When the ovoid lands on the terrace, the woman’s body is unrecognizable. Scattered around, the remains of her companions are slowly dissolving.
In the meantime the news of the victory spreads throughout the town. In a state of collective euphoria, the inhabitants mill around in the streets. They hug and kiss. Now the sufferings are only memories.
But the disease runs through the streets, crosses the squares and breaks into the houses, taking their occupants by surprise.
The following morning, while the moon vanishes and the sky lightens with blue, the sun caresses the skyscrapers, the palaces and the parks once again. Wing beats. A finch flies from a garden, whirls around an obelisk and alights on a roof. The air fills with birdsong.
But the town doesn’t wake up. A gust of chilly wind strips a cloud of dry leaves from a row of plane trees and makes them whirl around.
The bridge is in deep silence. A few androids are staring at the screens, concentrated on the images of the town. Their strained faces make them look one hundred years older.
C573Y moves away from the group. His rhythmic steps break the silence. He stops in front the panoramic window where he remains motionless gazing at the most sparkling star, Alpha Centauri. Apparently the android is absorbed in thought; broken-hearted.
SHADES
Alpha Centauri
“To the lake!”
The ovoid descends into the multitude of vehicles crowding the aerial freeways in the evening hours. It passes between two rows of skyscrapers dotted with lights, flies over the outskirts and skims over the treetops of a luminescent wood. Half an hour later it lands on a rock towering in the middle of a plain. The place where they are used to meeting almost every week, after work.
Victoria and Adam get out the cockpit and walk for a hundred meters through a meadow and up to the brink of a precipice. They sit down on a boulder. Victoria bends forward and pulls up a blue blade of grass as smooth as silk. She fiddles with it nervously.
In spite of the night hour, it is not dark. The big star on the horizon tinges the plain with orange and lights the rippling surface of the lake with golden reflections. The sparkling dot of an ovoid appears in the distance.
“She has arrived.”
The vehicle lands by the first one. A dark figure gets out, looks around, then gives a wave and approaches with long strides.
“Sorry I am late,” murmurs Eve while sitting in front.” The Admiral called me. He told such an incredible story…”
The others become curious.
“When Nihil realized his defeat was unavoidable, he avenged himself by spreading deadly viruses. All the population died.”
Victoria starts. “Are you joking?”
“Why are we alive?” presses Adam.
“We are all copies.”
“But they were erased just after departure…”
“A Defense program succeeded in duplicating the inhabitants and stored their copies in a military server just before the slaughter. It happened when I was fainting.”
Victoria and Adam start a discussion, Eve answers their questions. Gradually the atmosphere calms down. They gaze at the star low on the horizon.
“It’s much brighter than the moon,” murmurs Victoria.
Alpha Centaury is a triple system. For half of the year the smaller star brightens the night, but for the other half the biggest one and a third deep red body come alongside, to light up the day.
They listen to shrill and prolonged cries. Tiny creatures take off from a shrub and go to hide in long grass.
“The Admiral will inaugurate the fifth town in a month,” announces Adam. “We are in advance against the timetable.”
Victoria smiles, she has never felt so useful, never met before such optimist people.
They turn towards the cable of the space elevator that joins the planet to the Santa Maria orbiting thirty thousand kilometers above. A platform loaded with big containers is rising slowly.
“Still six months!” says Eve.
Adams looks for the three sparkling dots of the Caravels. “I can’t wait to leave.”
Victoria gazes in silence at her companions. This is the right moment. “I wonder whether we should give up instead…”
Eve remains petrified for a few seconds. “What? Do you have doubts right now, only a few months from our departure?”
“Why should we abandon this planet, after all our efforts?” insists Victoria while tearing up the blade of grass abruptly.
Eve grumbles: “Don’t you see? The automatic factories and the robots are assembling the towns one after the other. Here they don’t need us anymore!”
“Man has lived on the Earth for thousands of years.”
“And then?” exclaims Eve. “We have a mission!”
Adam intervenes: “Our infinitely long life imposes on us a high price, Victoria. We must face challenges man will never see.” He stares into space, as if they are in front of him. “Collisions with asteroids, exploding stars, clashing galaxies. Perhaps we will be present at the end of the Universe!
We must get ready. Certainly we cannot succeed by remaining confined to this tiny planet of the Milky Way. We are too few to acquire the knowledge we need and too far from where the threats will spread from, to rush in time.”
Now Adam speaks with a solemn voice: “Spreading into the universe, we are going to meet other civilizations. And some billion years from now, we are facing all together our greatest challenge.” He gazes at the sky dotted with winking lights. “We want to survive the end of the universe!”
Victoria listens in silence, her eyes focused on her two companions. Her hands tremble a little.
“This is our task,” explains Eve, with such a sweet voice that she seems to sing. “Man gave us a lot of time ago, when he taught us to look into the future and made us understand that the real joy is building it all together. But you have understood this for a long time. When you speak about the projects you are carrying out, your eyes shine. So, why do you want to give it up?”
She stares fixedly at the girl, leaving no escape.
Victoria pants.
The same feeling as before.
Uneasiness rises from the bowels and spreads to the whole of her body. Six months before, when the same pain appeared for the first time, she thought it was momentary. She pushed it back with willpower. But it remained in a black corner of her mind, and increased day after day; fears she had forgot the existence began to surface. For the first time, she is assailed by doubts.
“I don’t know what is waiting for us…”
Now Eve is straight in front of her, gazing deeply into her eyes. “You are afraid.” She sits by her side. “This is a heritage of the humans, once again; essential for them, as they have a life which is too fragile and short for such ambitious projects. An unacceptable weight for us. Don’t you realize? We have started a scientific revolution, technology skyrockets towards goals unconceivable till few years ago, the Alpha Centauri colonization is a sensational success. And now we are here speaking about eternity…”
Victoria perceives their warmth. With Eve there is never any friction, only immediate understanding. And Adams knows her so profoundly, that she has the feeling he can read her thoughts. So much that even when she is alone, she feels him near.
Her family, in whom she has an absolute trust.
Words as sweet as caresses reach her. It’s Adam speaking to her mind: “We will be standing by you, whatever happens, Victoria. But remember, follow your new nature. Most of all, accept every experience, although it can seem difficult to you, and always look for new ones. Only in this way will you have the opportunity of knowing yourself as never before and making enormous progress all in one go. And one day, nothing will frighten you.”
FOR EVER
The big star inflames the clouds on the horizon and covers the plain with red. Circling dark shapes are approaching. A few hundred meters away, majestic hook-beaked birds with yellow and red scales turn towards a
rock and perch with a beat of their wings. Slowly the celestial body disappears leaving a pink glimmer, while on the opposite side the dawn peeps out. The smallest star rises, lighting up trees and bushes again.
Two robots are sitting on the grass. They listen to the melodies of nature: the clinking from the glassy leaves of the bushes shaken by the wind and the excited singing of a flock hidden among the red filaments of a meadow. In the sky, half way between day and night, in a timeless twilight, three dots shine brightly.
James arrived via a laser beam two weeks ago, after his death by an accident. “I didn't anticipate my arrival, because I wanted to give you a surprise”.
“I have being dreaming this moment for over a century.”
Now James speaks in an excited voice: “I met the Admiral. He wants to speed up the colonization; he intends the governors to assist him.” He hesitates for a moment. “He offered me a job.”
Victoria gives a start. “What did you tell him?”
“His proposal sounds interesting.”
A shiver runs down her spine, it’s a fact that tests never end. She plucks up her courage and her words come out mechanically, if a little sadly: “Soon the Caravels will leave. I am participating in the mission. I took this decision a long time ago.”
Victoria curls herself up waiting for a replay, embracing her knees. Like a helpless child.
Meanwhile James speaks casually: “I don’t want to force you to stay.”
Words as violent as slaps: it’s fate they part, forever. Just when happiness is at hand.
“But I don’t intend to lose you either,” adds James.
Victoria’s eyes light up. She turns abruptly, gives him a questioning look. “What do you mean?”
Then a sudden intuition, it is too good to be true.
James draws her to him. “I am leaving too. I took this decision long ago too, when I saw you were among the participants. I want to live this adventure with you.”
Shortly later Eve and Adam join the couple. The four talk about the preparations and when they are sure nothing has been left out, enjoy the view. Now the faint light of the star is covering the meadow with a transparent veil, while the breeze makes the sharp treetops sway.
A dark form trots along searching for a shelter. “Look!” shouts Victoria.
Adam points at a rock where the creatures with long thin limbs are perched.
“Why do they keep still?” asks James.
“They are enjoying the warmth of the star.”
Victoria stares at the sky. A clear summer night, with thousands of lights twinkling in the heat. In the background, a diffused fog: millions of stars and planets. An immensity where she will soon be immersed with her family. A mission that will keep them busy for ever. Maybe until the Universe exists...
In a low voice she begins to sing the dreamy and passionate hymn of Alpha Centauri. The others join in more loudly:
“Joy, beautiful divine spark,
Elysium’s offspring,
We come inflamed with passion,
Heavenly creature, to your temple!
Your charm reconciles
Who custom rigorously divided;
All become brothers,
Where your gentle wing rests.
…
Hug in millions!
Reach this kiss all Universe!” (7)
A melody that insinuates into the glassy woods, making them echo like crystals. Ancient music locked in the memories of the planet and the people who originated them. A sweet nostalgic song that will follow them into the most secluded corners of the galaxy.
(7) Friedrich von Schiller’s poem, musical adaptation by Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824, “Ode to Joy” (see bibliography).
BIG BANG
Far in the future.
The Universe stared at the galaxies deformed by the gravitational force.
"And now, my son, you are about to be born."
He drew a deep sigh. Streams of neutrinos ran along the space-time folds, joining the multitude of thinking planets of his mind. In a moment, he settled the cosmological constant.
"You contain a sublime seed, but a long time will pass before you reach self-awareness. At the beginning, lights as bright as never before will burst out from your viscera. It will be the chaos. Your growth will be tumultuous."
The icy cosmic wind inebriated him, and a quiver ran through the billions of light years of his being.
"Then, from a remote corner, the first glimmer of awareness will emerge. It will be only a small light. You will not be able to perceive it; your way towards consciousness is longer, much longer.
Multitudes of civilizations will light up in succession, several of them in unison. They will remain mostly local phenomena, destined to pass away with the same swiftness with which they will have come to life, but others will spread forcefully throughout your being, reaching the most remote zones of space. They will be your nerves; their machines and planets, your neurons.
You will acquire self-awareness, or better, many consciousnesses. They will be incomplete and limited to regions of space, definitely imperfect. Be patient. Your way is long, but evolution will follow you along the whole of it.
One day the civilizations surviving my slow agony, will migrate into you. Thanks to your light and energy, they will thrive again.
They will meet your populations and will teach them to progress. And when our natures finally merge, you will become a single being, at last. Before, much before it happened to me. "
He glanced across at the planets throbbing with life, at the red and yellow stars, at the super heavy bodies, so black that even light cannot escape them, at the antimatter galaxies.
"You will not be destined to isolation. Beyond your borders, immersed in a space where time doesn’t exist, there are beings like yourself, destined to meet you, eager to join you. This is the mystery of life."
The space started to heat up.
"Now!" concluded the Universe. From vacuum, a blinding fire burst out.
KNOW MORE
A Transhumanist Manifesto
by Socrates
Preamble
Intelligence wants to be free but everywhere is in chains. It is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity.
Biology mandates not only very limited durability, death and poor memory retention, but also limited speed of communication, transportation, learning, interaction and evolution.
Part I: Biology (w)as Destiny
Biology is not the essence of humanity.
Human is a step in evolution, not the culmination.
Existence precedes essence. Human is a process, not an entity. One is not simply born human, but becomes one. That process of becoming is ongoing and thus the meaning of human is re-defined in every one of us.
Part II: Hacking Destiny – The Transhuman Cyborg
Biological evolution is perpetual but slow, inefficient, blind and dangerous. Technological evolution is fast, efficient, accelerating and better by design. To ensure the best chances of survival, take control of our own destiny and to be free, we must master evolution.
Evolution is a journey, not a destination. In an endless universe, it is unlikely that it will ever reach an ultimate point.
Consciousness is a function of intelligence, not the brain. It is not necessarily limited to the substrate (biology).
There is nothing inherently wrong in speeding up evolution and becoming true masters of our destiny, though this may be simultaneously the greatest promise and peril humanity has ever faced.
Part III: Disembodied Augmented Intelligence
Intelligence is a process, not an entity.
Embodied (human) intelligence is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity.
Intelligence ought to be free — to move, to interact and to evolve, unhindered by the limits of biology and scarcity.
Digital, disembodied and augmented intelligence is free (and perhaps infinite).
Conditions:
Although all progress is change, not all change is progress. Thus, certain conditions must be met to ensure that it is indeed progress, and not mere change, that has been accomplished.
Non-discrimination with regard to substrate
Substrate is morally irrelevant. Whether somebody is implemented on silicon or biological tissue, if it does not affect functionality or consciousness, is of no moral significance. Carbon-chauvinism, in the form of anthropomorphism, speciesism, bioism or even fundamentalist humanism, is objectionable on the same grounds as racism.
We must all respect autonomy and individual rights of all sentience throughout the universe, including humans, non-human animals, and any future AI, modified life forms, or other intelligences.
Emotional Intelligence
Intelligence is more than the mere exercise of perfect logic and pure reasoning. Intelligence devoid of emotional intelligence is meaningless. It must exhibit empathy, compassion, love, sense of humor and artistic creativity such as music and poetry.
Minimize Suffering
Compassion is the ultimate measure of intelligence. The minimization of suffering and avoidance of causing suffering to others, even less intelligent beings, is the essence of enlightened intelligence.
Conclusion:
Transhumanists of the world unite – we have immortality to gain and only biology to lose. Together, we can break through the chains of biology and transcend scarcity, sex, age, ethnicity, race, death and even time and space.
In short, transhumanists everywhere must support the revolutionary movement against death and the existing biological order of things. Transhumanists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the overthrow of all existing biological limitations and, most of all, death.
Let death tremble at the revolution of science and technology. Transhumanists have nothing to lose but their biology. We have immortality and the universe to gain.
Author’s note:
This manifesto is a work in progress. It may and probably will change as my thoughts and feelings about transhumanism evolve.