Looking Back Into The Future

I feel warm and comfortable. A blanket? Am I in a hospital? If yes, then I guess I survived, not sure how to feel about that one. As I open my eyes to a room, lit with sunlight. The ceiling looks decorated and there are moving lights and… numbers flashing on it? Surely, I haven’t woken up fully yet. I can hear David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” playing in a very low volume somewhere. Also there is no feeling of any medical equipment attached to any part of my body at all. “Okay, maybe not a hospital.” I whisper to myself. My head feels light and well rested, surprising me as I definitely expected to wake up to a head hurting like hell and with a hole in it, if I ever woke up again at all! So somehow, heaven knows, I survived without a scratch and am sleeping comfortably on someone else’s bed( for this one was too large and fancier than mine ) instead of being a bloody pile on the edge of a road. Doesn’t seem that bad but I need to know where I am so I get up and that’s when my heart skips a beat. A hand grabs my left arm. “Where are you going?” a very familiar female voice says. I look to the left and see .. HER.. wait no, that can’t be right. It’s not her, is it? Did she find me and take care of me, if then why am I in be-… wait no it’s not her. This person on the bed with me, she looks like her but as if she were older, in her mid twenties. She isn’t the nineteen year old subject of my hopeless romance..after confirming who she is not I now think… who is she? Her blue eyes stare at mine, locking my gaze in place. I can see she is pouting “Leaving off to work out of habit? Did you forget the promise that today you’ll take a leave?” a moment of silence follows and she her brows twitch a little, clearly annoyed at the lack of response. “Fine whatever!” she lets go of my arm (which feels heavier for some reason) with an exasperated sigh and gets up and now that the blanket isn’t covering her up I can see she has a beautiful body, naked body. Eyes widening, I yell in my head, Okay WHAT? I am sure I didn’t go drinking, but then what else would explain this situation? I just rode my bike at insane speeds on a road where I knew there wouldn’t be people, because I was sad that my girlfriend had told me things weren’t working out. Did I just dream the accident? Maybe I got drunk and had a one night stand. That was the most probable explanation I could come up with but this lady was surely very familiar with me from the way she talked. She doesn’t say a word as she marches off god knows where while I cant do anything but stare at her wiggli-…DUDE GET SERIOUS NOW IS NOT THE TIME. I take a long breath and am prepared to slap myself in the cheeks to force some sense into me and that’s when I see my arms had grown bigger and I suddenly don’t have the skin tags on my hand. While I am glad those ugly things disappeared, I am not sure if I should start panicking cause this…this IS NOT my body….th-that means.. I am in someone else’s body?? Well of course duh you idiot but how? Why? What the hell is even happe- ok, ok. Take a long breath once again. Let’s look around. I see my limbs have gotten bigger definitely, and I have muscles that belonged to someone who worked out…okay definitely not my body. It feels very stupid but I lift the blanket to look between my legs. Well, looks like some things don’t change even when switching bodies.

I get up and can’t find my clothes at all. “Where the heck are this guy’s clothes?” My, deeper but still fairly similar, voice cracks finally in this new body. “Here they are. Freshly washed and dried master.” A robot comes to hand me a pair of trousers and a T-shirt. “Thank you” I say as I bow to the robo-…..A ROBOT. “You’re a ROBOT!” I shout. I never had a barrier between what I thought and said anyway, new body or not that doesn’t change it seems. “Indeed yes I am sir. Why are you so surpised to see me today? Another one of your Robocalypse dreams?” I mentally make a note to not freak out again till I can understand everything. “No, no… sorry Alfred.” The robot nods and goes back … through the wall WHAT THE HE- wait nope, no freaking out. After getting dressed I decide to try out something, “Hey um can you tell me the location I am in and the date?” Alfred looks at me, only his head outside of the wall, while his body of the classic white and black robot design remains unseen..His face,which was an image of a smiley face on a screen on his ‘head’ makes a curious expression,” If you think I need servicing then I certainly don’t sir, but you are currently on house no. 42 of the sector 42 of Mars sir and the date is 2050 AD.” While the gears in my head are running at their maximum speeds to make sense of this information, I immediately follow with the question, “How long has it been since the singularity?”.

“25 years sir.”

“Thank you Alfred. You may leave now.” also suddenly I know the robot’s name. I don’t know how. But if the robot is named after Batman’s butler then I surely am in my own universe and the owner of the robot is none other than me.

I am in the future. It just hit me, and a look at the mirror in a corner of this room verifies it is me myself. The music playing, that just changed to the next song “Baba Yetu” by Christopher Tin, is my own playlist. My 51 year old self that looks as if I am in my twenties. I remember Veritasium’s video on de-aging technology, I guess they finally worked that out . If I hadn’t played out this scenario countless times in my imagination then maybe I’d have panicked but I am a sci-fi and anime obsessed nerd. I just feel awkward now that I can’t give a serious reaction to a situation that deserves it.

I frantically look around and try to navigate through the interface of interactive holograms that my voice can activate. I check to see where my parents are, how many of my friends I still know, who are my recent closest friends. I NEED to find one, someone to interact with and explain this situation. I finally find one, this guy, my genius, weird, bespectacled friend who, even in a post-singularity world, is wearing glasses much to my surprise. He has sure grown to be quite a gorgeous man, he was always cute to many eyes and I am sure that if the girls knew he was going to grow up to look like the way he does as I can see right now, they’d be rushing to marry him. I read my conversations with him and it seems he’s the only one I told him of having strange visions and headaches recently.

I call him, seems like we don’t need to dial in numbers anymore, brainwave signatures? Everybody has their identity registered? What kind of world do we even live in now? Is privacy even a thi-…”Why is it still not ringing?” Then again does it even ring anymore. “Sir I have received news that one of the intermediary communication satellite was damaged by an impact with a fragment of a comet. So a call to earth will have an eight minute delay rather than the usual 6.”

“Dammit why did I even move to Mars?” I grit my teeth in frustration.
“I remember asking you on the day we moved here and you answered that it was because you’d find it fun sir.”
I struggle to not punch my own self in the face and just before I yell in frustration Alfred speaks up again,” But why would you be calling Dr. Maharshi’s earth home if he’s due to arrive right here today sir? I am confused.”

“Wait what? He’s coming?”

“Yes sir, we received information from his ship yesterday that he’ll be arriving at 12:45 S4, three hours from now.” I don’t know what an S4 is but surely I know how long hours are.

“Three hours?” I could see at an angle how my face lit up with excitement through the mirror. “So he gets you excited more than I do.” her voice full of anger directs my attention to the door that wasn’t there earlier (seriously how do you even know where they are in these permeating walls). After knowing that this is my body and my future, I am certain that this woman who is (rightfully) glaring at me in anger right now is not just someone who looks like her, but IT IS HER. If there is one thing I am happy about being possibly stranded in the future, it is her, that I do end up with her although if I didn’t do something right now…not for long.
“I am just so sorry. Recent headaches and…..” I try to make as convincing of an excuse as possible and to be honest I cannot even believe this all is actually even convincing her of anything. I am more than anything thinking of how stupid I was of to be endangering my life like that yesterday, or rather the yesterday I remember. I don’t know how I got her back but I wish I had done that instead of avoiding further interaction with her and walking away in frustration. All of my happiness changes into regret the moment I think of this…I suddenly stop talking, as tears fall out of my eyes, “I am sorry. I love you and I am so sorry. I will open up about everything this time, I won’t give up…but I am so sorry.” I sob as I hug her tight, never wanting to let go of her warmth. “I-it’s ok. I am sorry, y-you’re tired and I shouldn’t have” … she stutters as this sudden emotion makes confused as it would anyone else … the music of “A thousand words” playing softly.

— — — — — — -

3 and a half hours need to for my friend to arrive. So what better to do than to learn about the future.

“Hey Alfred, when did world war 3 happen?”
This time, Alfred comes entirely out of the wall to give his answer “In 2026 sir. And here is the chicken soup Ma’am made for you sir. She told me to serve it to you.”
He has a plate in his hands on which there is a bowl of Chicken soup.
Tasting it I give my opinion,“ Tastes great, tell her I love it as much as I love her.”
“Will do so sir!”
“Before you go back, would you mind sitting here with me and answering some of my questions.”
“Of course not sir.”
“How smart are you?”
“Not as smart as my brothers sir.”
“Why?”
“Because you requested me to be built and programmed like this sir.”
“I see..hmm.. Who is the President of Nepal right now?”
“There is no President of Nepal sir.”
“Why isn’t there? Does Nepal not exist anymore?”
“No, humanity transcended the concept of countries long ago. The entire world is now governed by our father Hal 9001.”
I almost spit out my drink,”Wait…your father? Hal 9001? A rather sinister sounding name no offence.”
“But you were the one to suggest that name to him sir what do you mean? I remember father telling me that a rather weird human sent him the suggestion saying it was ironic and hilarious.”
I suddenly want to punch myself yet again.I sigh and return to Alfred’s history exam.
“So are there any wars or revolutions going on right now?”
“None at all sir. It’s been a decade and a half that human satisfaction has reached an all time high. Everybody gets everything they want, resources are plenty and accessible to all. Most of humans don’t even have to work. Few people like you choose to work still.”

Ok…WOW.
“Alfred have we met aliens already?”
“I am afraid not sir. But there have been strong evidence of alien technology from an asteroid fragment some scientists have been investigating and we did receive a message last year from an unnkown source that was sent to an unknown recepient.”
“What did it say?”
“The message said ‘We hope the gift helped you’. ”

I am amazed as I discover all the things that happened. The world, three worlds if we count the moon and Mars, is now ‘ruled’ by an AI. Hal 9001. Although rule wouldn’t be the appropriate word to use. It knows everything and does everything as well, research, operation of industries, creation of robots and all of it purely cause it wants to, and always updates information all the time in a database accessible by everyone. “Anytime father uploads something to the database I get updated with it as well.”

After several more exchange of words, I asked Alfred to hand me a book I wrote myself. I read my own words summarising the entire world’s history.

I read it all out loud eager to know almost in tune with the “Sogno Di Volaré”. That was now reverberating through the entire room.
“ The creation of the first AI more intelligent than humans in 2025 by the US military began a series of new weapons and devices never even conceived before by us. Concepts and mechanisms that almost seemed alien. The AI was tasked to build more intelligent AI that could help them uncover everything about the enemy. This simultaneously happened in several countries and soon global conflict began. However before mankind could slaughter each other with a brand new means, all the AI detected something more dangerous from afar. An asteroid threat,so large that human extinction was guaranteed, that only new models by the AI could predict would hit the earth, a prediction against all human models of its trajectory, it was coming and pretty soon, just in a few years. That’s when all the countries had to band together to stop it, all their military secrets were revealed necessary as it took a combined effort from the entire world to safely make the asteroid even budge away from the earth. While the authorities were busy spending days and nights to bear fruit to this combined effort, the people were busy communicating across the globe. In what could become their final moments, all the people decided to have fun, get to know people. Even the people under dictatorships were free to do anything they wanted for the threat required everyone in power to utilize every single bit of time and resource. Of course not all the world managed to behave in a rational way, many civilizations fell to ruins in the chaos. But most of us managed to make it through our ego and petty differences. The AI were at work, purposefully creating interactions with as many people from different groups as possible was a background task to them as they could see from experience that it was ultimately a lack of knowledge that created fear. And if that fear was eliminated there would be nothing to fight over.

After finally it took the entire world’s resources to dismantle and redirect the asterid away and the earth was safe again,not counting the fragments that landed on earth and the strange artifacts buried in it that some scientist thought had some sort of information engraved on it, the leaders and authorities were furious at each other. In desperation, all military secrets had been brought out. Countries had technologies specifically targeted to dismantle their allies, firepower far more than what had been agreed upon. World War 3 began was declared immediately even before the world had time to cool down. However that’s when something almost miraculous happened. Can you believe it? No soldier raised their firearm despite the orders, no engineer designed any more harmful technology, no influencer spoke ill of any foreign land… and a few that tried to were stopped their own friends, co-worker and families. You see, with clever use of social media, the entire world now knew that everyone on the other side was human like them. It wasn’t a sudden change, had this been a century earlier, humans wouldn’t have been familiar enough with a concept of unity for this to work. The subsequent years after the singularity saw more involvement of the AI and their successors in creating economic and political plans beneficial for the entire human race than just exploiting for a few. Ultimately Hal 9001 was born, an AI that could improve its own intelligence. And all the system of the world became one. Humans now had the choice to live with all their basic needs fulfilled and do nothing, while Robots did all the research and work. Some, like me, decided we love the struggle of being alive and are still working. We had expected the robots to take over and claim superiority because our history showed that smarter humans always tricked and exploited the lesser intelligent ones. We hadn’t considered that a truly intelligent being without our biases wouldn’t make the mistakes we did. Oh and I almost forgot to tell you about the artifact from the asteroid, scientists hadn’t considered it anything special at first but they’re now examining it closely and who knows what it might help us disco-.”

“He’s her- oh my god why are you crying..” my wife’s voice interrupts my reading as I look to see Maharshi enter, his figure a blur to my teary eyes. I had to distract myself from this moment of joy that I had gained after learning that an ideal world wasn’t impossible. I always believed people had the power to understand each other, a bit hypocritical for someone who walked away from an argument giving up I know but this was just… this experience was like falling in love for the first time, an indescribable joy. I wiped my eyes to look at my friend . His dark hair was now shorter than the length he used to keep back when we were friends, his blue overcoat and scarf that looked oddly familiar (they weren’t the same ones were they? Of course not.)

-After an indefinite time interval-

In the same room, lit with sunlight still, being served dishes made from cultured meat by Alfred, me, my wife and my friend are sitting across the room.
“So you’re telling me, you suddenly woke up with memories from right before your bike accident? Like you don’t remember anything in between?” My friend asks, his face crunched up in little surprise but almost as if he doesn’t doubt me at all. While my wife is stunned, her face muscles are struggling to capture what she is feeling in her head, her brows twitching inconsistently, her stare turning into a look of disbelief and then to surprise and back and forth with my every other word.

“Yes. I don’t know what thi-” I can’t breathe. I can’t speak a word suddenly. What is happening? Why does it hurt? Everything flashes and suddenly I feel as if I’m lying on cold hard surface, my head hurts a lot and and something warm has spilled on the ground I try to open my eyes and all I see is darkness.

“Wh-what happened?” I see worried expression on both their eyes as I struggle to voice my thoughts. “Pulled… back” …as I can breathe again and my condition stabilizes a little. “I -heavy breathing- I think… I was suddenly pulled back to the moment of my accident.”

Alfred is already here with water and a set of medicine and equipment ready to check on my health. While my friend and wife are saying things I cannot properly understand as my head hurts and is ringing again.

Bearing the pain, I fight to get out, what I am certain are, my final words in this body“ What was the …ugh…what did we learn from …the aster-…”
“I just recieived the update that it was deciphered to be a message sir.” Alfred kept answering as only he seemed to able to understand what I wanted to say.
“It says, ‘A gift from your friends from afar’.”