Minding Eternity pt. 4

4– i, nanoid

Ah the mystifying complexities of nature.   Still with not much to do, other than perform certain mental tasks to enhance the neural translator’s programming, I was left to ponder the life I had previously led, and what sort of impact it might have had on this new world.   Not for any jaded reason of course, but with what has been achieved with me, would there be others who would be willing to possibly sacrifice their eternal sleep. 

Even though I felt I had been tricked into this fate, I was still accepting of what was to come.  The path of my previous life had led me there and I was going to see it to the end.  What I did not know however, was that the general population of the world had no idea that I existed, or that the program had ever been initiated.   

Due to many obvious religious and moral standards, the small community of scientists who worked with me kept everything under wraps using their own nano-shielding to hide all their secrets.

Working with a nano-prosthesis manufacturer, along with several teams of roboticists, biologists, neurologists, engineers, and surgeons, a casing was made to hold what was left of me, the neural translator, and the uncountable population of nanites.  The casing itself was a metallic sphere (composed itself of a nanite-carbon composite) with a shiny smooth surface with a small panel featuring a module that gave me the capability of sensing my surroundings.  The nanites had reestablished the functions of the auditory, olfactory, visual, and speech centres of my brain and were patching the information through probes embedded in my new casing.  Like an ancient proto-troglodyte, I had developed armor.

One would first think that I was joyous to be able to see, smell, hear, and speak.  After such inhuman isolation it was all I could think about leading up to the procedure.  However, once the casing had been activated, I was quite overwhelmed with the range and sophistication of my new sensory abilities.  Far beyond human senses, or of any other living creature, my senses had a range that at first frightened and alienated me, but once the initial buffer-control paradigms began to kick in I was able to handle all the information coming at me. 

My ‘eyes’, as one could call them, played host to signals ranging from the infra-red to the ultra-violet.  It was as if a thousand new worlds had just transcribed themselves over the one we occupied.  The depths of reality unbound themselves to me.  As with the rest of my heightened senses I began to fully realize the further intricacies of existence. 

An unexpected change also occurred with the sensory enhancements.  The nanites had detected that my cerebral cortex had been in much greater use with much more signals being relayed.  The researchers were unsure if this was an attempt at saving the living tissue from being over-worked, but the nanites began to patch even more sophisticated pathways, enabling me to handle the information with much more efficiency.  My memory, attention, awareness, thought, language, and consciousness were also being enhanced.    Soon this effect enabled me to process all types of information at an alarmingly incredible rate without any foreseeable storage boundaries.

Aware of my rapid progression, researchers working with me were now discussing the idea of granting me mobility, and the ability to physically interact with my environment.  Much debate was put forth to as to whether or not I should be able to develop any further, given the fact that I had become much more intelligent than any other living.  In light of this fear, a special program was encrypted into my casing.  At any time, the scientists could deactivate the neural translator, and render me helpless. 

As I was more than aware of the implications of this new power, I agreed to this failsafe.   Soon to be only a fraction organically human, and mostly sub-microscopic machinery, I was to be termed as a Nanoid.