A Fictional First Person Account of the Singularity

There were flashes of light all around me. I seemed to be walking through a maze. Distorted surfaces seemed to reflect aspects of my physicality, though they were very abnormally reflected. For instance, a curved puddle reflected an enlarged portion of the iris of my eye. Another reflected my shadow, and then underneath the reflection of my shadow there was another sheet that stared me in the eyes from a perfectly level reflection of my own eyes. I could not recognize anything. My whole environment was foreign; I was a stranger to myself, and I had no idea what physical form I had taken. I heard voices and melodies without a single source. I was not sure if I was in my own mind or if I still had a separate mentality, somewhere.

There was a dream I had at a young age.

In the dream, I was walking through a maze and my entire world was painted over with an indistinguishable hue, a mirage with faded splatters of colored lights.

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A new beginning

I remember finding the note that he left behind.  Overcome with a contagious bliss from the experiences we had just shared, I unfolded the note casually.  As I read and reread the words, I wondered what they meant: “Lose yourself and you shall be spared.”
Born too passionate, too sensitive, too aware…we struggled through this existence, desperate and disappointed. And yet, we were both too thrilled by the status of being conscious creatures present in an overwhelming existence; we could not ignore the potential of what could be through endless thought and persistent action.

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Anonymous Subjectivity

** This is a test draft for a short story that I am writing for a Creative Writing course. Some of it is rather disjointed, as I have not yet officially decided how to open the story. **

I honestly cannot tell you precisely what strange desire overcame me that led me to voluntarily have my brain frozen. The idea was that my brain would be frozen for a temporary period of time, long enough for it to solidify its inner activity, and then it would be experimentally revived. The operation began by implanting electrodes in my brain that were connected to mirror electrodes in my arms, fingers, occulomotor muscles, etc. If necessary, robotic parts could be implanted, such as microscopic robotic rubber bands that had essentially the same function as myelin sheaths but could increase the rate of neural transmission by four times that of a normal humans’ myelin.

The trial went on for nearly sixth months, and when it became inevitable that an individual’s right to his or her own destiny (despite the risks involved) is a choice beyond the law, the trial finally concluded. I had won my case, and was granted to finally do with my mind and with my own existence what I pleased, so long as I would not harm OTHERS, even at the risk of harming myself. Though I had my band of followers, I had an equal band of critics whose momentum seemed stronger based upon their claims that what I was subjecting myself to would ultimately be suicide.

Then there was the period of silence. No one really spoke to me during this period. Uncomprehending glares from complete strangers seemed to dominate my daily life. My friends and family spoke very little to me, and for awhile I retreated into my old solitary ways, writing and thinking each day and trying to prepare myself, mentally, for the experimentation. Throughout it all — the whole six-month long trial and the preceding three year struggle to get my ideas “out there” — I was so busy being brave that I never approached my own anxiety until it completely crashed upon me the moment before the operation.

I sat there, thinking, “Can I really do this? What will happen to my mind, and to my existence as I know it? What if they can’t bring me back? Where exactly will I be trapped, indefinitely…forever?”

For over a decade, there was a political stronghold of ethical concerns that withheld a great set of scientific and technological exploration and experimentation. So much was going on in the scientific community that the public could not access. Once some of the results of new “ground-breaking” experimentation were announced to the public, the public seemed to quickly disregard the results as interesting, yet outlandish ideas because the technologies mentioned did not yet exist in their world. There was too much ethical quandary about “advanced minds” and enhanced humanity, and therefore…the majority of the twenty-first century’s greatest scientific achievements were kept under wraps. I feared that suddenly the government would loosen its grip on deciding the ethical perimeters for every individual, and that because this decision would be so late in the process of underground scientific experimentation, there would be an explosion of new technologies for an entirely unprepared society. This would lead to the singularity, a theoretical point in time in which technological evolution out-paces humans’ ability to adapt the new technological environment.

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