Dreaming Immortality

This novel was published since 2007 in three different versions, all of them available in the web.

I am particularly fond of the first one – Dreaming Immortality - for the variety of the characters, the range of Transhumanist issues and because it was actually my first creation. The novel is almost all the original version, which in my opinion contributes greatly in the charm of the work. In the last edition the dates to Technological Singularity, brain digitization, semi immortality and strong A.I. have been anticipated.

The second version – The Alpha Centauri Project – is shorter but retains the main characteristics of the first work.

The last version – Evolution: the Future – is mostly action. A script was derived.

Now enjoy the story!

According to future studies, the world will be dominated soon by disruptive technologies, able to plunge humankind into an era of accelerated progress. Main outcomes will be the achievement of immortality, the creation of smarter than human artificial intelligences and the spread of the new species through the universe.

Dreaming immortality is a breathtaking story set in this near future altered almost beyond recognition by technology. Social and ethical issues as well as dreams and projects of the digital people are key drivers of the story. For digital beings aiming at eternal life, truth and collaboration are primary values; seeking exponential growth in knowledge and technology, avoiding conflicts and spreading into the universe their goals.

The passionate scenarios make the reader share the soul of the digital civilization. From this, a powerful comparison with our world emerges, that stripping away layer after layer of conventions and prejudices, leaves us at last face to face with the morals of a world that one day we might share.

Eve and Victoria, the main characters, are humans whose brain was digitized after death. Since then they live in Net. The two women move in this context of epoch-making events, searching for identity. They become more and more involved in the hardship of the digital community to the point of rising to leaders. Finally, in a crescendo of drama, they merge their destiny with that of their new people.

In the novel, the author of the work is imagined to be an artificial intelligence who in 3520 discovers the events of the first interstellar journey that occurred over a thousand years before.

End of the 21st century. Humans live on Earth and the Moon, last strongholds of their past power. Mars and the Net are inhabited by artificial intelligences and souls, these last obtained by digitizing the brain after death. The virtual reality allows the two races to communicate. Their differences are deep, their interest irreconcilable.

With biotechnology and digitization, humans have postponed real death to an indeterminate future, but they are not happy. Towards the virtual beings they feel admiration but also inferiority and envy.

The digital creatures instead cannot bear being relegated in worlds too small for their unbounded ambitions. Their Martian experience has allowed them to develop the competence necessary in extra-terrestrial environments, most of all to acquire the self-confidence indispensable for the colonization of other star systems. The Alpha Centauri project is born.

The mission obtains the humans’ support. In exchange the digital beings abandon the idea of expanding on the Earth. Just before departure, Earth Security intercepts a suspect message from the Space Agency. Terrorism? The evidence leads to the Elects, a sect that entered Net years before through a collective suicide...

A script is also available.

Scenes in Net are marked by @.

CHARACTERS

010101001

Artificial intelligence, historian, head of archeological mission in Aldebaran

Abel

Human, met by Victoria and Nicole in a discotheque

Adam

Artificial intelligence, an Elects’ member, son of Eve Dirac, Victoria and Martin Wing

C573Y

Artificial intelligence, Head of Security

Eve Dirac

Soul, past in the Special Forces, information technology scientist, Master of the Elects

James

Human, Victoria’s partner

Linnh Yung

Human, New Technology manager of the Space Agency

Marcus Rand

Human, Defense general

Martin Wing

Soul, Councilor of the Elects, civil rights leader

Nicole

Human, Victoria’s companion

Nihil

Soul, Grand Master of the Elects

Paul Widman

Human, Space Agency deputy manager

Victoria

Soul, James’ partner.

DISCOVERY

Year 3520, Aldebaran space town

Below, the boiling surface of the star almost fills the view. Above, branches out a thick net of modules kilometers long. There are about ten, parked in a corner: little robots with long thin arms. Two of them are next to each other.

010101001 has long dreamed of this moment. As a historian, he spent years of hard work through the galaxy, discovering and lining up the events of the first interstellar journey. Up to reach this forgotten corner of space. He raises his eyes towards the structure. Never seen anything so immense.

A ghost town, explains the guide. As it was expanding, the old quarters were abandoned. He turns towards a series of cylinders getting lost in the distance against the black sky, hardly lit up by the dark red light of the star. The depot is down there, fifty kilometers away. We are ready.

Let's go, then!

The explorers start the propellers. They skirt modules glittering with lights, yards packed with equipment and robots. A few hundred meters farther, the blazing flash of a shuttle. Soon the city vibrant with life remains behind. They plunge into quarters with a more and more archaic architecture, where time seems crystallized. Big cylinders, from which sharp spires and metal frameworks stretch out as skeletons. From time to time, wreckages moored in the piers.

Vacuum has kept them intact, says the guide. Unfortunately the ancient town has been ruined by the fire.

Damn!

The depot contains the recording of the first interstellar voyage. Over a thousand years before, at the end of the 21st century, three spaceships set out to Alpha Centauri, but shortly after departure, the transmissions with the Earth remained interrupted for several weeks. Officially, a technical problem. But the authorities never presented any evidence.

The explorers remain silent, gazing at the modules of the ancient town which are now near.

Five hundred years ago, explains the guide, safety regulations were not among the priorities of the colonizers. When the fire broke out, it spread quickly through the whole town. Hell lasted for a full week, causing many victims. After the emergency, the colonizers concentrated on the building of the new structure, forgetting these wrecks.

They skirt a side of the structure. Huge silvery cylinders, in front of which they look like grains of sand. Large slashes. Thick plates twisted like the fingers of a clenched fist. They reach the entrance. A hatch torn away by the rescue squads, hangs on the left.

They lean through, swinging light beams into the interior as black as pitch. Melted plastic panels, cables stretching out from the walls like frozen arms, everywhere a thick sooty blanket.

Let's go in.

They proceed fast, prey to excitement. However, as they advance into desolate corridors, reduced at intervals to metal frameworks, silence prevails. Places quivering with life before the disaster, suddenly upset by the tragedy. Places that devastation has moved away from the metamorphosis of time. For hundreds of years, till our days.

They stop in front of a tangle of wreckage.

In unison, the robots throw themselves onto the scrap, scampering over it. They wrap the rubble in their prehensile arms and put it inside metal nets. They light their laser torches and start cutting the titanium beams. The incandescent metal passes quickly from dark red to white-hot. It seems to hear its own sizzling. Vivid flashes revive the place for a few minutes, just enough to open a narrow passage. The explorers slip through, one after the other, and come out on the other side. They go on along a maze of corridors, without any difficulty. Up to a door.

The guide checks the identification code on the right jamb. An automaton detaches itself from the group. He draws out a light needle from his arm and in a few seconds unhinges the opening mechanism. The door slides on its guides.

A small room, not laid waste by the fire, but damaged by heat. Also here are destroyed plastic coverings, leaden blisters instead of spotless paint. An omnipresent dust, thick and dark, that at each step, sticks to their metal bodies. At the center, is a computer.

The robots fix their tools to a wall, floodlight the space and arrange themselves around the machine. After taking apart a few panels, one of them slips in his flexible limb ending in a camera. A fast and systematic inspection. Then he introduces other three arms, bustles inside for a few minutes and extracts a memory unit. His companions look impatient. 010101001 puts it gently into a container.

REVOLUTION

In the 21st century, humankind, proud of his own successes, looked to the future with optimism, convinced that in a future not far away his rashest wishes would change into reality.

Meanwhile, the newborn Net people undertook the first interstellar voyage: a cyclopean enterprise with which all the population was sailing to a new world, an event destined to change the protagonists of history.

010101001

IN THE NET

@ Net, December 31st, 2094

From the dining room, come the presenter's jokes followed by roars of laughter. The head waiter takes Victoria to a hall crowded with customers in elegant suits.

In a cheerful dance, laser beams are criss-crossing the gigantic hologram of a Christmas tree with iridescent reflections. Shortly before midnight the ‘tree’ will vanish leaving the floor free for celebrations. On one side, three colored musicians dressed in white are performing compositions from past times.

This spot, famous for its excellent food, first-rate service and famous artists, is placed in one of the most exclusive zones of Net and reproduces the environment and the atmosphere of a much earlier epoch, when the virtual world was not yet born.

Victoria orders an aperitif and checks her appearance in the mirror in front. Her big jade eyes show up a lovely face, her raven hair covers her naked shoulders and the blue lace dress, plain but provocative, reveals her perfect breasts.

The longing solo played by a frenzied trumpet, seems a distant melody.

The chair in front is empty.

She opens her leather handbag, scans inside for a moment, tightening her lips. Then she concentrates on the clients at the entrance. Elegant overcoats.

There he is! Impressive height, black hair and handsome features. In dinner-jacket, with a white handkerchief in his breast pocket. A waiter rushes to him and points to the table.

The man hurries towards Victoria. He bends and whispers: This evening will be just for us.

Victoria barely looks at him. I feared you had forgotten me.

James stretches his arm along the table. Meanwhile the woman continues: For you it is easy. You spend all day in the real world. Instead I’m here waiting for you to visit me (1) …

You know how busy I am.

She stares him in the eye. When I met you in Net after my accident, I thought our love could withstand forever. Not even my death had separated us! I gave up the dehumanization to remain the person you loved. But now I'm not sure anymore.

I realize how difficult it is for you.

I believed I could integrate in the digital world. I have installed the compulsory updates of the software, but without dehumanization, I am still too different from the other souls!

James looks at her thoughtfully. Why don’t you come back to the real world, Victoria? I'll buy you a gynoid (2), you will choose her.

The young woman is dumbfounded. But what shall we do if the law making dehumanization compulsory, passes?

James smiles as he touches lightly Victoria’s nose with his forefinger. No, it won’t pass. The opposition is very strong.

She reacts with a mischievous smile. I can’t wait to spend all the nights together!

Now let’s enjoy the evening, concludes James. They look through the menu. The man raises his eyes: What about an epoch dish?

OK.

French cuisine?

She nods. "I choose six escargots!"

"I will start with foie gras. As a wine, I propose an excellent Sauternes."

For the second course, I’m undecided… comments Victoria. We shall see later!

They place the order.

The young woman stares in silence at the waiter pouring a vintage Sauternes into crystal goblets. Then she rotates the glass gently. Amber color, exotic fruit aroma. On her lips, a smile.

The entry dishes arrive.

Delicious, comments Victoria as she pulls out a shellfish.

After a few minutes, he frowns. Sorry, I got a call.

The man bends his head and plunges into a thought discussion with a voice speaking to his mind. The furrows forming and dissolving on his forehead, the sudden movements of the facial muscles, look unpromising. Victoria drums her fingers on the table. When he raises his head, he has a dark look. I must run to a meeting.

Now? Delegate someone!

I can’t. It was I who convened the committee. We will make it up, anyway.

Our evenings are destroyed by your work!

The man is about to take her hand, but Victoria remains as stiff as an ice statue. I’m staying here.

Silence. They stare at each other for a few seconds.

He shakes his head. I'm really sorry, Victoria, but I can't stay. Then he stands up, and without adding anything else, strides away, rousing curiosity all around.

Victoria’s eyes follow the movement of his wide shoulders as he goes towards the exit. Then she deflates on the chair, like a pricked balloon.

Any disappointment makes her explode.

The moment of truth is near.

The meetings between her, a Net being, and James, a human, have become a real ordeal recently, not only for quarrels like this, but also for even serious reasons: after the installation of the latest software, she is no longer the same even without dehumanization. She feels an incredible tension, that she can hardly control. Her intelligence has been boosted, her thought is even faster...

Victoria extracts a little red-ribboned box from her bag and puts it on the table. The beam of a spotlight makes it glitter.

The gift she was going to offer him as the old year expired, a program able to increase the interaction of the humans with the virtual world. She gazes at it for a few seconds, then shakes her head. It will solve their problems, but only for a short time. And she cannot refuse the compulsory software updating.

But even if she could, she would never refuse. Beyond spots like this which humans use for the virtual reality meetings – such banal places, so predictable and in conclusion really boring – there is her world.

A world for the digital creatures only, where they move, think and communicate at the speed of light. An interaction that dehumanization could increase by a hundredfold…

She lifts her finger and points at the center of the table. A hologram twenty centimeters high, of a woman in gray suit appears. She sways for a moment, then stabilizes.

May I help you? asks the figure with a smiling.

Victoria leans forward, her eyes longing for adventure. I want to have fun!

The little image nods and disappears in a flash. In a moment the search program analyzes millions of opportunities, identifies the most suitable for the girl and activates the transfer.

@ The competition

A glade besieged by the jungle. Clothes stuck to the skin, insects everywhere. A hot, stifling wind. From the vegetation, cries of wild beasts.

Victoria has a quick look at her detector, she is in a Nairobi server. Other guests are observing the place or are busy chatting. Gradually new arrivals materialize, and when there are about thirty, a tyrannosaur appears among the group. Panic. A general stampede into the vegetation.

The beast remains alone in the middle of the clearing. It casts withering looks into the undergrowth, then it bursts out laughing. I am your guide!

Not bad for the beginning… thinks Victoria.

The guests approach in dribs and drabs. The animal counts those present, then turns to point at a snowy peak on the horizon, which stands out in the middle of a mountain range plunged in the green. You have to reach it, in an hour. A more than sufficient time for you, Net beings!

What about the prizes? shouts a guest.

Virtual countenances, the most beautiful ones! answers the beast.

Male and female figures mixed with others obtained with the computer, materialize over their heads. Long-limbed youths. Blacks and whites. Athletic bodies, proud looks. But also wrinkled beings, with watery and bulging eyes, small and pointed ears. Noses reduced to vertical slits, ochre complexions.

From the guests, rises a murmur: ZY798C’s works!

The most famous master of the whole Net! The point of reference for generations of artists. Whose masterpieces reach mind-boggling figures.

Come with me! cries the tyrannosaurus.

As if by magic, they find themselves on a snow-white beach.

Victoria stoops and picks up a handful of sand. It is warm and fine. When she opens her fist, the breeze disperses it towards the turquoise sea. A rippling expanse getting darker and darker, up to the deep blue below the horizon. She reaches the shore. Small waves break around her feet, wrapping