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– Well, you don't have to think about that now, not when you're already in the rig.
– I've been thinking about this for a long time.
– Something very close to you, for example, in relation to close friends, relatives, colleagues after all. The most reliable thing is to suggest something to the artificial intelligence as a program setting. It is to lead it morally and psychologically to certain conclusions. It is directly connected with your consciousness. Then you will definitely notice changes in its logic. It will definitely show up here. Do I have to teach you?
– Quantum particles? – Ruthra said thoughtfully.
– Quantum worlds," the therapist agreed, raising her eyebrows meaningfully.
– Isn't it dangerous? – Ruthra said again, thinking about the artificial intelligence's compulsion, asking more to himself than to the medical officer. – Unlike me, he'd be both here and there at the same time… just like those particles.
– All right, then. Don't indoctrinate him with religious postulates, that's all. Otherwise he will suddenly think he is an omnipotent, omniscient deity," the doctor said, smiling jokingly, as if to warn him.
– Your way of speaking… here we go again… I actually wanted to talk about your frequently used "well", it's passed on to me, it's become a habit. No offense, but I don't see anything wrong with it. By the way, it was passed on to Rangit from me… or he did. His system… and all artificial intelligence systems are based on the method of comparative analysis, adaptation and copying in the process of contact. And this one has not only in the process of mental-verbal contact, but also moral-psychological, as well as through the sensations of the body, to whose consciousness it can connect, at the physiological level. They smiled, – they smiled, – here we go again, – now the assistants were laughing too.
– And time, time," the voice of Dr. Maymun's collaborator and colleague on the project, to which he had deliberately given a tone of causticity, sounded unexpectedly in tune with the joking notes.
He was a programmable systems engineer and the youngest professor at the center. Rutra called him "the luminary of science" in a friendly way, and was used to his mannerisms, joking on and off.
– Well, let's get on our way," Ruthra agreed without emotion.
The installation has been prepared. The location of sending the consciousness was determined. It was a mysterious region in the vicinity of a massive black hole, in the area of which, according to experts, there were many inhabited worlds like ours. This region of the metagalaxy was located in the constellation of the Hound Dogs, at a distance of 10.37 billion light-years from the Sun. The mass of the giant, pulling down the entire gravitational canvas of this region of the universe – 66 billion solar masses. Expedition into the power regions of such a giant was frankly alarming, although the body was in a certain safety. Not only that, next to such a giant, with monstrous gravity, there was also another monster – superbright radio-loud quasar TON 618. Not even next to it, but as if from the outside, enveloped it – a rattling mixture, 140 trillion times the solar brightness.
– Stop daydreaming," Maimun said, seeing the chief's thoughtful look, and waved to his assistants.
***
Ruthra woke up in a wasteland, either a hilly steppe or a scorched field. There was a small pond nearby, which looked like an oasis for such an area. Ruthra looked around. He shouted: "Anybody here?" Silence. He looked at his body, his clothes – he looked like a Bedouin: as far as he could tell, he was wearing shurukas, with a kufiya sagging from his head, which was tightly covered with egal. After wandering around the neighborhood, he crouched under a tree near a body of water. "What's going on? – Ruthra pondered. – My body…" He stood up abruptly, ran to the oasis, looked at his reflection, but yes, it was him, or rather, the body was his.
– What the hell!" shouted Ruthra in indignation. – Where am I? Where is everyone? Rangit!
He didn't get an answer.
It was evening, then darkness fell. Tired of calling, tired of his resentment, he settled himself under a tree and, with restlessness in his soul, began to kemar – to resist sleep, to fall asleep.
Unexpectedly, he fell asleep. He recognized it when he was approached.
– Master Ruthra, get up," said a seemingly familiar voice.
– What? Who? – He freaked out.
– It's okay. I'm an assistant in the relocation lab.
Suddenly a bright light came on, and Ruthra squeezed his eyes shut.
– Get up, your Bedouin majesty, or else you're lying here, you know," said Maimoun's voice sarcastically.
– What the fuck," Ruthra said a little louder than usual.
– Now, now, you leave that alone. The experiment went well. We'll do it again in a few days.
Ruthra stood up and looked around, several SUVs parked in the distance, with security guards and science center personnel stationed around them.
– What the hell? – Ruthra asked Maimuna calmly.
– That's the devil. What did you want? You said it yourself – it is necessary to conduct a test, or what if the "settler" perceives the reality of the other world inadequately, will do something wrong there, and they will like to blow up here with their reflection, it will be a big disaster.
– I didn't say that.
– That's about right. It goes like this.
– So it's a play?
– What, you just woke up?
– Imagine this.
– Oh, I thought you were on the beach drinking cocktails.
– When are you going to grow up, you're in your fourth decade and he's…" Rutra waved his hand and walked in the direction of one of the cars.
***
– Are you ready? – Rutra was jokingly prodded by his project mate a few days after the experiment, when he was already lying back in the rig.
– Let's see where you take me this time.
– Don't worry, we won't get steamed, we'll go somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
– The wilderness is supposed to be Palestinian, remember?
– We'll find something for you, Your Majesty. Rest in peace.
– Oh," Ruthra sighed, "God gave me such a partner.
– That's right, that's where you talk about God.
The optical unit was lowered – discharge! – and Rutra's body collapsed in the unit, and the soul, that is, the consciousness, had to find itself in the body of the same Bedouin and in the same terrain, which was already playing out in the virtual reality production. At least Rangit, as once expeditioners of new lands, as once explorers, with the help of an optical or radio telescope, of the cosmos, being their quantum analog, drew such a picture.
***
It was the same landscape all around. "Your imagination isn't very rich," Ruthra thought, suspecting another session of psychological training in virtual reality. That wasn't what dominated his thoughts, though: his mind remembered the thought that had occurred to him when the optical unit flashed – he had time to think about soul and consciousness. The thought occupied him: were soul and consciousness one and the same? As he supposed, they used to call this component of the human "I" soul, and in modern times, in a scientific way, they began to say consciousness. But suddenly in the process of moving he thought of such a curiosity: after all, the body in the installation is alive, though without consciousness, but the soul in the classical sense, as it is represented, is in it. It turned out that, again in that classical version of the soul representation, it, this very soul, dwelled in the body, otherwise the body should be inanimate, but it functions. That is, in that classical variant, which was justified by the ancients, the soul is what keeps the body alive. Then what is consciousness? Is it not what defines us as our "I"? It is. Without consciousness, who are we? Although, like these quantum particles, the soul, in fact, had to stay both in its own body and in the body of the one in whom the consciousness moved. Of course, if the experiment was successful.
His musings were interrupted by an unexpected voice from outside, even frightened him a little. It was the same Bedouin, but with more colored clothes.
– I know everything you're going to say ahead of time. Or almost everything," he said, suddenly confident.
– What?" Ruthra said in a long voice.
– Your doubts are valid. Everyone would have those doubts. Believe me, you were chosen for a reason. Just think about it, if a person appeared here who was unfamiliar with your invention – the method of moving consciousness through space – then obviously the whole mission would be thwarted. The person would either be in constant disbelief, doubt, or fear, expecting a trick. Or he or she would consider us or himself to be crazy, at least insane.
– What are you talking about? And who are you, anyway?
– Everything you see is real.
– I can see it's real. What's the big deal?
– Think about it. If you were asleep, you wouldn't find this amazing and unreal, would you?
– What do you want? I don't understand. Are you a director? Actor? What's my role?
– Think of me as a psychologist testing actors for mental compatibility. I'm still asking you to answer my question.
– Which one?
– About the state in the dream.
– So?
– What is happening would not be amazing and unreal if you understood what was happening as a dream.
– This is crazy. How in a dream would I know I'm in a dream?
– Now, let's be clear. How did you expect to see the result of your experiment?
– If it didn't work out, it didn't work out. God be with you, goldfish. What's the point of all this drama?
– Now imagine how it turned out this time.
– How am I supposed to visualize if it didn't work out in real life?
– And how did you in real life, as you put it, have to realize whether it worked or not? Do you remember the moment you fell asleep? You said yourself that you would not have been aware in the dream that you were in a dream state.
– Okay.
– So imagine it like you're sleeping right now.
– Why?
– You did it. This is the real world.
– Ha.
– Oh, come on. If you invented a machine that would immerse a person in virtual reality, why shouldn't people subjected to such a procedure believe in the reality of virtual reality immersion? You invented the technology yourself. So why would you not believe in the reality of the implementation?
– Hm," Ruthra looked around, the same, or almost the same, surroundings. – We were moving consciousness within the confines of a laboratory, a planet, a space station at most, just like the quantum entanglement experiments.
– Agree, – continued the strange stranger, without giving him long to think, – the natives of America, seeing Columbus' brigade, really perceived it as the coming of aliens, gods in their view. They had no idea about other worlds, i.e. territories of the planet, they knew only their own. So now it seems to you that your stay here is something fantastic, but this is actually one of the territories of a huge planet called the Universe.
– Why all of a sudden. You're repeating my thoughts!
– Think about it.
– First of all, I've never talked to anyone here before, except for you, and I see the same environment as I did a few times before, and…" Ruthra was distracted from his thoughts by otherworldly noises.
When he noticed the anxious, fixed gaze of his interlocutor expressing fatal horror, he turned around.
– Here are the politicians," the voice of the one who had just made an important and instructive speech sounded depressed.
"What other politicians are there?" – questioned one part of Rutra's brain. While the other was going through the many options associated with the question-how did that word apply to this situation?
Trying to tear his gaze away from the madness in the Jew's eyes – though he was dressed more like a Bedouin, the six-pointed star (magendavid) branded on his face left no doubt – Ruthra, feeling unconsciously anxious, turned around. What he saw gave him an answer, but it was from a different realm, though Ruthra was still questioning whether it was the right one. He was partially aware of the elite unit of the Selekwid army. The director's idea didn't surprise him much, but the horror in his gaze… something on the level of his instincts… spoke of its reality.
In the Seleucid state there was a mounted militia, recruited from the inhabitants of the cities and called "politics". This cavalry consisted of the wealthiest city dwellers.
"It's all very real," Ruthra pondered to himself, "but it's still a production. Or…"
A group of men were approaching the oasis, shouting and screaming, pursued by another group, mostly horsemen. Ruthra couldn't decide how to proceed: if it was a staging, there was nothing to fear, and if it wasn't… Well, hell, what the hell else was "not," he caught himself thinking: it was a staging. He stepped out to meet the approaching pursuing group, and just as they were approaching and the pursuers were catching up, the leader of the mounted men raised his saber, shouted… Ruthra didn't have time to be frightened, the stupid scene had put him in a state of both joy and indignation. A burning pain pierced his brain, and then his body. What came next was a fog. The only thing his consciousness had time to decipher was the wild cry of the horsemen; it was an expression in one of the Koine dialects[3 - Koine is a common form of Greek that emerged in the post-classical antique era.] that said "cut off their heads.
***
– Rutra Tigrovich, you probably didn't pass the experiment," said the "leader of the politicians", putting his saber in its scabbard.
Ruthra sighed with an incomprehensible state of mind and asked:
– What else?
– Nothing," replied the psychoanalyst, who had suddenly emerged from the crowd of pursuers in similar attire to his own, "you should have saved yourself. And you're standing here waiting to be slaughtered.
– This is the experiment?
– You're likely to encounter something like this.
– It's a kindergarten. So what if my body's in the rig?
– You don't say. The body is the body, and stress is stress. If stress affects the body even after years and manifests itself in a completely unexpected form, up to suicide or some actions of a maniac, why do not you take into account the impact of stress on your actions in the other world? It's very fraught. At least you yourself said about the butterfly effect – there can be a quarrel there, and here there is an international conflict. If you're killed, there's no telling how tragically it will affect the events of our world. Maybe someone will be killed there, and here some bomber will be born… or worse – a crazy politician will ascend to the throne of a nuclear power.
– Let's not get too excited. Let's go. And I'm not playing any more of these games. Send me, or rather, my consciousness to the universe. And then we'll see what these parallel worlds are like. Maybe they don't exist at all, and all these techniques, including Rangit's, are an illusion. Or rather, his falsification.
Seeing the incomprehensive and surprised looks, Ruthra explained himself:
– Yes, I began to notice some peculiarities about him, for some reason he is very eager to both launch the mission itself, and directly into the consciousness of any individuals from these worlds.
– Do you suspect something negative about it?
– What is the difference between believing in reality in dreams, in virtual reality, and the experience the missionary will have in these worlds? How will he understand reality? Maybe our consciousness transfer experiments only work on Earth, at small distances. You know, seeing the wild look in the eyes of that actor who played the Bedouin.....
– He's a rabbi actually," the therapist explained.
