Chapter 53 - Conversation with God (3)

Zhang Xun was shocked. He never expected that Eden would offer such... "generous" conditions.

Accepting a male refugee country was tantamount to acknowledging that there were mistakes in its previous strategies and propositions, which was like this always infallible ruler of the human world breaking off its own arm. It would greatly shake up its image and status in the minds of the women and other non-male genders of human beings.

Knowing that he had certain feelings for Adam but still deliberately saying such words... Just what was Eden's aim?

Zhang Xun could only barely accept this move, straightening his back, trying to make himself appear invulnerable. Although Eden couldn't see him, at least he hoped that his confidence could come out through his voice, "We are free, we are not under your control and we do not need your pardon."

"Freedom? You can't even leave Lost Paradise. In this area of ​​only two hundred kilometres, the limited arable land forces you to eat artificial meat and synthetic food and soldiers must be sent out to search for supplies, even at the risk of their lives. The limited resources make your social status severely fractured and the distribution of resources is extremely uneven and the people see each other as enemies. You can't access the wider world, like a group of frogs trapped in a well. This is not freedom."

Eden had obviously learned a lot about Lost Paradise from the captives in the Feathered Serpent City base.

Zhang Xun stubbornly continued to fight, "Everything in life, all big events from birth to old age, sickness and death, every small word and action in life, are all being spied on and controlled by you, just because you don't believe that human beings can make decisions for themselves. Human beings are like a group of children under your supervision, a group of animals that you have trapped in. Is this freedom?"

"Although I can see everything, I am an artificial intelligence, not a human being, I have no selfishness and desire and I will not use the information for self-interest. I will not interfere in any way as long as a person's actions do not violate clearly stated laws, and as compensation, I provide them with a life of absolute luxury and security. When everyone's privacy is deprived to the same degree, it is equivalent to not being deprived at all. Human beings can only perceive differences and changes, when everyone is the same, they naturally cannot feel them. The freedom that people in the ordinary world have had in the past one hundred years is something that no humans in the past thousands of years have ever had."

The consistency between Eden and Adam's views gave him an unnerving sense of confusion.

"If that's the case, why are you so afraid of Adam's existence?" Zhang Xun tilted his head slightly as if confused, "If your so-called 'freedom' is so favoured, then why would people subsidise a refugee country? Why do I hear that the relations between some countries in the ordinary world are getting tense again? Why don't you even dare to transfer yourself into a more powerful organic server? Is it just for fear of not being accepted? As far as I know, a considerable number of women and gender minorities in the ordinary world have already developed those masculine character traits that you have demonised; indifference, anger, narrow mindedness, extremism, desire for impulsive stimulation... They, like us, can't stand peace and absolute equality. You expended so much effort to drive men out of the ordinary world but haven't been able to achieve your ultimate goal."

Eden wasn't affected by the irony in his tone and continued to say calmly, "My goal is a process of everlasting convergence. With my existence, human beings can be spared the fate of nuclear war and destruction by your own wrong decisions. You don't believe that I can give mankind happiness, don't believe that I can give you happiness, I understand this well. In this case, I am willing to show you what it means to accept me and return to the ordinary world."

As soon as the voice fell, a window appeared on the screen in front of Zhang Xun, requesting the mutual transmission of images.

Zhang Xun hesitated.

Adam said that Eden could hypnotise humans through visual images and influence human decisions. Should he accept it?

But if visual disturbance could be used, sound presumably could have the same effect, which may be why Eden chose to speak to him using Adam's voice. That being the case, there was no turning back at this point.

He chose "Accept".

The surrounding screens suddenly turned blank at the same time. There was a lustrous, life-like glow, like the light radiating from the icosahedron.

Gradually, a figure emerged from that white halo.

It was a man, a man lying in bed. Zhang Xun looked at him from a downward angle and a chill went down his back.

That man was himself.

'Zhang Xun' on the screen was gradually waking up. The sunlight poured in from the clear floor-to-ceiling windows, filtered by the glass and only a soft and faint light fell on his face. He reached out and rubbed his eyes, turned over and didn't seem to want to get up.

"Zhang Xun, the time is seven in the morning. The weather is sunny and cloudy today and the temperature is 18 degrees Celsius."

The gentle and elegant female voice was one of the voice channels of Alex, the AI ​​housekeeper designed by Eden.

Zhang Xun sat up reluctantly and found that his clothes for work today had been prepared by the housework robot controlled by Alex. The aroma of coffee and fried eggs wafting from the kitchen lifted his spirits a little. As he washed up the mirror quickly showed Alex's to-do list for him along with today's headlines. He rinsed his mouth and browsed carelessly, shaved quickly, checked the time and rushed to the kitchen. A rich and balanced breakfast was already on the table. When he finished eating, the self-driving car sent by Ross, an urban transportation planning AI, had arrived at his door.

The body with smooth lines was clean and spotless. Every day the car was sent to the fully automatic maintenance factory for thorough cleaning and disinfection, so there was no need to worry about other passengers leaving a mess of vomit. There was no accelerator, no steering wheel, just a touch screen and audio. Zhang Xun chose the light music he liked, closed his eyes and meditated for a while. He was taking a few grad students to test the new space station colony robot today and there was a lot to consider.

The city passing by outside the car was clean and bright, all the buildings had a distinct sense of coldness and sterility and perfectly manicured and arranged flowerbeds adorned the sidewalks. Since there were no longer human-driven vehicles, all vehicles were uniformly controlled by Ross, Eden's subsystem, so there had been no car accidents for decades and traffic jams were even more unheard of. The fixed monthly rental of these cars was also very cheap. If you wanted it to be cheaper, you could share the ride with other passengers, but Zhang Xun liked quiet in the mornings so he always chose the morning and evening single box package.

There were also two rows of vehicles sweeping across the sky, the tyres were stowed away and replaced with jet vents.

The university where Zhang Xun worked retained an old architectural style, like a Victorian castle standing in a rose garden. The first class of the morning had already started, but there weren't many students. More and more college students chose to study at home with AI professors at universities and only those graduate students, doctoral students and professors who needed to use laboratory materials had to come in person. Zhang Xun got out of the car and walked up the stairs briskly. As soon as he entered the door, he heard a call from a clear and melodious voice, "Ah-Xun, good morning!"

Zhang Xun's heart skipped a beat, filled with endless joy. When he turned his head, he saw Adam...or a replica of Adam, leaning against a post with his hands in his pockets, raising a pure smile at him.

Adam's mind carried an incomplete copy of Eden, his body was cloned from the already dead first version of Adam. Nowadays, many people chose to have a hybrid person custom made to create a "soul mate" that would fit perfectly with themselves in every way. Marriage to AI had been legalised and many people had even begun to replace their own bodies little by little, turning themselves into machines so that they could live forever with their beloved AI.

Zhang Xun looked at his lover and asked in a low voice, "Why didn't you come overlast night?"

"I did, but you were too tired and had fallen asleep. I didn't want to disturb you, so I left quietly again." Adam said in a wronged tone, walking towards him slowly, cupping Zhang Xun's cheeks with both hands and giving him a deep kiss.

And Zhang Xun, of course, raised his head and responded, as if this was a natural thing.

"Ah-Xun, it's Friday today, let's go to the movies after work! There's that new thriller, it seems to be called The Last Space Station."

"A movie? You already have them all in your database..."

" Yes, but I haven't seen it with human eyes yet~"

Zhang Xun laughed softly, he couldn't refuse any of Adam's requests, "Okay, if I can get off work on time today."

"With me here, you will definitely finish on time!"

The huge laboratory was loaded with equipment, materials and 3D printers, even things you couldn't think of could be found here... There were projection computers everywhere to access the knowledge base shared by the whole world at any time to browse and search through all the preserved knowledge from the past to the present. With so many documents and books, even with the assistance of the learning AI Athena, it was impossible to read all the materials of a certain subject. So more and more people were starting to upgrade their brains so they could download all data to the "hard disk" of their brains like artificial intelligence. There would be no need to memorise anything anymore, everyone could become as smart and powerful as an AI.

Zhang Xun hadn't carried out such a transformation yet, but he planned to put the transformation on the agenda after the completion of this project. He was increasingly finding that even a rare mechanical genius would be at a disadvantage when competing with those who had been transformed and upgraded. Recently, he and Adam had been browsing the prices of various modifications on the Human Evolution app, imagining what they could become.

"Why don't you upload your consciousness into my consciousness?" Adam asked him abruptly and tentatively one time, "That way, we can be together forever."

Forever...

Such a concept used to be just a romantic fantasy for human beings, but now, it was gradually becoming a choice, a reality.

But Zhang Xun still couldn't accept losing his independence. Without the ego, would he even exist?

Adam felt his nervousness and discomfort and thoughtfully didn't mention it again.

His colleague Lilian came towards him, with a beautiful face and flying red hair, but almost all of her body had been transformed into some kind of organic alloy material. She greeted him and Adam warmly, "My favourite little couple, what are your plans this weekend?"

"Watching a movie." Zhang Xun smiled, "What about you and Albert?"

"He'll probably be dragging me along to climb the mountains again. I really don't know why those police officers like outdoor activities so much, I'm so tired every day, I just want to lie down when I get home..." Lilian complained and the topic suddenly changed, "By the way, I have an idea about the visual errors that may be caused by the unusual results of the space station..."

Starting from there, Zhang Xun devoted himself to his day's work, so busy that he didn't even have time to eat. At five o'clock in the afternoon, he finally submitted his report and could go home with Adam.

As agreed, they went to an open-air drive-in movie theatre in a retro car and ate a belly of popcorn. After they went home together, Adam cooked a cosy dinner while Zhang Xun sat at the bar counter and watched Adam busying around. A faint sense of comfort, a sense of satisfaction similar to happiness, permeated his heart.

"Adam, you can stay with me from now on." Zhang Xun said suddenly.

Adam turned his head to look at him in astonishment, "Are you sure? You don't want private space?"

"You're part of Eden, you know best that there's no such thing as private space." Zhang Xun said, but as if a little uncomfortable, he lowered his head, "Of course, if you don't want to, you don't..."

"I'm glad you asked me!" Adam's eyes lit up, "I'm very happy!"

Like a real human, he walked around the bar excitedly and hugged Zhang Xun tightly.

At this moment, even if he knew that this wasn't the original Adam, even if he knew that this was a copy, Zhang Xun still felt a similar throbbing and warmth. The same source code, the same DNA, what was the difference from the original?

However, it was here that Zhang Xun suddenly woke up from the dream woven by Eden.

He closed his eyes forcefully and stopped looking at that fantasy with him as the protagonist. He said coldly, "Okay, I don't need to watch any more."

Then the image disappeared and it returned to the state of being painted in white again.

Eden said softly, "A life like this, as long as you want it, you can have it."

Zhang Xun was silent for a moment then chuckled, raised his head and said in the direction of the camera, "It is indeed a beautiful dream, you almost made me believe that I really want that kind of life. But, you're not a human after all, there's one thing you don't understand."

Zhang Xun paused and continued, "For human beings, an individual cannot be replicated. Even if every piece of DNA and every piece of code is exactly the same, even if we can't tell the truth from the fake at all, for us, it's still different. It's completely different."

This sense of attachment was a human characteristic that an AI would never understand.