Chapter I
jhn3223 never had a doubt that he would eventually beat grandmaster13. grandmaster13 was good, there was no doubt about that - but there was an element of predictability to his moves that would ultimately lead to his downfall.
Having rechecked his gameplan for the third time, jhn3223 rested for a minute. Frequent rest and relaxation was a must for successfully executing a planned attack. In fact, an idle enemy was often looked at with mistrust, with the knowledge that it was inevitably the lull before the storm.
Lying back on a magnificent four-poster bed tailored to his comfort, jhn3223 couldn't help but wonder about the history of the game he worshipped so deeply, or for that matter, the world that he lived in, a gigantic game in itself.
It had all begun with the development of high-quality virtual reality, or Virtuo, as it had been nicknamed. Virtuo had been the technology that had changed everything. It had come with the force of an avalanche, obliterating a way of life, and establishing a new order. Virtuo was the first of a series of software designed to separate the physical body from the mind. In technical terminology, it could re-route the neural pathways of the human nervous system to permit alternate channels of input and output. With Virtuo, a person could enter an alternate reality, develop a world and a life for himself. The physical world could be forgotten, at least for a little while, until the pangs of hunger and the aches of bad posture jolted him back to reality.
Or that's how it began. The sacrosanct laws of economics could have foretold the unfolding of events. Driven by public demand, the technology that powered Virtuo became better, faster, smoother. On the other hand, ways and means were found to `power down' the human frame - reduce the power consumed by the body to less than a few microwatt, by shutting down the digestive and circulatory systems, and maintaining energy supply solely to the brain. The brain being nothing more than an electrical device created from organic matter, it could be powered by a single maintenance-free electromag battery that would absorb electromagnetic energy from its surroundings and pump it through its circuitry.
The masses were happy. They could now spend months and years together in Virtuo without bothering to come back to the real world. The real world? Virtuo _was_ the real world. In Virtuo, everyone was happy. It was a new kind of society with the same people, but in different avatars. From the beginning, Virtuo was fully networked. The teacher, the barber, the mechanic - everyone had equal access to resources. With the Virtuo Administrative Society, or VAS, standardizing minimum comfort supplies to all its participants, Virtuo was reaffirmed as a place where everyone could be content. Ambitions, wars and social issues persisted, lest the individual should die of boredom, but Virtuo was essentially a meritocracy, where the smarter the individual, the greater his chances of fame and glory. The venerated hacker could even tweak variables to his comfort to gain a little extra that others could only dream of.
The technology that powered Virtuo changed over the years, but the original name was retained. After version thirty-one, the software was self-sustained and `perfect to the nth degree', as the CEO of Virtuo Inc. put it, before he retired to become a permanent part of the virtual world.
A mild chime in the background brought jhn3223 back to his plan of attack. Yes, grandmaster13 was somewhat predictable. I wonder why, he thought. A few years ago, no sensible hacker would have dared to underestimate the tactical genius of grandmaster13, known as he was for the wildest of attacks, and the ability to pull solutions out of thin air.
Never mind all that, thought jhn3223. It was time for war.
Chapter II
Looking back, jhn3223 marvelled at how smoothly his plan had succeeded. He had defeated the champion! He had finally defeated the unconquerable grandmaster13.
It was customary to review every battle after it had been fought, to identify personal strengths and weaknesses, and those of the enemy. jhn3223 found himself tracing grandmaster13's steps back to their inception, marking points where assumptions had been made, some right and others not so right. The decisive battle had been fought exactly as he had predicted. Where had grandmaster13 gone wrong? Strangely, thought jhn3223, everywhere.
Now that all was over, jhn3223 could finally find the time to retrieve records of previous battles and wars orchestrated by grandmaster13, in which he had always come out as the final victor. jhn3223 carefully analysed record after record from the archives, battle after battle...
---
After many excruciating hours of concentration, jhn3223 threw back his head in satisfaction. The evidence was undeniable. The transition point seemed to be around a year ago. Prior to this point in time, the movements of grandmaster13 seemed to have a will of their own, as if they were individual notes of a grand symphony, coming together gracefully to form an unparalleled whole. In the later parts, though, jhn3223 could trace a scent of the same predictability that he had noticed earlier. The scent of a bot.
---
A bot was nothing new. The concept of a bot originated in times immemorial, when the computing power of software would be harnessed to create a persona that the creator wished to impose upon it. With the evolution of Virtuo, bots began to be frowned upon, because they had no place in a society of real people. They gradually became a subject of taboo, and a hacker who created one would invariably face intense unfriendliness from his peers. Moreover, bots could be recognized rather easily by their behavioural patterns, as well as their neural signature.
But not this one, thought jhn3223 grimly. grandmaster13 was indeed skilled; his bot had the exact replica of his own neural signature, and the behavioural patterns exhibited by it seemed to be a work of art. Indeed, it was to jhn3223's credit that he had been able to discover the greatest cover-up of the twenty-third century.
With the evidence in his hands, jhn3223 wondered what he was to do next. The correct step would have been to notify the VAS, along with logs of the evidence that he had gathered. But in the world of Virtuo, every man had to look for opportunity - and this one was too good to be thrown away. Blackmail, thought jhn3223 grimly.
---
shellk27 was not happy. This was an unnecessary and strange state of events, because Virtuo was meant to prevent such a thing from happening. And yet, thought shellk27, it was a game - nothing more than a game.
Like grandmaster13 and jhn3223, shellk27 was a born hacker. Her abilities notwithstanding, she preferred to indulge herself in social research, attempting to understand relationships between people and events, societies and eras. In many ways, it was a far more satisfactory field of activity, requiring just as much mental throughput, but with more returns. It was an involvement in the act of creation and love, rather than destruction and enmity.
jhn3223 had already been on his way to fame and fortune when shellk27 had met him. It had essentially been a chance meeting at a lounge in an airport, where both had instantly recognized a hint of the other's abilities. Of course, this had not drawn them closer immediately, but over the years, they had met occasionally and corresponded frequently, leading a strong friendship founded on mutual respect.
It was this respect that had prompted jhn3223 to call shellk27 and share the secret of his discovery; she would definitely be an excellent partner in his enterprise. Virtuo was not a world where he would want to go it alone; allies were essential for the precise execution of his plan. And shellk27 - she didn't really understand how gifted she was....
Chapter III
When shellk27 hung up the phone that afternoon, she had a lot to think about. jhn3223 had revealed to her something both puzzling as well as exciting. shellk27's ambitions did not center on wealth as much as jhn3223's did, so she had listened to the plan of blackmailing grandmaster13 with polite detachment. What really excited her was that now, she had answers to a lot of questions that had been on her mind for a long long time.
There were many things jhn3223 did not know about shellk27. The fact that shellk27 had been good friends with grandmaster13, for instance. In fact, grandmaster13 had been a frequent guest and visitor, at least when he wasn't planning some new strategy for war.
But a year ago, things had changed. grandmaster13 appearance had seemed to indicate some nagging worry deep within him. shellk27 was probably the only one with a mind sufficiently trained to recognize the pattern of worry and anxiety that had been painted in invisible shades across his mind. She had ventured to ask him, more than once, but had never received more than a boyish grin in return.
And then he had become cold and logical. His visits had become less frequent, and on the rare occasions that she had met him, he had not said much, except a hurried goodbye.
So it was a bot! That explained why their friendship had fizzled out tamely, and why he seemed to have become vague and distant. She smiled inwardly, thinking that nothing short of her own expertise would have imbued a spark of emotion in a creature composed of computer software. grandmaster13 could have trusted her with whatever problem he had faced. Why couldn't he have told her? And where was he now?
---
jhn3223 began his exploratory journey with the glee of a child on its first adventure or picnic. Bots would generally be controlled by a real person in hiding, and so the communication link between the two would undoubtedly reveal the source. For a bot such as this one, things would be complicated by the fact that its logic was completely self-sustained - there was no communication link between grandmaster13 and the bot. The alternate route was well-documented but difficult; he would have to trace the bot's activities back to its source, marking its tenuous tracks in Virtuo, until it finally led him back to the point of the bot's creation. This would be the point in time where the switch was made between the real person and the bot, and this was the only weakness that jhn3223 would be able to exploit.
For someone who had nothing to do with social paradigms and community behaviour, grandmaster13 had done an extremely good job with the bot. That was the main reason why jhn3223 wanted the help of shellk27 even in the initial stages of his plan. She was the one who could identify patterns in the bot's behavioural styles, linking the clues together to form a bridge to the past.
It was no more than a matter of time now, before the gates of knowledge would open for him.
Chapter IV
It was six weeks before jhn3223 met shellk27 at a convenient and secret meeting place. It had taken a considerable amount of time to decipher the codes that kept grandmaster13's chest of magic tricks safe from peering eyes. But now that they had finally done it, it was time to find out where grandmaster13 had really gone.
``You sure this is the place?'' asked shellk27, looking into a dark room with a variety of bizarre gadgets littered around.
``Yes, of course'', said jhn3223 sharply. There was no room for doubt as far as his ingenuity was concerned.
``Hey, here's a recording - and look at what it says!'' said shellk27 in surprise.
The tiny device in shellk27s palm had ``To John and Sue'' written on it, in plain bold letters.
---
When the holographic figure finished its animated monologue, shellk27 and jhn3223 continued to stare into the space where it had appeared, waiting for the shock to sink in. The apparition had been an almost exact replica of grandmaster13, in physical appearance. It had spoken -
---
grandmaster13 was dead! The unthinkable had happened, and he had created the bot to take his place and lead them there.
The human race would become extinct! Every single person in the real world was now in Virtuo, living in a dream, and the technology that kept them alive and prolonged their existence was not perfect - it could never be. And without sons and daughters to lighten the day when Death laid its cold hands upon them, it was only a matter of time before the coming of the end.
``You have to get back to the real world. This gateway will take you there. You need to gather as many of the others as you can, and find a way to shut down Virtuo.'' grandmaster13's urgent words echoed in John's mind. He looked at Sue, unsure what to think.
The real world.
There was once another place, another life, Sue was thinking. Now, it was no more than a memory, buried in the depths of time.
THE END
Afterword
``The Forgotten Future'' presents the idea of a society struggling to establish a superior world, only to move towards self-destruction. Whether such a situation may actually come to pass is doubtful. But it is apt to compare this narration with the Wachowski brothers' ``The Matrix'' and William Gibson's ``Neuromancer'', where an agent possessing artificial intelligence is actively manipulating and controlling the virtual world. In this case, however, human beings are the ones who appear to be in control, although the control is shown to be superficial. The names used in the story are a relic of the networked age, when short alphanumeric character strings were adopted as unique identifiers, in an effort to conceal one's identity. The abandonment of old names was a prerequisite for the adoption of new identities.