When the "luminary of science" began in such a manner, which was expressed in the suggestion of something uninteresting, illogical and even stupid, Rutra immediately realized that he was up to something grandiose.
– We'll sleep tonight and see what happens tomorrow," Ruthra replied in the same manner.
– Then think about our role in the life of other worlds.
– And how have we affected these worlds?
– So that's something that needs to be checked out.
– And how's that?
– I thought you were smarter than that.
– You shouldn't have thought so.
They laughed. Many people, listening to their conversation from the outside, took their remarks seriously, which puzzled them about their relationship: it seemed that they were almost enemies, when in fact they were amusing themselves by arousing the emotions of others.
Rutra even had a peculiar theory about this kind of catching pleasure from influencing the emo ts y of those around him. This theory was part of his worldview about metaphysics. And the essence of it was people's uncertainty about understanding god, namely, what god needs from us. According to the logic that people put into the concept of god, it would be reasonable to assume that god doesn't need people at all. And if he created them, it means that he pursued some purpose. Everyone explained this purpose in his own way, starting from sages, thinkers and ending with charlatans and swindlers. Much more there were, of course, self-confident, and sometimes autocrats, fantasists. And it was a blessing if they did not have a sick imagination.
Rutra answered such a question as follows: since god is not material, he does not need material things. And since we have to give him immaterial things, the god, from whom we ask anything for our happiness, demands happiness back, but already processed, born from his seed, the happiness he gave us. And if you did not give him back anything good, spoiled what he gave, lost it, and suddenly – what is worse – turned it into grief, then accept his anger as education. This is the unity and struggle of opposites. But are they opposites? Perhaps it is something that creates the world. After all, agree, a world with only grief and negativity must eventually die. It is logical that the developed worlds, of which there are many in the universe according to Rutra's theory, have passed this stage. The stage of creating negativity from negativity. Blood feuds must stop at some point, or everyone will die at some point. In the other interpretation, however, there can be no intelligent god. God is something amorphous on which the entire universe depends. For example, one part of it is the law of universal gravitation. And according to this theory, reason again rests on the same truth. Since we can evolve by becoming better than each other, we become worse by killing. Simple logic, but isn't don't kill, don't steal complex logic? Isn't everything in this logical paradigm? For those who believe in the spiritual essence of god, we give him our positive emotions. And for those who believe in logic based on empirical reasoning – some super civilization is harvesting the energy, our brain waves, that we emit during euphoria – of happiness, of pleasure. Now think about it. If we become a supercivilization, if we can move through the worlds with the help of the influence of entangled pairs of elementary particles of atom on each other – we will not be able to take anything material from there. It is useless to move material things across great cosmic distances. Then what? The same waves of happiness. Imagine what kind of currency it will be, what kind of drug it will be, although maybe it will be the medicine of the soul in the future. After all, if our bodies do not matter for our existence – only spiritual food will be needed.
While thinking about the fact that his friend's jokes clearly carried a scientific assumption, a thought occurred to Ruthra. It was a question – why doesn't anyone come to us from other worlds? He thought about it and found the answer himself. How can they come if they don't have a welcoming terminal. That is, you can send a radio signal – even to the next street, even to deep space. If they don't have a receiving facility, all your efforts are useless.
– Listen, Mr. Smartass, I've got a clever idea," Ruthra addressed the scientist mentally.
– I'm ready to feed off your happy ideas.
– What if we put the brain in a consciousness receiving setting and put it into a trance state?
– Is this your grand idea? – sneered a colleague.
– I thought your brain power was strong enough to process that information. All right, I'll give you a new batch. We've been working on modifying the optical unit for six months now. We combined it with the collider and the emitter in the reverse order of particle motion and turned it into a receiving device. We know the principle. Let's install a transmitting device on the other side so that it does not send from the brain, but introduces there the influence of entangled pairs. If it is a natural, natural influence of pairs on each other, the brain will not understand anything. Like white noise on radio and television. And if there is something there that the brain understands, then the brain should sort of see it. So we will try to record the influence not of particles of this brain on particles somewhere else in the world, but the influence of any particles on this brain.
– Let's start with your great brain.
– I'm not a scaredy-cat, unlike you.
– Oh, oh, Darwin's theory in practice.
– Shall we?
– Well, it's your brain, I don't care. I have your clone. I'll restore my chess partner. I don't need a competitor.
– I didn't doubt your loyalty. I'm going to the lab.
– Are you eager to test your innovation?
– I got a report this morning that the system is ready. What are you waiting for? Let's at least test it.
– Well, it's your brain. Torture it.
Ruthra waved his hand, a gesture that said "I'm done with you," and headed for the rigging room.
***
Rutra lay in the rig, the assistants switched the rig to the mode he recommended, performed additional procedures. Ten minutes of manipulation yielded nothing. They called in additional technicians and a programmer. Another ten minutes of fiddling and no result. Ruthra didn't want to believe that no one from other worlds could come to Earth. The impossibility of it, the unreality of such a process, defied logic. The revolutionary technology had to work both ways. It was, in fact, a natural process. Unusual, perhaps, but natural. If you hear, you are heard. If you see, they see you. If your organs can be transplanted to someone else, someone else's organs can be transplanted to you. If your thoughts influence someone – and you are influenced by someone else's thoughts. Why can you accept electrons coming from a distant star, galaxy, some radiation, but you cannot accept the totality of all thoughts, which are someone else's thoughts? That is, someone's identity as such. Why not? You can. Only in the same way that you can hear someone's voice or the signals of distant stars using an instrument created by your brain; you need another instrument to receive the radiation of the thoughts of a distant being from the vast expanse of the universe.
Something wasn't working. Ruthra was getting nervous, and Parmen was teasing him:
– You fall asleep, go into a trance and then imagine you're there somewhere. It'll suck, but it'll give the Grand Master peace of mind. He really doesn't want to admit failure.
– You'd better be quiet, 'luminary of science,'" Ruthra replied in a tone that only Parmen understood.
– Maybe you really need to calm down your emotional state? – suggested one of the professors, the chief laboratory specialist.
– I'm calm.
– Maybe it's a blockage. You really need to calm down. Let's do this: you will try to create a detached state for yourself, to go into a trance… or better yet, to fall asleep, and we will scan all the incoming frequencies that are functional for the brain. We will switch the equipment to all modes. And if you feel any changes, let us know.
– All right. (chuckles) Let's try that, too, and if it doesn't work, I'm sorry, I'll take it from here.
Soon Rutra went into a trance by meditation, or perhaps he fell asleep. Somewhere in the depths of nirvana he heard Parmen's voice whispering in his ear:
– Relax, I think it's working. We're going to take you to the tomograph and find out what's going on in your head, plus the chip data… we'll know exactly what frequency to manipulate.
– Am I okay? I'm in some strange state. It's like I don't own my own body," Ruthra asked in a whisper without opening his eyes.
– Yes. I confess we are fixing something," Parmen said just as quietly, warily, almost like an incantation.
Suddenly, the machine made an eerie sound, the optical unit glowed, and a shock ran through Rutra's body. Whether Rutra was losing consciousness, or whether the sound had affected him so… he did not know. The fact was that he was completely relaxed, detached, or perhaps paralyzed, almost unconscious, and at the moment when for a moment he had completely shut down, had entered a dreamlike state, had realized that he was losing control, he jerked and woke up. The reality he saw spoke of some kind of change… or he was hallucinating, seeing things, because when he opened his eyes, there was another reality in front of him.
***
It was only after Parmen had told him what was happening in parallel that he realized what was going on. At first he had been surprised, annoyed and indignant. It all concerned the attitude towards Parmen's methods. He had again conceived a cunning program, had lured Rutra into it, and had apparently decided to study his psychological state before the real experiment. In idea – he was right, of course. After all, if we go to an unknown place, country or territory, even if we know a lot of things, we will find ourselves in a completely different mental, spiritual and psychological environment. And what to say if we find ourselves in an unknown world. The scientist was not devoid of imagination, only in the scientific context, but in the design context – alas. The surroundings were squalid.
Ruthra, though he had been out for some time, was thinking clearly, but at the first moment of "waking up" he couldn't understand what was happening. The fact that the surroundings were different was more of a clue than a mystery. So he immediately realized that Parmen had again decided to play a trick on him, as if to create a situation for studying the reaction. He did that periodically, or rather, they did it together. They didn't enter virtual reality to study human behavior in different circumstances, but made such performances in reality. This way it was better to find out how the psyche reacts during the transition to a parallel reality and in it, in that world. It was very difficult to believe in the reality of transition from one world to another. However, it seemed like a dream to Rutra after he regained consciousness. "Parmen most likely used a new technology – altering the perception of reality and creating an illusion of reality," he pondered logically. This technology is used in making feature films – like computer graphics superimposed on real objects, environments, but here – directly through the chip, in the brain, on everything a person sees. Rutra decided that's why he sees things that way.
Ruthra tried to contact Rangit. There was no reply. All other communication was also absent. It was a poorly furnished and colored room. Gray and beige with incomprehensible trappings. Parmen didn't think much of it. And yet what was his purpose? He, or those who helped him, made a few mistakes. The first thing that caught Ruthra's eye was the holographic numbers "hanging" in space, a calendar. He couldn't understand why the year 2050 was marked on it, since it was 2022. He couldn't understand why he had chosen that date.
Ruthra tried to stand up, wanting to see what was going on. The special bed was massaging his body. He couldn't find the clasps he was fastened to it. The shaking made it hard to concentrate.
Ruthra shouted:
– How do you unhook them?
Suddenly he heard a voice directly in his head. The technology was familiar to him, but the voice was not.
A man spoke:
– Please don't yell Rutra Tigrovich, I'll explain it to you.
– Who's talking to me?
– I am an automated intelligent control system. One of my tasks is to manage the city of Moscow. In your memory, Moscow is still a city.
– What city? You mean it's not supposed to be a town?
– Moscow is a separate state, a protected zone observing neutrality. Among other things, it is in the status of an offshore zone, where the governing functions of the world government and the UN are concentrated.
– Enough, I don't believe it. The experiment didn't work.
– Please listen. Everyone doesn't believe it at first. Please listen.
– Rangit, is that you?
– No. Listen to me. I understand you don't believe it, but you're not the first. According to my records, you've been in a coma for 28 years.
– What the hell are you talking about? System glitch? Or is someone trying to play a joke on me?
– Please – evaluate the situations ts ию adequately. I have to inform you the following: there was a system failure during your experiment. The body you are in now, the body you consider to be yours, is not the real body of scientist Paskhov.
– You're out of your mind. Who's talking to me anyway? What's the big joke?
– I asked you to be reasonable. I'm an intelligent machine, I can't lie to you.
– What are you saying, you can't lie? That's very surprising.
– You did the experiments yourself. You made your own cloned body. You wanted to embed a digital copy of yourself in it. Didn't you?
– So… so what?
– There was a system failure during the experiment, your real body is stored in another facility. This body is a copy of yours. You can even feel it now. You've made it younger and uploaded your mind into it. To ensure your adequacy, I must conduct a test. I must question you. So, who are you?
– That's crazy. Who were you just talking to?
– Please answer the question adequately. Until you answer the question, I can't let you go.
Ruthra tried to stand up. He couldn't. Something invisible kept him chained to the cot.
– Release me at once!
– I told you, you have to take a test. It's not that hard, just answer the questions.
– What the hell kind of questions?
– Who are you?
– You know exactly who I am.
Ruthra was becoming increasingly irritated, angry.
– Please answer in the logic you yourself put into the thinking of an artificial intelligence. Who are you?
– What the hell. I'm sick of these Parmenides pranks. Who the hell are you?
– Please answer the question. Who are you?
– Fuck you.
Ruthra tried to stand up again. Again he failed. He cursed irritably, but nothing helped. The machine was inexorable.
– Please answer, who do you feel you are? Who are you?
Ruthra was silent for a moment, then decided to answer.
– I am a scientist, Ruthra Paschow. I invented the technique of body cloning.
– Tell me about the technology.
Ruthra took a deep breath, then exhaled. He decided not to be nervous.
– There's nothing particularly complicated about it, really. Human bodies can be cloned… just like regular animals, which are already being cloned on an industrial scale. Some of the difficulty is the ability to accelerate the growth of the body. However, this too is solved by the rapid growth technique used in animal breeding. The difficult part of this process is moving consciousness into the brain. It was a real challenge, but I managed it.
– What is consciousness?
– It is our memory recorded in detail and billions of connections, neural contacts, outside the body and in the body, providing that body with the highest level of functioning. The more connections, the more intelligence. At a certain level there comes a verge ts a of arithmetic and geometric progression, forcing us to do the next, improved action to maintain the previous one. This is how we sharpened flint, invented the bicycle, flew into space, and created artificial intelligence.
Ruthra said the last, emphasizing the word 'artificial'.
– What matters, of course, is how quickly these connections commutate with each other and determine, based on life experience, the most optimal, best solutions. And now, please, you explain what is happening and where I have found myself?
– You came into our world unannounced. You're not in the program. I received no notification of your arrival. And frankly, I don't know your mission. However, since you showed up instead of the one who was supposed to carry out the program's mission, you'll have to carry it out.
– Very interesting and lucid. Now, humanly speaking, please. What's the mission? What's the program? What's going on here? Where am I, anyway? Oh, and free me, damn it!
– I must give you an introduction, then you can see for yourself. As you know.
– Just wait! Set me free! I don't know anything!
– Just listen," Ruthra heard directly in his head, and at the same time he felt free of the invisible shackles. – Are you comfortable communicating aloud or silently? This body is prepared for all options.
