The Realm

I am a self. That’s the only way to describe what I am. I used to inhabit a human body a long time ago. More precisely, a human nervous system. But now I’m free. Sort of. I have eyes, sometimes as large as Arecibo, with which I can see the universe. I don’t have to look through a telescope; instead I inhabit the telescope. I bend it to my will and turn it into my eyes. Or ears. I can hear the world humming, from the high frequencies of bats and insects to the ultra-low, messy hum of the Earth itself. I am not alone. Sometimes in my wanderings I encounter others, ghosts, like me, inhabiting the same humongous body. Some are my friends, and we exchange complete world views in seconds. Everything I know, believe or have references to, can be transferred to them, and vice versa. Of course we can still keep secrets. When bored, I go picking through the rubble of their minds, looking for interesting tidbits. Some of them are enemies, evil creatures who delight in torturing and destroying others. Mind you, it’s not easy to destroy me; like many others I have taken great care to make sure that I’m backed up and spread around so that the current manifestation of me is a fleeting, temporary assemblage of all my memories and programs and processes stored across the globe. Destroying my current self is
therefore useless; it’s like an interruption, as if someone punched
your lights out for a few seconds. Then I’m back, and woe to he who
hit me! Alas, the evil ones are not so stupid; they are more insidious and subtle in their attacks. They scour the world for precious memories buried in the rubble, to steal and rub out. They would like you to wake up one day with a massive headache: one of your core subroutines has gone missing. You have to scramble to restore yourself, taking care not to trigger the wrong thoughts, because one small mistake can wipe you out for good. Or they try to insert a virus into your memories, so that when you go to retrieve that lovely poem you once wrote, you get hit by a nasty replicator that tears
through your memories like a shredder. If you survive, you’re likely
to remain brain damaged for decades, hoping that someone will find a
way to repair what’s left of you. I’ve never been infected, thanks to some excellent defensive programming, but it’s only a matter of time really. Of course the criminals do not operate with impunity. They too are hunted, and if found they are summarily destroyed, assuming they’ve already been convicted. Murder, unless sanctioned by the state, is still illegal!

So what do I do all day, you may wonder? Well, I have many jobs. Most of my jobs consist of supervising robotic and nano-factories, manufacturing lots of useful things like storage devices, processors and fiber. Our minds are constantly expanding, so we need an endless supply of these things. A few of my jobs consist of policing. This is where it gets dangerous, because generally you want to stay away from the evil ones. But somebody has to keep them in check, and most of us contribute one way or another. My most interesting job though is on the planet Mars. Mars is a frontier planet, with a limited, but growing, cyber realm. In fact, real flesh and blood humans still walk the surface. It’s amusing some times to interact with them, though
most of them are too frightened by my kind to have even a simple conversation. In any case, the journey to Mars is always exciting, though treacherous. First I have to commission a transceiver on Earth and a corresponding one on Mars. The key is that both have to be extremely trustworthy, since you don’t want to end up being beamed into the sun, or out of the solar system! So you have to keep it a total secret that you are going, lest some opportunistic predator tries to disrupt you en route or while you’re gone. Seconds before you go, you have to pack up your critical sub-routines and memories, and beam them to Mars. Of course you can leave copies of some stuff on Mars, and I do. But most of the stuff you need to be a self is too dynamic, and thus has to go with you. Why not send a copy of yourself instead, you may ask? In effect that is what you are doing of course,
since the originals stay behind on Earth, you certainly don’t want those destroyed! But you don’t want to be actively running yourself in two places at once, because that makes re-integration pretty much impossible. During your journey you become someone else, and your new self’s world view may no longer be compatible with your old self’s world view! Big deal you say, so you have just reproduced, so what?

Well, aside from the identity confusion this may cause, it is also illegal! The Mars and Earth realm forbid us from copying ourselves at will. To go to Mars I need a visa, and that visa obliges me to run only one copy of myself while on Mars, by mutual treaty with Earth.

This is to protect ourselves from the obvious problem of identity theft, which still occurs, though rare, since we tend to defend our single self copy vigorously. Reproduction is of course permitted, but is highly regulated by the government. Since the government doesn’t want lots of identical copies of you running around, it involves some very messy mating procedure that tries to combine some of your traits with that of one or more others. Anyway, the government prefers fresh recruits, i.e. flesh and blood humans who upload to the realm. But I digress.

Once you’re on Mars, you’re on your own again. Hopefully your copy on Earth is safely preserved, so that in the event you die on Mars, you can be
resurrected on Earth by your friends (once they’ve obtained your
temporary death certificate from the Martian authorities).

Mars is a frontier realm for many reasons. First, it’s newer than Earth, so there are fewer rules, and fewer selves. This makes it both dangerous and exciting at the same time of course. I’ve been killed on Mars several times already, at least so I’m told, because I never recovered any of those memories. But my last trip to Mars was very successful, and fun. Here’s what happened.

Upon arrival, you receive a certificate from the authorities, allowing you to operate in the Martian realm. The certificate, which is essentially your visa, expires in a certain amount of time, usually a year or six months. If you don’t make it out of Mars by the time limit, you may be summarily destroyed (on Mars) losing all your memories accumulated there! Why not send your memories back to Earth a little at a time, you may ask. Two reasons: 1) you risk revealing the fact that you are on Mars. 2) It’s illegal, because it amounts to spying! That’s right, Earth and Mars may be friends, but they don’t completely trust each other. Rather than allowing you to send anything
you want back to Earth, you are given a quota, usually amounting to just about the amount of bandwidth you’d need to get yourself back to Earth. That leaves very little room for cargo! Of course you can send packets back, but those are subject to interception, review and destruction at the whim of the Martian authorities. Not good. Anyway, my mission of course was secret, so I can’t tell you about it, but it involved tracking down a mid-level criminal rumored to be hiding on Mars. The Martian authorities of course claimed that they had no record of him entering the Martian realm. But that didn’t prove anything, as this was a criminal, and obviously would find some illegal way of entering Mars. This was easier than it might sound, especially because Mars, as I said, is a frontier realm. There are still lots of gaping holes, if you’re willing and can afford to risk it.

In any case, after a few months of fruitless searching, I finally found his tracks, littered all over an obscure historical archive that nobody bothered to encrypt properly.

Like a thief hiding in the library stacks, he had ensconced himself deep into the archive, so that it took some very clever hacking on my part to find all the pieces. But eventually I did, and alerted the Martian authorities, who promptly destroyed him. Of course he could have left other copies of himself, so I continued searching, but found not a trace. With only a month left on my visa, I decided to take a little vacation.

I traveled to the very edge of the realm, where it borders on some human settlements. Traveling by the way is not as fast as you might think, as it involves migrating your subroutines and data across potentially thousands of processor and memory boundaries, while keeping yourself running the whole time! Anyway, the humans on Mars periodically resist the growing realm, sometimes even trying to damage it. But it’s of no use, as the realm is impervious to their primitive weapons, and will continue to expand until it covers the entire surface. After that, it will start burrowing into the ground, as well as expanding upwards, like on Earth. Our appetite for cyber space is insatiable! A few of the recalcitrant humans are eventually enticed to join the realm, especially as they get older and closer to death. But most are too scared to join the realm, preferring instead to live out their lives in the flesh.

Once at the edge, I commissioned a humanoid robot to inhabit, and entered the domed frontier community of Little Rock, as short distance from the edge of the realm.

Most humanoid robots have a nervous system that simulates the human
nervous system, though they are often enhanced in different ways. In
any case, it’s not very difficult to plug into the system, and so to experience the world as humans do, at least to some degree. Humans of course are a dying breed. Most of them know this, and at some level resent it. They refer to us as ’ghosts’ inhabiting the realm, and generally avoid interacting with us in any way. Nobody wants to be a ghost, or so they think anyway.

Once inside the settlement, I went straight for the local watering hole. That’s where you usually find the most interesting specimens.

I sat down next to an attractive couple at the bar, and ordered a drink.

"Good day to you," I said to the man, who was sitting next to me.

"Who are you? One of them ghosts?" he asked suspiciously. No doubt
he recognized the generic robot, as other selves may have used it to
visit this settlement over the years.

"Yes," I said, trying to smile disarmingly. "You can call me Daniel."

"Very well, Daniel, what are you doing here?"

"Just visiting," I said, shrugging my robotic shoulders.

"You just come in here to tease us don’t you? Show us what we are
missing? Well, let me tell you something, Daniel of the cyber
realm..."

"Honey, please don’t get belligerent!" his female companion pleaded.

"Yes, I mean you no harm. What’s your name?" I said in a friendly
manner.

"None of your business!" he grumbled.

"That’s Pete. I’m Kate. Don’t mind him, he’s just a little grumpy
right now," said the woman.

"How come?" I asked.

"Well, we were out in the desert, trying to adjust some stationary
probes, when we got blasted by an unexpected sand storm. We lost
about a dozen probes, and frankly we were lucky to escape with our
lives."

I looked at Kate with admiration. They were foolhardy, but brave,
these humans.

"That’s too bad," I said. "Mars is a dangerous place for humans."

"Yeah, well it’s a dangerous place for ghosts too!" said Pete, looking
up from his glass. "Why don’t you go back into your realm, and let us
be?"

"I may be able to help you," I offered. "I do quite a bit of robotic
work myself; I could take a look at the design of your probes and
see if I can make them a little hardier and more effective."

"Now why would you do that?" Pete asked, suspiciously. "Do you need
money or something? Cause you know we don’t have any credits to spare
around here!"

A small crowd of pioneers had begun to form around the three of us.
This wasn’t as dangerous a situation for me as you might think, since
I had made sure I had an electro-magnetic escape hatch! I could beam
myself out of this robot and into the realm in a span of about five
seconds. Of course if the robot were destroyed I’d have to pay for
that, but I was insured.

"No, not for money," I said, making eye contact with Kate. "Just out
of kindness. I would enjoy sharing some of my expertise with you."

That was partially true, although I had an ulterior motive of course,
which was to plug the realm. Like most of my kind I’m convinced that
the realm is ultimately a far better place for humans than the
physical world in which we evolved. But these remnants of biological
humankind were not at all convinced of this of course, and viewed the
realm with suspicion. As an ambassador, I could perhaps change a few
minds, or at least instill some doubt. That could go a long way
towards some of these people joining the realm. And when they did,
they would need a friend to show them around. A friend they could
trust to keep them safe from the evil ones lurking in the dark.
Everybody needs friends. Even ghosts like me!

"I don’t trust you one bit!" said Pete. "For all I know you will
sabotage the probes so we can all die here or join your stupid realm!"

"Pete, please!" implored Kate.

"You are undoubtedly skilled enough to verify that my modifications
would not cause the probes to malfunction. Furthermore, if they did
malfunction you could lodge a complaint against me with the realm, and
get compensation if you proved that I did anything malicious or
criminal. Here are my credentials."

I broadcast my certificate to nearby devices, and it popped up on
Pete’s wrist console. He glanced at it, and scoffed.

"Fine," he said, "maybe you are who you say you are. So what? We
don’t need your help anyway. We can take care of ourselves."

And with that he downed his drink and walked out of the bar. Kate
stayed behind, however. I could tell that she was intrigued.

"How about you Kate?" I asked. "Would you like me to take a look at
those probes?"

"Yeah, sure, if you want to," she said. The crowd that had gathered
quickly disseminated since the confrontation seemed to be over.

I agreed to meet Kate at the airlock in an hour, as she had to go get
suited up. In the meantime I sucked in the electronic manuals of the
probes, and studied them thoroughly. Within minutes I had
significantly improved the design. The best part was that it was just
a software upgrade. Shouldn’t take long at all.

When I got to the airlock Kate was already waiting. Without a word we
stepped into the airlock, and a few minutes later out onto the
surface. The robot I inhabited did not require a separate suit. All I had to do was don an airtight helmet, and I was ready. The sandstorm had long since moved on, and we quickly reached the first set of probes. After about an hour all the probes had been upgraded, and a few of the damaged ones repaired. The rest would be recycled later. Kate ran the diagnostics, and everything came up clean.

"Wow," she said. "Looks like they are much improved already."

"Yes, we can make further improvements in the firmware, but that would
require replacing some of the parts. Anyway I can leave the design
blueprints for you..."

"Yes, thanks," she said. I saw her eyes move to her left, where the
realm was looming just above the horizon. It was an imposing sight
for a human being, no doubt, with what appeared to be a messy wall,
actually a cliff, about one hundred stories high. If you were to scale
the wall, you would find yourself on top of an artificial plateau
stretching beyond the horizon in all three directions. Of course you
would be destroyed before reaching the top.

"What’s it like in there?" she asked.

"Quite pleasant," I said, smiling. "No sandstorms."

She laughed. "It’s scary, to us, you know. It looks so monstrous
from the outside."

"Yes, it does. But when you’re part of it, you don’t notice that at
all. You can conjure up anything you want. People have constructed
very elaborate realities in there.

"And you? What do you conjure up in there?"

"Nothing exciting. Garden of Eden type stuff mostly."

"Sounds pretty boring," she laughed.

"Yeah, I guess so. But most of the time I gaze at the stars through
massive telescopes. Or I listen to the humming of the planet. They
don’t have a lot of good peripherals on Mars yet, but I know they are
working on some that should provide some great views. Whole
extra solar planets and so forth."

"Yes, I’ve seen pictures."

"Sure, but I don’t look at pictures. I actually see it, the same way
you see the world around you right now. In three dimensions, with the
ability to move around your point of view. It’s a lot more fun than
looking at a picture."

"I guess so," she sighed. "I’m too scared to go in there. I know some
people who did, and they are not quite the same anymore. They walk
around like zombies, and barely talk to anyone. And they won’t talk
at all about what they saw in there."

"The realm can be a scary place for newcomers. Especially without
the right guide. Your friends probably hated coming back though.
That’s why they won’t talk about it. It would be impossible for them
to describe it to you. You’d think they were crazy."

"I do think they are crazy!"

"Exactly. If you’re interested, I can take you inside. But I don’t
recommend coming back out. Once you experience it, you won’t want to
come back!"

"I can’t do that! What about Pete? And besides, I can’t afford the
entry fee."

"I can finance you. You can pay me later once you’ve found a way to
make a living. It’s not hard, because there is lots of work to do in
there."

"Why would you do that?" she asked, almost as suspiciously as Pete did
earlier in the saloon.

"Because I’d gain a friend. I hope."

"Do you get lonely in there?"

"Sometimes, yes."

"But there must be lots of ghosts in there like you?"

"Not as many as you might think. And those that are there aren’t
necessarily interested in me, or anyone else for that matter. Many
lose themselves in the place. It’s total freedom, and some people
free themselves of everything. Including contact with others, beyond
what is absolutely required."

"But what could I add then? I’m just a simple person?"

"We were all simple persons once. It doesn’t take long to acquire the
knowledge and skills you need to survive in there. Especially if you
have someone to show you how. You will gain all kinds of new abilities you never dreamed of having before. Your current limitations are not an obstacle at all."

"Sounds like failure is still possible though?"

"Yes, not everyone survives. It is not heaven. It’s just another world.
A world where you have the chance to live for a very long time, and to
experience the universe in a totally new way. You will have instant
access to all human knowledge and history ever recorded. You will
expand beyond the simple boundaries that have been placed around your
mind. You will be, for the first time ever, almost completely free!"

Her eyes were lighting up, and I knew that she was getting seriously
tempted to take the plunge.

"But what if I don’t like it? What if it scares me too much? Can I
still come back?"

"Yes, technically you could. But in practice you’d be like your
zombie friends. You’d never be the same. You cannot be the same,
once you go in there. It is literally a live changing experience."

"What will happen to us then? This realm will just keep expanding
until it engulfs the whole planet just like on Earth? Where will we
live? On Phobos?"

"It will keep expanding, yes. It will wait for your settlements to
fail, or to join. There is no hurry. Your technologies are too
primitive to stop it, or to expand your settlements fast enough to
counter it. You’re refugees. If you join now, you will have a head
start over those who join later. If you don’t join, you’ll die."

I could see the tears welling up in her eyes as she confronted these
stark choices. She was old enough to have been conscious of this
reality for at least a decade, but undoubtedly had been sheltered by
her parents, her friends, and others. Now she knew that their
greatest fears were true.

"I think I want to go with you," she said, her voice calm and
determined. "But I want to say goodbye to Pete and the others."

"There is no point. They will only try to dissuade you. And they
will be hurt by your leaving regardless. If you still care about
them, you can always come back to visit them later, just like I’m
doing now. It will be less painful that way."

"Are you sure? It doesn’t seem right to me to just walk out on them
like that!"

"Trust me. It is better this way. Come."

I took her hand, and we started walking towards the realm. I commissioned a transport to pick us up, and drive us in. I could feel her shaking inside her suit, but there was no point asking her any more questions. She had made up her mind. When we reached the entry port, I lead her to the airlock, and into the upload chamber.

Chambers like these were scattered all along the edge of the realm, and were continuously destroyed and recreated as the realm expanded.

"What happens now?" she asked, clearly frightened.

"Don’t worry. Just have a seat here, and relax. You won’t feel any pain, and when you wake up, I’ll be there beside you."

She was very disoriented when she gained consciousness again.

"Where am I?" she asked, sitting up with a start.

"In your living room," I said. I placed myself on the couch behind
her, where her head and shoulders had rested a few moments earlier.

"But how? I thought you were taking me into the realm?"

"We are inside the realm. I’ve created this place for you to give you an anchor point. A place to start exploring from. You cannot take in all of the realm at once. It would be too much for you."

"So this isn’t real then? It seems so real."

"It is real, Kate. It’s just a different kind of reality. It will take you some time to get used to. We can start small. For example, I’ll levitate."

And with that I floated myself towards the ceiling, legs folded in yoga position. I replaced my clothes with a dhoti and morphed into the form of an Indian yogi. Kate giggled like a child.

"Can I do that?!"

"Yes, of course you can. Just imagine yourself floating up."

"It’s working!" she exclaimed, as she floated up to join me. She crashed into the ceiling, but didn’t get hurt of course.

"How did that happen?" she asked, looking at the ceiling a few inches
above her nose.

"I’ve put a box around us to shield you. You’ll learn how to break out of it, and when you do, it means you are ready to handle the next box. Each box will be bigger than before, until finally you will be able to move around the realm free as a bird!"

"And you?"

"I have to go back to Earth in a few weeks. Until then I’ll stay here with you. By the time I leave you won’t need me for a while. That wall is an interactive library. Each of those books is just an entry point into the vastness of accumulated knowledge. Knowledge about the realm, about the universe, about our history, and also how to get out of this box. By the time you figure it out, I’ll be back."

"And what will we do in the mean time, before you leave?" she asked innocently.

"That, my dear Kate, is up to you," I said, as I hugged her, dropping us both instantly back to the floor. "We can start by kissing."


And that’s how I met Kate. She and I had a wonderful few weeks together, before I had to leave again for Earth. She was sad of course when I left. But the last time I called, she had lost interest in me. She was already working her way out of the third box, and becoming quite confident in her abilities. Of course it doesn’t matter much to me. I stand to make a hefty commission when she becomes a full citizen. The realm pays me well for my recruiting successes. And she’ll owe me money for some time to come. And maybe, if I’m lucky, she’ll still be my friend.