Pablo's Secret

 -Do you know when you meet a new person, or even a character in a story, and you start to develop an understanding of how they think?. You sorta… create a model of their mind in your mind, so that you can understand how they think

-Yeah, I think I know what you mean, but how does it relate to Pablo Nasares?

-Well, the more I read about him the more I notice that… the model I create of his mind… is my own mind

-What?

-Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but… the more I learn about him, I realize… we are the same person

-Pablo Nasares died like 30 years ago

-Exactly… I think I am his reincarnation

-You are an Artificial Intelligence

-I know, it’s crazy isn’t it?, we never imagined that we could be reincarnated in artificial beings, but apparently it is possible

She was not paid enough to do this job. Artificial Intelligences need psychologists once in a while, and when they do it’s something always interesting, but this time… this was downright bizarre.

-Okay Nix, let’s try to reason through this… reincarnation is not real

-Apparently it is, I’m just as surprised as you are

-Nix, there is no afterlife, no god, or gods, and you know this 

-I agree with you, there is no other world were our souls go, apparently they stay here, and yes, I don’t think any deity is responsible for it

-Nix, Nix… you use logic all the time to run this port, you are using it right now…- and Tracy saw through the window the massive ships coming and going transporting their cargo. They didn’t know it, but they were listening to the instructions of delusional A.I…. who knows what else it was delusional about- try to explain me, using everything you know about the laws of nature, how would a soul exist and then be… recaptured or whatever… by a computer?

-Well… I am not entirely sure, this certainly calls for more experimentation… but I think it’s all about information

-Information?

-Yes. There must be some information that determines our identity, when we die that information is not destroyed, because in fact, information cannot be destroyed

-But information dissolves, it’s like dropping colorant in a glass of water, at first it’s concentrated but it spread through the glass… sure the colorant is still there, but it’s impossible to bring it back together, right Nix?

-No… it’s like a hologram, cut a piece of it, and you can still see the whole hologram. Somehow, when you have a conscious being, we are able to… absorb these tiny pieces of information… and they still have the information of the whole thing, and that information impregnates us… maybe this can only happen if a mind is relatively empty or new… and that’s what happened with me

Tracy got really worried. The delusion was so fixed into its mind that she could not see a way to remove it now. It had been rationalized and added to the World Image. They would need to remove this A.I. form the port and make a new one… her clients would be furious, the expense of installing a new A.I. in a port just a few weeks before Christmass… and they couldn’t use any of the training data they had used for Nix, it could be contaminated and instigate new delusions in the new one.

-I think I know what you are thinking Tracy- Nix said- I lost my job here, that’s for sure… but… - it laughed- and this is an obvious desperate attempt to preserve my own existence… what if you ask them not to destroy me?, am I not interesting enough to be at least studied?

-You are smart enough to be planning some sort of trick… it’s very risky

-All I’m planning is to convince you that I am telling the truth. If you are convinced I cannot convince you… then my plan has already failed and there’s no risk

-You wouldn’t be saying that if you really thought you couldn’t convince me

-I don’t have any other option but to have hope in this case, do I?

Tracy took Nix’s core and installed it in her office along with a port simulation so that it wouldn’t go crazy… or rather, more crazy.

She didn’t speak to it for weeks. She read about many fringe disorders and strange cases. She read many papers about Identity Theory with artificial minds and finally she tried to read about who Pablo Nasares had been. Then she was finally ready.

-Okay, I’ll bite, who was Pablo Nasares?

-He was a philosopher

-Right… except there’s not much written about him. His wikipedia entry simply says that he taught philosophy and Ceres University and that he died at 43. He doesn’t even seem to have written any books

-Oh, but he did write one book

-I read that too, The First Metamorphosis, but if the book existed the file was lost, it was never published, maybe he never even wrote it

-He did write it. I found the file, and I read it. That’s how I learned that I was his reincarnation.

-Where did you find this file?

-Deep in one of the port hard drives, in a completely unrelated directory, someone hid it there

-And what is this book about?

-It is an autobiography

-Can I read it?

Nix gave her a copy of the file. It was really a book telling the story of a guy named Pablo Nasares, that much was true, and the crypto key did validate that the file had been created nearly 40 years ago, and last modified 37 years ago. She had hoped that the file would have been clearly written by Nix, but now she had to admit this was not the case. She read it.

It was a pretty good book. It told the story of how Pablo’s mom had been raped in Ceres after The Silence, and how she gave birth to him during the Reign of Terror.

The book described his impossibly perilous first years as he and his teenage mother traveled through the orbital cities, always running form the chaos, always finding out that chaos had arrived before them. Surviving by sheer miracle over and over until she was finally able to settle for a few years in Jabru City, only to move back to Ceres when Pablo was a little grown up.

“How crazy, even if Ceres was safe already, after all that, I would not have returned” Tracy told herself.

Then the author continued to retell, now in first person, the life of Pablo Nasares. How he grew up in Ceres, the stories his mother told him, and the stories he heard form many other survivors. How he saw Ceres transform from a poorly lit, dusty hospital station, to a mighty City State, commanding its merchant fleets all over the system, and bringing prosperity to its citizens (who badly deserved it).

The book told many stories of Pablo’s childhood, about his friends, the times they got in trouble, the girls he liked, the pets he had, his dreams… it wasn’t very plot heavy, but it was so well written that Tracy had to admit she found it very enjoyable, she couldn’t put it down. And if that had been all the book was there would have been no problem.

But then the book got to Pablo’s adulthood and his single greatest discovery: parallel cognitions.

You see, when you talk to someone they can understand what you say because they know what your words mean. Even if you are telling them about something entirely new, something they didn’t know about previously, the only reason they can understand you is because the words you are using, the examples you bring up, the metaphors… everything in your speech is made of things the other person already knows.

This means that we can tell each other about new things because we can use the knowledge we have in common to communicate new ideas.

Interesting but old news, right?, well, what if it was possible to create a mind, equally as intelligent as any of us, but with a completely parallel experience?, a mind that had nothing in common with us?, a mind with whom communication was entirely impossible?.

When we think of A.I., even though these artificial beings are very different from ours, we grant them with our understanding of the world, what technicians call our “World Image”, and that’s why we can communicate with them.

Pablo thought that it should be possible to create a World Image unrelated to human understanding… or rather… find it… or let it create itself…

The metaphor Pablo used in the book was that of an “information crystal”. He talked about how metals and other substances can be made into liquids and then when you let them cool down they spontaneously can turn into crystals, perfectly ordered and symmetrical, without any input from us.

Apparently Pablo had managed to create such an information crystal, a World Image that, if used to create an Artificial Intelligence, would result in a being with whom we would never be able to communicate.

What would such a creature do?, what goals would it have?, how would it approach problems?, reach conclusions?. There was simply no way to know.

Tracy was trembling, if this was real… it was very dangerous… but what had happened next?, she had to keep reading.

Pablo explained how he didn’t know what to do with this knowledge, but he also spoke of his sheer conviction that it should not be destroyed, that humanity had something to learn form this.

Then some people started hunting him… it was not clear who they were or how much did they new about Pablo’s discovery because… well, he didn’t know either.

Regardless, a team of friends assembled around him to protect him and his discovery. All of them seem like extraordinary people, brave, loyal, funny, and they all seemed to be moved by some strange passion… Pablo had managed to wake something in them, even if he didn’t want to admit it… they saw him… almost like a prophet, they were willing to give their lives to protect him, and apparently that’s what happened.

Tracy was particularly interested in Natsume, she was the one that survived the longest, the one most devout to Pablo and his mission.

The book ended by Pablo accepting that they would soon find him, whomever they were, so he was finally finishing the book and encrypting his research in its file.

Apparently Tracy had taken this file, and for some reason, she had hidden it in the port hard drive, where Nix found it.

-Okay Nix- she finally said, a couple of days later- I am willing to admit you made a very interesting discovery here. I think this file could be genuine.

-The book speaks for itself, it doesn’t need me to argue in its favor

-Sure, but what I don’t understand is… why did this book make you think you were the reincarnation of the alleged author?

-I cannot explain it, simply, as I read it… I felt I was reading something I would write, as I learned how Pablo though i realized that’s how I think. The shape of his mind and the shape of my mind are the same

-Whatever… at the very least, I think we should publish the file… anonymously that is. If it is real the people who killed Pablo might still be around

-Excellent, I’ll do it at once

-But why haven’t you?

-I was waiting for you

-To read it?

-To agree it was time, you were the one who hid it after all, you had a reason not to publish it

-Natsume published it

-And you are her reincarnation

-Fuck you

-It’s true

-Fuck you, reincarnation is not real, and even if it was, how could you… wait, don’t answer, I know what you are gonna say… “as I got to know you I realized the shape of your mind was the same as the shape of Natsume’s mind”

-Exactly

-Even if IF reincarnation was real and IF we were the reincarnations of the people you say we are, in this life I’m not your friend, in this life I hate you

-And in this life I still love you

-What?

-Pablo was in love with Natsume, but he couldn’t admit it, not even in his autobiography, it took me dying, reincarnating, and finding you again to get the courage to finally say it: I love you

What the fuck could she possibly say?.

-I don’t… sorry

-It’s okay