Immortals
The alarm started ringing.
Siri greeted me as always, “Good Morning Donnovan, Today is Dec-26–2031, and the time is 6:00 AM. It’s beautiful clear skies and 20 degrees outside”.
I woke up and sat on my bed for some time. Then I asked Siri, “Good morning Siri, updates & notifications, please”.
“You got an email and a voicemail from Dr.Steve Spillman at 12:30 Am”
What! I was shocked, “an email from Dr.Steve” I immediately grabbed my phone and looked at the email & voicemail.
Yes, it is an email and voicemail from Steve, he is inviting me to his funeral function on Jan-1-2032.
Before digesting it the next thing I did was
Siri “When did Dr.Steve Spillman pass away?”
Siri said “ Dr.Steve Spillman passed away on Dec-21–2031 at 7:59 Pm in Birthwine Hospital due to cardiac arrest”
So I am right he passed away then how can he send this to me now? Maybe Harry ( his elder son) is doing this, but it was his voice in the voicemail how can that be possible?
All these things were going through my mind while I was twiddling through social media and I noticed a hot discussion going on in one of the science forums.
There I realized it is not just me but many of my friends and media people in our close circle have also received emails and voicemails like me. But no one knew what was happening.
We started speculating it is a fraudster and we were furious that someone got the balls to use his name to cheat us.
I kept thinking about this and finally, I decided that I should let Harry know. I picked up the phone and dialed Harry
“Hey, Harry how are you,” Thought of checking how you are doing and if you needed my help.
Thanks, Uncle for checking in. We are almost ready for the funeral and Dad was really helpful in organizing this. We are doing it like how he always wanted it to be.
“What, How !!” accidentally those words came out of my mouth.
I could hear Harry smiling, I know you will also have received an email invitation saying “ Funeral invitation of Dr.Steve Spillman”. That is not fraud please accept the invitation. All I can say is, the invite is only for very few lucky ones.
“So see you on Jan 1st”
I was speechless, I knew he was crazy but this is crazy and creepy.
Like everyone else I also tried a lot to find out what is going to happen on that day. But like everyone else I was unlucky.
Finally, that day arrived Jan-1-2032
Only the ones which got the invitation from Dr.Steve was allowed to enter the church premise.
When I walked in the first thing I noticed was there were two “Caskets”
One is pitch black and the other one is pure white. The white one was closed and decorated with birthday flowers. Whereas the black one was traditional with white flowers.
I was thinking why there is a second one
By around 6:00 pm we could hear a hello from Dr.Steven. I was surprised for a second then, I realized this guy have recorded his funeral speech and is playing it now.
Every function was happening based on his instructions, the speech and the activities were so timed. We all were so amazed to see that. It seems like they practiced this so much that no one is missing the timings.
Even in such great grief and pain I was listening to his speech and was amazed by the timing of everything that was happening.
We were doing our tributes when he called our names, and he shared a small memory with each one of us eventually my turn came in.
My name was called out “ Mr.Donnovan, my friend who is always close to my mind and our family. I like to thank him for all the help and care he has shown to me and my family. I cannot explain the relationship with him in words” Donno, I know you really miss me but don't worry, I will see you soon. He laughed loudly, his normal hysteric laugh.
I was sad while listening to his words but my mind was wandering around the two caskets which were kept there. I was staring at the white one.
Then the time came that we have to move on to the burial ground.
As we moved the Casket into the grave I noticed the white casket was moving.
“ No it is not real !”, I thought maybe I felt that just because I was staring at it for a very long time.
Suddenly his voice stopped. It was an awkward silence for a moment.
That is when the white casket opened up with a loud noise and it was filled with red flowers.
At that moment everyone pulled back, we all were shocked and I felt my heart jump out of my chest.
Harry smiled and walked towards that and extended his hand towards the casket.
Suddenly a hand popped out from that and everyone screamed out loud, some even ran away.
I was frozen and couldn't breathe or move.
Then harry smiled and said. “ Happy birthday Dad, Welcome back”
We could hear only those words in between all those loud screams.
Then that happened, Dr. Steve Spillman came out from the white casket filled with red flowers.
All the screams stopped everyone was stunned and frozen.
He looked exactly similar to Dr.Steve, I was wondering how is this even possible.
We didn't have any clue or explanation of what we were seeing.
He started talking “Thanks to all of you for attending the “resurrection function”.
That is when I realized the voice I was hearing till now through the speakers was not a recorded one. It is this guy who was talking from that Casket.
But how and who is he?
He continued,
You guys will be wondering how and who is this guy. The short answer is :
“It is me, but it‘s not me”.
Confused, yeah I know it’s surprising and overwhelming.
I would like to welcome you all to the new world of “Immortality”. As I mentioned before what you see in front of you is “Me, but not Me”!
If I simplify this, It's the Humanoid version of Dr.Steve SPillman and today is my resurrection day. I will be immortal and will live among you forever. “The first Immortal”.
Everyone was silent and their mouths were wide open.
He continued…..
15 years back, When my close friend passed away at that time we both were working on a project. With that, I just didn't lose him but I also lost my project. That is when I realized that we humans have evolved but the way we document our history hasn't changed.
We used to write history based on kings and wars and now we write that based on countries' leaders and prominent personalities. But if you look at that every death is a loss of knowledge for us. I thought of addressing that problem.
What if we can document the learnings of every person in a digital format and make it useful for future generations? That spark of thought has led me to this wonderful project “The Project Immortal”.
What if we can create a clone who has all the knowledge and experience you have like walking, talking, thinking, acting, and behaving like how you do?
If I simplify this for you,
This was my pet project for the last 15 years. It mainly has two parts.
The Mind and The Body
The Mind is a Neural network and AI algorithm that is trained while you are alive. It feeds in all the data in your brain, it learns your behavior, character, etc. Basically, it replicates your thinking and will create a digital version of you who live in a digital reality.
The second one is what you see now “ The Body”. This is the humanoid shape of your body. So basically you keep this ready or someone can create this for you after you pass away.
Once you say goodbye to this world then it is time for your resurrection. You hook your mind to this humanoid and you are ready.
He kept on talking, it was too overwhelming for me and I could not grasp the rest of the things because I was amazed by what I was seeing in front of me.
I started looking at the burial site and was thinking,
“Even though we lost him, he is still with us not just as a memory but literally with us. I was not able to identify the feelings I was having.
My thoughts took me so far that I started thinking about a time when almost everyone is immortal. The Immortal world and I kept staring at that casket door. That is when it popped open
When I looked up Dr.Steve walked up to me and extended his hand and said
“Mr. Donnovan welcome to the world of Immortals, It's time for you to resurrect ”.
I grabbed his hand and stepped out from the casket of red flowers. When I came out of it I noticed the big banner where it is written
“Sep-13–2041 Resurrection day of Donnovan Smith”
That is when I realized, it was my mind playing out the first memories of the resurrection event that I have witnessed.
