The delivery room was spotless, white, clinical. The mother lay exhausted, breathing, smiling. She had only a single thought…“Oh my god he’s beautiful.”
The baby let out that familiar cry all parents long to hear. No language or words, just a sound loud enough to get immediate attention. It’s mother understood…the babies cry meant “im here, I am alive and I have arrived.” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. A baby is born to this world. To the baby it is somewhere, new and unknown. Having no recollection of existence, the baby does the only thing it can, it announces arrival with shock and surprise. It has no memories now and for many years to come.
In the room next door, a man from the corporation sat sternly awaiting his purpose. He was immaculate, flawless, clinical. He also heard the babies cry. The cry meant he had a job to do. This new mind wasn’t born to his world yet. The baby had arrived physically but it still needed to be harvested. The man took great pride in his work. He would save this child from the ugliness of this world, he would give it purpose and provide a virtual life more beautiful than reality could offer…
Several hours later, two parents sat on two noticeably hard designer chairs, across the table from the man from the corporation. The new born parents euphoric smiles, were replaced with looks of confusion. A kind of anxiety that comes with any life changing decision.
The mans voice was plain and serious. “Hello, my name is Peter Verse. I am sure you are aware that everyone must make, the choice.” Your son has qualified for our premium alternative life reality. You can understand what a great opportunity this is. The company will sustain the body with everything it needs for life, while the mind will experience existence inside our virtual universe. Shall we sign the forms and get everything started…”
New dad, Martin paused then asked…“I don’t understand? What’s the cost”?
Peter responded “It doesn’t cost anything in terms of credits. We will utalise a small percentage of your sons mental capacity to process data, perform algorithmic functions or for storage. He wont feel a thing or even realise this is occurring. He will live a standard of life, in virtual that is far superior to a life embodied in the real. His work in the virtual will also provide credits for you both in the real.”
The very nervous mother named Elizabeth asks…“And the alternative?”
“Well i’m sure you both understand the physical world outside those doors. The embodied are split into two groups. The embodied elite are wealthy enough to live well in the real world. These minds spend significant amounts of their time in the virtual, as wealthy recreational users. The remaining people also embodied, live in poverty, providing resource and services for the embodied elite. These people can choose to be sponsored corporate users. Which is the opportunity being presented to your son today.”
“Will we see our son? Is our son really alive?” I mean, would he really have a life?” Martin ask’s nervously…
The man from the corporation readjusted his seated position, took a deep breath and began to speak…
“Yes certainly, of course. As parents of a sponsored, you will be able to enter virtual and interact with your son. These meeting will be timed with your sleep patterns. There is one thing. While in virtual you will not have access to your memories of life in the real. What is life? What is real? Your body is real because your senses tell you its real and you believe you a conscious and alive. You have memories that give yourself and your surroundings context. You see your hand touch another hand and a electrical signal is sent to your brain. You feel the sensation of touch. You experience “aliveness.”
Elizabeth turned and looked at Martin for a moment before Peter continued….
“The virtual has all the ingredients of the real, required for aliveness. Is it a real within the real. It is yet another interfaced interpretation of aliveness. The question becomes, is it any less real than the real? Is there any significance that the senses of the biological interface has been left behind and replaced. Or that the time and space of the biological interface has been abandoned.”
Martin interrupted…“So the virtual is another possible dimension of existence, experiencing by the mind, which is embodied in the base universe which is a biological universe? Effectively you could create a multiverse of virtual worlds once the mind is free from the body?“
The man continued…
“The mind that exists in the biological, can only experience a universe that is real, according to the laws governing that universe. The fundamental truth of aliveness, is the belief that you live within the real or if you are visiting in a virtual universe, that you can always return to the real. We call this grounding. The conscious mind needs the illusion of matter in a base biological reality. No mind can cope with the infinite madness of consciousness reduced to information alone. This is why everyone who is conscious, needs to believe their foundation universe is the real universe.“
“So you are saying that our son will believe your virtual universe is his base universe and he will not be aware he is living in virtual? Then how does anyone know for sure that they are living in a true biological reality?” Elizabeth asked.
Peter managed to form an awkward smile…“If that is all he has ever known and can ever know, then yes, his real is his real and his real is our virtual. He won’t know and cannot see beyond his interface. Real and virtual is only a matter of perspective. Information is subjective. It is relative. Our interface free’s us and binds us within the framework.“
To be continued…
