John 2.0

John raised the glass of merlot to his lips, sniffing it, savoring it on his entire palate before swallowing. He was met with leathery rugged tannins, dark fruit, and a finish of cassis and tobacco. A strong, well structured wine.

He took a moment to marvel at the progress of technology. On the fact that he could have this experience at all.

A mere year ago his body or more accurately, what was left of it, was stretched a quarter mile long by an oncoming train. His DNA littered the tracks for nearly a full stop, strewn about like confetti.

Miraculously, his Ichip remained intact. A cognitive backup, a digital copy of his entire consciousness had been downloaded the night before and saved in the cloud. He was only missing the walk to work that fateful morning. A mundane slice of memory he would have rather forgotten anyways.

John became a part of the first wave of post-human androids. Still in its experimental phase, this was hardly a common procedure, with no guaranteed outcome. But hey, he didn’t have much to lose.

As far as he was concerned, it was an upgrade. He traded in his flabby shell, a haphazard amalgamation of bone and goo designed by a drunken process of random mutation for a sleek, modern machine composed of wiring and carbon fiber, designed by the brightest minds at MIT. There were still a few bugs. The occasional power surge induced migraine and some outdated parts he didn’t yet have the money to fix. The creaky ankle and locking thumb.

Still, John felt nothing but gratitude for the fact that people far more brilliant than he had found a way to cheat death. They had designed an android with sensors so accurate he could perceive the complexity of a merlot, the thousands of sensations that come together to create this uniquely human experience.

He reclined, riding a healthy amount of nerves as he waited for his date.

It would be his first date since the procedure. Human-android relations were not yet... acceptable in polite society. Luckily, Alice was open-minded. Curious, in fact.

He went through all the steps in his mind. Smile, ask questions, pay the bill, playing the night out in his cybernetic head. Fortunately, whoever designed his avatar was kind enough to give him a chiseled jawline and a few other “upgrades.”

“John?” A peppy, impeccably toned redhead asked as she approached.

“You must be Alice! Take a seat.”

He pulled her chair out and poured her a glass of wine.

“It’s delicious!” She remarked.

Her black dress and fiery red hair seemed to compliment the decor of the restaurant, La Familia. It was a small Italian eatery with handmade pasta and a short but impressive wine list, ringed with Renaissance frescoes.

The walls were lined with floor to ceiling windows that gazed straight into the heart of the milky way. The stars shone ferociously up here, 2000 kilometers above earth’s surface.

“How did you get a reservation up here? I heard they were booked up for nearly a year.”

“I made it just about a year ago, planning a celebration. Luckily I found you to come up with me.”

“A year ago, that must have been…”

“When I had the procedure, yes.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Not at all. It was like taking a long nap, but waking up in a new body.”

“Like taking a nap... It’s incredible what they can do these days.”

“Truly.”

“Do you ever worry about side effects? These are still pretty uncharted waters, so to speak.”

“I’m alive. Anything from this point forward is a gift, a blessing. Regardless, it’s far better than the alternative.”

She had a lot of questions, but he tolerated them. Partially because they were poignant and intelligent, and partially because he was transfixed by the cleavage poking out the top of her dress.

The night went on, and as the wine flowed they became more comfortable with each other.

They finished dinner, capping the meal off with a round of scotch. They decided to end the night with a walk out in space.

They donned their suits and proceeded to the airlock. They unsealed the door and it cracked with a satisfying whoosh, like opening a crisp beer.

They frolicked in the cold dead air, bouncing among the stars, two children experiencing the world for the first time. John gazed at the universe before him, transfixed by its indifferent, majestic beauty. Rays of sunlight arced around earth’s surface as they marched infinitely onwards.

As he took all this in, he couldn’t help but think about the strange nature of his existence. That he was a copy, an encrypted download, of his former self. How the eyes that afforded him this sublime view were made in a lab.

He thought back to a question Alice had asked him:

“Do you think you lost anything in the transition?” And he finally had an answer. It doesn’t matter. He had become something different, something new. It was indeed a brave new world they were stepping into, and he was blazing the path ahead: John 2.0.