Chapter 1

Timeline of Events

• • •

The Alien Time-Traveler Historian

John is sitting eating in a burger joint off the highway to Las Vegas. "You mind sharing this booth?" asks the stranger. John looks up and replies, "Sure, no problem — all the others are crowded. My name is John Truman." Mathew reaches out to shake his hand and says, "Nice to meet you John. Mathew Sherman."

John begins to eat. Both remain silent while noises from the other restaurant patrons wash over them.

John asks, "So, if I were to guess, I'd have to say you look like a screenwriter."

Mathew says, "No, you wouldn't believe me. Let's talk about you instead. What do you do?"

John answers, "I'm a writer. Now be fair, what do you do?" he said with a phaned mild annoyance. (Phaned: a word defined in John's parallel world as faking an emotion that is observably false, in an attempt at mild sarcasm.)

Mathew says, "I am a time-traveling historian from two million years in your future, sixteen of your possible sim-futures."

John laughs and says, "Okay, I'll play… I'm probably about the only person in the world who would take you seriously. You see, I'm a science fiction writer."

Mathew says seriously, "I know. That's why we contacted you. The others, the hard scientists of your time, won't listen to us. As for the psychiatrists and psychologists, most definitely not in this time frame. The resulting conclusion of their combined analysis would probably make them — how do you say it? — Looney Tunes."

John asks, "Well, you'll still have to convince me. So, if you're telling me the truth… where is your time machine? Can I see it?"

Mathew answers, "Yes you can, but it's not what you expect. It's right inside here." He points to his temple with his index finger.

John says, "Oh, I see… one of those." Phanning crazy, with his facial expression.

Mathew replies, "Yes, you can assume I'm insane. But I'm just communicating to you through this man's body. For a short period of time, I can do this without his knowing it. When I leave and his mind's consciousness re-awakens, this memory will seem like a daydream to him."

John says sarcastically, "Okay… I see you're schizophrenic. I'll play only a little longer. How can you do this? I know a little science — convince me."

Mathew explains, "Well, you see, inside this brain, your brain, all of our brains, we can receive quantum information from the quantum foam. It allows you to be conscious. You see, your mind is thinking across all parallel universes right now, all variations of yourself within the metaverse-multiverse."

John interrupts, replying, "So that's how you're able to talk to me now. You took over the mind of someone else?"

Mathew smiles and says, "Yes. I knew you would understand. You don't have to pull the lever on a physical time machine to travel. Really, anyone can do it. We are all already perceiving and traveling forward through time at this moment.

The capability is there inside your own mind, along with some tricky technologies needed to enhance your natural, suppressed time-travel abilities. We have an advanced form of selective precognition. You just have to be open to all possibilities, believe you can, and the quantum information flows through, allowing you to collapse a potential time-future in this very moment. Voilà! Reality is made…

Now imagine that very capability enhanced a thousand times.

It's really that simple, but hard for people in your time to do. We do it in the future with our group mind consciousness, but there is nothing that limits the power of a single mind from doing it as well.

Unfortunately, in this time, your minds are more confining. Your understanding of physics and what's possible is still self-limiting. That's why we had to contact you directly. You see John, thoughts can become reality, even thoughts from your futures."

John smiles and asks, "Are you human or alien?"

Mathew answers, "Both, but human enough to comprehend. I have lived several of your human simulated lives. My alien name is Dr. Xanoplatu. You are an adolescent species searching for your own identity. You understand your species' origins, but somehow have trouble believing in it. Most of all, you fear individual death."

John paused. Then he asks, "If what you're telling me is true, the future is already set for you. I'm not really getting it."

Mathew replies, "It's hard to use your time's words. You see, time is like a tree, with branches growing into the future. Where two branches separate, a decision was made, or your Einstein might call it an observation. One possible set of futures branches one way. Another possible set grows out of the other branch. It's deterministic in this one reality, but in theory free will exists across all the parallel bubble universes."

John asks, "So why are you telling me this?"

Mathew answers, "Variations of me exist in almost all future branches. That's really rare, and that's why I'm allowed to speak to you — to help you understand. You see, those that are still basically human in the future have great compassion. They want to help reduce the suffering. I'm here on their behalf to try and influence things."

John says, "Okay, so prove it. I'll bet you can't! I won't believe you until you prove it to me."

Mathew says, "I can, but it will probably upset you." John says, "Go ahead. Give me a try." Mathew says, "Okay, you asked for it. But I'm only allowed to do this once."

Just then, 26 people in the burger joint — babies, children, adults and all — stopped talking, playing and crying, turned, and looked at John and Mathew.

Then they all said in unison, "Yes, it is true John." Then they all turned and went back to whatever they were doing, as if nothing had happened.

There was a long pause from John as he looked at Mathew incredulously, more serious now, with more than a little fear in his eyes.

"What just happened? Was that real?" asked John, shaken and doubting what he saw.

"You're having trouble accepting reality because it is inconsistent with your present beliefs. So therefore you doubt what just happened, having no easy way of reconciling it. It is only through a shared reality that you can accept something as real," explained Mathew.

"No, you must have drugged me… or maybe this is a big hoax. These people work for you," said John, grasping for an explanation.

"Of course that's a possibility, but if you really choose to believe those explanations so that you can retain your hold on sanity, then I suggest we end this conversation now, at least for your sake," says Mathew.

"No. No, I can go on… give me a moment," explained John, centering himself with a deep breath.

"I know, it's hard to believe. That's why I'm here to explain, John," consoled Mathew.

John asks, "Suppose I believe you. Why are you doing this? Telling me?"

Mathew explains, "A bifurcation event is approaching, a catastrophic event with branching of many possibilities that will change everything afterward. It's much like clustering in a mathematical fractal."

John asks, "What is this event?"

Mathew says, "I'm sorry to say I can't tell you exactly what the event is, but I can tell you it is preceded by all of the Internet going down in the latter half of February. There are a hundred different scenarios, and I'm sorry to say none of them are really good, John."

John asks, "Is there any way to prevent it from happening?"

"Maybe, but then you would vanish from existence, or at least I would — essentially repercussions of the same thing. An unrecognizable observation which does not, cannot exist; a miracle in this universe," explained Mathew.

"So what can I do?" John asks.

"You just need to keep your mind open to all possibilities, try to be as non-deterministic as possible, until we next meet," said Mathew.

The most amazing thing was that John, the science fiction writer, did everything he could to forget that the late February date was approaching. He was in complete denial about what had happened. Besides, who would believe him anyway? The guy was just some harmless crazy whom he had shared a booth with at a burger joint. He probably just slipped some drug or something into my drink.

Alien time-traveler historian indeed — I don't believe a word of it!

© 2008 Michael Blade · The Transhuman Singularity