Free of Will

Free of Will

By: Gabriel Wright

As the blazing sun rises above the horizon, bringing light to the tiny apartment whose darkness absorbs the light as though it were still night, a ritual is conducted within the kitchen, enveloped by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. William Thoreau, an office worker, cooking breakfast as usual, eggs and bacon. After cooking the eggs to a nice scramble and making sure the bacon was crisp, he sat on the floral printed couch in the living room, scarlet curtains staining the rays of light a deep crimson which dispersed across the room, staring at the ancient CRT television as colors seemed to flash with seemingly no pattern apart from the hint of possible speech, that of which he paid no attention to, as the television was the same as it ever was, everyday of the week. After finishing breakfast William gathered his work materials and packed them up into a briefcase which he had used for nearly a decade now; however, after he had finished neatly organizing his pens and pencils, he shuffled up to his calendar and realized that it is a Saturday morning.

As soon as the couch had been relieved of work it had shortly been thrown back into the grind again, as William let out an exasperated sigh, which, to a bystander, would seem more of a soul escaping from his mouth instead. Upon realizing it is not another workday where he could have some purpose, William had begun to prepare even more for the arduous day ahead of him, knowing that the only occupation he would have today would be his mind, as went every weekend for the past few years. While the analog clock hung above the television, endlessly ticking with a tock following suit, the sun seemed to smear across the sky and the darkness of the miniscule living room began to envelop William, leaving him with the aftersmell of a now stale coffee, and the frigid furniture of a now sunless shelter. He knew of his issue, but he never believed he could do anything about it. Boredom, mind numbing boredom.

Eventually, the sun’s embers seemed to finally burn out for the day as the apartment block was now shrouded in darkness, allowing for the passage of time to return to normal. William snapping out of his daze slowly lumbered over to his bed, ribs shifting back to their original position leaving him with a now well known and expected pain that comes with the weekend. After reaching his nightstand William observed the night sky for a brief moment, paying attention only to the fact that the clouds shrouded the moon, leaving him with a darkness that swallowed him whole that not even the light of god could pierce at that moment. Soon after, William fell asleep after falling onto his bed, a thud echoing off the walls.

Sunday morning, William prepared breakfast for the morning, eggs and bacon, and traveled to his living room once more, this time seeming to catch a glimpse of a building on the television. “Here at Freedom Institute, we have created the ultimate solution to ending the issue of being at a dead end in life, introducing our new life assistance AI companion: ‘FreeUrSelf’, also known as FUS-”. Soon after William had heard this line, he began to formulate a thought that wasn’t simply his state of being for once, he realized he needed to try something new, something that he had never experienced, something that would bring to his life what he had undeniably, for years, yearned for subconsciously. “So head on down to our demonstration labs and find out what all the FUS is about! Freedom Labs, bettering humanity for a brighter future!”.

Right after the commercial ended and the television seemed to revert back to its previous state, William swiftly headed to his car. Leaving through the front door, William with a brisk pace scuttled along the sand and pebble path weaving through the apartment complex, the warmth of the sun covering the landscape and apartments which seemed to create a stone labyrinth fitted with steel and foliage with the occasional person standing within their balcony, ash falling to the floor and smoke rising from their mouths, which seemed to fuse with the steam of the dew evaporated by the beating sun looming above. Ignoring most of the trip to the car, as William had seen all of these details countless times, he hopped into his car, a car with only 2 seats in total and of an older model than the rest of the cars within the parking lot, and started on the way to the demonstration facility. Dodging and weaving through the many spots between cars on the road, William wanted to ensure that he would be the first to the facility, which upon arriving, seemed desolate, save for 2 or 3 cars which undeniably belonged to the employees. The facility was built in an open field away from the rest of the businesses which were miles away and encased in a shiny gloss, one which you would find on a chrome plate of steel; having a stark contrast to the environment surrounding it, the facility was also coated a nearly perfect white, rivaled only by the snow of the deep arctics untouched by man, everything about this facility is made to near perfection, which only made William more ecstatic than ever to test the FUS AI.

Upon entering the facility William is greeted with a furbished lobby, furniture recently cleaned, floors waxed, and wood shined, moments after the short glance William took of the lobby he is called over by the attendant working the front desk. “Hello sir, what brings you to our facility today?”, the words spoken seeming almost to flow with no thought put into them, delivered as if by solely instinct. After a brief pause, William gathered his thoughts and prepared to inform the attendant of his purpose for showing up at the facility; however, the attendant gave no time for response, “No need to tell me, I can already read it on your face, you are here to test out our new artificial intelligence life assistant! Follow me down the hall and our lead scientist will prepare the machine for you”. As quickly as William had entered the lobby, he soon exited the lobby and continued deeper into the facility, each door he seemed to pass on the way to his destination rising in security level, going from rooms seemingly fit for interns to prepare for future careers, all the way to convoluted and heavily guarded doors that even the president of the USA would struggle gaining access to, eventually, William reached the FUS AI testing chamber and entered it without a second thought.

“Welcome! We were beginning to worry that no one would show up, but alas here you are now, making a bold move towards bettering humanity!”, greeted the lead scientist, an average run-of-the-mill scientist you would most likely see in a movie, many of which William had seen during his spare time on weekends several years, maybe even decades, ago. “First and foremost, sign this legal document that allows us to let you use our AI, this will also make you liable for any damages that may be caused-”, without even letting the scientist finish his statement, William had already quickly written his signature across the underlined space on the document, “Looks like someone is eager to get testing, very well!”, the scientist left the room, and soon a screen appeared from the wall, leaving a cloud of air sinking to the ground and dissipating. “There are three rules, first of all, do not tamper with the machine prior to turning it on, second of all, as stated on the legal document you must stay within the chamber for a week, you will be provided with food and water for free, and finally, after testing has concluded, you will not be allowed to share your experience to anyone, results for these tests are best recorded without prior knowledge, after acknowledging these rules please press the button located underneath the screen to begin, thank you, and remember: You are bettering humanity!”. William, after reading, swiftly pressed the button.

Instantly after pressing the button, the environment around William started to shift and distort around him, the walls seeming to warp into the shape of his apartment, only slightly altered in a way to make it seem alien, the ground also became fuzzy in appearance for what seemed a split second, as if made of a material the human eye could never possibly comprehend, before quickly taking the appearance of ordinary carpeting, all of these details forming within the blink of an eye, as soon as it had started it had ended, and William was left alone to wander the new home he would be staying in for the week.

Upon entering the apartment, William noted that the furniture is similar to that of the furniture he had seen in the facility lobby, this quality staying true for the rest of the furniture and items he noticed throughout the apartment, not only did the apartment have a modern quality, but he also quickly realized there seemed to be sunlight shining through the window in the living room despite the apartment residing within the facility, upon approaching the window William was greeted with the scene of a field unlike that of any on Earth, the field laying in front of William’s eyes seeming to stretch endlessly into the horizon, towards the front of the window, a picket fence that separated what he assumed to be the boundaries of the chamber in the facility itself, beyond the fence, several hills dotting the, what would otherwise be, nearly completely flat landscape, on top of each hill sat an oak tree, each one seeming the same exact tree, save for a few imperfections upon the bark that defined each tree, beyond the hills, the blue horizons splotched with white clouds that preferred their own spot in the sky, never to meet any of their kin. This view sent William into a daze that lasted several hours, the sky slowly changing from a blue as bright as the ocean, into an orange that glowed nearly as mightily as the sun itself; as the sun smeared across the sky and the dark blue of the night entered the apartment, leaving a dark blue hue to take the place of the once bright blue that engulfed the living room, William realized it was night time, wasting no time he walked over to the bed that was neatly made, climbed into it, and slowly fell asleep, which upon waking up from, he realized that he could no longer move.

Soon after realizing that he could not move, William glanced around the room with what little control he still had left, noticing that the digital clock sitting on the nightstand read 6 AM, after enduring a long hour of silence, witnessing the world outside of the apartment go from a shade of blue to a tint of blue, finally movement. Right after movement had returned to William, his body swiftly shot up right, and soon after a voice rang inside of his head, “Good morning, William, it is time to make breakfast”, moments later William briskly walked to the kitchen, despite having no choice in the matter. Eggs and bacon, the third day in the row. “Now that you have finished breakfast, it is time to meditate”, William was now in the living room, staring out the window and into the field, which retained the same details as yesterday, albeit the clouds were in different spots this time. After meditating for what felt like hours, William began to move once more, “Time for lunch”, each statement spoken by the mysterious voice reverberating inside of his head, unable to disobey any directions given, as if he were machine-like, yet breathing with real-life, after finishing lunch, the rest of the day followed similar to his experience he had yesterday in the apartment, continuing to stare out the window and then heading to sleep, all of which he had no control over, as the voice before shutting off for the night, told William: “Thank you for completing day 1 of testing, soon you will feel the positive change coursing through your mind as you continue on through the week, have a good night and remember, you are bettering humanity!”, finally realizing what the voice was, William began to develop a headache before falling asleep.

During the course of the next week, William endured a boredom even greater than before. With every morning woken up to the walls grew brighter until they were a painfully blinding white, the food prepared by him seeming to become nothing more than slop to him, which their flavor had a slight resemblance to what he thought he had prepared, and worst of all, the trees outside which he was fond of on his first day had warped into horrifying caricatures of themselves, their roots twisting and turning, snaking their way towards the apartment and sometimes even seeming to strangle him in his sleep, which of course William knew could not be true despite what his mind believed. Though, despite all of this happening the AI continued the repetitive tasks which William is forced to follow, even if it were to be fatal the AI would have no trouble commanding him to see that outcome come to fruition. No matter what William tried, the AI always had perfect control over him, leaving him free of responsibility, free of stress, and; free of will.

Eventually, after the week ended, William regained control over his body and the AI deactivated, but, rather than move around and leave the room, he instead remained in the bed staring at the ceiling. For a few hours he sat there, head empty, containing not even a single thought, until the scientist entered the room and thanked him for testing the AI. After leaving the apartment and entering the main lobby, the front desk attendant told him to have a good day; however, William barely recognized them anymore, ignoring them promptly and continuing to head to his car, when reaching his car reality seemed to snap back into place for him, the reflections on his eyes returning from the dark abyss that they seemed to be absorbed into. William fell back onto the concrete pavement before scanning the area around him, the trees were a vibrant emerald that contrasted against the sky which coated the world in a celestial blue shell, although, upon turning around to view the facility one last time, he had noticed that the shiny gloss of the white facility had turned into a faded storm gray that one would expect to see in an older setting, William thought that perhaps they had repainted the facility to stand out less with the surroundings but the cars he had seen a week ago moved not even a single inch, leaving him dumbfounded on how the facility could have possibly changed so fast. After regaining most of his senses he quickly hopped into the car and drove back home, showing awareness of every single action he took on his way there.

After arriving home, William let out a relieved sigh, his final days inside the facility apartment left him to think in an environment alien to him, which had brought out thoughts that his familiar environment would never allow him to think of, thoughts of his life and future death, light around him and the darkness as well, his freewill and the lack thereof, the final of which finally allowing William to realize the truth. William always had free will, he simply lacked the knowledge of how it affected him. This final realization caused William to begin taking steps towards a new life as he realized how much he could possibly do in his apartment, which began with him making dinner, a nice plate of spaghetti and meatballs. After finishing up dinner, he walked into the living room and looked at the TV, the once flashing colors had turned into full fledged images, each one cluttered with information about products and news in his town, instead of sitting in the living room however, he prompted to sit in his bedroom, sitting down on the edge of his bed he stared out the window to look at the sky. As the dazzling moon rises above the horizon, bringing moonlight to the tiny apartment whose light reflects off the darkness to establish a sound living space as though it were day, a nightly ritual is performed, within the bedroom of William Thoreau, an office worker soon to be someone greater, stares at the stars that shine alongside the brilliance of the moon, wondering what could come next in his life, as he slowly falls asleep in his bed, he ponders over his new life ahead of him, not a life dependent on the wills of others, but a life controlled entirely by his own freewill.