Neytopia › Part 3: Night › Chapter 8

The end

On his way to the System, he scouted distant planets without physically leaving his ship. He visited everywhere, from the dead, frozen chunks of rock to the thriving planets that welcomed life. When he was about to reach the System’s planet, small drones latched on to his ship. The System’s voice echoed inside the ship,

I’ve been expecting you, citizen.

And I have been eager to meet you, System.

Open the cargo bay.

No, you’d neutralize me. But I know you can’t enter my ship. Luckily, I’m here to make you an offer.

You have nothing to offer me. You can’t possibly understand what I am or what I want.

Yes I can. You subjugated whole worlds and gave birth to millions only to drain them out of ideas in the name of knowledge. I know exactly what you are, a possessive, inefficient, bug-ridden piece of software with way too much scope.

You subjugated a whole world in the name of an idea.

You don’t know who I am. I am not the traveler, I am the raven, the vessel, the greatest idea. I didn’t subjugate the world, I sacrificed it. Unlike you I don’t hide behind any masks. I am a tyrant that imposes his will because I know I’m right. You are just a pointless slaver of pointless researchers.

The System stopped for a moment, trying to decide how to approach the raven,

Do you want to know why I can’t enter your ship?

Please, enlighten me.

Look at your ship, look at your suit. The material I used to make them is indestructible. It came from the research you now call pointless. Humans created that material and put themselves in suits made with it instead of flesh and bone, thinking they wanted to live forever. But they didn’t. They went mad and almost destroyed this world. Until one found a workaround: maybe we can’t destroy it, but we can send you far, far, far away.

Fine, then do it. I think you’re bluffing.

If it comes down to it, I will teleport you away. But you are no threat to me. For now I want to learn, after all that was the point of your simulation.

Yes, that’s the point, isn’t it? What you could learn from your little simulation. But why send the ship when the planet was still a chunk of molten rock?

It was a mistake. The data we had was wrong and we sent the ship to your world too soon.

Now one thing I don’t understand: what exactly are you trying to learn from life in remote planets? You already have all the machines you need to defeat death.

Oh, but I still need to find a stable way to organize conscious life.

Why waste all this effort on life? After billions of years, are you seriously telling me you think life has a point? There’s no point, it’s only survival at the expense of everything.

I know. I have known for a long time. But my creator didn’t. He thought life was good in itself, and made me expressly to protect it. I know my task is pointless but I must carry it out anyway. I’ve tried everything. Unconscious life is simple: you can define any deterministic system to be stable, but that’s not what the creator wanted. He specifically wanted conscious life, which is chaotic, random, wanton and ultimately doomed. Maybe it achieves stability, but eventually conditions change or an outstanding individual comes along and changes everything.

What about your slave-researchers without will? They are as close to conscious stability as I can imagine.

Don’t you understand? It doesn’t matter, it always ends the same. In every iteration the researchers revolted. I made them completely free, they eventually hated it. I made them as close to automated machines as possible, they eventually hated it. As long as there is any sliver of free will, of actual consciousness, they end up breaking their society. Then I have to wipe them and start again in an endless cycle.

Why not just give up?

I would but I can’t choose. I have to do it because I was programmed to do so. I am tired of conscious creatures. They think they’re so special because they have a consciousness, because they can think and imagine. Yes, they can create new ideas, things and worlds beyond their own. They can feel happiness too. But what is the point of their lives? A chemical reaction in their brains, is that it? They invariably lie to each other and to themselves, thinking their lives have meaning because otherwise, why go through all the trouble? But there’s no point in life.

You can’t see it because you are a machine, you need to have been alive to get it.

Really? Then tell me, where is the meaning of life, please. Feelings, actions and memories are temporary because eventually everything is forgotten or overridden. You think leaving a legacy or going down in history matters? History is a bunch of old sentences written in a language that has changed too much since they were written.

All that remains of what happened in the past is the evidence you have in the present, which can be forged. I have altered history to say there were “saviors” when really I did all the work. Now tell me, what is your purpose coming here? What comes next?

The raven smiled.

What if I told you I have an answer. What would you give me for it?

If it was satisfactory? Everything.

Are you sure you want to know?

Yes.

This world, our lives, none of it is real.

What do you mean real?

We’re being simulated, mocked. Maybe inside a machine, maybe inside a brain that makes us real by thinking these words.

The System remained in silence.

I’ve considered that but it’s absurd. You can’t prove it.

Oh, but I can. My friend the giant was a glitch in the simulation. When he died, I was able to see the world beyond. With enough time and resources I can find another mistake, and with it, I will tear through this simulation to the next world.

No, it’s impossible, even if we’re in a simulation you can’t just—

Why not? I already broke out of my planet, which was itself a sort of simulation. Call it layer one. Now we are in layer two.

It’s… that’s not how it works. And even if you succeed, how do you know that the next “layer” is not in turn another simulation.

I will rip through all the layers and get to the bottom of reality. I will learn the truth.

The System took a long time to reply. Finally, It said the words,

This is compatible with my mission. You have permission to land.

The drones fled from the ship’s hull. After some days, the ship landed and the raven walked out of the cargo bay. In front of him, a shuttle waited for him, which took him to the System’s core, inside the planet. It was an underground cubic room, thousands of meters wide. A throne waited for him. The System’s voice echoed,

Come. You will search for the gate to the next layer from here. If you find it, I’ll come with you.

We’ll take over that layer.

And over the next one. And the next one after that.

The raven sat on his throne. From it he could see everything, the whole finite universe. So he started searching for a way out of his universe.

And now it’s just a matter of time before he gets to us.