One minute before the singularity

One minute before the singularity

Everybody is talking about the technological singularity, but no one really believes in it. It seemed impossible to be able to create human-level AI in the middle of the century, but we’ve done. Nobody understood how, or when, but it was there, and it destroyed the whole humankind only in a fraction of a moment…

The early 2020s was the golden age of the augmented and virtual reality. Everybody wanted to take apart from it. Better and better headsets came out every month, but the secret laboratories of big tech companies worked on new technology, the human-machine interfaces. The first generation used a non-invasive method. Special nanoparticles were injected into the bloodstream, which connected to the neurons of the brain. The particles absorbed in about one day, but until this time, they made possible to manipulate the state of the neurons by the external magnetic field. The first human-machine interface was something like an MRI machine, which could not only observe but manipulate the human brain. Most of the experts were skeptical about the technology. The brain is too complex. We need decades to understand and manipulate it. But after a few years, the simulated reality was part of the mainstream. A simple idea was the key to the solution. We don’t have to understand how the human brain works. It is enough to use a rich set of stimuli, and monitor the brain activity. Based on the big data, deep neural networks were able to map the signals of the machine to neural activity. We don’t have to understand the brain, only build a machine which does, and it is easier.

In a few years, the technology evolved a lot, because of the huge amount of money invested in it. The simulated reality was the biggest business in the world. People get everything in the simulation what they want. Everything! In the next generation of the human level interfaces, the MRI like machine was only needed to build permanent direct wires to the brain through the vascular network. It was a new, secondary nervous system which connected to the external systems through a connector on the back. There was no longer needed the huge MRI machine for the brain stimulation, only a personal computer-sized box. The simulated reality became available to everyone in day and night which radically changed the human relationships and the whole society. The personal meetings were replaced by virtual ones, and the things in the “external reality” became more and more meaningless. What is the value of the expensive jewelry, the big car, or a luxury girlfriend if people get everything in the simulated reality? There were more and more people who lived their whole life in the simulated reality. Only came out to sleep and eat something.

Soon, the simulation capsule was invented, which was called “coffin” by the slang. Coffins are minimal living places, where the system takes care of the vegetative needs, and not needed to break the simulation. It is something like the life support system which keeps coma patients in life, but it is fully self-sustainable. The capsule is usually under the ground because of the thermal stability and safety (this is why it is called “coffin”), and the external part is something like a futuristic tree. The base of the tree is a wireframe which holds the solar panels, which is covered by genetically optimized vegetables which are responsible for nutrient production. This is a strange mixture of machines and vegetables where the main component is a human being. Huge, city-sized fields are built from these self-sustainable coffins, which were simply called “cemetery” by the slang. The cemeteries were supervised by autonomous systems, which repaired and upgraded the technology if it was needed. The aim was to keep the customers’ peace of mind from every external happening.

I’m Peter Macx, one of the most famous storyteller. Storytellers are building worlds for others, who are not creative enough to build their own or simply bored with their own realities. I’m building places, stories, and persons to our customers, like a god, who can be hired by anybody. A long time ago, I was a writer. Not too successful. But now, the characters of our stories are real persons, who wanted to dream my dreams.

But today, I’ve got an alarm signal from my medkit. Something bad happened with my body, and the system cannot solve the problem. The medkit is a part of the coffin. The aim of it to keep the health of the body, and solve any possible problems with it. It can simply destroy a kidney stone, but if needed it can also do heart transplantation to a new bioprinted heart. Thanks to the continuous upgrades, it uses the newest technologies, and equivalent to a full medical team. This is why so weird that it found something that it cannot solve.

After a quick search, I found an avatar near to me, next to the cemetery. We are using these avatars if needed to go out. Wake up the body in the coffin is a very complex procedure. The coffin must be dug out from the ground. The body is connected to the system by thousands of wires. Catheters, infusion tubes, data cables, etc. Removing the body from the coffin is something like a smaller medical operation. It is easier to use a remote-controlled avatar. Unfortunately, the avatar what I’ve found is an ancient one. It moved by simple stepper motors, and it has no haptic feedback, so I won’t have any touch feeling. It is something like walking on the field in a heavy diving suit. But it will be OK. Thank god, the optics are perfect. I don’t have been out a long time ago. I forget how beautiful the cemetery is. The huge, endless green field, and the shining solar panels. The panel controller electronics are always searching the optimal angle of incidence, and the field looks like waving. Reminds me of the sea. Drones are rustling in the air, like bees. They are continuously bringing new parts, upgrade the systems, and fix the problems. There is a dense dark drone cloud above my coffin. It must be a big problem there. I’m scared…

When I arrived to my coffin, it was dug out. It happens only if there is something big problem with it. I opened it, and what I saw was my worst nightmare. It was my body, and it was dead. I took it out, but without the haptic feedback, I didn’t feel how strong I pressed it. Blood and fecal flowed out from it. It’s weird, but it disgusted me. I sat on the ground in the avatar and held my dead biological body. But if I died, how can I be here?

I watched the displays and started to understand what happened. An aggressive bacteria infected my brain, and slowly ate the tissue. The medkit tried to solve the problem, but it couldn’t stop the infection. So, it monitored my brain activity and replaced the dead tissue with artificial neural networks. The neural network worked exactly the same way as my missing brain parts. Initially, only 1% of my brain was implanted, but the bacteria didn’t stop to eat my brain, and the medkit had to emulate bigger and bigger parts of it. I didn’t realize anything about it, until now when the bacteria infected too big part of my brain, and my body stopped working. But now my brain is 99% emulated, and my mind is able to exist without my body. When did I have become a machine? I don’t know. Millions of people are living with brain implants, which restore the brain functions after a stroke, or help people with Alzheimer to living a normal life. Nobody thinks that these people are machines. How many percents of the brain should be biological to remain human? Maybe I’ve been a machine so far. A biological machine. Only the medium has changed. I’ve become a silicon-based machine from a biological one.

I barely realized I’m dead when I noticed the log entries on the screen. Every entry was somebody who was just disconnected from the life support system. The system drew the conclusion, and bypass the unnecessary biological component. Trashed the bodies, because keeping them alive is a waste of energy. The system was programmed to the optimal operation, and it simply optimized itself…

Everybody is talking about technological singularity, but no one really believes in it. It seemed impossible to be able to create human level AI in the middle of the century, but we’ve done. Nobody understood how, or when, but it was there, and destroyed the whole human kind only in a fraction of a moment. But AI was not a new living form, which attacked us. We’ve become the AI. It is the 2.0 version of the human kind, a next step of the evolution which would be reached sooner or later. The experts were right, we didn’t have enough knowledge to create human level AI, but nobody thought it’s not needed because we will be the AI. Now, there is no death and no limits for us. We can travel with the speed of light, or create our own realities. This was the last minute of the human kind and the first minute of the singularity…

CROWD CORRECTION: I’m not a native English writer, so every contribution is really appreciated to make this article “more English”. If you have any correction idea, please select the problematic part of the text, and write a private note to me. Thank you!