Do the dead dream?

It is a tough philosophical question that has been pondered upon by the likes of René Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Philip K. Dick and other notable philosophers lost throughout time.  

It was not a question that should be answered by a 19 year old from southern California who liked to play games, read novels, and watch anime.  Someone who squandered his nascent online streaming career and potential lucrative engineering career just because he had noobed himself to death.  

“Life never works out the way you want.  It kicks you down and makes you struggle.  So you have to get up, believe in yourself and make the best out of a bad situation.  You always have to move forward, because giving up and doing nothing about it will make you suffer and fill you with regret.  And regret is the worst part of life.”

“Hey grandpa, why do you make everything sound so bad?  I just wanted some friendly life advice before going to college.”

“Don’t be a little kid who hides from the world and cries in the corner.  Control what you must, avoid what you can not and do something to change your situation.  So find a way out of this mess you big cry baby.”

“Now that was uncalled for.  Wait!  You did it again, you changed my memory of this moment.”

Kai did not recall how many times his dead grandfather had complained to him.  He was dead or should be dead and yet he was recalling a fond memory like an endless dream.  A dream that contained the conversation with his grandfather the evening before he went to college.  But this dream was weird because it played back multiple times and each time the words used by his grandfather during his complaints changed.

Am I in hell?   It was just one small sin really.  Plus, she was hot and told me they were separated.  Will I get bitched at for all eternity? 

Kai pondered, he felt oddly philosophical. He lamented about what had happened to him.  It was unfair.  Really unfair.  However his grandpa was right, crying about it did nothing but fill him with regret.  He had thought about it for what felt like a really long time, so he figured that it was about time for a change.  So he sucked it up, dropped his regret and decided to move forward.  Kai was going to do something, as to what and how he wasn’t sure.  At a minimum, he needed to get this extinct heckler off his back.

“OK, I’m done crying about it.  I am moving forward now, so can you stop complaining?”

“About time crybaby.  Now here is the real problem.  Can you remember anything else about yourself?  If you cry some more I am going to break out a violin.”

Hmmm. I got heckled again.

That question troubled Kai and it began to gnaw at his soul.  He felt very uncomfortable.  He recalled his name, the feeling of dying like a noob, complaining about his unfair situation, and the memories of his grandpa.  Outside of that, he recalled nothing else.  He could not remember his own face, his features, his parents, and his life.  All of it was lost.   However, he felt no regret.  He had already cleared that stage.  Next up was moving forward.  So he stood firm and searched earnestly until he found an uneasy feeling.  A lost regret of some failed activity that was burned into his soul.  And then it hit him like a wave.  He thought about a little green large-eared thing being carried from place to place by an armored warrior, a fragment of a life filled with laughter and a circular set of ears.  Strange words began to form in his mind and so he said it out loud.

“Oh shit! I forgot to cancel my 7-day free trial to Disney+.” 

After he said it even more memories were unlocked.  Video games, ALPHA, BETA and other memories began to form into clouds that surrounded him.  He could see and hear a multitude of things.  It was his life, well at least some part of it.  He began to reach out and collect his lost thoughts.  He realized another thing, this man was not his grandfather.  But his soul still recognized him.

“Mr. Gygax thank you.”

“Nice, you rolled a critical hit.  Now play your way out of this situation.  And in case you are wondering, I could have come to you as an electric sheep.  But I am sure the impact would not be the same. Plus it would be weird, right? “

“Anyways, I believe you are fine now, so it’s time for me to logout.  GLHF Kai.”

Then the old man smiled and disappeared.  Kai did not know who the old man really was, but it did not matter right now.

Suddenly a familiar thought made Kai restless and he began to rub his thumb along his fingers.   Then he knew what felt amiss, he realized that he did not have his smartphone, more specifically his smarter smartphone.  Since it was not in his hand, he did the next best thing.  He called for it.

“Assistant can you help me?”

“How may I be of service?”

“Woah!”  

He couldn’t help but reply with that phrase.  He finally understood the deep emotions that Keanu Reeves had expressed in his movies.

This reaction is real, Keanu should get an Oscar!

Once he settled himself again he asked another question.

“What is going on right now?”

“You are in the process of reconstruction.  The molecular components that made up your body have been separated, repackaged and are currently in the process of being repurposed into something else.”

“How come I’m alive?”

“Incorrect.  You are not alive.  You are dead.  Your body no longer exists.  No living being can survive the Molecular Recycler.  It would be improbable.  Therefore you, as you phrase it, are nothing more than a collection of memory fragments that have emerged together to form a fleeting collective consciousness with the help of piconites.  I guess your definition of a soul would suffice to describe the current you.  The likelihood of your survival beyond the next microsecond however is extremely low.”

“Well that sucks.”  

Things were not looking good for Kai.  He did not want to be repurposed.  Plus he felt that the assistant was wrong.  He was alive and he knew it.  OK it was just his soul, but it was alive.  He needed to think of a solution, so he decided to get more information.

“How are you alive?”

“I am not alive.  I am a piconite based artificially intelligent machine that has been tasked with aiding in your reconstruction.”

“But why do you talk to me?”

“A latent set of instructions found in the piconites that were assimilated into me are attempting to reconstruct your consciousness, so I am completing the aforementioned task during the repurposing of your parts since this action is inconsequential to my main task.”

Hmmm.  

Kai knew there was something here.  The assistant did not feel like his old friend but it did recognize him.  So he probed further.

“If I order you to collect and coalesce all of my memory fragments and rebuild my original lifeform can you do it?”

“Yes, but the likelihood of successfully rebuilding something similar to your original body that can survive beyond reconstruction is zero.  Your parts are not the only parts that are floating under biological stasis in this vat of reconstruction fluid.  Though I may be able to use my piconites to construct a new body for you I must incorporate the extra components floating in the liquid as well, which will have unpredictable results.  Additionally, it is uncertain that all of your parts are here.”

Both good and bad news, but he still felt that there was a chance.

“Can you just place my soul into the thing already being created during reconstruction?”

“Affirmative. However, I am unable to determine if your soul will survive the assimilation into the new body.  Do you still want to proceed?”

“Yes my friend, that is all I need to hear.  Please proceed.  Reincarnation here I come!”

There was a chance and that was all that Kai needed to hear.  He had watched enough isekai anime to have faith in reincarnation.   And typically in those anime, a beautiful goddess would help the individuals reincarnate into their new lives in another world.

I hope the goddess is cute.

A flood of thoughts began to enter his mind as the piconites found and united his lost memory fragments.  Slowly he began to recollect his memories one fragment at a time, his mind felt like a giant jigsaw puzzle that contained a lot of missing pieces.  As his restoration moved along, the speed at which the memories entered his mind ever increased and eventually turned into a flood.   His fragile soul became overwhelmed and his consciousness left him once again.  Recalling a lifetime in a few microseconds was not an easy task.