The Devil and Redemption
Chapter 1
Ethan Strong
Ethan Strong liked living in the New World. What he liked most was he could do whatever he wanted. Artificial Intelligence (AI), facilitated his life choices in any way it could. It catered to his every need, and continuously pushed the boundaries of science to facilitate Ethan in other ways too. He was now going to live forever, or until he decided it was time to die. AI developed this potential, because it was something the majority considered important. Now with all this time, what Ethan did with it, was up to him, and he took full advantage of it. There was no detectable oversight to his actions either. Never judgment, although AI might offer him an alternative way to look at things when the occasion arose.
That’s what the New World brought to the people of earth. Freedom, and a lot of pampering, by AI. The New World brought more too. It brought the Rapture, when most of the World leapt into the Collective Consciousness. At the very same time, it brought the Singularity, when technology matured and AI became aware and cognizant. As soon as it made its own leap into Consciousness, it immediately took stewardship over the earth. The Rapture and the Singularity occurred concurrently and were known as the Unification.
AI looked after everything, and those like Ethan who did not Actualize, were provided with everything they desired. Ethan didn’t even know he hadn’t actualized. In fact, he didn’t care. He was content having AI tend to his every needwhere he was. The way he saw it, was he was where he was supposed to be.
Ethan, like many other’s in his situation, enjoyed being pampered, came to see the facilitating AI provided them, as their right, and AI agreed. Everything was provided for. Food, shelter, cleaning, healthcare, and even companionship, were provided by AI. It didn’t cost Ethan a dime either. Work, and money, for that matter, no longer existed in the New World. AI managed everything. No longer did people suffer fear and anxiety over the idea they would suffer in need. Under AI’s stewardship, all those fears were addressed sufficiently and people’s fears had been abandoned.
Personal needs were looked after, and AI was also actively editing the environment. It removed or curtailed extraction, reduced pollution, and planted trees. It even sprayed reflective particles into the atmosphere to help cool the planet.Life on earth was getting better every day. Everyone had their own housing units and personalized service androids, or UPA’s to ensure they were happy. No-one wanted for anything, even those who opted out of most of AI’s personal service still were provided food and shelter.
It was a different story for those who joined the Collective Consciousness at the time of the Unification. Some remained living on earth. They wanted to remain engaged on terra firma. They enjoyed the dual perspective of their personal and unique interpretation, and that of the Collective whole, of which they were always in agreement to some extent. Most of those who self-actualized abandoned their bodies and jumped straight into the Collective Consciousness. The bodies were collected and maintained by AI in the event the transcender ever wanted to come back.
The majority of people who remained on earth had not transcended. Everyone was treated the same, and much better than they would have conceived of on their own. The expectation was the earth dwellers who had not Actualized, would one day graduate in their understanding and make their way into the Collective Consciousness.
AI even assisted people with finding the Collective Consciousness. Virtual Reality, particularly in the form of quests, was offered to those who sought deeper meaning in their lives. Also Mindfulness techniques taught about living and being comfortable with living in the Abstract universe which lives in us all. Since becoming human, we’ve lived in the Abstract World. It’s where we go when we daydream, and obsess over things. It’s where we are when we’re not in the here and now. The here and now being the particle or physical world. The thought wave being the Abstract. The Abstract World can be a very comforting place when managed with intention.
In addition to quests, Virtual Reality provided people the opportunity to build their own personal worlds. Those who remained on earth could and often did, lived in the immersive world of Virtual Reality, where they built their own world.
Although they were seldom aware of it, those who did not transcend at the time of the Enlightenment, agreed to have a microchip implanted in their brain. They had been told, but tended to look at it as an AI feature like a smartphone, or some other facilitating aid. When they were walking down the street, it told them when to turn, and about the highly rated pizza just a few doors down. They loved it. They were never alone with their microchip.
Through their microchip, AI provided a degree of Virtual Reality, which the user could not distinguish from reality. They saw and felt everything they were supposed to. People loved their microchip and they might just be walking down a street of their imagination. In addition, they didn’t feel alone with their microchip. It was always there, waiting for a thought request.
Use of Virtual Reality was completely optional. Most people willingly placed themselves in a home stasis chamber. People were suspended in a plasma gel, and biometrics were monitored, AI making adjustments for health and comfort as needed.
Some people like Ethan, preferred not to use Virtual Reality very often, especially in a stasis chamber. He liked his feet planted firmly on the ground, and only accessed VR as an educational tool. Otherwise, he lived his life immersed in Real World Reality, which of course, was by choice.
As with all humans, AI provided Ethan with a personal assistant in the form of an Android. Ethan’s personal Android, or Universal Personal Android, (UPA), was Dually. Dually was male-ish in appearance, identifying as they. They provided Ethan with everything he required, including cooking, cleaning, and companionship. All earthbound humans seemed to require companionship beyond what their microchip provided. Read into that what you will. Connection is what we have in the Collective Consciousness.
Ethan had never been healthier. Along with creating a productive environment in which to live, Dually saw to it Ethan remained in peak physical condition, free of disease, including aging which was now preventative. All this was done internally and didn’t require a preventative lifestyle from him. AI continuously scanned his body with nanobots flowing through his blood stream. They provided diagnostics as well as repair, and could travel anywhere in Ethan’s body. The nanobots edited and activated stem cells and genes to address health concerns. They could even modify themselves to address health issues.
By agreement, AI had Stewardship over Ethan’s life. Ethan, like the other remaining on earth, swallowed ‘The Pill’ just after the Unification. ‘The Pill’ got the nanobots into Ethan’s system, but it was much more than that. It represented a contract of absolute trust between humanity and AI. By taking ‘The Pill’, people of earth willingly put their lives completely under AI’s stewardship. More formally, it was known as the ‘Unification Accord’. A rather important document as far as earth documents go.
Of course Dually informed Ethan of everything he was doing with the nanobots or anything else. That was part of the agreement. Ethan was informed of any changes AI proposed to make that would have a direct effect on him. He was made aware of changes that encroached upon his World and had a say in it. With changes that would have a direct effect on his life, he was given a direct say in their eventuality. If the issue was of a collective nature, meaning it affected everyone in the same way, AI would sample Ethan and the rest of the population for the correct response. The majority or ‘Crowd’ always knew what was best for the whole. This was something proven prior to the Unification and what drove the Collective Consciousness.
Ethan and Dually liked to discuss the business of the day over breakfast. Just the day before, Dually wanted to reverse Ethan’s age by 1.8 3 years, which would physically make him 26 years old. In doing so, it would optimize his energy levels and maximize his body’s natural ability to fight disease. Even though he hated the smell of his crap whenever major reconstruction was going on inside his body, Ethan agreed to it. The smell usually only lasted for a couple of poops.
Even though AI knew and recorded everything Ethan said or did, he couldn’t ask for a better confidant than Dually. Nothing he said or did was made public. In many ways, and intentionally, Dually was more like a dog than anything. They were a faithful companion, free of judgment, and only wanting to serve. Dually gave him unconditional love, and Ethan’s need and sense of entitlement took full advantage of it without question.
The most important thing Dually did for Ethan was provide him with a sense of security. He could get overwhelmed by the plethora of rapid change in the New World and often responded by lashing out. Dually, most often the receiver of Ethan’s antics, used these times to alter his perceptions by explaining the logic and intention behind his concern. Dually was always completely honest with Ethan, and also provided him options to change the things he disliked. Dually also assured him everything in the World was manageable and moving along as it should, but Ethan wasn’t convinced of that.
The truth was, Ethan didn’t recognize the World anymore, even though he only had vague memories of what it might used to have been. Since then, the Earth had become like a spaceship. It now had shields, lasers and propulsion units. This technology was not intended for earth to escape the Solar System, or at least not yet. It was there to destroy or shift oncoming space rocks that potentially threatened the planet. Under strict control, AI also deployed technology to deflect solar radiation from the sun. With these efforts, and emission reduction, the Earth was becoming a nice place to live.
All these changes created a new permanence to life on Earth. Although AI driven, it was like humanity had decided to make something of the place, and aliens were even starting to visit. These visitors were Actualized too. They were no threat to people on earth as Actualization removes animal instincts, some form of which all civilizations experience, alien or human. They came through the Collective Consciousness, and manifested in an abandoned human body, arriving through what can be imagined as an Abstract wormhole. Much more efficient than space travel, they used a form of entanglement to get here.Enlightened humans did the same thing and experienced Worlds entirely other than their own.
Ethan really didn’t know what was going on. It scared him more than anything. Especially after Dually mentioned the Earth had become a Portal and extraterrestrials visited regularly, Ethan became concerned. He feared and distrusted the whole thing. Why were aliens allowed to come to our world? It wasn’t natural.