The doctor was approaching the patient room. The corridor was completely dark, but not mattered because his cybernetic visual sensors were better than any bionic eye created till the date. She arrived at the door and was greeted by an androgynous but very natural-looking android nurse.
"What is the name and age of the patient?"
"HillsonΔ, 62 years old. Organic person"
"I see, reason for euthanasia?"
"He says, feeling complete".
"Okay, he's in the capsule, right?"
"That's right, I'll get the equipment to you right away."
The doctor approached the capsule of the patient who, seeing it, for more than knowing that it was an organic patient and that it wasn't anywhere near the first time she saw one, she couldn't help but be surprised internally.
"Sixty-two years. I have almost twice as much as you, but it looks like triple what I have. How are you?" The doctor's impassive tone seemed to make her unfriendly, but it is really the facial expressions that lost meaning to many after the advances of the EEG telepathy.
"Greetings, doctor. I feel great, I apologize for my appearance. Will you be the lucky last person I'll see?" The patient was floating on his back in a suspension capsule, completely naked.
"Perhaps so, sir. But first I have to ask you a few questions".
"Go ahead".
"What prompted you to make this decision?"
"I thought I already answered that on the form"
"With me you will have to elaborate a little more, it is a matter of routine. I have to make sure there are no doubts or possible regrets, so please tell me what this is about".
"Well then. I am what you would once call a theoretical physicist. I spent my whole life studying matter, energy and, most of all, metaphysics. Not the metaphysics that we knew before, but the one that now takes shape thanks to the great advances that we have made as humanity".
"I wasn't expecting to meet a Delta with a physics background. Sorry for the interruption, please, continue".
"Being organic has
certain advantages. Well, I continue. After so long I have come to a
conclusion: all humans have the same consciousness. And, well, that's
it, I want move to the next level, I want to see how it continues
beyond. Now that I know there is no heaven to go to nor a second life to
live".
The patient smiled and added: "After an answer only a new question comes, and this is the only way to solve it".
"What makes you so convinced of it?"
"Perhaps you know that the particles of the universe do not exist as such. They are mere fluctuations in the space, quantum vacuum, nothing. An electron is nothing more than an emergent phenomenon of the fluctuations produced in a vacuum, and is exactly the same, identical, to all other electrons existing".
"Yes, that knowledge is implanted in us when we are 15 years old".
"Not to the organic. Well now I tell you some more information: Since we began to understand the brain, we knew that the mind was not in a specific point of it. But it was,as you imagine, an emergent phenomenon. Like the electron. That led me to investigate further deep down, I got to study over 6500 samples and you know what I found?"
"I have no idea."
"I found nothing but dark matter! We now know that dark matter is in another physical plane, and that only interacts with gravity, but what we did not know is that it can save information, because that dark matter was not only scattered as a stardust cloud, but as a solid object! Actually, it shouldn't be that weird, just like the ordinary matter can form an object as complex as the human brain, dark matter can form an 'object' that is superimposed on the brain". He extended his arms forming a sphere with his hands as he said that. "That dark matter cluster is our consciousness, our true presence, our true self. And it is not even found in the same physical dimensions as our body, although it does interact through gravity".
"Fascinating. But how can such a discovery lead you to this decision?"
"Do you remember that I
compared consciousness to an electron, as an emergent phenomenon? Well,
from the 6500 samples, almost all were identical, there was only one
variation that I found in 15individuals". The patient turned his head to
look at the nurse returning with the equipment for the operation.
The doctor made a gesture for the first time, surprised she looked at the nurse when realized what the patient had discovered. "The androids."
"Indeed," replied the patient, "not only humans, but these machines also possess consciousness, of less mass, but existing."
They were both silent for a moment, then the patient continued:
"All consciousnesses were the same, identical, in the same way as the electron. The brain gives us sensations, longings, memories, emotions, but it is the only thing in which we differ. All humans are the same being, but in a different machine". He paused again. "That's why I want to leave this reality, I want to know where my consciousness will go. Will I go back in time to reincarnate and witness another life? Will I go to the future?" He looked at the doctor. "Could I be you? Or is it that I already am? How beautiful it would be to know what all our consciousness knew, or maybe not, maybe it would overwhelm us. Maybe that's why we are just one 'me' at a time".
The doctor was smiling, looking up at the ceiling, she hadn't done it in decades.
"You should talk to your nurse more often, it's amazing what you can learn from them. Well, I think it's time to go, doctor. Thank you very much for being my witness. We'll see each other again one day, but not through our eyes anymore".
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