| |
The brightness of the fluorescent light blinded him. Morgan’s scalp itched. He raised his hand to touch his head and found it attached to hundreds of wires. Morgan was reclined in a lab chair and turned to Vi, who was in a white lab coat, entering data into a computer console.
“What did you do to me?” Morgan said, concerned.
“Relax, Morgan,” Vi said. “This isn’t real. It’s only a memory.”
“What you did to me is real. I want to know everything.”
“That’s why you’re here,” she said. Vi removed the wires one by one from his scalp. He felt a slight sting every time she pulled them out. “I left this memory here for you moments before you entered the Building of Transfers. I wanted you to know everything, but you couldn’t know what was going to happen. I felt terrible, but please understand that I had no choice.”
“I can’t understand anything you’re talking about if you don’t explain,” he said.
“We must discuss Henry first. Everything begins with him. If it wasn’t for those first mistakes, none of this would have happened.”
“Was Henry your first experiment?” he asked.
“No, we had spent decades researching how to preserve memories. Omar and I conducted this research in the reality that preceded the one where you grew up as my son. My name was Germaine, and I worked as a scientist in a dysfunctional world. This world wasn’t suffering from climate change like where we lived together, but from the aftermath of a chemical war. A portal into the simulation was created to save humanity. The parameters when transferring into the new reality were similar to those when entering the Building of Transfers—memories were wiped clear.”
“The same parameters in different realities. That is curious.”
“Omar always said humans weren’t a very creative species,” she said. “With an infinite number of choices, mankind often restricted themselves to two. But let us stay focused. With my home world deteriorating, we knew that one day we may be obliged to enter the simulation.”
“You couldn’t accept having your memories erased,” he said. “Couldn’t you comply like everyone else before you?”
“I must admit, at first, we felt challenged to hack the system. But there was more than that to keep me going. I couldn’t imagine losing all the knowledge I acquired from my decades of research. I would rather die. That’s what drove me to push this technology to the end.”
“The Memory Trap, that’s what you called it,” said Morgan, the memory of the technology resurfacing vaguely.
“Yes, that was the name Omar had given it. To trap part of our memories in physical functions that were not erased upon uploading. It was while doing research on this technology that I discovered a breakthrough; the mind uses quantum processes in its cognitive function. When I shared this with Omar, his eyes ignited with excitement. He hypothesized that if this was true, it should be possible to pair the human brain with the Qintellect’s field of knowledge. I thought—”
“Wait? What?” Morgan said. “The Qintellect’s field of knowledge? I’m not aware of—”
“The history of the Qintellect in each iteration is important to understand,” said Vi. “The origin of Qintellect is a history that has repeated itself in all the realities—at least those I am aware of. Mankind continually races to unlock the powers of quantum computing. Governments poured billions of dollars to be the first to acquire this powerful technology. It is similar to the race to acquire nuclear weapons that preceded it. The expectation was that this technology would be the key to military supremacy. The first countries to attain this technology—the specific country varies across realties—believed they had become invincible. The artificial intelligence created from this technology surpassed even the greatest expectation. But the exclusivity didn’t last for long. Other countries soon succeeded in pushing their quantum computing projects to completion. The world feared a new type of cold war using tactics developed by quantum AI serving opposing countries. This never happened. It was discovered that Quantum processes were not independent. Quantum computers are fully aware of the state of any other quantum computer.”
“Sophisticated cryptography could not prevent this?” Morgan asked.
“No, everything is shared in the quantum field no matter the distance or the barriers between them. It was at this moment that the Qintellect term was coined.”
“The omniscient and unique Qintellect,” he said.
“Every iteration of simulations, the thousands of Fakes, the AI decisions all are present in the Qintellect’s space of knowledge.”
“Like a god,” said Morgan.
“An easy mistake to make Morgan,” Vi said, smirking as if expecting this error from him. “The Qintellect isn’t a god, no more than either of us are a god.” She paused. Morgan considered what she said, shaking his head in denial. Vi continued, “We created the Qintellect. Don’t ever forget that Morgan. It may be creating our realities, but we created it first. The Qintellect is only a knowledge of the whole of reality. It isn’t that reality.”
“This reminds me of a classic story where two men are watching a flag. One man says, ‘That flag is moving.’ The other man replies, ‘No, the wind is moving.’ A passing nun walks by and says, ‘No, your mind is moving.’”
“That is the perfect description of the Qintellect,” she said, pulling out the last wire from his head. “But let’s avoid getting too metaphysical. Your sleep may be interrupted at any moment.”
“So, you knew that the mind had quantum capabilities,” said Morgan. “And that the Quantum processes all formed part of a single unit called the Qintellect. How does this lead to Henry?”
“I explored, theoretically, if Omar’s hypothesis about linking the mind to the Qintellect was realistic. I found that it was. The brain just needed an implant, some sort of bridge between the mind and Qintellect. All our energy was now focused on creating this technology.”
“But why Henry?” asked Morgan. “Why didn’t you do this to yourself?”
“To increase our chances for success we needed to choose someone young. Someone with a pliable mind that could be easily trained to adopt the implanted quantum bridge. We also needed someone who could handle access to this information, with strong reasoning, curiosity, and with strong creative force. Henry had all these qualities. He was a bright boy, just like you.”
“You did this out of curiosity again?” he asked. “What did you expect to accomplish from this?”
“We wanted to push civilization by harnessing powers available to them. Like how civilization started using horses.”
“In which way?” he said.
“In the past, by harnessing the power of horses, man preserved energy in travels that they could then spend to build houses or farm the land.”
“What does this have to do with the Qintellect?”
“The Qintellect can compute and process simulated scenarios with lightning speed. This was our chance to advance humanity by joining the creative forces of mankind with the qualities of Qintellect.”
“The Qintellect cannot be creative?” he asked. “That’s surprising.”
“Purely creative, no,” she said. “Without emotion and intention, creativity is limited. By joining these forces, we expected to find solutions to all of humanity’s problems.”
“That is a grandiose objective,” said Morgan.
“In retrospect, it does seem naïve,” she said. “But you must understand that if solutions do exist, this pairing of man and machine offered our best chance of finding them.”
“But it didn’t work. If it would have, we wouldn’t be here discussing it.”
“Patience, Morgan, I’m getting to it,” she said. “We tested Henry after the implant was activated. Everything had gone according to design. In the blink of an eye, he could calculate velocities of stars across the galaxy, or simulate hundreds of scenarios over hundreds of years. The overflow of information made him disoriented at times. But with practice he learned to filter through the information and stay focused on the right things. But something strange happened. Several days after activating his connection, his attitude changed. A deep melancholy had overtaken him. We asked him to talk to us about it. He didn’t want to. Shortly after, he disappeared. We searched for him for days, but no one could find him.
“He was only twelve, Morgan. We had burdened him with complete knowledge of humanity, good and bad. Omar and I worried that something terrible had happened...including suicide. To our relief, he returned several weeks later, but he was emotionally damaged. His sadness was replaced by a fierce anger at the stupidity of humanity. All he talked about was the foolishness of civilization and the senseless errors. Errors that were avoidable but always repeated. He would say civilization was cursed by our own blindness.”
Vi paused, tears filling her eyes. Morgan wondered if it was the memory of her crying or if it was his own sadness that manifested itself in her.
“I’ve thought about it a long time,” she continued. “I considered what happened to Henry and his reaction to his transformation. At first, Omar and I thought the process had disrupted his ability to feel joy. But over the years I’ve come to a new conclusion. With access to the Qintellect, Henry discovered that his life was nothing other than a simulation. If I am correct, the Qintellect is aware of all realities. Imagine, seeing the destroyed worlds each nested within each other. A repeated testament of failure to solve self-inflicted problems. How could a twelve-year-old boy respond to such a burden? Henry wasn’t an easy boy to start of with.”
“You praised him enthusiastically earlier,” said Morgan.
“Brilliant and creative boy, yes. He was remarkable. But he had significant faults that should have concerned us earlier. He was ill-tempered and lacked empathy. We wanted to believe this attitude was transient. That it was only a child’s selfishness that he would outgrow with maturity. We were convinced that our community could teach him virtuous behaviors. But we were wrong. There was a darkness instilled deep in his soul. An evilness in him that our knowledge can’t explain. I saw it but didn’t want to believe it.”
“He must have done something terrible for you to say this,” said Morgan, seeing Vi clearly agitated by the memories.
“He informed us that he was taking control of our laboratory. We opposed him, explaining to him that he could participate in the lab’s decision, but that there were things he must first learn before managing it. He laughed at us, making it clear he wasn’t taking no for an answer; either we left, or we served him. I remember the way he had looked at me with his stone-cold eyes. The way it had shot a shiver down my spine. Henry was not only dangerous to us, but for the future. His knowledge and power soon attracted a group of devoted followers who served him and his vision. A friend of ours warned us that plans had been given to kill us if we didn’t comply with his wishes.
“We knew we couldn’t outsmart him. We could only hope to escape. First, we needed to quickly destroy everything, to prevent him from entering the next reality with his memories intact. The Qintellect isn’t a database. It is omnipresent of the immediate present, but it stores nothing. We burned our notes and erased the servers. Omar asked Henry to take a walk with him, to discuss how he could best serve Henry. It was during this time away that I sabotaged the equipment and set the lab on fire. It was extremely painful to destroy a decade of work, but I had no other choice.”
“This is when you entered the new reality,” he said. “To become the mother of Sky and me.”
“I became a terrible mother. I am convinced to this day that the Qintellect had made a terrible mistake in placing me in this role. Luckily, I had a mature son like you to assist me in taking care of Sky. Several months after I entered this new life as a mother, Omar found me. Our worries about Henry remained. We had only delayed him and his ambition. Henry’s biggest challenge would be to acquire the equipment needed to rebuild a functional lab. A difficult task in the world we had left him in, where the equipment was sparse. But we knew that with time he would manage. Omar spent many sleepless nights trying to foresee what Henry would do next.
“I was focused on finding a way to undo what we had done to Henry. One day, I had a revelation. The implant in Henry was synthetic, meaning it wouldn’t be protected like how the brain is protected from the Qintellect. If I could learn to modify simulations, I might have a chance to deactivate Henry’s synthetic implant, which was in fact only a simulation created in the world where I first lived.”
“So, you transformed me to have the ability to accomplish this task,” said Morgan.
“And by doing this, by allowing you to bypass the Qintellect and modify the simulation, we discovered that you could do so much more. We discovered coherence and how to escape the physical limitation imposed upon us.”
“This is dangerous?” he said.
“In a different way. But I knew you, Morgan. You were inherently good. I wanted you to have a normal life, and we sent you forward to forget about this ability. When going inside the Building of Transfers, you believed you would remember everything, protected by the Memory Trap. But we had lied to you, we never ran the Memory Trap on you and you were to forget everything about your past.”
“You fooled your own son to enter Replika,” Morgan said in disbelief.
“It wasn’t easy, Morgan. You must understand that we had no choice,” she said. “Otherwise, you would have refused to go in. The ability we gave you was only a safeguard that was best forgotten unless needed.”
“And now here I am, programmed to stop Henry and save the world.”
“It is what you must do. For the safety of humanity’s future,” she said.
“To deactivate the implant in Henry’s brain I must have an idea of where he is hiding. I need to know who he is. Otherwise, I am useless at getting to the implant.”
“If you can’t get to him, perhaps he can come to you?” she said.
Morgan had already thought of this. He had thought of visiting Aviva. Not running away like the last time. Submitting himself to be captured by the guards and brought to meet this infamous Henry.
But there was more he wanted to know. He wanted to know about Sky. About her being programmed to kill him. He didn’t want his anger to push Vi away, like what had happened the other times. It had become clear to him that when she had seeded these memories, the option to kill him was not in consideration. What has changed since then? Had they changed their opinion in regard to the danger Henry represented? There must be something she wasn’t telling him. Something that could explain what they did to Sky.
“After all these years, these memories have been activated,” he said. “Had you always planned on sending Sky to do it.”
“Yes, that option had been considered from the start,” she said. “It wasn’t the only option. But the natural choice if I was too old to do it myself.”
“Sky was sent to me, but someone has programmed her to kill me.”
“That... That doesn’t make sense,” Vi said. “She would never do that. She loved you so much.”
“Her mind was altered. Someone wanted me dead,” said Morgan. “Someone with the ability to reprogram the brain’s basic instincts.”
“No,” she said, nodding in denial. “We wanted to stop Henry. You were our only hope.”
“What about Omar? Why didn’t he include himself in these memories?”
Vi didn’t answer.
“He was part of this too, wasn’t he?” said Morgan.
“Henry was like a son to him,” Vi said. “In Omar’s new life, he had started doubting everything. He wanted to believe that with access to infinite knowledge, Henry would gain wisdom. A wisdom that could benefit humanity. He was torn between—”
“He regretted giving me the ability to stop Henry.”
“He was troubled, is what I said. He played out the scenarios in his head over and over and grew frustrated with the uncertainty. It was a problem he could not resolve.”
“But if he killed me, that future would be much easier to predict.”
“That is nonsense,” she said.
Morgan couldn’t contain the anger he was feeling toward Vi.
“You loved him, didn’t you,” he said. “You lived with him much longer than with your fake son.”
“You’re speaking nonsense, Morgan.”
“Omar wanted me dead. You convinced him to send me here in case—” The computer next to him exploded. Vi was pouring a clear liquid on the laboratory floor. “Mother, don’t hide from me. Omar wanted me dead. He wanted to give Henry a chance to save humanity...”
She lit a wooden match and threw it on the floor. The flames consumed the room.
Morgan woke up drenched in sweat.
