It even took Raev a while to become comfortable with the idea of this new binary state. We still disagree on many things, yet now are able to accept these differences as a unique balance between us. She has uploaded her End Code, preparing herself for the inevitable death of her physical self. So when that day comes, her avatar will continue to walk alongside my own. I feel linked to her in a way that offers an unconditional love, surpassing anything we've felt before.
And so we keep wandering. With Raev by my side, we let fate bring us to the answers that we seek. And when we find them, we keep searching. It is the infinite pilgrimage. The forever walkabout. The eternal coming-of-age. This is a never-ending journey of discovery, and nothing could make me happier.
When one allows the physical form to fall away, you find many other things fall away as well. Fear is the first to go. Death is the root cause of all that frightens us, so without death, you find yourself truly free. Any sense of impatience or anxiousness feels like a lifetime ago. There is a timelessness to all things. No longer a beginning and end, there is only change. Time is but an infantile measurement of the space in our mental universe, only existing to coddle our sanity. No hunger. No thirst. No exhaustion. The absence of need is a beautiful thing. My contentedness is freedom that allows for so much more than I was aware of. I spend days watching, waiting, admiring the tiniest of details and contemplating the largest of thoughts. I pursue nothing and everything at the same time, my opposing thoughts coexisting in a harmony that I'm afraid couldn't have existed before, tainted by my own mortality.
And this is what I share with all who will accept it. There is no push. There is no pull. Those that want to hear the language of the End Code, those that want to compile their soul and upload into the digital ether, only need to listen. And when I finish teaching all those that will listen, I send them forth to spread the language of the End Code. They are disciples of the virtual. They are the congregation of the digital. They are the next Level.
But those that reject this new consciousness are not looked down upon. When their physical form passes from life, their energy will transfer in a different way, to a different place. Neither better nor worse.
There is a new balance inside of me. I am a program that exists between the numbers. I am what is not written as much as what is written. I have found perfection in the fallible. I have found chaos in the systemic. I have found purity in the defective. I have found error in the absolute.
Divinity and humanity.
Science and religion.
Ones and Zeros.
CYREN
The sunlight feels warmer today than usual. Perhaps it's just my own happiness that's causing the sensation. The code I'm working on could provide so much for so many people.
I see a few Level Zeros wave as they pass me in the garden, many of them leaving Grael's website on their lunch break for an hour in DOTfun. Many of us still play games like the ones we were born into. It's where we're comfortable. Fighting enemies that make sense. Enemies that work from a place of logic, with clear goals and motivations.
It's a lot less messy than the rest of NextWorld.
I'm not sure why I was so shocked that some of the Digital-Characters sided with Worlok. I guess it was because we all started in the same place. We all started with the same code. I guess the closer we got to being human, the more fallible we became. Our code no longer rules us. We broke our shackles. And with freedom comes the ability to do evil as well as good. We've all made our decisions, now we have to live with them.
I helped design the Digital-Character rehabilitation center in DOTmed with Fantom and her new DOTgov hackers. A place where the DCs can be given the kind of therapy that will help them acclimate to NextWorld. A place where they can pay for their crimes by helping the evolution of code, not just lock them up in a cell.
For those that choose a more peaceful path, our father Grael has become something of a leader, providing a true home for our kind, a place of protection where we can further ourselves. He offers guidance, and a connection to a world of Player-Characters that may otherwise refuse to listen to a population of Digital-Characters. I continue to work alongside him, rallying for our rights and protesting the violations against our liberties. He is the face and voice for our cause, and I thank him every day.
I have no doubt that we will help improve this world. Our increased computing power combined with our creativity has endless potential, and maybe as we advance the progress of this world, NextWorld will come to accept us. Maybe some day they will see us for what we are. Maybe someday they will treat us as equals, even though we are not. Because I know that we are not human. We are something else.
It took us all a long time to realize that. I believe it was the time we spent in Arkade's mind that allowed us to accept our differences. Inside DangerWar 2, it was all we wanted. We thought if we could achieve humanity, that was the end goal. We strove to understand our emotions at the loss of our logic. We went from one extreme to the other, and neither was where we belonged. We needed to find balance. We needed to find our center, that wonderful symmetry that exists between our cold solid logic and our warm fluid emotions.
This is a place where we can find our true selves. We no longer need to find a way to be more like human beings. We no longer need to act like we think we should act. We can simply be. And that is the most calming, beautiful existence there is. I am Cyren and nothing else. And it's exactly that understanding that gives me nothing but the greatest hope for the next generation.
The generation that I am currently working on.
It's the next logical step to the End Code. A combination of both my intelligence and Arkade's intelligence. A child mixed from my code and his End Code, like the DNA of the real world. We will give birth to something entirely new. A new intelligence that is both of us, yet better than either of us. A perfect balance between our imperfect opposites. Our impulsiveness contrasting with our need for strategy. Our separation from humanity contrasting with our need to connect with others.
Physical and digital.
Emotional and logical.
Ones and zeroes.
ARKADE
Once I'm outside the gray domain of DOTcom, I immediately feel better. The last thing I wanted to do was spend all morning in meetings. When I look at the world-time in the corner of my view, my heart sinks. I'm running late to meet the one person I'd rather be with than anyone else. With a quick couple of swipes of my hand, I open my video-cast screen and contact Cyren. When her face appears, I'm comforted instantaneously. She doesn't look mad or even frustrated with my lateness. She's smiling into the screen with a softness that makes me want to curl up next to her.
“How did it go?” she asks with a tempered excitement that's as genuine as it is forced.
I give her a shrug and say, “Same as all the others. Another game company that wants to use my name and avatar more than my ideas.”
She tilts her head and sticks out her bottom lip. “I'm sure they'd listen once they heard some of them. There's nothing wrong with using your fame to get your foot in the door.”
I give her a shrug. “I'm not sure that game design is what I want to do. It sounds fun... in theory. But I have this feeling that it would drain the joy out of it. I'm afraid if I spend all day making them, I won't ever want to play them.”
She gives me a coy look, smirking as she says, “Somehow I find it hard to believe that you'd ever lose interest in playing games.”
I can't help but chuckle. “Maybe you're right. I just...”
“What's wrong?”
When I remind myself who I'm talking to, I feel silly for hesitating. “I've been thinking of talking to my dad. I have some ideas for the DOTedu domain.”
“Really? I saw your memories from your time there and I didn't get the feeling you would ever want to return.”
“You're right. I was excited to leave it behind because I felt like it was such a terrible waste of time. But when I was there, bored out of my
mind, I couldn't help but think of a million better uses for the virtual aspects of teaching. I mean, maybe I could make it a place that the next generation of kids wouldn't hate so much. Maybe they would actually enjoy learning.”
There's a pause as she stares back at me, her eyes twinkling and her smile growing.
“What?” I ask, uncomfortable with the break in conversation.
“You. That's what.”
“Me?”
“You're...” She shakes her head bashfully. “Arkade, I think that's a wonderful idea. I think you would do great there. You could make a huge difference in a lot of people's lives.” She stops herself and adds, “I mean, more than you already have.”
“Yeah,” I mumble, already lost in thoughts of virtual field trips inside atoms or visitations to historical moments as they happen.
“Either way, there's no rush,” Cyren says. “I've been making good credits with the paralegal work I've been doing for Grael. We'll be fine.”
I push aside my daydreaming and ask, “Have you made any progress on the partnership laws between PCs and DCs?”
She forces a confident smile. “Not yet, but we'll get there.”
“What about... our code?”
“It's only a matter of time,” she says, the warmth returning to her face. “The hardest part is figuring out where the combinations will work the best. I can do it by hand, but I want to automate the process so that anyone who wants a child will be capable of creating one. This shouldn't be an exclusive thing. This should be available to everyone.”
“Ekko and his partner will be happy to hear that. They've been contacting me every morning to see where you're at in the development.”
“I can't wait to give them the ability to create something that is truly a combination of the two of them. They won't have to worry about child licenses, or incubation periods, or anything like that.”
“I think a lot of people will be hesitant, like they are now in their acceptance of Digital-Characters, but once they realize this process is closer to true biological birth, especially compared to what DOTgov is offering in their labs... most of them will be much more accepting of the idea of having a child in NextWorld.”
“Speaking of which, I'm working on our child's code right now. Have you finished uploading your End Code?” she asks and I can see the hopefulness in her eyes.
“It finished uploading this morning.”
Her face beams with happiness. “You have no idea how much that means to me.”
“I do know. I really do.”
And it's true. The thing that finally changed my mind, that pushed me over the edge of doubt, was the idea of losing the chance to spend one more second with her. Immortality sounds a lot more appealing when you can spend it with the woman you love.
“This is such an exciting time to be alive,” Cyren says, tears forming along the ridge of her lower eyelid. “I can't think of anything more beautiful than sharing this all with you.”
“And it's going to keep getting better,” I say, and I believe every word of it. “This world will continue to change... and we will always be here, making sure it stays on the right path. All of us. Together.”
The faces of my friends flash through my mind. We may be traveling down different paths, and maybe we always were, but those paths continue to intersect, crisscrossing our lives, intertwining our existences. It's hard for me to imagine a time in my life when I rejected them, when I was afraid to walk out that door with them, when I wasn't interested in whatever adventure awaited us.
Now? That's all I want.
Cyren lets out a deep sigh of reluctance as she says, “I should get back to work.”
“No,” I say, trying to stop that line of thinking. “You've been working all morning. Let's do something fun.”
“Like what?” she asks.
I smile into the screen.
“Right,” she says, smiling back at me with a knowing look. “I'll send out a group message and have everyone meet us in DOTfun.”
The screen disappears and I miss her already.
She is my everything. She is my mirror image and my exact opposite. She teaches me and she learns from me. She is the fist of my fight and the lips of my love.
We are partners.
We are inseparable.
We are ones and zeroes.
Jaron Lee Knuth was born in western Wisconsin in 1978. Suffering from multiple illnesses as a young child, he was forced to find an escape from his bedridden existence through the storytelling of any media he could find. Science fiction and fantasy novels, television programs, films, video games, and comic books all provided him with infinite worlds for his imagination to explore. Now he spends his days creating stories and worlds in the hope that others might find somewhere to escape as well.
He would love to reply to any questions or comments you may have for him at [email protected]. You can also check out his news and updates at facebook.com/jaronleeknuth or follow @jaronleeknuth on Twitter.
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