The Church of Quantum Survival… what the hell is that thing, thought Lucky, as he pestered the LE sphere and disconnected from the nodes of Munich, of Mythic Earth, to ascend through the entangled micro-gates of the Drifts, up toward Titus, where titanic servers-vast as oceans ferrying billions of ships-centralized information before redistributing it.
He had forgotten his breathing, his legs, his eyes. He was almost comfortable, and navigating from one server to another gave him the impression of floating in weightlessness. He felt upon him the millions of tiny "hands" of the AIs, which felt like rain coming from every direction.
A Xeno cult, dating back more than 10,000 years...
…submerged ruins on Hume already show that…
Oh come on, don't start annoying me, he thought, and he grabbed one of the AIs - a small, floating, transparent sphere whose organs looked like three-dimensional trees shifting orientation at regular intervals. A synthesis, you. No, not with words. I want a visual brief.
And before him appeared the immersive projection of the information.
It has existed for at least 10,000 years of Mythic Earth time - a Xeno cult known as the Cult of Quantum Survival, explained a simulated voice, showing the tumultuous seas of the planet Hume, where ominous serpent-men undulated. The image plunged into the green waters toward ruins where marine drones of the HS uncovered frescoes depicting those same serpent creatures dying and coming back to life, inscribed within a circle.
The Xeno Cult, he then learned through illustrated explanations, professes the idea that when a biological brain perceives itself dying, it triggers-within sentient species-a self-search and self-preservation protocol (the famous "my life flashes before my eyes"). It does not seek a direct survival solution, but instead slips into a parallel world contiguous to ours that…
-Wait, what does contiguous mean? Use simple words, for fuck's sake!
In the theory of parallel worlds, as described in the 2522 study by an anonymous author named David, Studies on the Cerebrospinal Fluid of the Owls of Booz, the idea (still unproven to this day) of the existence of parallel worlds is advanced.
-Unproven, my ass! I know the Owls of Booz very well. You can totally say it's proven. It works, they exist.
-Do you confirm that the statement "Parallel worlds exist, this is a certainty" is true? asked a passing AI who was supervising the others.
-You bet I do!
-Do you have elements to support this statement? Evidence, study syntheses?
-My word is enough, man.
And the entirety of the LEs of the whole HS updated simultaneously. At that very moment, millions upon millions of desperate souls, believers, children-who were asking questions about life and death, about the nature of reality and the universe-received an additional piece of information: "Note that we now know parallel worlds exist. This existence naturally changes our approach to the question." And when a few astonished scholars asked for the source of the information, the LEs replied: "This deduction was made internally by one of our AIs and is verified one hundred percent."
The descriptive AIs continued their explanations to Lucky:
-Parallel worlds are infinite in number. For example, what differentiates one parallel world from another may be the position of a single electron around any atom in the universe, and that for a fraction of time equal to Planck time-that is, extremely short. A parallel world can also differ considerably: for example, one in which the Big Bang expanded linearly and cooled very rapidly. That means, added the AI, aware that it had to use simple words, that in such a universe there are no stars, no planets-everything is perfectly dispersed dust.
- Okay, go on.
- The less an universe differs from ours-such as in the example of the single differing electron-the closer it is to our own. It is contiguous, meaning "stuck to" ours.
- Hold on. In all those universes, can anything happen? For example, could there be a universe where I'm the president of the HS?
- The number of parallel universes is infinite, but there are universes that imagination can conceive which cannot exist. Still within his study, David [Anonymous] imagines a universe similar to ours in which gravity would be reversed, and the inhabitants of the HS would have to walk on the ceilings of their houses. Such an imaginary universe is impossible for multiple reasons, but the author mentions two: first, the inversion of the propagation of gravity is not logically conceivable in a universe that would share the same beginning as ours yet evolve differently, in any way whatsoever. Secondly, even if such a thing were somehow possible, humans would not have the same physical structure; gravity defined that way would lead to the planet's disintegration, and civilization would never have built upside-down houses. Thus, although infinite in number, parallel worlds do not encompass all conceivable possibilities. However, to answer your specific question: a universe in which you are president of the HS-whether as an AI or as a human-is not only probable, but also exists in infinite number.
- Okay, how do I get there?
- If one is to believe the doctrines professed by the Church of Quantum Survival, you must be a sentient creature possessing a biological body to reach a parallel world. I fear that is not your case. Apart from this Church, no theory mentions the possibility of doing so.
- So when one goes into the After, one can't use that "sliding into other worlds" thing anymore?
- That is correct. According to the assumptions of David [Anonymous], it is precisely the continuity of thought ensured by Thesianism that prevents one from using the sentient faculty of slipping into other worlds, even in cases of sudden anxiety. That said, the After remains a simpler, and above all, safer method of surviving one's biological body.
- That David guy's a genius.
- I cannot tell you anything about that; this person has not been identified.
- All the better, I don't care. Tell me instead about the ones who can slip into the other worlds.
- This Xeno cult, or similar ones, exist in many worlds and likely in countless cultures beyond our knowledge and beyond human worlds. This belief recently entered the HS and has been structured into a philosophical cult approved by the authorities, under the name Church of Quantum Survival, or CQS. The word "quantum" here must be understood in the sense of a "quantum leap," as opposed to Thesianism: the entire psyche is preserved by slipping. However, some detractors of the cult claim that the word "quantum" is used deceptively…
- Yeah, whatever. Where are they? Who's the boss?
- The CQS is a cult experiencing remarkable growth. Its places of worship on Jerimadeth have generated such attention and revenue that it has spread across the five great inner worlds of the HS. Its main sanctuary, called the Omphalos of Realities, is a vast construction at the center of Alonso's Grand Garden of Wonders, built by an emulation of Michelangelo - a polymath architect from the Renaissance of Mythic Earth.
LUCKY WANTED TO SHOUT I DON'T GIVE A DAMN, and while the AIs were spouting their nonsense, he climbed, node by node, toward Titus's Great Entangled Gate, which transported, for an exorbitant price, ships and rolling trains on rails. A thick fiber also allowed the LEs to communicate between worlds, and he slipped into it to reach Alonso - a continental planet streaked with rivers, checkered with vast prairies where billions of enormous beasts grazed for luxury meat, and where vertical arcologies rose until the sky ceased to be blue. He himself climbed to one of the millions of satellites where the AI continued:
- The CQS was long led by a dual leadership. First, Tmolos - born Rob - who changed his name upon joining the cult. Now head of the CQS faithful, he bears the title of Grand Arbiter. He co-directed the cult with the Great Survivor, a Xeno who was his counterpart on his homeworld, and, if the cult's accounts are to be believed, an expert practitioner of quantum slipping, capable of invoking it even outside life-or-death situations.
- Xenos don't lie, so the Great Survivor, he interests me. Where is he?
- Tmolos and he quarreled over the CQS. Tmolos locked him in a crypt beneath the Omphalos of Realities, to leave him there to die - or, indeed, to slip into another world.
- Why did they fight?
- Tmolos intends to replace the After with the CQS. The Great Survivor deplores the Grand Arbiter's proselytizing nature, his opulent constructions, and the faithfuls' thalers that end up sustaining an extravagant lifestyle. Because of his Xeno nature, the Great Survivor took a long time to grasp Tmolos's behavior; but when he truly understood it, he was deeply indignant and threatened to renounce the CQS.
- Wait, I don't get it: if you LEs have eyes everywhere, why didn't you alert the authorities? In the HS, it's forbidden to harm Xenos, right?
- We did. This order was received by the Xeno Affairs Commission of Alonso's Garden of Wonders Prefecture, and was handled personally by Commissioner Modesty Giunone. She maintains strong ties of friendship with Tmolos dating back to their membership in the same Grip Club at Alonso's Hawking University, and she decided not to pursue the matter - requesting instead that the LEs conceal the information from the HS.
- That Tmolos guy's a real son of a bitch.
- Should this information be added to our data? Do you confirm that "Tmolos is a real son of a bitch"?
- Hell yeah, I confirm.
- Do you have any sources to support this information? Press articles, public statements, academic study syntheses?
- No, no, just trust me.
And thus the LEs were modified, and for years, astonished technicians were unable to alter an insulting line of data that came from nowhere, but that the LEs kept correcting flawlessly.
- But is the Xeno dead? How long ago did this whole imprisonment thing happen?
- It occurred exactly ten minutes ago.
- Seriously? Don't move.
The LEs couldn't move anyway. Nor could he. But he extended his hand-hidden from a server of the After-into the nodes separating Alonso's satellite from the Gardens of Wonders.