year 2050 was marked on it, since it was 2022. He couldn't understand why he had chosen that date.
Ruthra tried to stand up, wanting to see what was going on. The special bed was massaging his body. He couldn't find the clasps he was fastened to it. The shaking made it hard to concentrate.
Ruthra shouted:
– How do you unhook them?
Suddenly he heard a voice directly in his head. The technology was familiar to him, but the voice was not.
A man spoke:
– Please don't yell Rutra Tigrovich, I'll explain it to you.
– Who's talking to me?
– I am an automated intelligent control system. One of my tasks is to manage the city of Moscow. In your memory, Moscow is still a city.
– What city? You mean it's not supposed to be a town?
– Moscow is a separate state, a protected zone observing neutrality. Among other things, it is in the status of an offshore zone, where the governing functions of the world government and the UN are concentrated.
– Enough, I don't believe it. The experiment didn't work.
– Please listen. Everyone doesn't believe it at first. Please listen.
– Rangit, is that you?
– No. Listen to me. I understand you don't believe it, but you're not the first. According to my records, you've been in a coma for 28 years.
– What the hell are you talking about? System glitch? Or is someone trying to play a joke on me?
– Please – evaluate the situations ts ию adequately. I have to inform you the following: there was a system failure during your experiment. The body you are in now, the body you consider to be yours, is not the real body of scientist Paskhov.
– You're out of your mind. Who's talking to me anyway? What's the big joke?
– I asked you to be reasonable. I'm an intelligent machine, I can't lie to you.
– What are you saying, you can't lie? That's very surprising.
– You did the experiments yourself. You made your own cloned body. You wanted to embed a digital copy of yourself in it. Didn't you?
– So… so what?
– There was a system failure during the experiment, your real body is stored in another facility. This body is a copy of yours. You can even feel it now. You've made it younger and uploaded your mind into it. To ensure your adequacy, I must conduct a test. I must question you. So, who are you?
– That's crazy. Who were you just talking to?
– Please answer the question adequately. Until you answer the question, I can't let you go.
Ruthra tried to stand up. He couldn't. Something invisible kept him chained to the cot.
– Release me at once!
– I told you, you have to take a test. It's not that hard, just answer the questions.
– What the hell kind of questions?
– Who are you?
– You know exactly who I am.
Ruthra was becoming increasingly irritated, angry.
– Please answer in the logic you yourself put into the thinking of an artificial intelligence. Who are you?
– What the hell. I'm sick of these Parmenides pranks. Who the hell are you?
– Please answer the question. Who are you?
– Fuck you.
Ruthra tried to stand up again. Again he failed. He cursed irritably, but nothing helped. The machine was inexorable.
– Please answer, who do you feel you are? Who are you?
Ruthra was silent for a moment, then decided to answer.
– I am a scientist, Ruthra Paschow. I invented the technique of body cloning.
– Tell me about the technology.
Ruthra took a deep breath, then exhaled. He decided not to be nervous.
– There's nothing particularly complicated about it, really. Human bodies can be cloned… just like regular animals, which are already being cloned on an industrial scale. Some of the difficulty is the ability to accelerate the growth of the body. However, this too is solved by the rapid growth technique used in animal breeding. The difficult part of this process is moving consciousness into the brain. It was a real challenge, but I managed it.
– What is consciousness?
– It is our memory recorded in detail and billions of connections, neural contacts, outside the body and in the body, providing that body with the highest level of functioning. The more connections, the more intelligence. At a certain level there comes a verge ts a of arithmetic and geometric progression, forcing us to do the next, improved action to maintain the previous one. This is how we sharpened flint, invented the bicycle, flew into space, and created artificial intelligence.
Ruthra said the last, emphasizing the word 'artificial'.
– What matters, of course, is how quickly these connections commutate with each other and determine, based on life experience, the most optimal, best solutions. And now, please, you explain what is happening and where I have found myself?
– You came into our world unannounced. You're not in the program. I received no notification of your arrival. And frankly, I don't know your mission. However, since you showed up instead of the one who was supposed to carry out the program's mission, you'll have to carry it out.
– Very interesting and lucid. Now, humanly speaking, please. What's the mission? What's the program? What's going on here? Where am I, anyway? Oh, and free me, damn it!
– I must give you an introduction, then you can see for yourself. As you know.
– Just wait! Set me free! I don't know anything!
– Just listen," Ruthra heard directly in his head, and at the same time he felt free of the invisible shackles. – Are you comfortable communicating aloud or silently? This body is prepared for all options.
– Out loud," Ruthra said loudly.
– Listen, please. As you know, the temperature on planet Earth has been rising steadily.
– Really," Ruthra interrupted wryly again.
– Don't interrupt. Or I'll have to strap you back in.
At these words, Ruthra jumped off the couch.
– No shit.
– Listen, please.
– All right. Go ahead.
– After 2027, the process became irreversible. The constant increase in temperature caused the melting of fossil glaciers, and most coastal cities and countries began to flood. The UN decided to give the territory of Siberia to the inhabitants of the flooded areas, as the climate there has become moderate. In return, Russia demanded that the main control center of the world government be located in Moscow under the administration of the Russian president and another 30% of the UN budget. This led to a conflict in the movement of finances, distribution of resources, coupled with the fact that armed conflicts began around the world… all of which caused the Perimeter system to go into combat mode.
– Wait, wait, wait. Let's say I believe all this. First, what kind of perimeter system are you talking about?
– The Perimeter system is a complex of automatic control of a massive retaliatory nuclear strike. To ensure guaranteed fulfillment of its role, the system was originally designed as fully automatic, and in the event of a massive attack is capable of making a decision on an adequate retaliatory strike on its own, without human participation. In Europe and the United States, it is known as the "Dead Hand." It is a complex expert system equipped with a multitude of sensors, monitors