The gravicar-taxi brought me right on time: iskine drivers are always punctual. I thanked the driver. The number in the upper right corner decreased by 1 credit: the payment is collected automatically. I remember, in my childhood, taxi drivers used to try to take the longest route to make more money, but iskines never lie, they are mathematically accurate.
The Hall of Awards was done in a classic style: rows of hundreds of leather-upholstered chairs stood in lines. A navigator appeared before my eyes, helping to find the shortest route to my seat. To avoid disturbing people in occupied seats when I walked by, their chairs automatically moved back and then returned to their original position behind me.
The host, a woman in her thirties with long curly black hair, in a black floor-length dress, opened an envelope. Technology has advanced significantly, but at the Ceremonies, they traditionally used regular paper envelopes to announce the winners.
This years Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Semyon Petrov for the discovery of an effective cancer treatment!
A young man though its hard to guess ones actual age in our time rose to the stage amid thunderous applause.
The Nobel Peace Prize goes to Ilya Sizov for implementing sigma radiation into practice, which neutralizes the impact of any weaponry.
Again, thunderous applause. And this academician Sizov is quite cunning. Nuclear arsenals can be used to change the trajectory of a meteorite or to attack a hypothetical space enemy. But as soon as you attempt to use any of the existing weapons against a human, that weapon immediately turns into a pile of scrap metal. It seems like the era of wars on Earth has ended forever.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to an iskine named G. Pity for the first time.
In the hall, there is absolute silence. Many find it difficult to accept the new reality: artificial intelligence is catching up with us even in the field of creativity.
The Nobel Prize in Biology goes to Dmitry Priyanishnikov for studying wheat growth in extreme space conditions.
The Nobel Prize for the implementation of artificial intelligence is awarded to Sergey Tsipher!
I was teased for my last name since childhood, given the nickname «Digit.» Could I have had a different destiny with such a surname?
Applause. Envious glances from colleagues I surpassed. I touched the breast pocket where the coveted flash drive lay.
I dont know if its true that Nobel refused to give the prize to mathematicians as retaliation for the mathematician chosen by his beloved. But the prize in the field of artificial intelligence has only been awarded for the past two years. Previously, it was presented as a substantial sum of money. But why do we need money now? Iskines do most of the work, and the credits issued to every Earth resident cover almost any need, as long as you dont spend them on luxury items.
But theres something you couldnt get for any amount of money. Seven years ago, I invented immortality, its digital counterpart. You scan the brain, layer by layer, neuron by neuron, and then populate this digital copy in a virtual world. For the first time in millennia of its existence, humanity has come to a unanimous decision: the right to Resettlement is granted only to the greatest minds of the era, and at most one member of their family. No billionaire could buy a place in paradise, no official could obtain the right to Resettlement through their position: iskines were in charge of overseeing the process, and you cant bribe or deceive them; they are impartial. Even I, the creator of the new virtual future, didnt have the right to Resettlement until today. But the Nobel Prize now includes a ticket to immortality for two.
We met Polina in those ancient times when Semen Petrov had not yet invented the cure for cancer. She didnt have much time left, and thats when I found the only way to save her. I didnt sleep for several nights. Anyone who interacted with me during that time saw a madman with a long, greasy beard: I didnt leave the laboratory until I assembled the first Scanner prototype.
Polina, we will meet soon.
I made my way through rows of chairs that parted before me and closed behind my back. Everyone wanted to touch me: pat my shoulder, tug at my sleeve, shake my hand. But I didnt feel these touches, didnt hear the applause, and didnt see the glare of spotlights. I saw HER face as if in reality, heard HER whisper, and my hand touched the coveted flash drive.
Everything that happened next was like a blur. Apparently, they awarded me, just like the others.
***
The next moment I remember Im in the clinic. Cold fluorescent light. The smell of carbolic. A doctor in a white coat is trying to dissuade me from the procedure:
Think it over once more. Theres no turning back. By law, two versions of one consciousness cannot coexist simultaneously. If you decide on Transference, your identity in the real world will have to be eliminated. Only your copy will remain in Virtuality. And you will go on living. You can exercise your Right to Transference in ten years or in forty Virtuality wont change from it.
Doctor, Ive made up my mind, proceed as planned.
Sign here and here to confirm that you have no claims against our clinic and that you take full responsibility.
I scanned my fingerprint on the tablet the doctor handed me. I handed him two flash drives: one containing her memory, and the other my own. I suppose for other people, the procedure would involve brain scanning, but my memory has been digitized for a long time.
I closed my eyes.
2 Getting to Know the Infosphere (Sergey)
# Cycle 1
At first, there was emptiness and darkness. It felt like you were endlessly falling into a vast abyss. Then came the first blue flashes, like lightning but made up of a sequence of ones and zeros. Focus on any digit, and you could touch it or even taste it. Next, there was a hospital room, empty this time, with no doctor present. Sensations in this world were absent too: no smells, no sounds. I doubt if I actually saw the hospital room or if I perceived it in some other way. It was an absolute synesthesia of senses: sounds merged with images, and you could taste or calculate them.
Moreover, there were numerous dimensions here, instead of the familiar three. And an immense, boundless, multi-dimensional black sky without a single celestial body.
You are mistaken if you think that the three-dimensional world consists of three perpendicular planes.
Three-dimensional space is more like a stack of papers that can be inserted into three-dimensional space an infinite number of times.
I counted six dimensions in the Virtuality, but there were more, significantly more. Even while staying in one place, just by changing the point of view, you could spend thousands of years in different universes and discover something new. An infinite number of three-dimensional worlds nested within multidimensionality.
I was inside the room, but could peer into it from somewhere outside. I took a step in ana-4, the equivalent of moving upwards in the fourth dimension, and the room appeared somewhere below, as if I hadnt left the room but simply stepped over the chalk-drawn line on the asphalt.
In this world, you could change your appearance. At any moment, I could turn into a blazing sphere of fire or a rocket, grow any number of limbs, and in any of the new available directions. However, I still wanted to keep my true appearance, so I chose to appear as an ordinary human.