Eternity

Peter and his brother James live in a highly technologically advanced world, and they are volunteers for a recent program aimed at extending people’s lifespans. Extending people’s lifespan has been a very challenging task, but this program seems to manage it.

Peter and James entered the program intended for fifty years, and they have lived fifty years without any illness. The scientist said this was using a newly developed cell, which self-duplicates instead of following the brain’s order. Meaning even if the brain thinks they are growing older, the cell will not follow the brain’s order to decay. The scientist also must remove some of Peter and James’ memories, so that their brains don’t hold too many memories from their years.

Peter lost a day of memory last week. This is uncommon, because peter dislike losing recent memories. The scientist replied that Peter had seen something extremely uncomfortable. So, he decides to lose that day’s memories. But what the scientist don’t know is that Peter still remembers a thought from that day, “How do I differ from another me?” This is mainly the reason why Peter became suspicious, considering he isn’t a philosopher, and this question that remains from the view of extreme discomfort seems completely unreasonable.

Peter had talked with James, and he was shocked to find that James had lost the exact same day’s memory. Unlike Peter, though, James remembers nothing from that day, except that he felt his bed moving during his sleep. Peter decides to follow his suspicions, and he remains still in his sleep that day until he feels himself getting picked up and transferred away. Peter opened his eyes when he fell still. He was shocked to see many containers containing himself.

“Is this the secret behind living for eternity?” Peter can’t help saying out loud.

“Yes,” a robotic voice replied, “you are a model of our program. We copy many bodies during your prime, and transfer your memory to a new body every week, so that you can live to eternity, so that we can get more money for our future study on how to actually live longer. There have been too many programs saying they can also extend the average age of life, so we must prove ourselves unique.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Peter asked, shocked, because all his current questions had been answered, “And is this not my first time?”

“I am telling you this so your mind is in a state of sense instead of shocks, and we want to make sure that feeling wouldn’t pass through your memory. Also, yes, this is not your first time; you think too much, unlike your brother,” replied the robotic voice.

Before Peter could say anything else, he felt his memory removed, until the last thing he could think was, “How do I differ from another me?”

Next week, Peter feels it’s odd to have a day of memory removed from last week, but the scientist replied that Peter had seen something extremely uncomfortable, so he decides to lose that day of memory. But what the scientist doesn’t know is that Peter still remembers one question, that seems irreverent to the explanation. “How do I differ from another me?”