The Shred Directive

— Across a Wall —

Duplicates of himself, gestated in vats of liquid.

Their features appeared smooth and underdeveloped.

Except for one… It drew his attention.

Up close to its vat—he touched the glass.

His fingers became frozen—then stuck.

He tried to escape, but something stopped him ...

He stared into the glass as if it were a reflection—

The duplicate awoke with its eyes staring back at him ...

It screamed out a garbled moan.

Its ventilator tube fell out of its mouth—it gasped and struggled to breathe ...

As it suffocated, its body shook, and its head convulsed—then stopped.

Its lifeless body hung off electrodes, then it caught on fire.

Engulfed in flames—the vat exploded.

— Awake —

He stared at the ceiling—tense and unable to move …

Yet, after a deep breathing exercise—he relaxed.

He sat up, scooted to the edge of the bed, and folded his hands together.

"Aha!" he snapped his fingers —"I'll bet it was that weird sci-fi movie …"

But his inner-voice whispered, "No, this actually meant something …"

He shook his head and continued to ponder …

He contemplated—a multiverse, and billions of universes as spheres, emanating, branching, and collapsing, an infinite cycle with just as many possibilities.

"No, no, that's not it ..."

He imagined—hundreds of thousands of replicants, laying in simulators, as a grand experiment to test every possibility, in a quest for the perfect decision.

"No, too surreal. Too fantastic … And definitely not falsifiable."

"Perhaps, I'm asking the wrong questions …"

He started back at the beginning—duplicates of himself …

"Of course, that's it!"—He stood up, turned on the nightstand lamp, and rummaged through a drawer, searching for a pen—"I can't believe I didn't think of this before!" He then jotted down on a notepad—a new idea—before he'd forget about it with another dream.

— Genesis —

———

Fredrick,

I've figured it all out for life extension. There is no rush. We needn't worry. Instead, we should focus on deep stasis and cloning.

We can create clones of ourselves, instilled with the same ambition for life extension. Once they figure it out, we can awaken as immortals!

How will we know when to awaken? Perhaps, we can set up checkpoints or an AI-driven monitoring system to assist us.

Oh, and there's also the potential for periodic emergence of the "clone genesis-paradox." If you recall, we discussed it at last year's H+ conference. We tentatively concluded it to be unsolvable. But, I believe I have a solution. At our next meeting, I'll explain in more detail.

Anyhow, I can head up a research team and recruit staff. I'm sure the others will be more than willing to offer their full support and assist us in funding for their own sake.

On a personal note … It pains me to say it, but we are losing our race against time. Our aging clocks continue to tick against us. For now, that is …

But I am optimistic we'll beat this!

Regards,

— Robert S.

———

Robert set the pen down while he let out a sigh of relief.

Then, he walked into the bathroom, washed his face, and looked in the mirror—he stared into his own eyes and touched the mirror—"It's so cold."

He stroked his face, shook his head, and chuckled—"No, it's not possible."

He then dried his hands and face with a towel.

— Illumination —

He stood beside his nightstand in the bedroom, ripped the letter off the notepad, and folded it.

He caught a glimpse of something …

The lamp's oblique illumination exposed indentations across the pad.

He swept his fingertips across what must have been remnants of his prolific brainstorms—overlapping and at different angles—scribbled in the same letter format.

"So late at night, trying to recall what I wrote in all those letters. It's fuzzy at best."

He opened the drawer again, found an envelope, and stuffed the folded letter in it.

Then he returned to sleep …

— Hours Later —

His body twitched and arose—while his mind stayed immersed in a dream.

An autonomic reaction, pre-programmed and subconscious:

His body grabbed the envelope, and with it, walked to the bathroom, shredded it, and flushed it down the toilet.

Then he returned to the bed and laid down.

Meanwhile, his mind kept dreaming up new ideas for life extension.