Corpus Callosum*
Chapter Brahma
“Their members doubled over a month,” Jona said, shaking his head.
“Yeah, twelve million now. Insane,” Sidda replied.
Jona and Sidda took the red-eye flight to Iceland for an urgent project. Neither of them believed in the mission, but both enjoyed the luxurious first-class experience with gourmet meals and spacious seating. Savoring the Beluga Caviar, Sidda smiled at the prospect of earning enough money to retire for good.
“Each set of supercomputers is now capable of running 200 exaflops per second; all they need is to connect them. One way or another, this will be our last visit to the site,” Jona explained.
A religious group, sponsored by the founder of a modern payment company, used two systems of computers to mimic the anatomy of the human brain. The left hemisphere used transistor-based computers and the other operated on a qubit-based system. Jona and Sidda were flying to Iceland to link these two hemispheres using superconducting wires.
“Yes, we should be able to wrap it up by the end of the week. I hope we can get out of the country before the ritual begins.”
“When does it start?” Sidda asked.
“Wednesday next week. Over a million people will visit the site for their annual pilgrimage. We need to get out of there before they realize what’s going on.”
“Unless they request us to stay longer, we should be able to. Both systems went through rigorous testing for months and we tested the interhemispheric wiring in the lab for almost a year, I don’t see any issues,” Sidda explained.
“Even so, we should come up with a contingency plan.”
While Jona explained his Plan B, the flight attendant announced the plane would land in twenty minutes.
“What do you want to do first?” Sidda asked.
“Blue Lagoon”
The salty Icelandic breeze welcomed the two visitors when they landed on the coast of Iceland. They wasted no time and hurried to the geothermal spa in southwestern Iceland.
“This is what I like. I can’t wait to retire and enjoy every day of my life like this,” Sidda confessed as he waddled through the hot geothermal mineral water.
“This is the last stretch; once we get our last paycheck, your dream will come true,” Jona toasted the champagne he retrieved from the in-water bar.
Chapter Moroni
The duo worked tirelessly in the server room where they had been camping for the past six days.
“Sidda, I got bad news,” Jona said as he walked into the room.
“Oh crap.”
“They asked us to stay longer”
“Shit. I knew it. But the connection has stabilized, and everything seems to be working fine,” Sidda protested.
“I know, but they asked us to stay just in case things go wrong during the ritual.”
“Can we decline?”
“Not if you want to retire.”
“Oh well, mine as well enjoy the time here then.”
“Wanna go to the Blue Lagoon?” Jona suggested.
“You don’t have to ask me twice.”
The duo drove for over three hours to the spa and relaxed for the evening.
“I am worried there will be a riot if the prophecy doesn’t come true,” Sidda said when they got situated in the hot spring. “Let’s charter a private jet. I don’t want to be in a commercial flight with disgruntled believers.”
“Yes, I contacted the pilot earlier in the week,” Jona hesitated for a second before continuing. “I was intentionally keeping myself in the dark. But since we will be here for the ritual, I should learn about their prophecy. What does it say?”
“Their religion says once human consciousness is achieved in a non-carbon-based lifeform, the world will come to an ugly end,” Sidda answered.
Jona rolled his eyes and redirected his gaze at the snowcapped mountain.
“Lunatics, is that written in their sacred text? Like their bible?”
“No, the cult leader said it is engraved in every DNA. He cracked the code using pi. He believes the universe is nothing more than an elaborate simulation to see how quickly consciousness can transform itself.”
“What do you say to people who believe in such things?”
“You don’t. But I’m sure you believe in some fairytales too.”
“I do believe we are here for a reason.”
“There you go,” Sidda said. “We are all too human, all too human.”
Chapter Athena
“Icelandic coffee is fantastic,” Jona took a sip of espresso and inhaled a lungful of the frigid air.
“Yea, the water here is amazing,” Sidda nodded. “Can we visit the spa for one last time?”
“We can’t. The elders asked us to stress-test the connection all morning,” Jona replied.
“Really? Are we going to let the real data flow before the ritual begins?”
“No, we are still stimulating. They will connect the hemispheres at the ritual. What’s interesting is the amount of data flow they requested to test is beyond what each hemisphere can generate.”
“Not my problem, let’s just run the test and get out of here as soon as we can.”
Throughout the day, over one million people gathered in the middle of Iceland where the datacenter was located.
“I can’t believe all these people showed up,” Sidda observed large shuttles dropping off people.
“The party is about to start.”
At eight o’clock, many holograms of the cult leader appeared throughout the pilgrimage sites.
“The time has come. For the first time in the history of the universe, human consciousness is about to be represented in a non-biological body, fulfilling the ancient ordinance,” the cult leader declared.
The machine came to life and started making a whirling noise. Well after one hour, nothing had transpired, and Sidda heard loud rumbling noises coming from the crowd. He could sense impending doom and restlessness.
“I see the money!” Sidda had been checking his banking account continuously. “Is the jet ready?”
“I asked the pilot to standby. Let’s get the hell out; I’ll notify him on the way to the airport. If we hurry, we could get to the airport in three hours.”
“Yes, let’s leave before all these people realize they got duped and wasted their money.”
The two got into their vehicle and floored the car to the airport. It was pitch dark, yet bright stars and the moon guided their way.
“So glad we got out before it ended,” Sidda turned his head and saw the light from the ritual site.
“Me too, wait, what… what is that over there?” Jona pointed at the far side.
Jona stopped the car, and both walked toward the hill.
“Pretty intense aurora borealis. It’s the brightest I’ve seen.”
“No, I wasn’t talking about the northern lights; look over there,” Jona pointed at the Southern sky.
“Jesus Christ… they were right.”
One by one, celestial bodies disappeared into the darkness.
*This short story is a variation of The Nine Billion Names of God.
