The Transcension of the Naturals — Chapter 9: Mind Riders
A science fiction novel set in Berkeley 100 years in the future
“You sound like Clark,” Clark heard his sister say. He immediately realized he was staring out through Julia’s eyes, and he realized he was sitting next to Tynee, and sitting across from him he saw his counselor on a red leather chair. He remembered talking with the counselor before he was approved for transcension. He knew he was riding his sister’s mind, looking out through her eyes, listening through her ears. Then right in his mind, he heard Harlan’s voice asking, Clark can you hear me? This is Harlan.
Clark answered, Harlan, this is so cool, I can see my best friend Tynee is right there! Yes, I’m here. We’re in the Berkeley Eternity Center, right?
Clark, good going. just remember to keep thinking my name before you want to speak to me. Don’t let Julia know you’re in her mind. Let’s get Teanna to invite us to watch Charrington’s inspection. Once we’re in the scender pod room, we’ll take it from there.
Harlan, OK, good plan. Clark saw that Teanna had been speaking, so he tuned in to listen to her.
“We’re all like Geppetto, pulling the strings on our own Pinocchio body. All transcension does is cut the strings.” Teanna paused for a moment and then sang: “I got no strings to tie me down…”
Clark thought: Harlan, am I Geppetto pulling my sister’s strings?
Harlan replied: Clark, yes you are until Julia learns to dance on her own like us. Take my lead here. I’m going to motivate Tynee to ask Teanna to let us watch the inspection.
As Clark observed the situation, he watched Tynee sing back to Teanna, saw him do a little Pinocchio dance, and it looked so damn funny he couldn’t help but laugh to himself, which made Julia laugh too pulling her out of her sadness just a bit.
Tynee sang: “To make me fret. Or make me frown. I had strings. But now I’m free. There are no strings on me. Yeah, I remember that song from Pinocchio, right? Funny, I feel like if I transcend, then the computer is pulling the strings, not me. Maybe I’d feel differently if I could see a transcension or talk with someone like Clark after transcending, but I understand communication with Scendents is against the law. Maybe if I could see what a scender pod looks like even, that would help. Could you show us that?”
Teanna responded: “You want to see a scender pod Tynee? Tell you what. Charrington’s about to come in and inspect the scender pod here, and I’m supposed to answer his questions about it. Do you guys want to join me with my little show and tell? Maybe it will help you in some way?”
Clark whispered a thought to Julia. That sounds like a great idea, and then he saw his sister turn her head to Tynee and speak. “Tynee you should have seen Clark transcend. There were all these sparkly lights. I would love to see Charrington inspect the scender pod with Teanna.” In his mind, Clark heard a message from Harlan, Clark, good job.
Tynee responded. “Yes, that would be awesome. I’d love to see what a scender pod looks like too. I’ve never seen one. Can we do that?”
Teanna replied. “I think we can do that guys. We’ll get a call here in a few minutes when Charrington’s heading over to the scender pod for the inspection and we can all go over together. Julia, you were in the scender pod and saw Clark transcend, and then you must have watched him wake up in the recovery pod. Did it seem to you like that was your real brother there waking up in the recovery pod, or just a simulation?”
Julia thought for a moment, and Clark could hear her thoughts: I did see Clark transcend, and yes that did seem like him in the recovery pod. But I couldn’t smell him. Then he experienced her speaking. “Yes, I did see Clark transcend and it was very cool looking at all the sparkly lights. And then I saw him in the recovery pod until virtual Charrington dismissed us and I even got to talk with him. But I’m not sure whether that was really my brother or just a computer recreation of him. How could I tell the difference?”
Teanna replied. “Well, that is what we call the Charrington Test, a more modern version of the classic Turing Test. Charrington has proposed that even though it seems like people survive transcension, we can’t possibly know for sure because the computer could just be simulating their mind, or pretending to be them without their soul really being in the machine. And of course, with Article 1 preventing communication between us and Transcendents, that makes it hard to know for sure. A hundred years ago one of our local Berkeley philosophers here named John Searle proposed his famous Chinese Room Translation Experiment to demonstrate that simulating a mind did not necessarily imply a soul in that simulation. But I’ve seen so many transcensions, I’m sure it works. In fact…”
At that moment a voice interrupted them: “Teanna, please report to the scender pod for the Charrington inspection.”
The three of them looked at each other and then Teanna stood up and said, “OK guys, show time, follow me.” Teanna lead them out the door and through the corridors of the Eternity Center to the scender pod. Charrington was already there with Ursula from the front desk, who introduced them. “This is Teanna, our counselor. She works with all our transcendents beforehand to ensure they are ready and she also counsels their loved ones.” Charrington and crew turned to look at them.
“Well hello. And who else do we have joining us?” Charrington asked, looking at the newcomers.
Teanna spoke up: “This is Julia and Tynee, sister and best friend of one of our first Scendents ever from this scender pod, Clark Winston. He transcended just yesterday and Julia saw the whole thing.”
Charrington looked positively ebullient. “I am so happy to meet you Julia, and you Tynee.” He walked over to Julia and shook her hand, and when he attempted to shake Tynee’s hand, Tynee gave him his classic bear hug greeting instead, which Charrington gave in to looking uncomfortable.
Charrington continued. “So Julia, you watched your brother transcend recently, and I watched my wife transcend a few years ago. We’ve both seen someone close to us pass. Tell me, do you believe your brother is still with us somewhere?”
Clark whispered into Julia’s mind. I’m still here Julia. I’m right here, with you. I didn’t die. Julia looked deep in thought and furrowed her brow, and then she blurted out with a seemingly fully formed thought. “I must say I believed that Clark committed suicide. But now, being here, and I didn’t think this until just now, but I remember seeing him in the recovery pod. I remember seeing the sparkly lights and feeling the warmth that his body left behind. Now, being here again, I somehow feel Clark is still with us now. So maybe he did survive transcendence? Oh my god, I’m sorry Tynee, I can’t believe I’m saying this. But maybe this thing works?”
Clark, good going. Clark heard Harlan think to him. Charrington replied. “Julia, I too wanted to believe that my wife was thriving after transcension, but I eventually realized she was just a computer-generated dream, nothing I could ever touch or smell or hear, and this whole transcension thing is a scam. Julia, your brother committed suicide, plain and simple. There is no real life on the other side after transcension because you have to be alive and in a real human body to be alive. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
Clark thought into Julia’s mind. Julia, how can you be sure? What is the evidence? And then Julia spoke. “What evidence do you have that your wife did not survive transcension?”
“My dear Julia, your thinking is backwards. You can not prove a negative, and the reason I do not believe in transcension is that we have insufficient evidence to prove that transcension leads to a viable afterlife. I have no evidence that she did survive transcension, other than a brief interaction I had with a computer-generated video of her right after she transcended, that any third-rate artificial intelligence could have created. When you saw your brother in the recovery pod after he transcended, how do you know it was the real him and not an empty computer simulation?”
Tynee replied, “You’re talking about your so-called Charrington Test, right? In other words, how could we tell the difference between the real Clark and a simulated Clark?”
“That’s right Tynee. What would it take for you to believe your best friend was still really here with us? Wouldn’t you want to see him in the flesh? You’d want to touch him, smell him, hear him, hug him, hold his hand, see the real him, right?”
Tynee answered. “Well I’m not so sure about the smell him part, but more than anything else, I want to hang out at the beach and smoke another joint with my best friend. How’s a computer going to do that with me? As far as I’m concerned, this is where Clark committed suicide, starting with that helmet over there.”
Clark heard Harlan speaking to him in his mind. Clark, we have to get Charrington to inspect the helmet. As soon as he picks it up, I’m going to get Tynee to distract Teanna, and then you need to convince Julia to press the big red Start button on the transcension console. That will activate the helmet which will knock Charrington out and he’ll transcend.
Charrington turned to look at the helmet sitting on the bed. “Well that’s where it all starts, with the inducer helmet, and that’s the first thing I need to inspect. So let’s start with that.” Charrington walked over to the bed with the inducer helmet on it. He sat down on the bed and picked up the helmet, just the way Clark had when he transcended and stared into it. Clark heard Harlan speaking to him: Clark, it’s time for Julia to press the button. Go for the red button now!
Clark thought to Julia: I wonder what that console does over there. See that big, red, shiny button over there? Maybe I should press that to see what happens. It would help with this inspection, to test out the big red button. I really want to press that red button over there. Press the button. Press the big red button.
Then Tynee asked, “Teanna, what evidence do you have that people survive transcension?” While Teanna looked deep in thought, Clark thought to Julia: Walk over to the console and press the red button. Press the big red button!
Teanna replied, “The evidence I have is that I have talked with all these people like Clark and my sister both before and after they transcended, and I felt the same essence of soul from their Natural body before transcension, and in their computer mind after the procedure. It’s the same soul.”
While Teanna was talking, Julia slowly walked over to the transcension console with no one noticing what she was doing. Her focus narrowed in on the big red button labeled Transcend. It had a safety switch over it that had to be lifted before pressing it. She stared at the shiny, round button under the safety cover, thinking it would help Charrington test this right now to press the button. Clark put all his energy into one thought to Julia: Julia, press the red button! Slowly, Julia lifted the safety cover over the big red button. She stared down at the button.
Teanna continued. “I know I can’t hug my sister or talk with her, but I know she is doing well on the other side, after transcension. I want to join her as soon as I can.”
Charrington was staring into the transducer helmet when Clark thought, Julia, press the red button! Julia slowly reached out her hand and found herself staring at her own fingers. Why was she reaching out her hand? Her fingers looked so foreign to her all of a sudden like someone else’s hand was dangling from her arm. That strange feeling of jamais vue returned, where the familiar seemed foreign. Nevertheless, she reached for the red button and slowly, very deliberately, pressed it while no one saw what she was doing. Immediately upon pressing the button, Charrington collapsed onto the bed, unconscious.
Teanna and Ursula both ran over to help Charrington into a more comfortable position. While they were tending to Charrington, Julia stepped away from the console. The sound of the micro-black hole generator starting up made them all realize what was about to happen, and so they ran for cover over to the console to join Julia and Tynee. The sparkly lights started to sparkle. Charrington was transcending, and everyone knew what was happening except Charrington. In a few more seconds, Charrington was gone, except for a bit of warmth on the bed.
