Waking Up

    On October 31, 2050, I woke up. Not that I hadn’t woken up daily for decades, but this was different. This time, it was with different eyes, and a different mind, and a different body. I had the honor of being the first human to be uploaded to an artificial body with an artificial brain. I was human 2.0, and it was incomprehensible. My new eyes could see ultraviolet, infrared, X-ray, more. My new ears could hear a gnat whispering on the other side of Earth while excluding all else. My new brain could think so fast that time stood still. I knew no bounds, and it was terrifying.
         
    I snapped my fingers, and power raced through my fiber-filled veins. The planet disappeared as I transported to Alpha Centuri B. The planet was uninhabitable to regular life, but it was a playground for me. I shaped the world in my image, using the energy of the stars to change the landscape and create life. Flying jellyfish, monstrous hulks of stone that rumbled along, tiny goldfish that were the size of bacteria, even people. People like me- creations of silicon and exotic alloys that knew not the weaknesses of flesh. I gave them the spark of life, but realized they comforted me not. What was there to speak of, when you already knew everything? I had become a god, and as such had no use for discussions of theology. We had no strife, since there was nothing to fight over, so no use for politics. Human 1.0 amusements meant nothing to us. They went to their own worlds, further off, to try their hand at this existence. Watching my children leave was hard, but I wished them the joy I did not find here.

    I sat by a river and wept, for there was nothing left to conquer. When nothing can stop you, when nothing can hold you back, when nothing stands in your way, nothing remains to be overcome. Nothing left to understand. No more. I snapped my fingers again, and was no more.