Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars

by Matthew Opdyke

  “Neurologically what it does enhance is our clarity; it maximizes both our introverted and extroverted tendencies. It helps us to have photographic memories with the ability to converge a plethora of sciences together for greater results quickly, so we can essentially put things together and build things that physicists, biotechnology professionals, neuroscientists, and big data would merely only dream of if that. In a few years, Yesha’s mom will do the same. She has been a recipient of good health; hence she looks forty-five even though she’ll be turning sixty-eight in October, but for all else, neither of us wanted it to be too obvious until she was ready, and we’ve had a couple of years to get everything running full-bore and protected from the hands of those who might not have humanity’s best interests at heart. This is intended to heal and not harm. We’ve built in encodings to ensure this technology stays the course as benevolent toward advancement in civilization, reduction of violence to zero, controlling chaos to bring what is needed for life without the typical destruction or death and mayhem found in chaos that isn’t controlled, and increasing the clarity of benefactors as problems are solved contributing to the well-being of life.

  “That said,” Eliza paused with a slight look of concern and an observable glow as she looked toward James with sincerity, “we’ve done this to help and protect those whom we love, whether distant or nearby.” She then looked up again, and smiled at both James and Yesha, before looking serenely down again. She was talking about genuine love.

  Yesha, who was holding a laptop with a simplified copy of their infrastructural plans, smiled and walked to the other side of the sofa from James, smelling of roses and something rich and amazing, and pivoted the laptop so all three could see.

  Eliza then continued, “Here they are. As you can see, these plans are just the beginning of all that it will take to help humanity to build a legacy that is worthy of preserving. We want people to have the option and availability of everything related to well-being, longevity, health, intellect, sanity, compassion, wisdom, joy, entertainment, and even fun. We will build first, and the rest will follow, as we coach society into realizing the untold potential that it indeed has.”

  James seemed pretty intrigued and not at all apprehensive, Yesha was sure of herself, Eliza was quietly confident, and after examining the details on Yesha’s laptop, James spoke up, “I am impressed. Am I right in assuming that you would like for me, my crew and their families to build the infrastructure on these plans for you? You have noble goals, for sure. The goals you’ve shared are those which I can only dream of. But, I’m in. However, I’ll have to ask my crew in the morning. You do realize that some of these plans, in my current state, and in my crew’s current state, may be more complicated than we are capable of working with and if we could, this would cost a fortune.”

  “I assure you, James, we have every single one of those details figured out. Financially, speaking, my parents saved and invested for years in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and all manner of diversified capital, all of which matured, and when they passed away they left their trust to me. I left all but enough for Yesha’s and my college tuition, our estate management funds, and regular living expenses compounding in interest in the most successful investments and continue to do so. As start-ups of the modern era began, I reinvested in them, and when the already rather large financial estate grew by a stroke of luck, after other strokes of luck, and at a rate of more than a hundred thousand-fold, we knew we had all the funding we needed to finance this.

  “Believe me, this is an investment that will grow astronomically in value as we go along and continue to compound once we’re done. Doing the math, once all is said and done, we’ll be able to pay off every national debt, every hospital bill, every tuition debt, and afford everyone a luxurious lifestyle, many million times over. That is everyone in – the – world. We have to build this because I don’t want humanity to become a lost civilization, one that is completely decimated, or a civilization with nothing to show for all of our history, our sciences, our art, our romances, or our music. I want to do this, because I love humanity, and I want to set something up that will protect our people as well as life itself, yet we will still need to be patient as they learn to collaborate in their own way, with one mini-push after another, until they are ready for the big reveal.”

  “Wow, Eliza. This is inspiring, the designs, the details, and everything. This is amazing, you didn’t miss a thing! You and Yesha, I am impressed. You are both brilliant. I don’t even know how to respond. Here I am, look at me, sitting in-between both of you, and you two are absolutely lovely, brilliant, gifted, and wonderful people. I’m not even worthy. How could I be so lucky to be sitting here with you two lovely archetypes of the future? Forgive me for saying this, but you two are in my humble opinion more dream-like and creative than the most beautiful angels and geniuses I could have ever aspired to meet—you two are amazing human beings!

  “My crew and I have done a lot for our employer, YY Corp, I admit. We are currently on a two-month ‘vacation’, but I believe with all of this already drawn up, I can brief my crew and we could get this all started right away, and our part, if we pass through the biopod experience and are optimized, might actually be pretty easy.

  “YY Corp has been kind to me and my crew, I’ll give them that. I have no bone to pick with them, but it is mostly because we’ve kept them afloat for the last ten years. I am not naïve with regard to how they treat all of the other teams, however, and I believe our exodus could teach them a very valuable lesson, which is to be kind, fair, and concerned for both the well-being of one’s company as well as all of one’s employees and their customers.” James paused for a moment as he navigated through each page of Eliza’s and Yesha’s plans. His head nodded in the affirmative at each turn of a digital page.

  “It looks like if we build these two labs first, you will be able to build a cloud of self-replicating and reprogrammable nanobots, and they will give us a mega assist with the rest. I’d say we could build all of this within a year or two!

  “What do you think, Eliza?”

  “It sounds like a plan! I must say, that I too am impressed with you, James. We aren’t even neurologically linked, yet the way we connect; it’s as if we’ve known each other for years. Do you have any other questions you would like to ask? Is there anything else you would like to know or see?” responded Eliza, with a glowing aura.

  James just then noticed Eliza’s glow and felt quite enticed by her appeal. “What does it mean to be linked? You said you were optimized both physiologically and neurologically, and I see neurologically it has panned out perfectly. You’ve thought of everything…”

  As music seemed to drift in from another room… something soothing, something romantic, the arpeggios were familiar, yet the music soared beautifully with an almost orchestral feel, an angelic vocal crescendo permeated through the room. James all of a sudden seemed aware, the night was heading in a new direction, and then Yesha spoke up, “follow Eliza and me; we’ll show you what physiological optimization feels like.”

  James was all too gentlemanly to assume anything but decided that whatever they were up to, he was willing to go along with it and see where it led. As they entered a white and glowing room, Eliza and Yesha showed him the three white and glowing objects that looked like tanning beds. “This is interesting,” he thought. “I’ll follow along here, wherever this leads.”

  “These are the three biopods I talked about earlier,” said Eliza.

  “Would you like to try one out? There is one for each of us…” asked Yesha.

  “If we each climb into one and pull down the lid, we can show you much more,” said Eliza. She snapped her fingers, and in a comic manner, as if with perfect timing, Depeche Mode’s song, “World in My Eyes,” started playing. They chuckled at the humor of the timing, and then they danced a little. James smiled at Eliza and Yesha, and they both smiled back.

  Yesha lay in her biopod first, lid up. Eliza then laid in hers.
They both looked at James and then motioned with their hands and silent lips toward the third biopod and in unison said, “Common, James!”

  James thought about it for a second, “What am I getting myself into?” He finally decided he might as well, and as he made his way to and then climbed into the third biopod, he thought in his mind, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

  Yesha then instructed James, “When you secure the cover or pull it down, say within your mind the words, ‘Link, 1, 2, 3.’ Once you say that, say, ‘5 minutes, 20 years.’ Understood?”

  “Twenty years?”

  “We’ll be in there for five minutes of real world time, but truly gain twenty years of life-like experience, knowledge, and wisdom in the Virtual Universe. All of which we can retain as if it happened, and with the complete and immediate recall,” Eliza responded.

  “Yes. Okay, let’s do this then, Eliza and Yesha,” and James thought about what could happen within the space of twenty years, and then fearlessly climbed into the remaining biopod.

  They pulled their biopod covers down. Eliza, said, “Okay guys. Ready when you are.”

  In unison, they said within their minds, “Link, 1, 2, 3, 5 minutes, 20 years...”

  ~ * ~

  Like that, James felt every nerve stand on end and then when he thought he could bear it no longer, he felt a larger sense of euphoria take its place, a pleasant feeling he’d never felt before. Once he came to, he looked around and noticed he was in a garden standing near a pond with an angelic statue that was looking down at its hands. He noticed her hands acting as a waterfall of recycling oxygenated water for the coy fish and frogs in the water surrounded by a small beach of sand, and equally spaced areas of shore where the water abutted to small brick walls, and above them there were sage, mint, and beautifully scented flowers—only, everything had a white and iridescent glow. The gardens and pathways glowed and appeared like magic playing out before his eyes, and details of everything he looked at played out in a series of holo-images before him as he conjured it up and would fade if he didn’t. No matter where he looked, he noticed a pleasing aura, until he beheld what led to something he recognized, based on the architecture, Eliza’s estate home, with tall white glowing columns, and brilliant, yet burnt red bricks covered in glowing green ivy. Above him, he saw the stars much more clearly, with the details of each one playing out as he conjured up the imagery using his mind, and then he looked back down toward the land and noticed that it was bordered by a mixture of glowing maple and other brilliantly colored and flowering ornamental trees, with a beautiful and glowing quartz crystal stone wall fence. He then looked to his right and saw Eliza glowing like the most beautiful angel he’d ever imagined could be seen. To his left and saw Yesha with an iridescence and splendor he had never imagined before as well.

  “We’re here, but we aren’t, are we? What is this place?”

  Eliza and Yesha, almost in unison and in the surround-sound voice of feminine angels started off, “We’re in the computer mainframe, with access to the shared collective minds of Eliza and Yesha synced with whatever you will bring to it, James. What do you think?” Then they looked at each other, and James could read their minds for the first time in their lives, and he liked what played out before him. They were both pure. They were both innocent. They were both genuine. They were also wise, they loved, they had experienced tragedy and loss unimaginable, yet they had forged on and developed all of this just so they could reduce the suffering existent in humanity.

  They wanted to protect the Earth, yet they also wanted to cultivate the ecosphere to enable chaos to be more controlled, and where needed, for the preservation of humanity and abundance of beauty, quality of life, and joy. They had millions of ideas running through their minds at once, they truly had minds with many millennia of knowledge, experience, and wisdom, and then as if this symphony of thought translated into a visual masterpiece and a smorgasbord of emotions and what he beheld couldn’t seem any more spectacular, he found a new clarity, a new vision, and a new and meaningful answer to all things, “So long as we go forward with the well-being of others as well as ourselves in mind, we’ll create a legacy that can be and will be worthy of preservation indefinitely. If we are to contribute to the compassion, the kindness, and the awesomeness of well-being toward others as well as ourselves, we will each be true friends. We will also have unique potential that can be realized in its fullest form, each one of us, and as such I know what I will do. I will lead large numbers of people through training, development, and clarity when it comes to infrastructure throughout the solar system, the maintenance of it, governance of humanity, and clarity toward the future when it comes to the primary missions that lead others on a successful and enjoyable journey of longevity, experience, and wisdom.”

  Eliza beckoned him to follow her, and he realized he was flying high enough in the sky with the ability to zoom in on anything and in any direction. “How is this possible?” he asked.

  Yesha then flying to his left pointed at a forested area, and he saw their entire planned infrastructure as she had shown him on her laptop, where it lay as opposed to the rest of the geography surrounding the Country and World, and he saw how it would lay out underneath the forest, with many magnificent buildings for entrances, ventilation, and emergency exits. Eliza then took James by the hand, and together all three traversed through the designs as if they were already realized, and he could see the safety control mechanisms, the unbreakable, very thick, and spacious shell of the laboratories, the fusion accelerators, the air scrubbers and HVAC systems, the electrical systems, the fiber optics, the copper cabling, the hallways that made it all accessible to maintenance crews, the spacious rooms and extremely large hadron colliders, the two ITERs and so much more. There were even deep underground dining facilities, campuses, living quarters, galleries, music labs, and entertainment, development, and enjoyment centers, all with redundant air and resource safety mechanisms. They left nothing out. They had antimatter chambers with electromagnetic systems strong enough to safely contain millions of kilograms of antimatter and every other particle, both baryonic or non-baryonic, in a manner that provided stability to each element, particle, and antiparticle as well as containment and the ability to move it all around, combine it, and divide it all in whichever way was necessary without decay. Eliza and Yesha were brilliant, and suddenly it was all as clear as day to him as well. It was as if Eliza’s and Yesha’s minds were converging with his, but he could differentiate between his thoughts and theirs. He enjoyed the sweet and enigmatic flavor of both of their unique thoughts.

  “This is beyond amazing, you two. It’s as if all of what you have learned is now a part of my own mind as well,” said James.

  “It’s because that is precisely what is happening. You can see why Yesha and I keep this under wraps. This can be beautiful, but others with not so kind of demeanor or intentions might not see it this way. While some may say it is because malevolent intended individuals might try to influence our thoughts, that won’t be possible. We’ve taken every precaution and built safety mechanisms to protect our thoughts, as well as your free will and ours. We can share what we are ready to share, and all else is protected, according to the established US laws of consent. The only reason for secrecy with this technology is because humanity isn’t yet ready to accept it; those that would decay the minds of others hold too much power over the hearts of men and women, and they have even built laws to prevent advancements such as these.

  “This technology, if in the wrong hands, could theoretically be used for all sorts of malicious purposes, thus the fears. The truth is, we’ve scanned every system, every satellite, and every software program, and we have created safeguards that make malevolent intentions impossible. There is a special algorithm for many aspects of the mind, and as people volunteer to be read-in and thus are neurologically optimized compassion, empathy, and the ability of the recipient to persuade through understanding of others toward kindness, longevity, qua
lity of life, and the advancement of civilization are in turn amplified and optimized.” Eliza sensed some concern and looked at James with serenity in her aura.

  “You said people would have free will. Won’t those ‘optimizations’ take that away?” asked James.

  Eliza then brought a pause to his worries and rendered peace to his mind when she spoke, “These optimizations won’t take away free will, and here is why, death is the opposite of free will of any kind, because, with death, all of your abilities to experience reality are gone, all of your potential that has been built up and improved upon for years is no longer available to you or the rest of humanity. Life equates to free will since this allows you to experience this reality in a much more fulfilling and purposeful way as we develop a bridge between the realities we understand and the realities we have yet to know. Therefore, anything that leads to longevity, preservation, and the well-being of life is within the scope of free will. Optimizing our physiology relates to free will because doing so preserves life as well as the quality of it. Optimizing our neurology also relates to free will because it allows us the clarity of mind to develop and improve upon all of the necessary advancements that increase longevity, preserves and protects life, both on this planet, throughout our solar system, and anywhere we go. Compassion, kindness, and love are essential components of free will—which are the preservation and protection of life. It can be said then, that anything that takes away from that takes away from free will, leads to uncontrolled chaos, and will eventually lead to the death of all life as we know it. Optimizing ourselves affords us the ability to compound upon our potential, rather than bury it with death. With our system, free will cannot be taken away, nor will it ever be.”