Lines Of Code

 

1. Reflections:

It was the summer of 2615 that I discovered a truth that was far more shocking than anything else in this world. It challenged our very existence, unveiling a truth that couldn’t be accepted. Everything that I or people like me learned for ages were nothing but lie. I was unable to feel the earth beneath my feet. But now I couldn’t even think of something like earth. They were all lie…

 

I…I’m Jack. Jack Eniac. My surname might be familiar to some of you who love computers. Yes, it was the first general purpose computer. These days there’s a trend of choosing your surnames to your choice. I had been always associated with computers, so I chose this one. What I do?? Well, I design D.N.C.U. Oh…excuse me. I didn’t mention you what’s that. By this time, we’d have digitized brains that would be the fusion of human neurological system & artificial intelligence. That’s a very advanced combination. D.N.C.U, Digno among friends, stands for Digito-Neural-Cognition-Unit, which is the central unit of our cognition. It’s replaceable & is re-implanted every time you choose to replace. Meaning that it can be changed with newer & advanced models. It can also be recharged after use of more than 1 year. I work for a company that makes Dignos.

I use to be a simple minded guy of 23. I’ve a small family – me & my mom dad. My dad is a retired chief of Interstellar Cyber Security Intelligence or I.C.S.I. My mom is a sci-fi writer. She has authored & co-authored many sci-fi books. In fact, she’s the reason I love futuristic concepts more than anyone. My dad introduced me to the world of Computers. But I was not interested in cyber security, defense & all these stuffs. So I studied Neurocomputics. It’s the study of human nervous system & artificial intelligence & robotics. I’m doing well & have good number of patents to my name.

Life was going on well. But… it took a U-turn while in the summer morning of this June, I was searching my family library for a book (those are digital books). When, I was young, dad told that one of my ancestors – my great, great…great grandpa was a famous computer scientist. His name was David. He had also won several awards. Knowing that, I asked him if he knows more. But he was not sure & there was little record about him. The reason was that, centuries ago in the time of my greaaaat… grandpa, a computer threat attacked the World Wide Web & destroyed many information & could never be retrieved. But that day, I discovered something unusual. In our library, we had eBooks & papyria (not paper) books. (Well papyria is a new synthetic material of this time similar to papers. They are eco-friendly & can be produced easily & that that don’t decay or damaged.) We also had stacks of old torn out books of ancient times of our ancestors. No one even goes to that compartment. There were thousands of books stack by stack. My dad was about to donate them to a museum last month, but luckily he forgot. Out of my curiosity, I opened the compartment. There were piles of books. I was fascinated to see them. I began from the first stack & started exploring them. That day, mom dad were out for a lunch arranged by his friends. So, I could spend more time there. There were several pieces of works – of science, literature, medicine, artwork, economics, politics & lot more. I could discover real-hand of whatever I studied in my school about ancient time. They were all amazing. After trying the 5^th stack, I put my hand on the 6^th one. In the middle of it, I discovered something appearing to be a thin book. It was pushed inside & was almost unobservable by the huge books. I removed some of them & pulled it out. It was actually a diary. A nearly torn out diary. As I opened it, I saw a small fade away photo of a middle-aged guy & his name below that. I immediately recognized him to be my greaaaat…grandpa who was a scientist that dad had long mentioned about. I was excited & thrilled. I started reading out. He mentioned about his childhood days, his education, his works. He was mentioning about his researches……And all of a sudden, I stopped. There were some thick folded pieces of paper in the 99^th page (I guess…). I opened them. I started reading them & as it continued further, my heart started throbbing. I could feel sweat on my forehead & my hands & legs were shivering. I was feeling cold from inside just as I used to feel when my exam results were about to be declared! What I read was something that was beyond the imagination of my wildest dream & I’m certain that anyone who would read this wouldn’t be able to feel her legs. It described the ultimate fate of mankind & what we are today. We are living in a world that doesn’t even exist & ended with my greaaaa…t grandpa centuries ago.

2. Graaandpa’s Diary

He writes…  

“The year was 2089. I was working as a computer engineer specializing in artificial intelligence & robotics. I was also closely associated with International Space & Aeronautics Organization (ISAO). I helped them design robotic vehicles & robots for space missions. One day, I received a call from its administrator informing that they’ve discovered a group of large asteroids heading towards our solar system. The size of the group was much larger than ever observed & is enough to sweep away the entire solar system. I immediately picked my car keys & left off for the center. What I saw, was something that gave me a big kick. By no means, we can survive this hit. Even if the earth is not directly hit by that group, the cosmic debris was enough to consume our planet.

He (the admin.) asked me – ‘Is there any possible away to survive this collision?’

I nodded – ‘No’.

In that room, there were scientists & engineers of various backgrounds – planetary, astrophysics, aerospace, robotics, astrobiology. There were also people from defense. Everyone, I knew, said no. I was called specially by the administrator because I was specialized in making advanced robots that help sail the solar system & had also built many defensive robots for them for other asteroid collision threats. But this time, I was also dumb. Everything I knew simply failed.

At that time, the mankind had settled in Martian soil. Asteroid mining was a common activity for mineral extraction & heavy-manufacturing industries. Bases were also set up in moons of other planets. And we were also exploring beyond the solar system. But till that time, we couldn’t find perfect exoplanets for human settlement. Also the economy was not allowing us to take many people to that distance. So, we couldn’t think of leaving the earth & settling elsewhere. If the asteroids were to hit the earth alone, we could have entirely settled in Mars & the moons. But at that time, we were left with no option.

The admin informed the matter to the president the same night. I went home at around 12 midnight & went off for sleep without disturbing anyone. My wife got up half awake & asked what was the matter. I was not in the mood to explain her the fact that our civilization wouldn’t be any more soon. So, I told that I’d tell her the next day & got to sleep, though I couldn’t, for I was thinking what’d happen next. My son & daughter were too young to understand all those things.

The very next day when my children were out to their school, I explained her what was going to be our fate. She was not believing my words & thought of it as a joke that I do usually with my friends & family. But I stressed that it was all true & we can’t discard the fact. I think my eyes were showing that that day I was serious & she believed me. I couldn’t stop my emotions & so I left off for my work. I didn’t tell about that to my colleagues or anyone else. Around 5 pm of that evening, I received a phone call from ISAO. They called me for a meeting. The President was also there. We discussed whatever we knew. Our latest observation told that the asteroid group was going to hit in 5 years from then. Given the gravity of the matter, we decided to inform that to other countries but not to public anytime soon as it’d cause nothing but panic. The president again asked us at the end – is there no way? The response was negative as it had been since beginning. So, we came to a conclusion that we’d have to get prepared to leave each other. We couldn’t do anything else.

3. The Grand Plan in the making

Months passed by & things were going on as usual. Gradually, I was also forgetting the matter. But one day, my eyes went on a piece of chip on my desk. I realized the fact that just in a single chip, we store unlimited amount of information. Can’t we store ourselves there? I laughed. And shut down the door of my cabin & left off home. That night, while seeing the night sky full of stars, I realized how beautiful the nature is but humans would be no more to enjoy its beauty. The faces of my wife & children appeared in my mind & made me emotional. I could never think of leaving them. I was thinking if there’s some way to get out of there, although I knew there’s nothing more to it.

Till that time, artificial intelligence became much more advanced. Robots had brains that were almost equivalent to humans, but with some restrictions. There were nanochips which were much powerful than supercomputers of previous decades. And I was actively engaged in those researches.

One night, it again struck – can’t we do just anything to continue our species? Every way I tried to figure out, my answer was no. But I knew that we can’t let things go like that. We need to ‘preserve’ our species. Then, again I remembered the chip on my desk. And that it stores unlimited information. Just all of a sudden, a very wild idea flashed across my mind – storing the entire civilization in a nanochip!

The next day, I called a meeting with top computer scientists, the ISAO administrator & experts from several backgrounds…And discussed the idea.

One of them asked me in irritation – ‘Hey, are you insane? It’s not science fiction. It’s real world. We are going to die & you are making fun??’

Another told me – “I understand your feelings…but these things are not possible. How someone on earth store a civilization in a chip? Are we bits of information?”

I replied – ‘Yes, we are. Our artificial intelligence is so advanced right now that we can stimulate feelings, rationality, logic & all kind of human cognitive features in a machine. Then why can’t we recreate everything in a chip? This’d be like a computer game. And everyone in the game would have feeling, memory & all those things a real human has. I know things are indeed bizarre & hard to believe. But I’d make it a possibility.’

After that, we finished the meeting & left off. Still, there were many who thought of me as insane & few who had the slightest of hope in me.

I worked day night in my lab. It took me months to finish making the model of what’s we are going to do. I presented my research in the International Conference of Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.

4. The Conference

I started –

“As our civilization is about to come to an end, we’d have to think of some way to at least virtually keep it alive. It’s true that whatever we do, we can’t continue this species. We all are going to die. But by doing what I’m going to tell you, we can at least ‘preserve the civilization’. My idea is bizarre enough to make you call me insane. It’s so abstract that even I couldn’t take it normally. But I think it’s the only hope. So, here’s it –

Today, artificial intelligence is advanced enough to stimulate everything & create a virtual world of any type. There’s no doubt in that. So taking inspiration from that, I’m thinking of creating a completely virtual world inside a chip. That world would be a continuation of our world. We’d not include this cataclysmic incident in that world. We’d install everything there…everything that we’ve now. The time period would be of this time & with time, it’d progress. It’d be a virtual replica of our world. And we’d recreate everything!!

 So how are we going to do that?

Without going to technical details here, I’d like to give a glimpse of the model. In a sentence – we’re going to redesign a nano version of the central processing unit or the brain of our advanced robots.  We’d create what I call Ele (from ‘Element’) which would represent us – humans. Every ele would have its memory space & a processing unit (replicating the brains of our present robots, but nano versions of them) that would be embedded in the chip. They are just electronic units of the chip. They’d have pre-installed memory. They’d represent a person’s brain. The memory database would contain the memory of a particular person. Your ele would have memory of you. Mine you’d have my memory. Also the processing capability would be based according to our thinking limit. These eles would interact with each other as components in a computer do. And every time, they interact, new memories would be created (as in our case when we meet someone). Iteration of a same interaction would make those memories permanent. Otherwise, they’d be vulnerable to lose. The probability of interaction of an ele with another ele is random. They are not pre-defined. Moreover, every ele would be a virtual representation of the hardwired units in each other’s memory space. I hope you’re getting the point.

Now, getting back to the ele, everything they feel or think about would be the results of nothing but their virtual memories & interactions with each other. Nothing happens in reality. These eles would randomly interact with each other. And any change in the memory space might also lead to further interactions with each other. For example, ele1 & ele2 interacted with each other just randomly as we meet people in workplace or market or elsewhere. Now, if ele2 gives an instruction to ele1 to meet ele3. Then that would lead to interaction of ele1 with ele3. That’s the idea.

The concept of ele is exact to human or artificial brain. As with us, we meet someone & form a mental model. But we or a robot do so in the real world that exists. But ele would interact with each other virtually. That’s exactly the same as if we people would interact with each other in our dreams. Ele would be a miniature nano-scale version of an artificial brain that would be embedded in the chip. These units would electrically interact at a random pace. And that interaction would lead to the changes in the memory space, as it does exactly in our cases. These eles would be accompanied with a very advanced processing unit replicating human brains. They would interact virtually, change their memory & process the information, thus, forming an identity, a self-image. In my own ele, I’d install everything that my brain holds since my birth to till date. My ele might sometimes interact with the eles of you guys & that may add to new memory in our memory spaces.

There’s nothing much different. But just little bit of strange. In that virtual world, my ele would do whatever we do. Moreover, interactions & activities would also be dependent on my pre-installed memory space. I’m a scientist. My memory space would also have that information & eles of people who know me, would also have that same information. So interaction of your eles & my ele would take place mostly in the virtual research centre in our memory space. If you’re finding it hard to imagine that model, think like we’re doing everything in dream. We all are dreaming. We can do things as we want to. We’d also see each others. In that dream, everything we see is a replica of the world. Things like that…

“Eles are the same like that. But they’d be nothing but electronic components. They can do, interact, feel, think as we do. But virtually. Nothing would be exactly happening. It’s just the result of interaction of their memory space & processing units. Even an ele would not think of the world as virtual. They would think of everything as real, as if it’s happening. Eles are just the artificial, nano-scale brain of each one of us, who are dreaming. They’d not have other physical parts as we do. It’d be same as if we take out our brain, connect each other & let them interact. That’d be like interacting in a dream. Eles are just our brain, without the body. If you try to understand, it’s not that hard to imagine. It’s just a virtual version of us.

Well, the chip on which we’d embed these components would be powered by a quantum battery that would consume the energy of vacuum or the lowest quantum energy possible. That means, it’d never ever run out of battery. But the eles would not be immortal. If in their virtual memory space, it happens that an ele is attacked & couldn’t survive in the virtual hospital of them, the embedded component representing that ele, would be damaged, putting the values of the memory space to zero. As we’d make the chip from a very special regenerative material, newer components would keep on creating. If for example, in their memory space, two eles get married & a new ele is born, then, a new component would get activated & start to fill the memory space representing that new born ele (or baby). As that ele would be the offspring of those two eles (though virtually), interacting of these three eles would be maximum.

So, things are like that. I hope you’ve got the model by the time. Though bizarre, it’s possible. Our physical presence would not be there, but virtually we’d be present. Moreover, my ele would not die there (I’m too young!!) anytime soon if I don’t die by an accident or things like that virtually in my memory space. And as it’s memory space would contain everything of me, at least virtually, I’d feel like I’m living. Nothing would actually change. It’s just that we’ve changed our form. We’d be lines of code. But we’d reborn in another world. I’d be feeling the same there as I’m feeling now. And I think no one should be worried about apocalypse. We’re going to live. Cheer up!!”

I concluded my speech & distributed the research paper with my colleagues. 8 months had passed by since the news of that cataclysmic stuff. So we had around 4 years to do whatever was in my head. There were many things that we created in the field of AI. We can stimulate cognitive abilities like intuition & even emotions in an artificial brain. But even the brain of a robot interacts in the real world & they are of considerable size. But creating the entire civilization in a single nano-chip was really a hard task. Moreover, I had really little bit of supports. I was not even certain if I’d receive approval for this project.

5. The Project Rebirth

A week passed by. One morning, I was called by the president. They had approved the project!! At that time, I was neither excited nor depressed. I was not excited because one way or other we are all going to die. And I was not depressed because at least we can virtually continue our civilization. Immediately, I had put a request to allow me to form a team to start the project.

The days followed…& we were on the way to make it a reality. Not everything was going on well. We faced many difficulties, some of which are even hard to explain because only we knew that the fate of our entire civilization was on our hands.

We had faced another problem that was almost inevitable. Though we had sequenced the brains of almost everyone, still there were many who were left behind in this 10.9 billion+ population. It was a very disheartening fact for me for they’d not survive, at least virtually. Everyone has a right to live. But due to various difficulties we couldn’t make sure that every get their brains sequenced. Creating mental model of so much of people was really really difficult for us. But still we were ready to put some more effort to sequence those who were left behind. Still, we could sequence more than 90% of population.

4 years passed by. At that time, we had around 4-5 months on this planet. Our project was in the process of completion. Only few tests were to be completed. But bad luck struck. In the wee hours of a spring morning, when I was half awake on my bed, I received a call from my team telling that it was urgent. I got up at once & kissed my children who were innocently sleeping unknowing their fate, & left off. Getting there, I inspected the faces of my colleagues. Even when the cold breeze was yet to leave completely & the temperature was yet to rise up, I saw droplets of sweat on their faces. Most of them were anxious & their faces were as red as cherries! I asked the matter. A young, brave scientist came forward & told me anxiously – “An unexpected bug crept in & we’ve just one chance of debugging it. If we succeeds, everything is gonna be okay or else, everything we were working for, for last 4 years, would be shattered.” An unknown fear struck my mind. I was feeling nervous. I asked them to start the debugging process no matter what would happen next. They estimated the debugging time to be 5 hours approx. One of them asked me for the permission to click the button. Amidst fear & dilemma, I ordered to click. And the debugging started which would determine our fate. I’d say that those 5 hours were the darkest hours of my life. Meanwhile, I received a call from my wife. May be she wanted to know why I left off without telling anything. But I was so nervous that I couldn’t even answer her call. 4 hours & 45 minutes passed by. I was getting more anxious. I was suffocating. One of our members even couldn’t stand on his feet & fell down in nervousness. I gave him a glass of cold water & encouraged him to be brave though the reality was that even I was shivering of fear from inside. Then came those 5 minutes that would determine whether we’d be able to preserve our civilization or whether nothing would be left of this civilization. In disgust, I hit the keyboard of a computer which postponed the process by 10 minutes! I slapped both my faces for that mischief. But my colleagues relieved me telling that it’s not something that I did on my own. We had to wait for next 10 minutes & then the process was 99% on its way. 99 changed to 100. My heart was throbbing much faster. And then appeared a new window showing – ‘debugging completed successfully’. Just with the sight of that line, I collapsed on my colleagues for I couldn’t bear the overwhelming joy. We congratulated each other. I immediately called my wife & told her about everything. The following 6-7 hours, we finished the remaining tests & issued a statement that the ProjectRebirth is successfully finished & ready for its next move. 

That was really an accomplishing day for me for we finished something that would restart our civilization in another world. I knew that we all will be left in ashes. But still there was also a relief that we all are going to die all together & that we’ve found a way to continue our civilization at least in a different world.

6. The Judgement Day

By that time, the news of the end of the world was circulated to every corner of the world & the news that we’re building to preserve our civilization. I don’t know if everyone understood what we did & but certainly, everyone was panic. A period of panic & distressed loomed over the world. It was reported that many people even died of cardiac arrest due to panic. People couldn’t even move to any safe place as there was nothing like a safe place. Prayers & preaches followed. They were all helpless. All they knew was they’d die. Then came an official statement from ISAO that the asteroid group was about to enter our solar system in less than a week & that apocalypse would strike us within that week. The news created panic everywhere. We had launched the chip to space beyond our solar system in a multi-layered microscopic capsule that was resistant to almost all forms of threats, a month ago. At that time, it crossed our solar system. But after the news, we intimated that the countdown remotely to activate the chip. The time, we’d die, the chip would be activated as far as estimation goes.

One day was left for the apocalypse. I can’t tell what we all were feeling at that time. I told my children that we are gonna have a small storm. I asked them not to be afraid. I said goodbye to my friends & near dear. Presidents or the heads of every nation addressed their citizens about the apocalypse & said goodbye. That day I realized one thing for sure that whatever we achieve in this life or whatever we do, one day everything would be doomed. People feel proud of their position, of their wealth, of their success. But one day we’d all be same. Though this long-living human civilization is now gonna end its reign on earth, we’d start a new life in a new world.

It’s now 8 am of the morning & just less than an hour is left of the apocalypse. Fear & anxiety are all over. I’m writing about all everything because at some point I want the coming civilization to know their origin, their identity. I feel guilty to keep them under darkness. Though it’s against what I had earlier told. I didn’t want to keep any trace of this apocalypse. But now I feel it’s their right to know their origin. Even as I’m writing this, the texts are getting updated in a virtual dairy in a virtual library of my virtual house.

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It’s now 15 minutes left. And the effects could be seen in many places. Many places are now getting flooded & people are dying everywhere. Earthquakes are hitting almost every place. We also had felt a big tremor few minutes ago. Most of the telecommunications & electronic system are getting failed. I’m sending these texts by a special system.

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Another tremor. And and…our home clashed! I’m now outside with my family. Rushing. There’re big cracks everywhere & just…just now I heard a loud noice. Oh…no…oh…no…I can see a flood of water rushing towards us…And w e ar e jst ab t to be hi…”

7. The secret that I need to pass on…

That’s what he had to tell us…to a civilization which doesn’t even exist. Though I had been a die-hard sci-fi fan, it’s beyond my wildest imagination. I can’t believe that all I’m seeing – this world, my mom dad, my friends, and even me – are nothing but just lines of code. I can’t imagine that all I’m doing is dream. Oh I can’t even call it a dream. They are quite real. But here things are completely upside down. It’s just that I can’t take normally. It’s getting stranger…

Well, I salute that brave & genius guy who did all these to continue this civilization, though in a virtual world. It took me nearly half a year to really admit that truth. I couldn’t even sleep for months. I just couldn’t believe that. It’s weird. But that person imagined everything centuries ago.

Now truth is truth. He wanted someone of this virtual world to know the truth. He might be a kind guy. I respect his feeling. But it’s equally true that not everyone should know about it. I think most people would take it as a joke…Better a joke. But if someone really believes those words, he or she would get insane thinking about it. Also I don’t want to create any controversy.

I respect my great…grandpa. I don’t want to dishearten him. I want to continue what he had thought of…So I’m putting these papers in a hard to find place, where an explorer like me can find. (Laughing) Now even I can’t say of it as paper! Okay, virtual paper if you are comfortable with that. I’m also adding a sentence to not to disclose this fact to anyone & to hide it again in another place for someone else…and so on.

As a kid I was always wondering how did we come to existence. But today our past is clear to me, much clearer than ever. Yeah it’s sort of weird. But still it’s a reality that I’d have to accept. I wanted to tell it to everyone. But it’d not be right choice, after all we are nothing but Lines of Code… And that’s just hard to believe for most.