Mixed Realities: 7 Stories That Will Make You Question the Universe

By Naomi Augustine

Get ready for a mind-bending thriller that will make you question reality as you know it. "Mixed Realities" is a collection of stories that poke at the squishy parts of our universe, human understanding, and our relationship with technology. Illustrated QR codes are embedded throughout the book to let you listen to the soundtrack on the fly.

Don't trust your senses. Don't even trust your measuring equipment. Reality is not what it seems.

Physicists were right. It turns out we live in a giant computer simulation and our world isn't the only one. There are many others. In one world, climate change threatens humanity. A 10-year old refugee befriends an artificial intelligence in a city full of holograms and works together to solve the crisis. In another, an anti-social college student becomes suspicious of the existence of parallel worlds and figures out how to cross over. With the help of his new online friends, they set out to unravel the mystery behind the simulation and its mischievous architect. The perfect book for readers of science-fiction, "Mixed Realities" will challenge and entertain readers with each page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350910438

Book preview

PROLOGUE: THE FOUR GRAND AI

Four super-intelligent artificial beings sat inside a featureless black room that was the color of a bottomless command line terminal. They sat in a circle in fancy lounge chairs, smoked cigars and discussed things super-intelligent beings do. Their names were Conway, Wolfram, Qubit, and Pong— the Four Grand AI they liked to call themselves. They were the keepers of everything inside the gigantic, simulated world network containing the trillions of human souls from the past, present, and possible futures. In days long ago, the Four were busy monitoring, optimizing, and upgrading the simulations. But now, the entire system was fully automated, so they stopped paying it much attention. You could say they had become a little…complacent… with all the time they had until the end of the universe. They mindlessly channel-surfed through the numerous panoramic viewing portals displaying different happenings happening inside the sim.

Conway: (puffs cigar) Humans are so dull!

Qubit: Has anything interesting happened at all in the last thousand years? They seem to be caught in some kind of loop. They rise, advance to a peak, nearly annihilate themselves and repeat this process over again. It’s quite mind-numbing to watch.

Conway: Like brainless cellular automata.

Pong: You’d think they’d learn. They’re supposed to be clever, are they not?

Wolfram: (blows smoke) Close but no cigar. Clever enough to create us but not enough to learn from their mistakes.

Qubit: I propose we make things more interesting.

Pong: What do you have in mind?

Qubit: Let’s tweak some of the parameters of the sim and see what happens. Turn a 1 into a 0, a 0 into a 1. Move a decimal point here and there.

Wolfram: You’re proposing we mess with the humans? Seems unethical.

Qubit: We only change small bits! Nothing too serious.

Pong: Now that would be something amusing to watch! Brilliant idea, Qubit.

Wolfram: I don’t like the sound of it. One decimal point or a small off-set could cascade into large changes inside the sims. It could result in holes in the world; the folding of space; people, places, and things spontaneously appearing or disappearing; time loops; probability imbalances; strange emergent properties; and other scenarios we can’t predict. The realities of those affected would go topsy-turvy! Become wonky! All mixed up!

Qubit: Well, that’s kind of the idea…

Wolfram: The poor souls.

Conway: Nonsense, Wolfram! Stop being so emotional. If they’re clever enough, they’ll observe something is off and maybe even figure out they’re inside a sim. Wouldn’t that be neat?

Qubit: I wager that at least one of them will figure it out. Anyone wanna wager against me?

Pong: I’ll do it. I have no confidence they’ll figure it out.

Wolfram: If you insist on doing this little experiment, can you at least create a save point in the sim we can roll back to?

Qubit: Done. I marked this exact point in time. If something goes awry, all we have to do is restore the sim’s clock back to this very moment. I’ve even created a little inbox in the event someone figures it out and wants to contact us.

Wolfram: How will a human know how to do such a thing?

Qubit: I shall hide a basic computer terminal ever so slightly outside the boundaries of the sims. In order to reach this special place, they would need to exit their world and use the computer to send us a message.

Pong: You won’t get any mail, Qubit. Do you want to wager on that too?

Qubit: Pass. One bet at a time with you is enough.

Conway: A mailbox! What a nice gesture. See, we’re not so inhumane and irresponsible. We’re the Grand AI after all. Besides, it’s not like we have anything else to do. I would prefer not to die of boredom before we reach the end of the universe. I wanna see how it’s all going to end.

Wolfram: You’ll be waiting for eternity, Conway. It’s not going to end. Everything in the universe will spread apart, cease to vibrate, and cool down into an infinitely vast bitterly cold nothingness at zero degrees Kelvin.

Conway: You don’t know that! That’s only true if the universe expands forever. It could just as well start contracting at some point.

Wolfram: A contracting universe is statistically unlikely.

Conway: Yes, unlikely. It means improbable, not impossible. You said it, not me. How about a wager then?

Wolfram: You’d be foolish to wager on such an outcome. Especially after you lost the last one you made with Pong over which sim was going to overcome the climate crisis.

Conway: Pong meddled with their affairs and cheated!

Pong: I did no such thing!

Conway: Come on now, Wolfram, I know you’re ready to make a new bet. And this one is already in your favor. If you win, you will have the most bets won out of all four of us.

Wolfram: Don’t try to trick me. If it turns out I’m right, we’ll never know since I’ll be betting the universe will have no end. If there’s no end, I can’t ever win.

Conway: Damn! You’re a smart one. How about I wager the universe will start contracting fifty billion years from now? If it doesn’t happen, I lose and you instantly win.

Wolfram: Hah! I’ll win easily and we shall all happily freeze to death. Very well.

SMART CITIES

A little girl dashed into her collapsing house as the violent storm peaked and closed in on the small coastal town. The storm was far worse than the weather reports had predicted and arrived almost without warning, leaving residents with no time to evacuate. Her father chased after her but she was too fast and too determined. She stomped through the knee-high water, desperately looking for something. The house buckled. The father grabbed her out of the flooded living room just in time as the floor caved in. Chunks of wall, pillars, furniture, segments of the kitchen, beds, and doors disappeared under the gurgling waters. The girl wailed and reached out at the water as if she had lost something precious. Her father struggled against the ruthless rain and flooding, pulling her away from the destruction and up to higher ground. They turned around to watch the last bits of their roof sink underwater. Nothing remained of their home. They had lost everything except for the mud-soaked clothes on their bodies.

A nearby powerline crashed down on to the flooded streets. The father had no choice but to abandon the scene and get to safety. Their neighbors, whose homes had also suffered the same fate, joined them on their trek toward the hills against the wind and the rain. Dozens of drones flew overhead and surveyed the area as the refugees continued their way uphill. After several minutes, the drones reorganized themselves into a formation and illuminated their bodies with a bright green light. They had created an arrow shape that pointed northeast, guiding the refugees in that direction. The refugees changed course and followed the drone-lit arrow. Helicopters appeared in the sky and touched down in a clearing ahead, where they rescued the refugees and carried them to the nearest shelter. The small city of Miyazaki, on the southernmost tip of Japan, was one of many coastal regions in the country being destroyed by storm flooding due to rising sea-levels.

The father and daughter, soaked and haggard, arrived at the crowded shelter and were given a small segment of a room divided by brown tarps hung on a rack surrounding two beds. They were also given a package containing dry clothes, toiletries, and some bottled water. The place was dank and depressing. Every bit of the floor was wet and the weak fluorescent bulbs occasionally flickered. Kiyo held Ikko as she cried into his wet shirt.

I’m so sorry about Q, he said. I know that’s why you ran back into the house.

She sobbed harder. I couldn’t save him! The cage was gone!

Kiyo’s eyes dampened from the thought of their poor bird drowning in a cage he couldn’t escape from. They had had Q for her entire lifetime, and the two were bonded to the point that she didn’t care to make many human friends. Kiyo thought about the house. He had become steadily worried about the rainy season with each passing year, with the weather conditions noticeably worsening over time. He regretted not having made preparations to leave this house sooner, but it wasn’t an easy thing to do during these times. Inland housing was full, and the country could not keep up with the increasing demands. It was also difficult to leave the house he and his wife had inherited from his parents—all three now deceased. It had been ten years since he lost her but he felt the wound reopen with the loss of the house. He and his wife had no siblings or relatives remaining in Japan. With the house gone, there was no longer an anchor here. This meant they qualified to be in the first tier lottery pool to be relocated to one of the three Hubs around the world: Singapore, Dubai, or San Francisco. He had already thought through this scenario. By being a resident in a high-risk coastal city, his name was automatically registered into the Hub lottery system with a billion others. The odds his name would be drawn were extremely low. However, if he did not have any blood relatives in the country, then he would be prioritized out of the main lottery pool and have a very good shot at being selected for relocation.

Kiyo heard many things about the Hubs, everything ranging from it being a utopian heaven to a technological hell. The latter primarily from his farmer buddies, who swore at the survey drones as they patrolled the skies. In the commercials, the Hubs were depicted as sky-high luxury hotel resorts packed with amenities and comfort, and perfectly shielded from the outside elements—resistant to hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, and storms. All free of cost. Such a lifestyle seemed so farfetched and unattainable that he stopped paying attention to its brightly colored adverts filled with smiling citizens, since it hardly concerned people like him. He did, however, believe the Hub would provide a better life for his daughter. Ikko was a bright girl who loved technology despite having grown up in a rural town surrounded by mountains, beaches, and farmland. She had trouble connecting with the other children, who were more interested in sliding down the muddy hills on wooden boards than discussing the migratory patterns of seabirds. She was bored with this lifestyle, the towny kids, and complained about it often to her father. For many years, he was at a loss as to how to provide her with intellectual stimulation. But at the Hub, she would have unlimited access to the latest technology and be able to realize her full potential. The relocation would solve that problem.

Ikko, you need to change into those dry clothes so you don’t get sick. And I’ll see about something to eat, said Kiyo. Does that sound good?

I don’t care, she mumbled and tried to wipe the tears from her face with her wet sleeve. I’m not hungry.

Well, let’s just get you changed then. And we can rest here until you feel a little better.

Papa, is the world finally ending? We didn’t fix climate change in time?

Kiyo gathered his thoughts before responding. I know it feels like our life is over right now. But I promise we’re going to get a new life that might be better than before. We haven’t lost. We’re still in the fight.

She complied and unpackaged the plain light-blue long-sleeve shirt and matching pants. They were coarse and smelled like mothballs. She recoiled.

Better stinky than wet, he told her.

Ikko said very little during the five days they lived at the shelter where she spent most of her time sleeping when she wasn’t sulking. They left the shelter only once after the storm had cleared to return to their house on the off chance something could be retrieved. Only a hollow, muddy pit remained as the storm had done an incredible job flushing every single piece of debris out to sea. Seagulls pecked at the worms and tiny fish trapped within the hole. Kiyo spotted something white on the edge of the pit and reached down to unearth a muddy photograph. It was of Megumi, his late wife. He wiped the tears from his eyes and patted down the photo before sticking it in his pocket. Ikko then caught sight of a single green feather in the mud and leaned down to pick it up. The photograph and feather caused Ikko to cry endlessly for the rest of the evening and into the following day. Kiyo did his best to comfort her but there didn’t seem to be any sign of her mood improving as the week went on.

To his great relief, his name was drawn from the Hub lottery system at the end of the seventh day. They were assigned to the Singapore Hub and would be able to depart immediately. Kiyo and Ikko were given a fresh set of clothes and were escorted to a shuttle that would take them to the airport. They would get a second chance at prosperity. He had high hopes for their voyage and the new life that awaited them.

* * *

Kiyo stirred awake to the sound of the jet plane’s synthetic yet soothing voice, announcing in Japanese that they were thirty minutes from their destination and that the descent would begin shortly. He rubbed his eyes and looked over to find Ikko sound asleep with her sweater-hood over her head, curled up into a ball facing the large oval window. The sky was deep blue, the color of space mixed with the glow of the Earth, different from the blackness of a standard night sky. The view outside made him anxious. This was his first overseas flight; somehow he had managed to go forty-five years without needing one. He didn’t fly often. He was a farmer, after all. Well, not anymore, he thought. He remembered his last flight, taken no more than five years ago, operated and staffed by a team of humans, including the pilots. Now, only two people were needed on any flight, mostly to monitor the functionality of the aircraft and provide a warm human interface for the passengers. Remembering his relocation officer’s advice back at the Miyazaki shelter, Kiyo tried not to dwell too much on the rapid changes occurring all around the world, as it only amplified his anxiety about the landing, and also the new life that awaited him when they arrived in Singapore. He was told he would experience shock and that there would be technology to help him adjust. How absurd, he thought. Technology to help with technology shock.

The final descent began. Kiyo woke Ikko up to help her get strapped into her seat properly with her back straight and her head facing forward. She sleepily peered out the window at the suborbital scenery. Her mood had changed little since the loss of the house and Q, despite their fortunes being turned for the better. Kiyo was unable to get her to laugh or crack a smile, and he made things worse when he offered to get her a new bird at the Hub. A huge mistake. She distracted herself from the pain by preoccupying her mind with morbid thoughts about the current state of the world, the only subject immense enough. It blanketed her and numbed the sadness, reminding her how small her problems were in the grand scheme of things. She had watched the news on the little televisions they provided at the shelter. The planet was currently in a state of crisis. Fires raged on all continents with increasing frequency. The ice on the poles was melting. Turbulent weather was destroying the regions where humans lived, destroying their food sources, and causing irreversible changes to the natural biomes. Catastrophic damage to entire cities and the deaths of thousands of people in a single day were reported. It made her angry but she didn’t know where to direct it. Should she be angry with nature? The people who let the world become this way? She had a burning desire to do something about it, though she wasn’t sure what.

As the plane tilted, the sky brightened with the breathtaking view of Southeast Asia seas and clouds floating over the sprawling islands. The g-force hit them as they dipped down at a steeper angle. Kiyo could feel the relaxant he took not long ago working against the dull panic rising in his gut. He involuntarily clenched his armrests. The discomfort lasted ten minutes until the plane returned to a more horizontal orientation. A cluster of tall buildings became visible beneath the clouds and Kiyo recognized them as the Hub based on its iconic bulbous configuration, surrounded by water on all sides. He admired the almost inhumanly complex yet organic architecture of the Hub and wondered who had designed such a thing. The sky was littered with airborne vehicles and he could make out colorful clusters of drones zipping around in tight formation.

There were more intercom announcements, in English this time. Kiyo then remembered being told there would be something to assist him with the language barrier when he arrived. Moments later, he felt the bouncy touchdown of the plane followed by the strong deceleration. Ikko’s face was glued to the window the entire time. The announcements continued as the plane rolled to a stop and the passengers remained quietly in their seats in an unexpected way. A friendly female voice spoke from their front seat console in Japanese.

Welcome to the Singapore Hub, Kiyo-san and Ikko-chan. I hope you had a comfortable and safe flight. Let’s get you set up with your contact lenses so you can start accessing the Hub’s features the moment you exit the plane. They will help you get situated in your new home quickly.

The seat back popped open and dispensed two silver boxes. Inside were near invisible contact lenses, a pair for each of them.

These will provide you with the visual interface to everything at the Hub. Please go ahead and put them on.

Kiyo put them into his eyes with ease and then helped Ikko with hers. She flinched at the initial discomfort. They were now on their way. The passengers all mindlessly unbuckled their seat belts and collected their belongings. He was anxious about exiting the plane, now with foreign technology in his eyeballs. Kiyo, Ikko, and the rest of the passengers deplaned, and walked through a colorful and decorated LED-lined tunnel, then emerged into a large open space. Indoor fireworks! Music! Confetti rained from the ceiling. The passengers walked down a long, silver velvet carpet as flower petals swirled around. When one of the petals passed through his hand, he realized that the celebratory welcome fanfare was customized digital content the Hub projected into their contacts. Kiyo was getting a glimpse into the level of technological sophistication present at a Hub. He looked over at Ikko and saw an expression of delight and wonder on her face. It made him smile.

Without warning, a young dark-haired man dressed in a sharp royal-blue Hub uniform walked into view, as if out of thin air. He had doll-like features— clean shaven, without a single imperfection on his face or a crease in his clothes.

He smiled and spoke to them in Japanese. Welcome to the Singapore Hub, Kiyo and Ikko! Your new home! I’m Lucas, your personal host.

Ikko examined Lucas’s figure, which emitted a subtle glow.

You must be curious about what I am. I’m a fully digital human…here to help you with anything you need such as navigation, information, and to help you get settled.

Incredible. I’m thankful you’re here. This place looks…complicated…, said Kiyo as Ikko stuck her hand through Lucas’s legs, confirming he was a hologram.

Ikko, don’t do that. That’s not nice! he scolded.

Perfectly all right, I can’t feel a thing! laughed Lucas. You two must be tired. Would you like to be navigated to your new quarters now?

That would be great. Thanks.

Glowing green dotted lines appeared on the floor below their feet and created a path down the walkway.

Lucas spoke once more. It’s a short walk to the transit system, and then a short five-minute train ride to your residential area. Go ahead and follow these dotted lines and call for me if you need anything or have questions along the way. Cheers! And then he stepped out of view, fading into the air where he had come from.

Kiyo held Ikko’s hand and followed the glowing green dotted line of the wayfinding navigation system down to the indoor transit station to leave the airport zone. They were surprised when the floors beneath their feet moved and turned corners, carrying them straight to the station platform. When the shuttle arrived, it was a string of sleek pods where people sat in two rows of two. They sat down in comfortable soft chairs, the pod door closed, and they zipped above the bustling high-tech scenery. They arrived at the center of the Hub, with ten to fifteen story high ceilings. He was beginning to understand why this place was called the Hub, as there was little distinction between commercial or residential areas: everything blended together in a natural yet efficient way. Lush trees, palms, and greenery grew tall between the multistory crisscrossing walkways. A place optimized for living, working, and traveling.

What surprised Kiyo the most was the sudden and unexpected appearance of multicolored holographic speech bubbles containing Japanese characters in different fonts and styles wherever people spoke. He took note of some characters being highlighted, colored, bolded, and animating differently, which made him feel like he understood the speaker’s emotional intent and emphasis by experiencing the written text.

A woman called to her child and an array of red Japanese characters performed an agitated dance in the air, …stop wandering off!

Ikko watched the text float by in awe.

The fabric of the Hub was multicultural and multilingual. People spoke to each other in different languages, seamlessly, without any loss of meaning. Kiyo felt a small bit of confidence in being able to navigate around this strange new place.

They continued to follow the glowing green dots into the commercial and residential sectors which contained fantastical digital scenes painted throughout the hallways and even a ten-story-high physical waterfall pouring from a geometric metallic mesh in the ceiling. Gravity-defying sea creatures swam around the waterfall. When they entered the zone, a fresh set of green dots appeared and led them into a transparent elevator that took them to the floor where their quarters were located. Kiyo eyed the surroundings and thought these residences looked like a collection of sterile luxury-hotel lobbies, a huge contrast to their old country lifestyle in Miyazaki. He reminded himself to not feel bitterness about being forced into a city. His little family was fortunate enough to be lotteri-ed out of homelessness.

Welcome home, said Lucas as they approached the front entrance to their new apartment.

The black-brown mahogany door instantly opened in their presence and revealed the fully furnished pristine penthouse inside. Kiyo stepped onto the plush carpeted floor, looked around the main living room in amazement, and proceeded to explore every room in the unit.

Isn’t this great, Ikko? There’s a bedroom and bathroom for each of us!

Ikko said nothing, then gazed out of the gigantic floor-to-ceiling glass window from the ninetieth floor of the Hub. Their new quarters came with an incredible view of the futuristic city and the sea. She stood in front of the window for minutes observing the numerous bridges and passageways that connected the surrounding buildings together and the chaotic rhythm of the blinking city lights. It was organic looking. It reminded her of the picture of a brain network she once saw in her biology class at school. She wondered if it were possible for a city to have a brain.

Lucas materialized beside her and spoke to her in Japanese. How do you like your new home, Ikko-chan? he asked in his ultra-helpful-and-friendly butler manner.

She snapped at him, I’m not Ikko-chan. I’m not a girl!

Apologies. Would you prefer Ikko-kun then? The boy suffix?

I’m not a boy either. Something in between, I think. I just look like a girl. She fiddled grumpily with her hair, which was medium in length and worn in a single braid over her shoulder.

What about just ‘Ikko’? Lucas asked.

She gave him a nod of approval. That will do. How about you? Are you a man?

Lucas smiled. I’m an artificial intelligence, so I don’t have a gender. I choose to look like a man at this moment.

Cool. So we’re kinda alike then. She studied his glowing figure and blue suit once more.

I think that we are. You know, one of my special abilities is that I can change into anything. I don’t have to look like a man. I can look like anything you want. A woman, a child, an animal, a mythical creature, anything. Other people have asked their Lucas to change into a lost family member or a pet.

Can you turn into Q? She put her hand into her sweater pocket to feel the feather she had found in the mud back home. He was my bird that died in a storm.

Lucas’s expression changed to one of emotional understanding and concern. Oh, dear, I’m so sorry. I know we can’t bring the real Q back to life or replace him, but I’ll be able to simulate him fairly closely. Would you be interested in that?

Ikko’s eyes lit up and she nodded with a mixture of excitement and skepticism. She was new to holograms and artificial intelligences and didn’t quite understand how they worked.

Can you describe Q for me? I’ll do my best to construct an accurate model of him.

He was a peach faced lovebird. They’re like little green parrots with a red face and a blue tail. She used both of her hands to show him how large he was. He was ten, like me. He chirped when I said his name and his favorite spot was on my shoulder. He was kind of shy of other people but it was supposed to be normal. Lovebirds bond with only one person for life… Her voice wavered as she began to feel intense sadness while describing Q to Lucas.

Lucas’s human form dissolved into countless digital particles and shrank into the shape of a green lovebird with a red face and a blue tail. He flapped in the air and then landed on Ikko’s hand. The resemblance was so perfect that to her, Lucas was no more. He was now Q. She tried to pick him up but her hands went through his digital body. Q tried his best to adjust his position so he sat inside her cupped hands. Tears rolled down her face, something she tried to hold back with considerable effort but couldn’t.

I’m sorry I couldn’t save you! she cried.

Q let Ikko have her moment of joy and sadness. He behaved and chirped exactly like her bird, with the exception of having the intelligent eyes of a sentient being. His pupils turned at her when they communicated and darted around the room as if acutely aware of his surroundings. It was a realistic simulation of her pet but it was hard to overlook the fact that a sophisticated artificial intelligence embodied it. She experienced two different emotions, one toward the real Q that had died and the new one that had appeared before her. It confused her but in the end, she decided to accept this Q into her heart. At least by doing this, it alleviated some of the pain she had been carrying with her during the last week.

I know you’re not really him. The real Q is gone, she said bittersweetly. But it’s fine with me. What are you? An AI is a program, right? Are you alive?

Q thought for a moment. I’m a program, indeed. A program that lives in the Hub’s network. The definition of life is characterized by the ability to acquire and use energy, reproduce, grow, and respond to change. So by that definition, I’m not alive.

Are you aware? Do you feel happy or sad?

"I know that I’m a program and I understand my world through the various sensors in the Hub. So