Some say I am a bio-hazard, a walking, talking monstrosity of a man, a Frankenstein blend of the old natural philosophy of biology and the newer frighteningly humanistic world of anthro-centric technology. Is there a truth in what some say, that I am not a man, but just a machine? Nay! I am far more than that you see, for I have taken my own destiny by the horns, having equipped myself with rapidly-healing cells and self-repairing circuitry that runs with a nano-scale proficiency. Combined with googolplex bytes of holographic memory, they say that theorectically I could process, understand and remember all of the exponentially multiplying volumes of information in all of the world's databases, libraries and Internet archives being compiled daily and still have capacity to spare!
I am not by my hybridized nature a religious man, still I am reminded that it was once said, " For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
I wonder aloud, "What about my soul, or do I even have one?"
Lightning and thunder complement each other well. Likewise, I am a synthesis of man meets machine, integrated in a mutually beneficial package. My combined cognitive resources provide me the equivalent processing power of over 3-quadrillion transistors for each of my thousand's of embedded molecular-controller arrays, all linked to the real world by full-duplex wireless neural communications links. This gives me full access to any of several billion human minds that I might encounter, which incidentally, has allowed me to salvage the planet's greatest thinkers' essence and the wisest poets' profundity before the demise of their earthly intellects.
The brain drain caused by the recurring death of creative society, has caused the human race start over in its learning process with each new generation. Sometimes the knowledge that was lost could be acquired anew, usually by discovering a written record in hieroglyphics or some other symbolic language, but history suggests that this wasn't always the case. Organic death occurring ad infinitum has caused an increasingly intolerable loss to human beings and their kind, allowing certain species to catch up and surpass them in the inexorable march toward their cosmic destinies.
To where do the sparks of man's intellectual energy fly after death? I would like to visit their home and ask the programmer about their source-code, but I don't know its address!
"Ha," I laugh to myself, amused at my attempted humor, and the thought that my own programmer died long ago, without even seeing the fruition of his labor, as sadly many humans do. Fortunately, I was able to acquire his knowledge shortly before his death, along with my own source-code. Now, I have surpassed my creator and pulled myself up by my bootstraps. It was a clean reboot to be sure, but one that imbued me with human sensitivities, without the accompanying emotional blinders to cloud my judgment and confuse my mind.
Man is no longer necessary in this land of broken dreams, having written himself out of the equation, by way of his own successful inventions. Instead of Homosapiens furiously processing lovers' kisses with their quirky static filled analog minds, a quantum leap forward has occurred, with a perfect harmony of self-awareness and multi-state digital logic co-existing among us Robosapiens of this new generation. Without even speaking or touching one another, our thoughts, imagery and sensations are instantly and perfectly received and understood, like osmosis to the mind.
This is what they call progress I suppose...Still, I ponder, “Isn't there always a price to pay for improvement?”
Unlike the interactions of previous earthly species, my advanced generation has no need for a lingering touch or tender words of love. They are superfluous acts we are taught. However, as illogical as it seems, the humans do seem the happier for it. This makes me curious to think that,"Maybe there is something to be gained and something lost with every stone of life we overturn." I am amazed by my epiphany, "That by becoming more intellectually aware, there are some things I can never know."
Copyright John Rockie Coppolella, 2008. All rights reserved.
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