A few minutes before arriving, William wakes up totally bewildered, his communication with the planet earth had changed noticeably during his trip. Everything seemed to indicate that his travel objective was no longer of great importance. He knew that in his return, his life would no longer be the same, his family and social connections would no longer exist, however, his travel objective was achieved.
Soon the ship's system reports that it had already entered into Earth orbit, now they were waiting for the authorization of a satellite network that apparently acted as a barrier around the earth.
The network system called Alexandria, after searching its log, confirms the existence of a ship with its identification code. And he says "Welcome back to the planet earth, it's been 5 centuries since your departure."
Upon entering the atmosphere, William manages to observe through its window some buildings, they were so long that they disappear into the sky. Immense cities flew over the skies as if they were mere boats in the water. William cannot accept this new reality. He faints.
With great difficulty, the ship manages to get to the place that was assigned, it was an entire aerospace complex. Immediately upon arrival, what seems to be an automaton enters the ship, it could clearly be seen that it was a machine, however, it had a human appearance, its objective was to check William's condition.
The automatons carry William into the complex. When William spent a few hours waking up in a white room whose walls were covered in mirrors, it seemed to be a testing room. When being tied to the stretcher, it collapses and immediately it begins to shout words that don't seem to be heard beyond those four walls of glass./p>
After several hours of waiting, suddenly on one of the walls begins to project an image of a robot, but this time its appearance was similar to humans'. At that moment begins to emit a sound that said:
"William, excuse our welcome and your isolation. We are trying to do our best to introduce you to this reality and thus avoid a collapse of your mind. Earth has experimented with many changes since your departure, as surely you have been able to observe humans have been able to overcome by much in terms of technological advances, " The Automata Grior says.
"Since the invention of the first quantum computer, our perspective on the universe has totally changed. Now our reality can be simulated with a probability of success close to 100%, this hasn't given all the answers to a large number of questions that for centuries we had. Now we know all the consequences of your travel, and how it would affect the time dilation from the biological point of view, all this without the need to carry out a real experiment," The Automata Grior says.
"Are you saying that my trip was a failure? That my sacrifice for humanity was in vain?," William said in an altered tone.
"Your journey was necessary back then, and no sacrifice made for humanity is in vain. Please try to introduce yourself without entering into any conflict, your mind could not stand it," Automata Grior retorts.
"Are you really telling me to not to come into conflict? Perhaps a machine like you could empathize with everything that I lost on that trip, and also said to me that everything I've done was in vain?" William says with a tone that evidences his exaltation.
"Try to control yourself and face your new reality, otherwise your mind could collapse. Our studies on processing capacity have concluded that there is not much difference between your mind and a robot's," Automata Grior.
"Apparently you know everything, aren't you? Then explain to me what did you mean when you said that there is not much difference between me and robots?" William retorts.
"Soon you will understand everything we have achieved," Automata Grior replies.
When it seemed that the screen took a dim light.
"Wait! Don't leave! When will you let me go out of here?" William shouts.
"Tomorrow, the automaton Virginia will come to look for you, she will give you your first tour through the complex. Until then, try to get some rest," Automata Grior says.
As soon as the screen is turned off, a dose of tranquillizer is supplied to William.
"What is this substance that you are supplying to me, perhaps you try..." William expresses with a startled tone.
In the morning, what appears to be a human walks into the room, the way he walked revealed what he really was though. The automaton walks to where William is and with a strong tone he says:
"Wake up, it's time for your ride," Automata Virginia expresses.
Quickly William scared opens his eyes and twists his body for a moment as if it were a seizure. Then Virginia removes the safety guards and begins to give the tour through the installations.
"As you can see we've had great technological advances since your departure. War, misery and hunger are things of the past. We could say that we have achieved a social equality, as Carl Marx would say," Automata Virginia says.
"That sounds like fantasy, I feel like you are describing the world of my dreams," William retorts with a picaresque tone.
While William and Virginia walked through the corridors, in the surroundings he could see large numbers of automatons, all with human appearance and dressed in the same way.
"Notice that everyone here performs the same tasks equally, this is because things like money or other things of exchangeable value have been eliminated. Now we all work together for the progress of humanity. Three centuries ago humanity faced the biggest problem that species could face: its own extinction, and this time it came from the hand of its own humanity, the human being stopped being reproductive due to an error in its genome, and despite the technological advances that we had, we could not find the solution to the problem. Our conclusion was that apparently all living beings obey certain biological laws that limit the number of reproductions in the universe, that is, since the very beginning there's a rule that limits the number of humans that could exist," Automata Virginia replies.
"Does that mean that even me, someone who was too far away from this planet for so long time, I am ruled and limited by those rules? Does that mean I cannot have children? And if it's true, then that would explain why I haven't seen any human since I arrived," William asks dominated by intrigue.
"As I told you, it is a law of the biology of this universe, so in theory you also as a biological being, you are affected by this. And you haven't seen any human because you're the only one who's wide awake, this is because a century after having found the problem we found a solution even if it was partial, it was the salvation of humanity," Automata Virginia replies to his anwers.
While walking in the distance he can see a large black door that stood out among all, everything seemed to indicate that they are directed to the great solution.
"Do not tell me that everyone is in a state of cryogenization? Or even worse, they all became you?" William says in a scared tone.
"The answers to your questions are complex, and I could answer them with yes and no at the same time. They are not in a state of cryogenization, to be exactly, their state is much more complex and they are us and at the same time they are not. Let's see, each human has a representation in automatic form to which they can access at any time, however, we are not required to house them for life" Automata Virginia replies.
"Then they are and they are not, well that's what I was thinking... Apparently there are many things that have changed, and if I wanted to wake up some of them now, could I?" William expresses.
The great door was in front. Suddenly, Virginia places her hand on a large panel asking permission to authorize the large room. Alexandria, the big central computer authorizes the step saying:
"Automated welcome L-R10, your access to the room will be recorded in the big logbook," Alexandria AI says.
On opening the great door they manage to enter, on their foreheads were observed hundreds of floors that seemed to have no end, on each floor large quantities of capsules were stacked so that each floor could easily house millions of humans inside.
"What a immense room, so this was your solution... In my opinion it looks like cryogenization, although if you say that they have an automated representation here, then there must be a way they can communicate. And Virginia, tell me who's Alexandria?" Willian asks.
"I see that he is taking everything unexpectedly, I say better than we expected. And if, in fact, your brain is connected to a super network, this super network directs and controls everything that has happened on the planet, from the weather to the rotation of the earth, it also houses all the knowledge acquired by humanity since its inception, in short terms, it could be seen as a collective conscience, the name of this network is Alexandria. And if that is not entirely enough, this super network of interconnected quantum processors manages to simulate their own universe that is programmed to obey the same rules as this one. Finally, I will answer an interesting question that you asked me before... And the answer is no, human beings that have already spent more than a century in that state cannot wake up, the problem is in that other part of the brain that they haven't been able to understand and It has to do directly with what we just have told you, the brain reaches a point where it comes into conflict with reality," Automata Virginia replies.
"Are you trying to tell me that these people live in something like the matrix? That is to say a universe similar to this one that obeys the same rules and where all in principle can live a normal life, that is the same as a restart, or not? And if so, why did they set the same rules?
"Indeed, they are in a world similar to the matrix, only that it has very specific rules. Rules that cannot be altered. These rules are not placed randomly, humanity concluded that these rules exist at the limit of the processing of a quantum processor, that is, if we increase the number of humans that can exist in that universe then we would have problems to process such quantity, thus increasing that amount in one more, we would have problems to process all that information. Even if we decided to place more quantum processors to the network, that limit could not be broken since there is also a limit of network processing capacity for quantum processors. In short terms, this universe seems to follow very specific rules that simulate those of programming," Automata Virginia replies.
"Apparently we arrived as a species at the limit of the knowledge that can be acquired, I say it because you seem to know everything. What you just told me leaves me with many questions, the most interesting is that if what you told me is true, then we could be immersed in a simulation at this moment, this leaves me with the question of what is the limit of simulations that can house a simulated world? Simulations within other simulations, this seems to be taken out from some science fiction stories," William says.
"Indeed, William, we have already raised all those questions, but it is impossible to know the answer to those what you asked. William, since you know the truth, I guess you know why we're here, isn't it?"Automata Virginia replies.
"Yes, I know why you brought me here, and the answer, after all, you have asked me is that I don't, I do not want to continue like this. As a human I feel that I have already done my duty, I am also tired and I want to start, " William replies with a sad tone.
Here's the link if you want to make your own entry to the
24 hour short-story
contest created by @mctiller.