Oblivion

The doors slide shut with a subtle hiss. I admire the view provided by the elevators projection system as it rockets up to Jo’s loft. Jo has been gone in oblivion for the last few millennia, and it will be nice to catch her up. Who knew that such a short span of time could be stretched for so long. Even then, a lot has happened in the brief time she was gone, and she does need her best friend to come over and enlighten her. I still can't believe the omniscients have revealed it.

I burst into Jo's loft to see a familiar sight. She is sprawled over her cloud bed, wearing her VR haptic suit. What a sight to see. Promptly disconnecting the graphene power pack, I look to see the alterations she has made. She shrunk herself twofold - making her about the size of a normal person - and finally switched up from her signature ocean blue to a more mystic blue.

"Hey you," she says, "didn't know you were altering. Could have told me beforehand."

"Could say the same about you." I reply. "But we have much more important things to talk about."

"You heard about it as well." she replies.

"Of course, it's all over the chip. But that's the least of our worries..."

"So you mean to tell me that the omniscients no longer need us. That eventually they'll just end our lives. No way! I know that we’re their guinea pigs and that they're just trying to use our stupid brains for their damned research, but to end our lives is just cruel!” Jo says with a huff.

“It’s because they don’t have a need for us. They can just run a simulation. We’re that predictable.” I hit back.

“And it’s all because of oblivion. Oblivion allowed them to play with our emotions, the one thing they were always lacking. They give us our best experiences just so they can get rid of us.” She realises disparagingly. “So what’s the plan?”

“We break the system.”

Breaking the system will most definitely be onerous. The issue is that they have too much knowledge about how we think that clearly, they were the ones who fed us this information in the first place. It also doesn’t help that they determine our traits, environment and every other factor that develops our so-called identity. How strange it is that the very thoughts that I am having can be predicted. To be predicted is to be controlled. None of my thoughts belong to me any more. But undoubtedly, those thoughts are setting a trajectory for something that breaks the world - something that will once again prove our humanity. I could just jump up and flail my arms, but to what purpose. It has to be something so out of this world that they simply could not comprehend it. Something out of their world. An action so far-fetched that endless computing power could not cognise this possibility. And I have just the idea. Something that breaks every ethic, instinct and thought ever. Frantically, I dial Jo.

“I have an idea and you’re not going to like it.” I say, reflecting on how cliche it is.

I immerse myself into oblivion, Jo by my side. Every moment since our conception by the omniscients has led up to this. I ruminate as to the ancestors that lived long ago, that had no idea how or why they existed. Such simple times. But our friendship must end and one of the two of us have to break the system, as the only two people still alive.

Perhaps the most stark reality of oblivion is the amount of people they have managed to create. It always strikes me as crazy that those are simulations of real people, the artificial reality that they have generated to simulate our existence, rendering our existence obsolete. Alas, the only thing to do now is apparent. We need to reveal the truth about the fabric of the world to the simulations.

I look at Jo. She looks at me. It has been an eternity for us together as friends, but now we just do the unthinkable. So many memories and so much time spent with each other culminating in this moment. Just like we always have, it is time to face the challenge as a united front.

“Your lives are superficial. You live in a simulation created by omniscients to harvest our minds.” we yell. A few people turn to us and shake their heads in perplexion and others with animosity.

“Each of you represents someone who once lived. Your lives are worthless.” I shout. No epiphanies. Only more looks of apprehension and some people walking faster.

“Jo, what the heck is going on? If I found out that my existence was worthless, I‘d be shocked.” I said.

“Don’t you realise this was all to be expected. They know our every move.”

Well, what do you suggest?” I question.

And suddenly, the world slowed. Jo’s fade hardened and before I knew it, she slipped out a knife and jammed it into my frontal cortex, the location of the chip.

“You never understood did you. Your name is indicative of your connection to them. Oblat Livia Nelson. Oblivion. You are the one they use to see into the normal world. Their eyes and ears to see how we function as a species. It’s all that chip of yours that gives them insight.”

I look back in disbelief. How could I possibly be one of them. Someone who spent their life being deceived. A person so dumb that they thought. And with that, the world swirled away. I had accepted my fate.

Interesting. They do have the capacity to accept their deaths. So the meat things actually have the capacity to break the thing they refer to as ethics. At least we only have one more to worry about now. We can’t properly simulate oblivion without her, but she’s alone now.