Chapter One
John sat in the waiting room of the infinity foundation. Their work was the transfer of consciousness from man to machine. Selling eternal life to the most wealthy and affluent. John was a man of industry. A man who made his fortune setting his own path rather than listening to those who told him he could not. The waiting room was warm and open with glass accents and a futuristic aesthetic that conveyed the idea that they were the forefront of technology. Today was the day john was to make the transfer. He stood up to walk to a wall of screens across the room. He looked down at small touch terminal and scrolled through the names until finally arriving at his desired entry. Pressing the entry, the screen announced “please wait” as a tone indicated it was working.
“John, how are you? Janice with you?”
Andre his friend had made the transfer some time ago. It was Andre who convinced john that the transfer was finally a reality and something worthwhile.
“I’m good Andre. No Janice is at home. Today is my transfer. I’m just waiting here before the procedure. It’s a weird still before the dawn I suppose.”
“I know what you mean. It’s an odd feeling isn’t it? It’s easy though. You go to sleep and you wake up, it was that simple for me.”
“I can’t help but be suspicious I mean I see you but there’s a cognitive disconnect between you and the sight of you on a screen. I don’t know how to describe it. I guess I just still have trouble accepting that not everyone in a computer is some form of artificial intelligence.”
“Want me to hop in an avatar? They have some there at the facility.”
“No, no I’m fine. How do you like those things?”
“The avatars? Their fine. The battery life isn’t that great. It is nice to visit the outside world once in a while.”
“Does it ever get boring in there? I mean that’s my main concern. That I am going to be bored for an eternity in there.”
“Well you don’t have to stay in here if you are bored, that’s why they have the avatars. That and visiting family is nice. The foundation does a good job though of making it interesting in here. They have these guys they call activity coordinators that program in quests and murder mysteries and what not if you are so inclined. So far, I haven’t really done any. After 80 years I’ve found I am quite content to just relax, drunk on the beach in here.”
“And how does being drunk work in there? Down a couple megabits of scotch?”
“It works fine. Don’t know how, but it works.”
The nurse walked over to the john and announced that the doctor was ready to see him now. John was escorted back to the office of the head doctor and administrator of the foundation.
