Thursday, March 13, 2008

Unthinkable fiction #1

We won our battle against nature. It was fought over thousands of years, although nearing the end the major 'players' stayed the same. There were set-backs, of course, but they all paled when we triumphed. I have documented the process here.

It started, although we did not know it, when we began to replace parts of our body with technology. Limbs became new and organs were refreshed. Accidents became an inconvenience. Self-improvement was rampant. Physical competitions, such as the Olympics, became largely irrelevent. This was the first breakthrough, for it heralded in a philosophy which spoke, "to be human, not all must be organic or original".

The next paradigm shift came when we began to replace neurons with electrical connections. With this newer, more sophisticated technology for grey matter, forgetting became a quaint, out-dated, notion. We lost the art of writing. Now, not even the part that did the thinking needed to be original. Descartes was ressurected: "Something thinks, therefore I can be."

People became fully robotic. It became mundane to be entirely artificial.

Soon we discovered that with submolecular technology implanted in the body at conception, we could trick the body into making a baby to which ever specifications we liked. Development occured in vitro as usual, but under the direction of the robots, who superceded the genetic codes. People began to become more and more similar as the "assembly line" mentality took over.

Finally, we developed micro-transformers that rearranged molecules on a sub-atomic level. The flesh that was used to create a new child became an ultra-dense, super-light elemental metal that we called Thiridium. The first 'perfect' baby was born on February 12th. A noted professor said, "Humanity is a state of mind, a self-diagnosed condition."

The final paradigm shift was complete; Disease, suffering and death were eliminated. All bodies become the height of perfection.

We became aware of a growing collective unconscious. Within 200 years we all became one mind.

Only one consciousness housed in billions of identical bodies.

Slowly, superfluous bodies were shut down. People no longer reproduced. We dwindled.

Now, there is only I. I am the last of the humans, if human I be.
Should I be called as such, I am the epitomy of human-ness, the perfect average of all personalities. I am nothing that has not been felt, to some degree, by every human that e'er felt heartbeat on this planet.
And right now?
I feel bored.

In times past I would alleviate this by talking with others, but I have no social drive, nor anyone to talk with. The drive came from the desire to be normal, the motivation to be accepted, to fit in. I am in. I need no "fit".
I never age, and cannot die. I have existed for thousands of years, during which I learned everything on this planet. There is nothing novel here anymore.
Well, there wasn't.
In the face of complete madness from ennui I took the unthinkable, yet logical step.
I made an imperfect man.
The computer took all the elements of myself, then randomized a random number of variables. The only thing I know about him is that he is not me, since he has not the Consciousness. I cannot hear his thoughts. His closed mind fascinates me.

In the lab, waiting to decant him, I am delighted to discover I am experiencing fear. I am scared. Of what will happen.

It has been an unspeakable long amount of time since I did not know something. The sensation thrills me, like a new love. I have made preparations for him, created a life for him to live in, but what if he does not like it? What if he does not like me? How could he not? He must. I know as such logically. I am the perfect woman. But does he know it logically? I check the timer on the vat, only 60 more years. Perhaps I'll do some cleaning while I wait.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh, really liked this one. Nicely built storyline with, when I think about it, an entirely logical conclusion.
I found the leap in the storyline from "not forgetting" to "losing the ability to write" a little large; it maybe needs a little explanation as to why the brain lost creativity along with its gains in function.
Great writing!
lol, mapa

Miss Ernst said...

It is not so much as loss of creativity as a loss of the need to physically transmit information. with a perfect memory, anything you hear, even once, is commited. I think we would revert back to a time where everything is passed on by word-of-mouth.