The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (18 page)

“
What happened? Now where am I? Why did you
create another me?” sought Spencer.

“
We have transferred to another storage
facility, one which Prime 2 does not have access to. That other
you, is your replacement. He will be the one they purge and send
back to Earth in order to live another life from birth.”

“
What? I don’t understand. You
think it’s possible you could explain this in layman’s terms, or am
I going to have to be your little monkey boy?”

Telmar looked at Spencer, “Someone has a bit of a
bad attitude, unbelievably. Do you not realize we did you a favor?
If it were not for us, your last life experiences would have been
erased from existence. You would have been just another mindless
humanoid whose purpose would have been to provide us with yet
another stepping stone for our societies’ development. So knowing
what you know, I will give you one last warning, stop with the
attitude and either get onboard or fall back into the herd. What do
you want to do?”

Spencer simply replied, “I’m sorry Telmar, I just
want to maintain my memories, prevent unnecessary damage to my
planet, and most of all protect my daughter Jade. All I’m asking
for are some answers, I don’t need to know the grand plan, but a
better understanding of the cause I’m fighting for would be
nice.”

“
I can tell you the basis of the
cause is to prevent a civil war between Tureissians. One item you
need to accept is the harvesting of your planet and others will
continue regardless of what faction controls our government. Our
side is trying to preserve the one ability your planet and other
planets like yours have always been fighting for, and that is the
ability for an individual to choose.”

Telmar refused to further answer
Spencer’s last inquiry, and asked with an impatient voice, “Is
there anything else you want to know about?”

Spencer detected Telmar’s
distemper and decided it would be best to ask some generalized
questions. “If we’re just pieces of software, why do we need to be
in a humanoid form? Why not just live in this virtual world?
Moreover, why do we need an environment, like this room, in order
for us to communicate? I’m certainly no computer genius, but can’t
we just say what we need to say instantaneously, similar to when
you downloaded ‘my purpose’ into my head?”

“
Let us take a seat, I will answer what I
can.”

“
Standing is fine,” said Spencer
nicely.

Telmar moved his gaze to the chair next to Spencer,
pushed it towards him, and involuntarily forced Spencer to sit.

“
Ok, now you’re telling me you can control my
body?” asked Spencer.

“
Be quiet and listen. First,
living in a virtual world is just that, virtual. Neither my people,
nor I want that type of life. Second, in order for field programs
to run properly they need a live interface, which they are familiar
with, in your case a physical environment, similar to this room.
This acts as the catalyst for a program to operate; why the
founders designed it this way, I will never know. Now since I have
answered one of your irrelevant questions, pause for a moment and
listen. Some members of the council wanted to purge your current
program, but when they voted it did not pass. Therefore, the
majority of the council came to an agreement to archive your
current program and send you back to Earth for another cycle. One
of the members even went as far as supplying erroneous information
about you, which tells me you are somehow important.”

“
What was this member conveying?”
asked Spencer.

“
That your program could be
forced to accept the merger once this life is eradicated from your
consciousness. The council member, whose name is Melchior, also
reported you were no longer questioning if you wanted to be merged.
Later on when other council members found out Melchior's
intelligence was manufactured, they became disconcerted. So with
the help from certain council members, we made an illegal copy of
your program without Prime 2 detecting it. Your copy is now
experiencing its two hundred and sixty fourth birth as we
speak.”

“
Who is Prime 2,” Spencer asked.

“
Prime 2 is the foremost of all computer
programs. It controls the entire galactic network when it comes to
monitoring, trafficking, and deciding which field programs do
what.”

“
And you were able to circumvent Prime
2?”

“
We learned a long time ago to always make
sure we were one up when it came to artificial intelligence,
especially with Prime 2.”

“
But aren’t we in a sense
artificial intelligence?” asked Spencer with a confused
look.

“
Some may view it that way, but
what you need to remember is that the humanoid consciousness came
first. We are starting to get into a philosophical debate,
something we certainly do not have time for.”

“
Ok, but I just want you to know
I was never fond of this artificial intelligence crap; machines
that can think and reason for themselves, it’s not
natural.”

Telmar smirked, “Noted. First you
have to make a choice and soon. Agree to cooperate fully with us,
or experience deletion. Regardless of your choice, your copy will
continue its existence on Earth without the knowledge of your most
recent life. What is your answer?”

“
That’s really not much of a choice,” said
Spencer.

“
Choose!” rushed Telmar.

“
Ok, sorry obviously I’ll cooperate, what do I
need to do?”

“
That is what we wanted to hear. The good news
is your current memories will stay intact, the bad news is you will
be downloaded into a different body.”

“
Say again?” asked Spencer with a
befuddled look.

“
What we are doing is highly
illegal. In order for us to reintroduce you back on Earth, we need
to get you a humanoid shell, specifically one that will be of some
use to us. Putting you in an infant’s body certainly will not help
either of us in the immediate future. Therefore, this particular
humanoid shell we are downloading you to belonged to a John Doe,
who is currently in a coma and has no family ties. You will assume
what little identity this man has, but with your consciousness and
memories intact.”

“
So what do I do once I’m there? I’m guessing
I can’t live a normal life.”

“
Sure you can, you may even be able to make
contact with Jade if the faction allows it.”

“
For real!”

“
Yes, but…”

Spencer interrupted, “There’s
always a but.”

“
Yes there is, and one that you
must not avoid. When it is time, we will contact you, and you will
respond without hesitation, do you understand?”

“
Absolutely, can you tell me what I will be
responding to?”

“
No, I cannot, but I can tell you if we do not
receive a reply, we will make sure you fall into a coma and pass on
without an upload.”

“
That’s kind of extreme don’t you think?”
asked Spencer who followed up with a nervous laugh.

Telmar purposely neglected to
answer Spencer’s question and continued, “Glad you comprehend how
serious this is. The council has loaded a Trojan virus into your
program, which they can activate at any time with a simple majority
vote. If they agree both copies of you will cease to exist. We were
able to hack your program and reconfigure the virus to respond to
our command as well, but we were unable to remove their control
over it.”

“
Who is this “we” you keep
referring to?”

“
We are part of the metamorphosis, which you
are also now a part of.”

“
What do you mean?” asked Spencer.

“
Our society reached a point
where we all thought we had mastered our own existence and peaked
with our technology. There was a brief period of tranquility, but
once we reached what we thought was the final level of evolution,
problems started to occur. We soon learned what perfection brought
- stagnation. Members of our society became inattentive and
spiritless causing our once perfect society to splinter into four
classes. As Tureissians divided into these classes their
individualism became suppressed as they held the values and beliefs
of those classes over their own.”

“
So what are these ‘classes’ called?” asked
Spencer.

“
The first group call themselves
Guardians. They truly believe they are perfect and have risen to
the highest rung of the evolutionary ladder. They are resistant to
change and hold true to the belief that everyone has their place,
and these places are static.”

“
The second and largest group
carry the title Drones. They follow the wind wherever it may take
them. They do not question anyone, they do not think for
themselves, and are the easiest ones to persuade. They will follow
whatever trend is popular with tenacity.”

“
The third group goes by the term
Falters. They follow what the current trend dictates on the
outside, but question it on the inside. These Tureissians dare not
say anything to raise these inquiries because they are too
lackadaisical. Some say they are condemned to
incertitude.”

“
Finally, we have the
organization that I am a part of, called Floaters, a name adopted
from Earth’s past. We are the polar opposite and rivals to the
Guardians. We believe in the preservation of evolution and that a
society will never achieve perfection since perfection does not
exist. We believe once a society thinks it has achieved what they
comprehend as perfection, it becomes stagnant and later falls from
grace, as ours might. We wish to continually evolve and accept
change.”

“
Let’s back up, isn’t achieving this level of
perfection why your society is grooming and harvesting innumerous
field programs? Are you saying what your society is doing is
wrong?” asked Spencer.

Telmar grinned, shook his head, and said, “No, not
at all. Uniting multiple field programs into one humanoid is a huge
achievement in our evolution. Where the problem lies is relying on
only one source of reproduction.”

Spencer interrupted, “Yes, but that one source of
reproduction is so large. The amount of diversity your planet can
generate is infinite.”

Telmar spoke sharply, “But this
diversity is only created by one method. I will give you two
scenarios involving Earth. First, let us establish a foundation for
these scenarios by imagining Earth humanoids evolved by themselves
and created a diverse population with highly advanced
technology.”

“
In the first scenario, a day has
come where Earthlings are no longer able to conceive children
naturally, either because of something brought on by nature or upon
themselves. Unless there is another method of technological
reproduction, or genetic mutation your species would go
extinct.”

“
Now the second scenario . . .
assume your planet learns of other ways to conceive children
through technology and mandates that your society can only use this
method because that is what the law dictates. Your society now
becomes dependent on this artificial reproduction and your body
evolves in such a way that it can no longer create births
naturally. As time passes, your society becomes dependent on this
technology and takes it for granted until the knowledge of how to
maintain this form of mechanical reproduction becomes forgotten.
The species could go extinct unless there is another method of
reproduction. Should any society gamble with only one
method?”

Spencer swiftly replied, “But
your entire planet doesn’t have to worry about being physically
incapable of reproducing because you have mastered the ability to
create biological humanoid bodies with science.”

Telmar calmly replied, “But
Tureissians can no longer conceive a child naturally. We are
already dependent on our technology.”

Amazed Spencer replied, “I’m sorry to hear
this.”

Telmar hastily changed the
subject; “We have run out of time for side talk, now you must
listen. If things go as planned you will awaken from your coma and
be greeted by a recognizable humanoid. You will ask if they know
your name. Unless they address you by EC6L163O7074, do not speak to
them, do you understand?”

“
Yes.”

“
Good, once they address you by your insignia
you will go with them and you will do everything they ask of you,
understand?

“
Yes, I get it.”

“
And do not ask them ridiculous
questions. Remember Spencer, you are no different from the rest of
us, and that includes being expendable.”

“
Ok, I understand. May I ask you
another question?”

“
What is it?”

“
This person I’m meeting, are
they from this planet?”

“
Yes.”

“
Ok, and one last thing,” said
Spencer.

“
What?” asked Telmar impatiently.

“
Why is this all happening, why wasn’t I
merged?”

“
Because you had doubts, you wanted to keep
your current memories from your recent experience on
Earth.”

“
And this was a problem? I figure that would
be a common occurrence considering what you people do.”