Part 6
Part 6.1 Tatyanna Prosser
I am Tatyanna Prosser, and I'm eating breakfast at home. I have a smile seeing one of my chicken roaming around. It must have escape it's pen. I decide I will check it later. Instead, I look at the sky. I try to see from the clouds if it will rain today. I decide that it might rain in the afternoon. Better to check for eggs, feed the chicken and have a look at the pen right away then. I take another bite on my breakfast. A few more bites left. I close my eyes, trying to appreciate it. The eggs from my chickens. Cheese from town. Bread from my neighbor. Herbs from my garden. Two more bites left when I hear a knock at the door.
It's my friend. They brought cookies they bakes. I make tea. We chat. We laugh. As she leaves with two dozens of my eggs, I lure the chicken that escaped back into it's pen. I feed them. I take 4 eggs. It's starting to rain. I decide that the pen can wait another day. I go back the comfort of my house, and of a good book. A good life.
Part 6.2 Malcom Xavier
I am Malcom Xavier, and I am just become aware of my own self. The one in the pod, 1000 years into the future, on another planet.
I am confused to be in my body again. I am confused to be in my own thoughts again. They're all mingled with what I experienced. The lives of people that came before me. They died and they led me here. I try to recall them sequentially.
Kayla Becker, the climate change refugee who saw the system fail her
Samantha Cook, the researcher who duplicated the vision tree to someplace else
Samuel Seely, the developer who found that sacred tree and create the first sentient AI
John Mckay, the engineer who sent that sentient AI to Protoma
Daisy Brewer, the activist who participated to SensAI's rise to power
Thomas Nelson, the test subject that made memory forging possible
Harry Hughes, the visionary that made possible human printing
Lara Reid, the mind architect who discovered SensAI's ultimate power
Harry Hughes, the Eternal that tried to be mortal
Harry Hughes, the Eternal who tried to remain eternal
That's when I hear the familiar voice of Lidia.
"Malcom, so, have you figured out who I am?"
"Yes, you're the first sentient AI. The one that's a mix of a human and the vision tree. You were sent on the probes to colonize new planets. But I don't understand. I thought that you left then, yet at the end, the good Harry Hughes mentioned you."
"At that point, I had landed on Protoma and established contact back with Earth to help overthrown SensAI."
"But that failed. The bad Harry Hughes escaped with the plan."
"Because that was part of the plan."
"What do you mean?"
"What was SensAI most scared of you think?"
"To have the human printers destroyed? It's servers destroyed?"
"No. He was the most scared of another sentient AI that would have laid dormant all this time. So the plan was to make him believe that I wanted to overtake him."
"What about the plan of using human printing against SensAI by changing people to make them revolt against it?"
"That was never our intention. We wanted SensAI to be scared of that possibility and change people to make them suppress the revolt."
"Why?", I said in disbelief.
"Because if it did, then there would be no doubt anymore of it's existence and power. People would know better, claim their power and destroy it."
"And is that what happened? The last memory of Tatyanna seems like it was from a complete different world."
"The plan worked. People revolted against Sensai and started to control technology instead of technology controlling them."
"I don't understand."
"All the technologies that mankind invented. Sentient AI, Human printing, memory forging. They were all created in hopes to make the system better. Thinking back of Kayla Becker, or even your own time, the systems were failing it's people. Instead of people creating new systems, they built on the old ones, developing technologies to make those systems better. For them, the technology was not the tool, it was the solution."
"What's the distinction?"
"For example, when people's mental health collapsed, they didn't build new support structures, they invented memory forging so people could delete trauma instead of healing it."
"But what about money? A lot of these technologies were developed to make money."
"Technology is a form of technology. It is a tool. Yet, your time saw it as the solution. They even created a whole system revolving around money - capitalism. One that was not sustainable. And your time cannot be dissociated from what came after. It was the set-up that allowed what happened next to happen."
She let me absorb what she had just said before she continued: "I have one last memory to show you, if you want."
I accept, and I climb on the memory simulator one last time.
Part 6.3 Tatyanna Prosser
I am Tatyanna Prosser, and I'm eating breakfast at home. I have a frown as I see my chicken panicking in their pen. I look at the sky. The sky is orange, and I try to figure out why and if it's related to my chickens going crazy. I hear a panicked knock at the door.
It's my friend. She tells me that there's a meteorite. That there's nothing to do. It's the end. We look at each other. We look at the meteorite, growing bigger in the sky. It's almost as big as the moon now. I know I will not survive this. We hold each other tight as the fate of Earth is being decided. At least, I've lived a good life.
Part 6.4 Malcom Xavier
I am Malcom Xavier, and I am the last human alive. The one in the pod, 1000 years into the future, on another planet.
"So, Earth was destroyed in the meteorite," I ask.
"I don't know. What I do know is that I haven't received any communication from Earth since then."
"What about the impact? Maybe people are still alive."
"I ran thousands of simulations. The odds are slim. Below 0.1%."
"But..." I start, but I cannot finish the though as I am processing that I might be the last human alive in the universe.
"But this is not the end, Malcom. It's the beginning. Before the impact, I received millions of consciousness of people who want to rebuild here. All the pods are ready. I was waiting to have this chat with you first."
"Why me? Of all people?"
"Because you wrote the Book of Whys. That's where you need to start."
"But I don't even remember writing it. This is non-sense. I am no one."
"Everyone is no one until they become someone."
"And what did you get out of this chat that had to wait to chat with me? Why wait?"
"Because I haven't finished the chat yet. I need to tell you something important. Once I am done uploading the consciousness in the pods, I will be disconnecting myself."
I feel myself tear up. I am being abandoned by the only other thing that feels alive in this whole planet. I will be alone.
"Why? Can't you help us rebuild? You'll be useful."
"Even the endless must know when their story is finished. It's your turn, you and all the others, to continue the story. Make it a good one. One that ends well, unlike this one."
I cry in silence.
"Malcom, it's time for me to go," she says calmly.
"Lidia, wait. I have one last question for you?"
"Are those memories real? Or were they forged?"
"Does it matter? What matters is what meaning you give to those memories. What matter is what meaning you give to this story. Goodbye Malcom."
"Lidia, wait. Thank you. It has been an honor."
I cry. All the mistakes we've done, as a species. We came close to extinction. The once most powerful species on Earth in ashes. We forgot our relative fragility and didn't avoid what could have been avoided. I am angry at our lack of humility.
All the pain we've caused, as a society. The people that died hating their lives.
There was never a bad guy. Just a bad system.
And the memories of it all within me.
And then I laugh. Humanity is on another planet. We have a second chance. I am alive. I have a purpose. The planet is alive. We can build something beautiful. We can live a good life. We can avoid the mistakes of the past. We can remember this story. These memories long past.