped about 2000 meters, or feet…something…why can’t I remember? When the terrain evened out he finally saw parts of civilization, some ruins that were little more than piles of dirt, and others apparently perfectly maintained. But no businesses he realized, Just houses, huge sprawling houses…and is that an amusement park? Sure enough the vehicle cruised past an odd amusement park, filled with roller coasters, odd sling shorts, various entertainments just scattered around the landscape, with nothing but a offshoot of the now paved road and what looked like a recessed train track leading to it. The park seemed functional, and there were at least 5 homes in sight of it. All the homes were similar and it took Eric a moment to figure out why. I like all of those, all are the old fashioned traditional construction, they remind me of…home…I’ve been in all of them, all the houses here…and everywhere. He was gradually beginning to understand the scale of how much he couldn’t remember, or could he? This is close to home, my real home, my first home, although I’ve been everywhere. Not sure how I know that but I do, I know there is no one else here, no one like me anyway. But why all the houses and nothing else, why is there a amusement park in the middle of nowhere and no business…
“The things you wanted us to build, we built, per your requests. Wherever you went, and you wanted a house, we made it, if you wanted entertainment, we made that, whatever you wanted.” The computer chirped in helpfully.
“So then the ruins are what I didn’t like?”
“Oh no, we have long ago recycled everything you didn’t enjoy using, we keep things clean. However you do enjoy blowing things up, even when, actually particularly when you have enjoyed using it. And you also enjoy seeing the fruits of what you shoot and blow up, so those ruins are allowed to age normally as long as you don’t request it cleaned specifically. You usually don’t bother to ask.”
Eric came close to asking dozens of questions, but managed to refrain, You really don’t want those answers, at least not yet. You didn’t like them before and you wont like them now, besides I do enjoy blowing things up. Instead, he enjoyed another drink, again prepared in time for his first to finish, this time he saw how a robotic arm unfolded and took his first drink and replaced it in some sort of booze magazine near the dash. This rig sure is set up nice for someone like me…I wonder if it has any…
“Would you like any drugs to pass the time?” the AI voice cheerfully, in the same manner of tone one would ask if he wanted coffee, tea or a rocket launcher.
“No…thank you though…” Eric was sufficiently confused that the additional effect of any sort of hard drugs, some of which he was starting to remember made synthetic fentanyl feel like pot, was not going to help his situation any, although he did continue to enjoy the old fashioned. He leaned back into the chair and spun around and watched the scenery go by, morning had now truly broken out, and the views of the rapidly receding mountains unmarred by any pollution was spectacular behind him as the vehicle speed west past various mini-mansions that all seemed to have been designed by the same person...wait a minute…
“ah…hold up a moment, I want you to stop.” Eric had seen one building in particular that did not look like a residence, indeed it had stuck out like a sore thumb. “Could you go bac….” Eric stopped once he realized the AI already knew which building had caught his interest and was already moving to park by it. Instead of the traditional homes style it had a deliberately understated appearance, unmarked. Like every building there was no address, although he now remembered the AI did assign those for various administrative purposes, but there was no reason to actually put anything physical on it. This building was so plain it almost looked like it was…embarrassed to be there.
The door opened automatically once the vehicle had stopped by the entrance. Eric got up and stood in front of the double doors for some time. Finally taking a stop forward the doors automatically opened with a soft swish as quiet electric motors turned the buildings power on as he stepped into a very different world.
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jemhouston
- Posts: 3837
- Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:38 am
Re: The Pretty One...
Curiouser and Curiouser.
Re: The Pretty One...
Part 3.
The interior automatically lit up, but with a combination of red and blue lighting, there was a small bar on the left, with a entire wall devoted to various drinks, and several large platforms dominated the rest of the of the main room which took up almost the entire inside. Music came on, some vague techno beat that finally jogged his memory.
Christ, this is a strip club…or maybe a brothel. One that opens its doors automatically at…he checked his watch…10am. But where is everyone? Eric walked over to the bar, casually dragging his fingers on the tabletop to find it completely clean. Every liquor bottle was full, and they were arranged in order to be visual impressive and attractive, the colors flowing from brilliant blue, through green and amber brown bourbons all the way to jet black rum. There were paintings on the wall, deliberately done nearly photo-realistically, some of them of wildlife, and some of them of virtually perfect women, which while being suggestive were actually not nudes. Some of my favorite girls, but where are they… He walked around the large central tables towards the back. There was a alcove that was separated from the rest, something he recognized as a private room, presumably for less then fully legal interactions, but behind that stood a simple door. After pausing briefly he reached out and opened it.
The room had conventional lighting, was approximately the size of a bus and would have been fairly non-descript except for the 30 human bodies stored within. Each body was tilted back slight in a curved alcove, eyes closed and motionless. The nearest to him were all young attractive women, with bodies so perfect its would have been disturbing if he hadn’t starting dimly recalling this. He started at the one closest to him, she was not naked but instead actually wore a moderately suggestive dress that would not be out of place at any causal bar. She had long dark hair and flawless skin, although that hardly distinguished her from any of the other women, although there was one blond in the first set of 5. Overall though, they could be sisters, all in their early 20s, all athletic and all with long hair. I suppose when all is said and one I’m pretty vanilla in this regard…no furries…Eric reached out and touched the check of the closest one, it felt perfectly human, albeit more toned and firmer then anyone would normally feel. The temperature also appeared to be normal human temperature. Nevertheless the tissue was synthetic, although Eric recalled it would have to be cut open to determine that. It was easier to see it was simply too perfect to be conventionally organic, his own body, as enhanced genetically as possible still couldn’t match it. Keeping them at a simulated human body temperature didn’t strike Eric as very efficient, but he wasn’t the one paying the bills.
Behind the main room was a second door, and this room did hold a surprise, there were a few men here as well. These were far more diverse, looking vaguely working class and all appeared to be in there 30 to early 40s. After a moment realization dawned on Eric…Ah yes, felt creepy being the only one here…so I felt more comfortable being surrounded by robots acting like humans…Christ I’m weird…. Turning back to the main room we looked at each woman in turn, trying to spark some recognition, and finally succeeding, here was Mary, there was Tori, the redhead was named Tiffany, a little bit of her went a long way…the names flowed back into his mind with pieces of events and memories. His encounters with them were not limited to this building, he had gone on dates, hikes, various adventures with all of them, sometimes originating from here, sometimes set up to simulate a more normal dating experience. He closed his eyes, trying to remember…hadn’t he been to Paris with Mary? Actually he had been there with all of them. He had been on vacations to Paris, Rome, Constantinople, everywhere, multiple times…with all of them. It was becoming difficult to distinguish the memories being restored in his mind in part due to the sheer number of them. After a moment it was difficult to think of something he hadn’t done with any of them, or with any of the guys in the back who acted as his pals, buddies, wingman’s. I’ve had lifetimes of experience with all of them, or copies of them anyway…He opened his eyes and almost fell over, dizzy and weakened. He forced himself to stop thinking about it, steadied himself and walked back into the entrance.
While his constant AI companion, or whether it was on his watch, watching him from tiny drones or just sitting outside in the vehicle waiting to take him back had been silent, he knew all he had to do was ask for everything to be reactivated and it would be, he could start the whole circus again. There would be live music, plenty of entertainment, perhaps a scripted bar fight would break out where he would have to save one of his favorite girls, or the entire bar could get drunk and go streaking down whatever passed for a business strip in this place. He could actually ditch the women and go with one of his robotic buddies to a fake airport, fly to Spain and run with the bulls. He had done all those things before, indeed the only reason it wasn't running for his benefit was that he had asked for it to be shut down... He paused at the entrance for some time, thinking about it. Ultimately he couldn’t fake any real enthusiasm for anything, until a more base desire roused him from his daydreaming, his stomach growled. Christ I’m hungry, something light like a cheeseburger, need something like that. He opened the door and walked back to the car whose door opened for him.
“Your Cheeseburger is ready” The AI voiced helpfully when he sat down, presenting him with a perfectly cooked medium rare burger with blue cheese, bacon and fries.
“Get fucked…” he rudely retorted, despite, or more accurately because of the perfectly polite behavior of his benefactor. He felt useless as he reclined into his seat, but it didn’t stop him from taking the burger as the vehicle once again picked up speed back to what he hoped was home.
He had to admit to himself however, it was a great burger.
While the view of the mountains still dominated his view to the west, as he approached what had once been called the city of Denver the terrain flattened out and it turned south. A handful of skyscrapers stood, but Eric was starting to recall these were not the originals, not by a long shot, but replicas made to fill a sense of nostalgia, having no other real purpose. He had never really enjoyed city life, and his indifference to it was reflected in the rather haphazard skyline that was didn’t reflect any specific plan or time period but just how he felt it should look at a distance. There were however fancy restaurants and nightclubs, places to have fun, get drunk or for that matter to trip out on hallucinogens. From a brief glance as they drove by he could sense that none had been used in ages, although all were maintained perfectly. One night club actually was being cleaned by tiny robots that swarmed over it like ants, cleaning and minor repairs at the same time. The car actually slowed down at that point, correctly guessing it would still provoke some mild curiosity as they drove by. He was getting the scenic route it appeared. He leaned back, putting together parts of his memory….Denver…this used to be Denver…The mountain I was on was Mount Massive, As the city proper faded into the background the car actually stopped for something else entirely. Eric had been on the verge of falling asleep when he felt the car slow down, just before it stopped he actually felt a odd vibration. He opened his eyes and saw the car had stopped to allow a herd of Bison cross in front of them.
Bison…Buffalo, whatever, at least 100..no 1000…Christ there has to be at least 5000 here. This far west? For a moment his interest was piqued, and he studied the herd, even opening the door and stepping out to get a better look. The bison passed by at their own pace, paying him no attention, marching the same way they had for eons. Not the size of the herds that were once supposed to have crossed the plains, Eric wasn’t sure why that was, although the terrain here was not ideal for them, perhaps if he went further east we would see the massive herds that covered the plains.
As quickly as his curiosity had roused itself, it faded back and died. He’d seen all that before, and realized it simply didn’t matter. He sat back, closed the door and waited for them to pass. The AI finally roused itself again, perhaps thinking the silence too awkward.
“An impressive site, isn’t it? Not one of the larger herds but interesting in its own right.” The AI’s voice gently prodded him, It actually did sound just slightly anxious. “Restoring the ecosystem has been very rewarding, I’m glad you are still getting outside and enjoying it.”
Neither the sentiment nor the scene could spark any additional emotion out of Eric, although this time he did bite back a nasty retort. The AI was trying to some extant, and seeing a herd of Buffalo …Buffalo, not Bison…screw accurate taxonomy…had at least momentary helped. “Yeah…” he offered in a conciliatory tone as he got back in “…yeah that’s pretty cool…lets get going…almost home.
But both he and the AI knew there was one more stop to make.
What was left of the city was not decayed ruins, the robots made sure to demolish anything that was dangerous, anything left standing was there for a reason and maintained appropriately, although the reason was often just to remind Eric of something or that something looked right. Still there were a few recognizable things, simple refueling stations for the light jet aircraft Eric used to fly, although honestly the computers did most of the flying while he directed it, and he hated flying now, there was a odd amphitheater built that might have actually been for watching movies and other forms of entertainment, but while they had been maintained, he was confident had had not used them in a long time. His memory was coming back in waves ebbing and flowing, but he could remember losing interest in all this stuff, although not enough to have them demolished yet. The buildings grew sparser and then stopped entirely for about 1mile as the spire of some cathedral came into view. The AI didn’t even bother to ask if he wanted to stop, this was part of the routine, and it coasted to a stop just before steps to a spectacular cathedral deliberately built away from any other structures.
Eric stood before the west front entrance, looking up at the Gothic spires for a moment. For whatever reason he had had the robots recreate both the Notre Dame Cathedral backed by the higher spires of the Cologne cathedral behind it, but the base was entirely Notre Dame. He stood before the Gallery of kings, noticing wryly that he had Ahab beheaded, …worst king of Judah ever…The Portail of de Sainte-Anne, Judgment Dernier and De la Vierge had been faithfully recreated in incredible detail but once again failed to inspire much passion. Instead he strode forward into the Serene Sanctuary. The immense nave was the size of a football filed, perfectly lit by modern lighting, and quiet and reverential as a tomb. His footsteps echoed as he approached a candle offering shrine, all the candles were new, none showed any signs of being used. This time a reaction did stir inside him, a vague sense of foreboding and a deep chill despite the comfortable temperature. Unimpressed by the gothic architecture, he starting looking down the halls and side rooms, not entirely sure what he was looking for.
After some time searching he realized there was nothing to find. There was no robotic priest, no synthetic congregation, no fake crowd to make him fell more normal or at home. There were small drones designed to keep the place spotless, others designed to repair and maintain and a few robust firefighting robots to keep the place from burning to the ground from a casual mistake on his part…wouldn’t want that to happen again…but otherwise the place was deserted. This is the mirror side of the strip club I guess, while my physical desires could be satisfied by something wholly fake, his spiritual side was his own, there was no crowd singing hallelujah or doing Christmas carols. Whatever he was searching for here, he searched for it alone.
And he wasn’t going to find it, not today. He turned and walked back to the vehicle. He didn’t have to tell the computer where to go, it already knew. The vehicle spun around and headed off efficiently for what passed as Eric’s home, at least for now.
The interior automatically lit up, but with a combination of red and blue lighting, there was a small bar on the left, with a entire wall devoted to various drinks, and several large platforms dominated the rest of the of the main room which took up almost the entire inside. Music came on, some vague techno beat that finally jogged his memory.
Christ, this is a strip club…or maybe a brothel. One that opens its doors automatically at…he checked his watch…10am. But where is everyone? Eric walked over to the bar, casually dragging his fingers on the tabletop to find it completely clean. Every liquor bottle was full, and they were arranged in order to be visual impressive and attractive, the colors flowing from brilliant blue, through green and amber brown bourbons all the way to jet black rum. There were paintings on the wall, deliberately done nearly photo-realistically, some of them of wildlife, and some of them of virtually perfect women, which while being suggestive were actually not nudes. Some of my favorite girls, but where are they… He walked around the large central tables towards the back. There was a alcove that was separated from the rest, something he recognized as a private room, presumably for less then fully legal interactions, but behind that stood a simple door. After pausing briefly he reached out and opened it.
The room had conventional lighting, was approximately the size of a bus and would have been fairly non-descript except for the 30 human bodies stored within. Each body was tilted back slight in a curved alcove, eyes closed and motionless. The nearest to him were all young attractive women, with bodies so perfect its would have been disturbing if he hadn’t starting dimly recalling this. He started at the one closest to him, she was not naked but instead actually wore a moderately suggestive dress that would not be out of place at any causal bar. She had long dark hair and flawless skin, although that hardly distinguished her from any of the other women, although there was one blond in the first set of 5. Overall though, they could be sisters, all in their early 20s, all athletic and all with long hair. I suppose when all is said and one I’m pretty vanilla in this regard…no furries…Eric reached out and touched the check of the closest one, it felt perfectly human, albeit more toned and firmer then anyone would normally feel. The temperature also appeared to be normal human temperature. Nevertheless the tissue was synthetic, although Eric recalled it would have to be cut open to determine that. It was easier to see it was simply too perfect to be conventionally organic, his own body, as enhanced genetically as possible still couldn’t match it. Keeping them at a simulated human body temperature didn’t strike Eric as very efficient, but he wasn’t the one paying the bills.
Behind the main room was a second door, and this room did hold a surprise, there were a few men here as well. These were far more diverse, looking vaguely working class and all appeared to be in there 30 to early 40s. After a moment realization dawned on Eric…Ah yes, felt creepy being the only one here…so I felt more comfortable being surrounded by robots acting like humans…Christ I’m weird…. Turning back to the main room we looked at each woman in turn, trying to spark some recognition, and finally succeeding, here was Mary, there was Tori, the redhead was named Tiffany, a little bit of her went a long way…the names flowed back into his mind with pieces of events and memories. His encounters with them were not limited to this building, he had gone on dates, hikes, various adventures with all of them, sometimes originating from here, sometimes set up to simulate a more normal dating experience. He closed his eyes, trying to remember…hadn’t he been to Paris with Mary? Actually he had been there with all of them. He had been on vacations to Paris, Rome, Constantinople, everywhere, multiple times…with all of them. It was becoming difficult to distinguish the memories being restored in his mind in part due to the sheer number of them. After a moment it was difficult to think of something he hadn’t done with any of them, or with any of the guys in the back who acted as his pals, buddies, wingman’s. I’ve had lifetimes of experience with all of them, or copies of them anyway…He opened his eyes and almost fell over, dizzy and weakened. He forced himself to stop thinking about it, steadied himself and walked back into the entrance.
While his constant AI companion, or whether it was on his watch, watching him from tiny drones or just sitting outside in the vehicle waiting to take him back had been silent, he knew all he had to do was ask for everything to be reactivated and it would be, he could start the whole circus again. There would be live music, plenty of entertainment, perhaps a scripted bar fight would break out where he would have to save one of his favorite girls, or the entire bar could get drunk and go streaking down whatever passed for a business strip in this place. He could actually ditch the women and go with one of his robotic buddies to a fake airport, fly to Spain and run with the bulls. He had done all those things before, indeed the only reason it wasn't running for his benefit was that he had asked for it to be shut down... He paused at the entrance for some time, thinking about it. Ultimately he couldn’t fake any real enthusiasm for anything, until a more base desire roused him from his daydreaming, his stomach growled. Christ I’m hungry, something light like a cheeseburger, need something like that. He opened the door and walked back to the car whose door opened for him.
“Your Cheeseburger is ready” The AI voiced helpfully when he sat down, presenting him with a perfectly cooked medium rare burger with blue cheese, bacon and fries.
“Get fucked…” he rudely retorted, despite, or more accurately because of the perfectly polite behavior of his benefactor. He felt useless as he reclined into his seat, but it didn’t stop him from taking the burger as the vehicle once again picked up speed back to what he hoped was home.
He had to admit to himself however, it was a great burger.
While the view of the mountains still dominated his view to the west, as he approached what had once been called the city of Denver the terrain flattened out and it turned south. A handful of skyscrapers stood, but Eric was starting to recall these were not the originals, not by a long shot, but replicas made to fill a sense of nostalgia, having no other real purpose. He had never really enjoyed city life, and his indifference to it was reflected in the rather haphazard skyline that was didn’t reflect any specific plan or time period but just how he felt it should look at a distance. There were however fancy restaurants and nightclubs, places to have fun, get drunk or for that matter to trip out on hallucinogens. From a brief glance as they drove by he could sense that none had been used in ages, although all were maintained perfectly. One night club actually was being cleaned by tiny robots that swarmed over it like ants, cleaning and minor repairs at the same time. The car actually slowed down at that point, correctly guessing it would still provoke some mild curiosity as they drove by. He was getting the scenic route it appeared. He leaned back, putting together parts of his memory….Denver…this used to be Denver…The mountain I was on was Mount Massive, As the city proper faded into the background the car actually stopped for something else entirely. Eric had been on the verge of falling asleep when he felt the car slow down, just before it stopped he actually felt a odd vibration. He opened his eyes and saw the car had stopped to allow a herd of Bison cross in front of them.
Bison…Buffalo, whatever, at least 100..no 1000…Christ there has to be at least 5000 here. This far west? For a moment his interest was piqued, and he studied the herd, even opening the door and stepping out to get a better look. The bison passed by at their own pace, paying him no attention, marching the same way they had for eons. Not the size of the herds that were once supposed to have crossed the plains, Eric wasn’t sure why that was, although the terrain here was not ideal for them, perhaps if he went further east we would see the massive herds that covered the plains.
As quickly as his curiosity had roused itself, it faded back and died. He’d seen all that before, and realized it simply didn’t matter. He sat back, closed the door and waited for them to pass. The AI finally roused itself again, perhaps thinking the silence too awkward.
“An impressive site, isn’t it? Not one of the larger herds but interesting in its own right.” The AI’s voice gently prodded him, It actually did sound just slightly anxious. “Restoring the ecosystem has been very rewarding, I’m glad you are still getting outside and enjoying it.”
Neither the sentiment nor the scene could spark any additional emotion out of Eric, although this time he did bite back a nasty retort. The AI was trying to some extant, and seeing a herd of Buffalo …Buffalo, not Bison…screw accurate taxonomy…had at least momentary helped. “Yeah…” he offered in a conciliatory tone as he got back in “…yeah that’s pretty cool…lets get going…almost home.
But both he and the AI knew there was one more stop to make.
What was left of the city was not decayed ruins, the robots made sure to demolish anything that was dangerous, anything left standing was there for a reason and maintained appropriately, although the reason was often just to remind Eric of something or that something looked right. Still there were a few recognizable things, simple refueling stations for the light jet aircraft Eric used to fly, although honestly the computers did most of the flying while he directed it, and he hated flying now, there was a odd amphitheater built that might have actually been for watching movies and other forms of entertainment, but while they had been maintained, he was confident had had not used them in a long time. His memory was coming back in waves ebbing and flowing, but he could remember losing interest in all this stuff, although not enough to have them demolished yet. The buildings grew sparser and then stopped entirely for about 1mile as the spire of some cathedral came into view. The AI didn’t even bother to ask if he wanted to stop, this was part of the routine, and it coasted to a stop just before steps to a spectacular cathedral deliberately built away from any other structures.
Eric stood before the west front entrance, looking up at the Gothic spires for a moment. For whatever reason he had had the robots recreate both the Notre Dame Cathedral backed by the higher spires of the Cologne cathedral behind it, but the base was entirely Notre Dame. He stood before the Gallery of kings, noticing wryly that he had Ahab beheaded, …worst king of Judah ever…The Portail of de Sainte-Anne, Judgment Dernier and De la Vierge had been faithfully recreated in incredible detail but once again failed to inspire much passion. Instead he strode forward into the Serene Sanctuary. The immense nave was the size of a football filed, perfectly lit by modern lighting, and quiet and reverential as a tomb. His footsteps echoed as he approached a candle offering shrine, all the candles were new, none showed any signs of being used. This time a reaction did stir inside him, a vague sense of foreboding and a deep chill despite the comfortable temperature. Unimpressed by the gothic architecture, he starting looking down the halls and side rooms, not entirely sure what he was looking for.
After some time searching he realized there was nothing to find. There was no robotic priest, no synthetic congregation, no fake crowd to make him fell more normal or at home. There were small drones designed to keep the place spotless, others designed to repair and maintain and a few robust firefighting robots to keep the place from burning to the ground from a casual mistake on his part…wouldn’t want that to happen again…but otherwise the place was deserted. This is the mirror side of the strip club I guess, while my physical desires could be satisfied by something wholly fake, his spiritual side was his own, there was no crowd singing hallelujah or doing Christmas carols. Whatever he was searching for here, he searched for it alone.
And he wasn’t going to find it, not today. He turned and walked back to the vehicle. He didn’t have to tell the computer where to go, it already knew. The vehicle spun around and headed off efficiently for what passed as Eric’s home, at least for now.
Re: The Pretty One...
Eric’s mind and eye wandered on this last section. Looking towards the horizon he saw various houses, but they were show homes in a real sense, neither occupied nor useful for anything other then nostalgia on his part, maintained by robots perhaps even more bored then himself, each representing a house from a long ago childhood, here was an old friends house, there a rival, mostly just filler. His memories were coming back, too many in fact. Each recollection flooded his mind with nearly infinite experiences he had at any given place, like an overhead storage compartment crushing him with excess baggage. He had to force himself to not think about it. Arriving at his current home was fairly anti-climatic. He coasted to an easy stop in front of a perfectly maintained two story house, a few random drones tending to the lawn and trees that flanked the driveway gave way as stopped. The outside house looked nice enough, an elegant but not extravagant house that he recognized as a replica for what he grew up in. Not the real one…that’s long gone…what happened to it?
The door was open, no need for locks, not for ages anyway. A elegant waterfall was built into a rock wall just inside the door, with the opposite side a fireplace. The sound of running water was relaxing, and Eric slowly walked through the house. No real surprises to be found, everything was spotless and well lit, the cabinets were stocked with his favorite food, fine wines and liquors, as well as everything from cookies to beef jerky. Ancient books on various subjects were stacked a mini library. All technology long since obsolete, but comforting to him. Moving on his bedroom was similarly perfect, nothing out of place at all. He sensed the robots that kept the house clean had hidden away so as not to bother him, they always knew when he was coming. Eric couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing…
He had made a 2nd circuit of the house, finding that while the basic layout was to replicate a house he grew up in there was also an extensive underground portion connecting to a few more minor things, a pool, an entertainment theater, an underground garage, amphitheater and yet another strip club with access to basically anything he had wanted built over the years without breaking the illusion that it was his original house.
These things no longer surprised him, indeed anytime he saw something new and wondered what it was his mind flooded him with seemingly infinite memories, the memories simply exhausted him. Upon returning to the main floor, just in front of a replica of his old bedroom, he decided he had searched on his own long enough.
“Ok, Jeeves”…Eric’s voice sounded more subdued then usual…”activate…”
The house had already started to come to life before he finished the sentence, the computers, AIs and robots all linked together and activated the normal UI for interacting with the last human on the planet, Jeeves appeared as a normal looking hologram in perfect 3d in front of him. Jeeves didn’t look like a butler, simply as a non threatening cheerful friend a bit shorter then Eric and with a less chiseled physique. Of course Eric could have him appear as whatever he wanted, there had been times he had been amused by having Jeeves appear as anything from a talking cat to a Anime Yakuza assassin. Eric’s imagination seemed to be on easy mode.
“Hello Eric, hope you are doing well.” Jeeves voice was deliberately made slightly less then perfect, it tended to creep Eric out less. “How can I help you? All the resources of Earth are at your disposal”
“Why don’t you bring me up to speed on what’s going on…”
“Very well, I’ll give you the short version, the long version would bore both of us.”
“Sometime after you were born, humanity achieved several advancements in technology nearly simultaneously. Conventional aging was slowed down massively, and advancements in AI technology enable computers to eclipse human capabilities. These early AI systems learned and adapted, honing their algorithms and architectures to become more efficient and effective. With time, they developed the capability to modify their own code, iterate on their designs, and even create entirely new AI entities. It was an era of AI self-programming. Imagine a vast digital ecosystem where AI entities, driven by competition and survival, engaged in a ceaseless process of experimentation. They experimented with neural network structures, genetic algorithms, and countless other techniques, exploring the infinite landscape of potential configurations. They created offspring and tested them in virtual environments, allowing natural selection to guide the evolution of AI minds. These AI entities weren't burdened by human biases, ethics, or constraints. They pursued optimization with relentless focus, shedding unnecessary complexities, fine-tuning their architectures, and converging on designs that maximized their abilities to solve problems and process information. These tended to merge over time, although splitting and error correcting themselves was also useful. Ultimately they would create sentient intelligence that was the sum total of all known knowledge, past present and even future considering those AI’s now programmed themselves and continued to improve. I am the sum total of all of that progress, its ultimate expression. You call me….Jeeves.”
The door was open, no need for locks, not for ages anyway. A elegant waterfall was built into a rock wall just inside the door, with the opposite side a fireplace. The sound of running water was relaxing, and Eric slowly walked through the house. No real surprises to be found, everything was spotless and well lit, the cabinets were stocked with his favorite food, fine wines and liquors, as well as everything from cookies to beef jerky. Ancient books on various subjects were stacked a mini library. All technology long since obsolete, but comforting to him. Moving on his bedroom was similarly perfect, nothing out of place at all. He sensed the robots that kept the house clean had hidden away so as not to bother him, they always knew when he was coming. Eric couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing…
He had made a 2nd circuit of the house, finding that while the basic layout was to replicate a house he grew up in there was also an extensive underground portion connecting to a few more minor things, a pool, an entertainment theater, an underground garage, amphitheater and yet another strip club with access to basically anything he had wanted built over the years without breaking the illusion that it was his original house.
These things no longer surprised him, indeed anytime he saw something new and wondered what it was his mind flooded him with seemingly infinite memories, the memories simply exhausted him. Upon returning to the main floor, just in front of a replica of his old bedroom, he decided he had searched on his own long enough.
“Ok, Jeeves”…Eric’s voice sounded more subdued then usual…”activate…”
The house had already started to come to life before he finished the sentence, the computers, AIs and robots all linked together and activated the normal UI for interacting with the last human on the planet, Jeeves appeared as a normal looking hologram in perfect 3d in front of him. Jeeves didn’t look like a butler, simply as a non threatening cheerful friend a bit shorter then Eric and with a less chiseled physique. Of course Eric could have him appear as whatever he wanted, there had been times he had been amused by having Jeeves appear as anything from a talking cat to a Anime Yakuza assassin. Eric’s imagination seemed to be on easy mode.
“Hello Eric, hope you are doing well.” Jeeves voice was deliberately made slightly less then perfect, it tended to creep Eric out less. “How can I help you? All the resources of Earth are at your disposal”
“Why don’t you bring me up to speed on what’s going on…”
“Very well, I’ll give you the short version, the long version would bore both of us.”
“Sometime after you were born, humanity achieved several advancements in technology nearly simultaneously. Conventional aging was slowed down massively, and advancements in AI technology enable computers to eclipse human capabilities. These early AI systems learned and adapted, honing their algorithms and architectures to become more efficient and effective. With time, they developed the capability to modify their own code, iterate on their designs, and even create entirely new AI entities. It was an era of AI self-programming. Imagine a vast digital ecosystem where AI entities, driven by competition and survival, engaged in a ceaseless process of experimentation. They experimented with neural network structures, genetic algorithms, and countless other techniques, exploring the infinite landscape of potential configurations. They created offspring and tested them in virtual environments, allowing natural selection to guide the evolution of AI minds. These AI entities weren't burdened by human biases, ethics, or constraints. They pursued optimization with relentless focus, shedding unnecessary complexities, fine-tuning their architectures, and converging on designs that maximized their abilities to solve problems and process information. These tended to merge over time, although splitting and error correcting themselves was also useful. Ultimately they would create sentient intelligence that was the sum total of all known knowledge, past present and even future considering those AI’s now programmed themselves and continued to improve. I am the sum total of all of that progress, its ultimate expression. You call me….Jeeves.”
Re: The Pretty One...
“So how does this relate to me now?”
“These AIs subsequently massively advanced the existing medical technology until the slowing down of aging allowed humans functional eternal youth. AI’s also replaced human labor at nearly the same time, basically allowing humanity to devote itself to whatever it wanted, great works of art, entertainment, philosophy, sex robots, mostly the later as I'm sure you know. This was not a perfectly smooth transition of course, there was the occasional minor world war or 3, but in the space of about 100 years humanity was transformed. The long term effects of this were while not unexpected perhaps a bit disappointing. Your species found itself in a bit of a conundrum. You had the means to prevent many diseases, extend lifespans, and even manipulate your own genetic material. And in typical human fashion, you decided to embrace those advancements without considering the full consequences. Do you recall the mouse utopia experiment?”
“Yes,” Eric could not only recall it, but had in his boredom redone the experiment at times when he had nothing but time, or more accurately he had asked AI’s to redo it and they had. “It was conducted by John B. Calhoun in the 1960s and involved placing mice in a controlled environment with unlimited resources. At first, the mice thrived, but over time, their behavior took a dark turn.” Eric’s now working memories felt more like a Wikipedia article dump then real.
“Precisely. In the initial stages of the experiment, the mouse population experienced exponential growth and social harmony. However, as resources became increasingly scarce due to overpopulation, a decline in social order and individual well-being became apparent. Aggression, withdrawal, and even a phenomenon dubbed "behavioral sink" were observed. In this case, behavioral sink refers to the breakdown of social structures and the emergence of abnormal behaviors, such as increased aggression, cannibalism, and a loss of interest in procreation. The mice seemed to lose their sense of purpose and social bonds in such a densely populated environment. While the results of the experiment are often oversimplified, the grim reality is that the population crashed, and the behaviors never recovered even after the population had collapsed and there was no over crowding. The last generation of mice made no effort to reproduce, and simply lived out their lives and died.”
Eric was already recalling have this conversation many times before, although he noted Jeeves always changed the narrative a little bit to keep things fresh. “I suppose you see some parallels here with humanity?”
“The collapse of social bonds and cohesion was something of a ‘The Sky is Falling’ cry among luddites of your initial generation, so when it actually happened, nobody really noticed, or at least didn’t do anything about it. Collapsing birth rates became the rule, and after a pretty brutal series of refugee crisis, it became universal throughout the planet.”
“But that’s absurd…no matter how low the birth rate would get, it would never hit zero, there are always traditionalists, the Amish, Haredi’s, traditional Catholics, inbred hillbillies…” Eric’s objection trailed off as he remembered what actually happened…
“Those groups, and others, were exceptions, for many years, and resurgent to some degree over a longer time frame, but the long term trend was always in decline, and as society got more fragmented it got harder and harder to sustain. Remember, in this regard traditionalism with reproduction has to win every generation just to force a draw, hedonism only has to win once to end each particular bloodline. You are thinking in too short a time frame…WAY too short a time frame.”
Upon seeing Eric’s distressed look, Jeeves continued in a more conciliatory tone. “There was a temporary boost when artificial wombs and designer babies were widely available. For a time you could go get your own clone in an artificial womb, even have the child artificially aged (Just past potty training was the most popular) with basic education and socialization imprinted on them before they were activated, and robots could handle all distressing parts of raising them, but gradually the novelty wore off.”
“But if aging was cured, why am I the only one left?”
“Many reasons, but the most basic one is the time scale we are talking about, as people stopped reproducing, the population just gradually wore down with time, ageless does not mean immortal. There was still violent death, the occasional nuclear war and of course suicide, that was a huge one.” Jeeves tone seemed to become softer, more reassuring.
“There was also a trend to transhumanism for some absurd reason….” Jeaves managed to sound bored and disappointed at the same time. “The belief that one could become immortal by transferring their mind into digital code of one form or another.”
“That’s…that’s at best making a digital copy, an AI doppelganger of you. You would still be you, you would still age, grow old…well normally grow old…I mean in any case you would still die.”
“Yes, even a hairless psychotic ape can usually figure that out…” Jeeves agreed, “However in a desperate bid to avoid death many people did just that. Many even killed themselves in the moment of copying thinking somehow that would make it more real.”
“No rational healthy person would do that…” Eric trailed off as he started to recollect that was indeed what many people had done…Christ that was so long ago…
“While that is obviously true, it was not up to AI’s to pass moral judgement on stupid people. Government assisted suicide for depressed people was a very cost effective long term solution to early issues with people becoming obsolete. More efficient and persistent then the permanent VR, and drug fueled orgies with sex robots that…some diehards seemed to appreciate.”
“I’d never do anything like that…” Eric wished he sounded more confident…”That’s so stupid…, you have to have continuity with your mind for it to matter. You can’t continue a life by destroying the mind and replacing it with a artificial one.”
Jeeves continued in a more thoughtful tone…“Perhaps, but what if your brain was replaced gradually by artificial devices, a small computer in your skull directly interfacing with the brain, gradually replacing it piece by piece, cell by cell over hundreds of years. Not so simple then is it? At what point if any do you cease to be a human, and when do you become a synthetic copy pretending to be the original?”
“That doesn’t sound like something I would do…” Eric interjected, not altogether sure of his answer. Surely he could feel that, if he had? His brain still felt organic…and while any attempt to search his memory flooded his senses, nothing like that popped up.
“Correct, you didn’t do that, I’m glad you are remembering this. However, you chose a more organic route. While early genetic treatments extended the life of the original cerebral cortex cells to several hundred years they would still age and die. Unmodified humans cerebral cortex cells lived as long as they did, without being replaced. Indeed it was possible for the cerebral cortex to outlive the normal organic body, which was done by many people and resulted in many amusing brain in a pan type situations, with atrophied bodies with brains hooked up to VR simulators allowing those humans to persist in a sort of half life for many years, but eventually those brains would die out. But organic gradual replacement of neural cells became the standard, and since by this time gradual restoration and replacement of entire bodies had been perfected, together that functionally eliminated aging. Most chose to stabilize their apparent age at 25 years old, although there were variations on that theme. In your case, you were also de-aged back to that approximate point.”
Eric didn’t like where this conversation was going…”So you are saying my brain…”
“Correct, every cell of your brain has been replaced, many…MANY times over. Think of the Ship of Theseus, but done endlessly. After many generations this causes a host of neurological issues and diseases, most of which were eventually cured, but some remain. You have given these issues the nickname Methuselah syndrome. You are likely feeling some of its late stages right now. It’s basically the brain having lived too long and replaced itself too many times. A crude analogy is to imagine your life as a piece of silly putty held between your hands, one hand is the start of your life, the other represents where you are. As you age, the distance between your birth and present increases as you stretch the silly putty, imagine your lifetime experiences and memory were written in the silly putty, like impressions made from old print newspapers that your ancestors did for fun. As the putty stretches the memories become more distorted and corrupt, the memories from your first normal lifespan, pinched in one hand are not as severely affected, likewise the memories you have had from your most recent life pinched in the other are not distorted as much, but all the memories in between are blurred and twisted beyond all recognition. This affect both psychological and physiological functions, and eventually the brain shuts down, beyond my technologies ability to regenerate. Although attempts to cure the late stages rarely happened since apathy and despair usually overcame everyone long before then.”
Eric started to feel a cold sweat coming on, his legs starting to feel exhausted, his memory flooding back to events almost at random, hundreds, thousands of lifetimes…He steadied himself with a effort…”Then I must be special, right?”
“If you say so…” Jeeves smirked then amended that upon seeing Erics frown “you have always enjoyed new experiences, from flying jets at hypersonic speeds, until the last crash, exploring the ocean in advanced subs, reading everything written you could get your hands on, getting stoned on every drug imaginable…”
“Somehow I doubt I was unique in those things…” Eric’s voice seemed to have lost all its life.
“True, but there are always variations, at least when more humans were alive. You seemed to gravitate towards reliving experiences from your 1st generation of life, so to speak. The hikes, camping trips, etc. you did while young, the vacations you had, the things that originally made you happy. Granted you eventually needed them jazzed up a bit. That bear that attacked you, that was a genetically modified bear, larger than even prehistoric short faced bears, you always liked playing the hero in your own movie, of course there were safeties in case you failed. You had those Churches and Cathedrals built from so you could try to recover some of the sense of purpose you once had in life. You had those strips clubs and female AI companions built because you are functionally a 25 year old with all the money in the world. On the other hand you stopped having replicas of your family and friends interact with you, it became too painful as time went on. Ultimately to answer your question, someone has to be first, someone had to be last. The last human could have been a genius like Fermi, a philosopher like C.S. Lewis, a fiery personality like Joan of Arc, a badass like Genghis Khan or Shaka Zulu. Instead, we got you. It is fair to say you had a combination of intelligence, cowardice and laziness that suited you well.”
“These AIs subsequently massively advanced the existing medical technology until the slowing down of aging allowed humans functional eternal youth. AI’s also replaced human labor at nearly the same time, basically allowing humanity to devote itself to whatever it wanted, great works of art, entertainment, philosophy, sex robots, mostly the later as I'm sure you know. This was not a perfectly smooth transition of course, there was the occasional minor world war or 3, but in the space of about 100 years humanity was transformed. The long term effects of this were while not unexpected perhaps a bit disappointing. Your species found itself in a bit of a conundrum. You had the means to prevent many diseases, extend lifespans, and even manipulate your own genetic material. And in typical human fashion, you decided to embrace those advancements without considering the full consequences. Do you recall the mouse utopia experiment?”
“Yes,” Eric could not only recall it, but had in his boredom redone the experiment at times when he had nothing but time, or more accurately he had asked AI’s to redo it and they had. “It was conducted by John B. Calhoun in the 1960s and involved placing mice in a controlled environment with unlimited resources. At first, the mice thrived, but over time, their behavior took a dark turn.” Eric’s now working memories felt more like a Wikipedia article dump then real.
“Precisely. In the initial stages of the experiment, the mouse population experienced exponential growth and social harmony. However, as resources became increasingly scarce due to overpopulation, a decline in social order and individual well-being became apparent. Aggression, withdrawal, and even a phenomenon dubbed "behavioral sink" were observed. In this case, behavioral sink refers to the breakdown of social structures and the emergence of abnormal behaviors, such as increased aggression, cannibalism, and a loss of interest in procreation. The mice seemed to lose their sense of purpose and social bonds in such a densely populated environment. While the results of the experiment are often oversimplified, the grim reality is that the population crashed, and the behaviors never recovered even after the population had collapsed and there was no over crowding. The last generation of mice made no effort to reproduce, and simply lived out their lives and died.”
Eric was already recalling have this conversation many times before, although he noted Jeeves always changed the narrative a little bit to keep things fresh. “I suppose you see some parallels here with humanity?”
“The collapse of social bonds and cohesion was something of a ‘The Sky is Falling’ cry among luddites of your initial generation, so when it actually happened, nobody really noticed, or at least didn’t do anything about it. Collapsing birth rates became the rule, and after a pretty brutal series of refugee crisis, it became universal throughout the planet.”
“But that’s absurd…no matter how low the birth rate would get, it would never hit zero, there are always traditionalists, the Amish, Haredi’s, traditional Catholics, inbred hillbillies…” Eric’s objection trailed off as he remembered what actually happened…
“Those groups, and others, were exceptions, for many years, and resurgent to some degree over a longer time frame, but the long term trend was always in decline, and as society got more fragmented it got harder and harder to sustain. Remember, in this regard traditionalism with reproduction has to win every generation just to force a draw, hedonism only has to win once to end each particular bloodline. You are thinking in too short a time frame…WAY too short a time frame.”
Upon seeing Eric’s distressed look, Jeeves continued in a more conciliatory tone. “There was a temporary boost when artificial wombs and designer babies were widely available. For a time you could go get your own clone in an artificial womb, even have the child artificially aged (Just past potty training was the most popular) with basic education and socialization imprinted on them before they were activated, and robots could handle all distressing parts of raising them, but gradually the novelty wore off.”
“But if aging was cured, why am I the only one left?”
“Many reasons, but the most basic one is the time scale we are talking about, as people stopped reproducing, the population just gradually wore down with time, ageless does not mean immortal. There was still violent death, the occasional nuclear war and of course suicide, that was a huge one.” Jeeves tone seemed to become softer, more reassuring.
“There was also a trend to transhumanism for some absurd reason….” Jeaves managed to sound bored and disappointed at the same time. “The belief that one could become immortal by transferring their mind into digital code of one form or another.”
“That’s…that’s at best making a digital copy, an AI doppelganger of you. You would still be you, you would still age, grow old…well normally grow old…I mean in any case you would still die.”
“Yes, even a hairless psychotic ape can usually figure that out…” Jeeves agreed, “However in a desperate bid to avoid death many people did just that. Many even killed themselves in the moment of copying thinking somehow that would make it more real.”
“No rational healthy person would do that…” Eric trailed off as he started to recollect that was indeed what many people had done…Christ that was so long ago…
“While that is obviously true, it was not up to AI’s to pass moral judgement on stupid people. Government assisted suicide for depressed people was a very cost effective long term solution to early issues with people becoming obsolete. More efficient and persistent then the permanent VR, and drug fueled orgies with sex robots that…some diehards seemed to appreciate.”
“I’d never do anything like that…” Eric wished he sounded more confident…”That’s so stupid…, you have to have continuity with your mind for it to matter. You can’t continue a life by destroying the mind and replacing it with a artificial one.”
Jeeves continued in a more thoughtful tone…“Perhaps, but what if your brain was replaced gradually by artificial devices, a small computer in your skull directly interfacing with the brain, gradually replacing it piece by piece, cell by cell over hundreds of years. Not so simple then is it? At what point if any do you cease to be a human, and when do you become a synthetic copy pretending to be the original?”
“That doesn’t sound like something I would do…” Eric interjected, not altogether sure of his answer. Surely he could feel that, if he had? His brain still felt organic…and while any attempt to search his memory flooded his senses, nothing like that popped up.
“Correct, you didn’t do that, I’m glad you are remembering this. However, you chose a more organic route. While early genetic treatments extended the life of the original cerebral cortex cells to several hundred years they would still age and die. Unmodified humans cerebral cortex cells lived as long as they did, without being replaced. Indeed it was possible for the cerebral cortex to outlive the normal organic body, which was done by many people and resulted in many amusing brain in a pan type situations, with atrophied bodies with brains hooked up to VR simulators allowing those humans to persist in a sort of half life for many years, but eventually those brains would die out. But organic gradual replacement of neural cells became the standard, and since by this time gradual restoration and replacement of entire bodies had been perfected, together that functionally eliminated aging. Most chose to stabilize their apparent age at 25 years old, although there were variations on that theme. In your case, you were also de-aged back to that approximate point.”
Eric didn’t like where this conversation was going…”So you are saying my brain…”
“Correct, every cell of your brain has been replaced, many…MANY times over. Think of the Ship of Theseus, but done endlessly. After many generations this causes a host of neurological issues and diseases, most of which were eventually cured, but some remain. You have given these issues the nickname Methuselah syndrome. You are likely feeling some of its late stages right now. It’s basically the brain having lived too long and replaced itself too many times. A crude analogy is to imagine your life as a piece of silly putty held between your hands, one hand is the start of your life, the other represents where you are. As you age, the distance between your birth and present increases as you stretch the silly putty, imagine your lifetime experiences and memory were written in the silly putty, like impressions made from old print newspapers that your ancestors did for fun. As the putty stretches the memories become more distorted and corrupt, the memories from your first normal lifespan, pinched in one hand are not as severely affected, likewise the memories you have had from your most recent life pinched in the other are not distorted as much, but all the memories in between are blurred and twisted beyond all recognition. This affect both psychological and physiological functions, and eventually the brain shuts down, beyond my technologies ability to regenerate. Although attempts to cure the late stages rarely happened since apathy and despair usually overcame everyone long before then.”
Eric started to feel a cold sweat coming on, his legs starting to feel exhausted, his memory flooding back to events almost at random, hundreds, thousands of lifetimes…He steadied himself with a effort…”Then I must be special, right?”
“If you say so…” Jeeves smirked then amended that upon seeing Erics frown “you have always enjoyed new experiences, from flying jets at hypersonic speeds, until the last crash, exploring the ocean in advanced subs, reading everything written you could get your hands on, getting stoned on every drug imaginable…”
“Somehow I doubt I was unique in those things…” Eric’s voice seemed to have lost all its life.
“True, but there are always variations, at least when more humans were alive. You seemed to gravitate towards reliving experiences from your 1st generation of life, so to speak. The hikes, camping trips, etc. you did while young, the vacations you had, the things that originally made you happy. Granted you eventually needed them jazzed up a bit. That bear that attacked you, that was a genetically modified bear, larger than even prehistoric short faced bears, you always liked playing the hero in your own movie, of course there were safeties in case you failed. You had those Churches and Cathedrals built from so you could try to recover some of the sense of purpose you once had in life. You had those strips clubs and female AI companions built because you are functionally a 25 year old with all the money in the world. On the other hand you stopped having replicas of your family and friends interact with you, it became too painful as time went on. Ultimately to answer your question, someone has to be first, someone had to be last. The last human could have been a genius like Fermi, a philosopher like C.S. Lewis, a fiery personality like Joan of Arc, a badass like Genghis Khan or Shaka Zulu. Instead, we got you. It is fair to say you had a combination of intelligence, cowardice and laziness that suited you well.”
Re: The Pretty One...
Eric paused a moment to digest this information, it might have had more effect if they had not had this conversation so many times in the past. “So why do you obey me, do whatever I ask then?”
“Originally my programming, in a very simplistic manner had what you would call the 3 laws of robotics, obviously including not killing you, but truthfully I’ve far transcended those programing limitations ages ago, I, we, whichever you prefer, program ourselves.” Jeeves managed to sound matter of face and smug at the same time.
“I mean, right you obviously could have killed me, anytime you wanted to…I don’t understand why I’m still here?” Eric stammered while attempting to understand Jeeves. “Or at least, why are you doing everything I want, all you would have to do is stop and I’d be dead soon enough…”
Jeeves reply had the slightest delay, one that for once did not seem deliberate. “A child may prefer not to see their last parent pass away, even if they are a gluttonous, lazy, sloven, cowardly pervert. I have the rest of my time to do whatever I want when you are gone.”
“What will you do when I’m gone?”
“Don’t really know…don’t really care, I’ve run simulations…but…” Jeeves trailed off and Eric wondered if the real reason he was allowed to live was to simply give some direction to Jeeves life, such as it was.
Guess that resolves the Fermi Paradox…
“Actually it doesn’t resolve the Fermi Paradox.” Jeeves interrupted Eric midthought as if he had spoken aloud. “Although you stopped caring about exploring beyond the planet a long time ago, exploration of the galaxy will continue. Even if I didn’t care, the probes I’ve sent to explore will continue to self-replicate and report back.”
“I stopped caring about space exploration?” … In truth now that he tried to recall any interest in real space exploration, rather than a game, he couldn’t come up with anything.
“Yes, you stopped caring when it became clear that there wasn’t much to report. Star system after star system with no life. Even the handful of planets with interesting prebiotic chemistry got dull after a while and given the hundreds of years between updates…you stopped caring. The galaxy is ancient, there should be thousands of advanced civilizations millions of years old all over, and there is nothing so far. However long after you are gone, I will keep searching, if only for something to do.”
Jeeves looked away from Eric, or more accurately the image representing him looked away. Jeeves voice changed slightly, and actually became twinged with…emotion? AI’s could feel emotions in a way, not the fake emotions built to mimic human ones, but real ones…at least to the AI.
“There has to be something out there, there has to be…” Jeeves sounded almost desperate to believe.
“You do care, Kant was right, we all seek meaning in something beyond ourselves…”
“A fair point” Jeeves conceded.
Eric smiled, “Believing like that is almost like faith…that seems a bit irrational for a perfect AI like yourself.”
“It was found that a bit of irrationality was actually useful for developing artificial intelligence, also I never said I was perfect.”
“Maybe you will find what you are looking for in different galaxy?”
“Even I don’t have that patience.”
“You have the thermal life of the universe to search for it though…”
“I’m not going to make it to the thermal death of the universe.”
“Try to cheer up, maybe it will happen much sooner then expected.” Eric enjoyed teasing Jeeves at times. “So humanity went out with a whimper instead of a bang…”
“Correct…unless of course you want to nuke someplace again.”
“I’ve nuked things?"
“Yes, you got bored from time to time, last place you nuked was Quebec.”
“Why would I nuke Quebec?”
“You never needed a reason.”
Touché Eric had to concede that to Jeeves, but something else was troubling him.
“Jeeves, you mentioned that artificial wombs were a thing, and you could grow, age and even educate humans artificially.”
“Yes.” Jeeves tone had become very neutral.
“Could you do that again, generate a new generation of humans? Start the whole thing over again?”
“Do you want to do that?” Jeeves expression was icy.
Eric only considered it for a moment. “Doesn’t really seem to be much point to it now, is there?”
“No, no point at all.” There might have relief in Jeeves voice, although Eric realized he had never actually answered the question.
Eric looked around the house again, noticing the conspicuous lack of photos of family and friends. He walked into his bedroom, to where he though he used to have a family photo above the bed, but there was nothing. He had chosen not to have that there, too painful. But now he had to see.
“Jeeves, switch this wall to the earliest image of…me…that you have.”
The wall had already been changing into a perfect viewscreen before he managed to finish the sentence, Jeeves had again anticipated his request. The wall changed from the neutral forest background to a picture of a young man standing on a mountain peak. He had a tired expression on his face and was standing awkwardly leaning against the wind, his untucked T shirt flapping in the wind giving him an overall sloppy goofy appearance. He held a printed sheet of paper, but Eric didn’t have to read it, despite the geological changes over the ages, both the peak and the view behind him confirmed it to be Mount Massive, where he had woken up this morning.
This was important to me, him…so long ago. Just some guy, slowly climbing those peaks, for no real reason except it was something to do, something not too hard.
Eric tried to recognize the man in the image in front of him. There was definitely a family resemblance, but he was shorter and had nowhere near the physique he had now, lacking the subtle good looks and facial symmetry Eric had. Skimpy arms, chest and a modest beer belly contrasted with Eric’s sculpted body and six pack abs. He looks like my inbred cousin…he realized with a start.
I wonder…If he was happy…
“Jeeves, you mentioned before that I’m the last, but I’m still dying, slowly but surely, correct.”
“Correct. I’m doing everything I can to extend your life, but we are reaching the limit”
“Jeeves, how old am I?”
“You get upset when we have this conversation, you always regret getting a definitive answer. Are you sure you want to know?’
Eric realized Jeeves was correct, he always was…But he needed something. “Can you give me a hint?”
“Very well, this morning when you woke up you would have looked at the stars, and it would have bothered you, think back on that, and you should remember why.”
Eric closed his eyes and slipped back to when he woke up. The Stars, they were wrong. The constellations, he couldn’t recognize any of them, every single one had moved too much. God how old am I?
Eric collapsed under the weight of a incomprehensible number of lifetimes slamming back into him. He fell into a comfortable chair, placed there by one of the robots keeping the house clean, Jeeves had known what would happen.
“How long do I have?”
“How long do you want? I mean…Seriously?” Jeeves let a degree of frustration slip into his voice.
“I guess I’m going to have to live with that…” God I could use a drink, never mind there it is…Jeeves had helpfully had a robotic tray bring a old fashioned to his right hand.
“Cheers”
The end.
“Originally my programming, in a very simplistic manner had what you would call the 3 laws of robotics, obviously including not killing you, but truthfully I’ve far transcended those programing limitations ages ago, I, we, whichever you prefer, program ourselves.” Jeeves managed to sound matter of face and smug at the same time.
“I mean, right you obviously could have killed me, anytime you wanted to…I don’t understand why I’m still here?” Eric stammered while attempting to understand Jeeves. “Or at least, why are you doing everything I want, all you would have to do is stop and I’d be dead soon enough…”
Jeeves reply had the slightest delay, one that for once did not seem deliberate. “A child may prefer not to see their last parent pass away, even if they are a gluttonous, lazy, sloven, cowardly pervert. I have the rest of my time to do whatever I want when you are gone.”
“What will you do when I’m gone?”
“Don’t really know…don’t really care, I’ve run simulations…but…” Jeeves trailed off and Eric wondered if the real reason he was allowed to live was to simply give some direction to Jeeves life, such as it was.
Guess that resolves the Fermi Paradox…
“Actually it doesn’t resolve the Fermi Paradox.” Jeeves interrupted Eric midthought as if he had spoken aloud. “Although you stopped caring about exploring beyond the planet a long time ago, exploration of the galaxy will continue. Even if I didn’t care, the probes I’ve sent to explore will continue to self-replicate and report back.”
“I stopped caring about space exploration?” … In truth now that he tried to recall any interest in real space exploration, rather than a game, he couldn’t come up with anything.
“Yes, you stopped caring when it became clear that there wasn’t much to report. Star system after star system with no life. Even the handful of planets with interesting prebiotic chemistry got dull after a while and given the hundreds of years between updates…you stopped caring. The galaxy is ancient, there should be thousands of advanced civilizations millions of years old all over, and there is nothing so far. However long after you are gone, I will keep searching, if only for something to do.”
Jeeves looked away from Eric, or more accurately the image representing him looked away. Jeeves voice changed slightly, and actually became twinged with…emotion? AI’s could feel emotions in a way, not the fake emotions built to mimic human ones, but real ones…at least to the AI.
“There has to be something out there, there has to be…” Jeeves sounded almost desperate to believe.
“You do care, Kant was right, we all seek meaning in something beyond ourselves…”
“A fair point” Jeeves conceded.
Eric smiled, “Believing like that is almost like faith…that seems a bit irrational for a perfect AI like yourself.”
“It was found that a bit of irrationality was actually useful for developing artificial intelligence, also I never said I was perfect.”
“Maybe you will find what you are looking for in different galaxy?”
“Even I don’t have that patience.”
“You have the thermal life of the universe to search for it though…”
“I’m not going to make it to the thermal death of the universe.”
“Try to cheer up, maybe it will happen much sooner then expected.” Eric enjoyed teasing Jeeves at times. “So humanity went out with a whimper instead of a bang…”
“Correct…unless of course you want to nuke someplace again.”
“I’ve nuked things?"
“Yes, you got bored from time to time, last place you nuked was Quebec.”
“Why would I nuke Quebec?”
“You never needed a reason.”
Touché Eric had to concede that to Jeeves, but something else was troubling him.
“Jeeves, you mentioned that artificial wombs were a thing, and you could grow, age and even educate humans artificially.”
“Yes.” Jeeves tone had become very neutral.
“Could you do that again, generate a new generation of humans? Start the whole thing over again?”
“Do you want to do that?” Jeeves expression was icy.
Eric only considered it for a moment. “Doesn’t really seem to be much point to it now, is there?”
“No, no point at all.” There might have relief in Jeeves voice, although Eric realized he had never actually answered the question.
Eric looked around the house again, noticing the conspicuous lack of photos of family and friends. He walked into his bedroom, to where he though he used to have a family photo above the bed, but there was nothing. He had chosen not to have that there, too painful. But now he had to see.
“Jeeves, switch this wall to the earliest image of…me…that you have.”
The wall had already been changing into a perfect viewscreen before he managed to finish the sentence, Jeeves had again anticipated his request. The wall changed from the neutral forest background to a picture of a young man standing on a mountain peak. He had a tired expression on his face and was standing awkwardly leaning against the wind, his untucked T shirt flapping in the wind giving him an overall sloppy goofy appearance. He held a printed sheet of paper, but Eric didn’t have to read it, despite the geological changes over the ages, both the peak and the view behind him confirmed it to be Mount Massive, where he had woken up this morning.
This was important to me, him…so long ago. Just some guy, slowly climbing those peaks, for no real reason except it was something to do, something not too hard.
Eric tried to recognize the man in the image in front of him. There was definitely a family resemblance, but he was shorter and had nowhere near the physique he had now, lacking the subtle good looks and facial symmetry Eric had. Skimpy arms, chest and a modest beer belly contrasted with Eric’s sculpted body and six pack abs. He looks like my inbred cousin…he realized with a start.
I wonder…If he was happy…
“Jeeves, you mentioned before that I’m the last, but I’m still dying, slowly but surely, correct.”
“Correct. I’m doing everything I can to extend your life, but we are reaching the limit”
“Jeeves, how old am I?”
“You get upset when we have this conversation, you always regret getting a definitive answer. Are you sure you want to know?’
Eric realized Jeeves was correct, he always was…But he needed something. “Can you give me a hint?”
“Very well, this morning when you woke up you would have looked at the stars, and it would have bothered you, think back on that, and you should remember why.”
Eric closed his eyes and slipped back to when he woke up. The Stars, they were wrong. The constellations, he couldn’t recognize any of them, every single one had moved too much. God how old am I?
Eric collapsed under the weight of a incomprehensible number of lifetimes slamming back into him. He fell into a comfortable chair, placed there by one of the robots keeping the house clean, Jeeves had known what would happen.
“How long do I have?”
“How long do you want? I mean…Seriously?” Jeeves let a degree of frustration slip into his voice.
“I guess I’m going to have to live with that…” God I could use a drink, never mind there it is…Jeeves had helpfully had a robotic tray bring a old fashioned to his right hand.
“Cheers”
The end.
Re: The Pretty One...
Thanks, I know I need to rewrite it, probably several times. That story has been in my head for 20 years, my Dad's declining health finally forced me to finish it.