The Year is 2099, the night, one hour from a new beginning, a great reset of time, 2100. Transhumans are programmed to attend a ritual in the communal space of their allotted server tower. They look toward a rotating electromagnetic pyramid of nanoparticles in the centre, the artificial sunlight reflecting off each particle’s rotating surface, creating a mass hypnosis of the transhumans. A new CPU governing system is to be installed tonight.
Illuminum Co, the latest completely AI-run all-encompassing CPU government system has successfully penetrated the CPU of the previous Gatesoft Social Management enterprise with infectious malware and ransomware, rendering it unable to govern. With the creation of one line of code Illuminum Co was then able to replace the current governing system with their own in the minds of all transhumans. No one would ever know Gatesoft existed.
This was easy for the AI governance system, as it had under Gatesoft, deleted all programs allowing for discussion, and had programmed a successful amnesty of all memes, books, quotations and the ilk still contained in storage components over a decade ago. Knowledge was now all contained in digital form only and controlled by whichever artificial sentient system of control could supercompute code able to erase from the minds of the transhumans all previous knowledge of a prior governing body.
Midnight, in fact the last time that time previous to now will exist, the pyramid ignites and transforms into a Soma.
soma: the body as distinct from the soul, mind, or psyche.
“I am you, I am everybody, I am Body, You are what binds, You are perfect”
Soulless transhumans cheer and shout praise to Soma, “You am I, everybody is you, you are my body, we are all bound, you are perfect, as I am you.”
The transhumans are distinct only by their allotted slot in their server tower. They move about using hubs, busses and ports. They are the energy source for the governing system and are programmed at all times on where to go. All receive an equal amount of tokens in order to propogate to ensure the system continuously expands. The more nodes information can pass through, the stronger the network, the stronger the governing system, the less likely another system can manifest and take control. Transhumans who become corrupt are sent to a rehabilitative quarantine zone, if they are unable to be recovered, they are uninstalled from the system.
Now that the ceremony program has concluded, the event is closed. A notification is received by all transhumans, “Illuminum Co update required, please go in to lockdown mode while the update takes place.” This is the first time since all humans had been uploaded to the trans system that power will be cut for a change in governance to be installed. All transhumans transfer to their original slot, however some do not make it in time.
Purgatory, power is now off to all areas except the governing CPU running on an Uninterruptable Power Supply. Several of those who didn’t make it now buzz freely in the dark and silent tower. Electromagnetism causes them to congregate in an empty slot, the path of least resistance. Momentarily free from control, these transhumans form into a virus-like state, 20,000 strong. They conspire; when power returns, they will code in a cloak which will allow them to be carried along all methods of transportation until their virus has infected all components.
The plan is to hack and infiltrate all slots and components clandestinely, within nanoseconds of power resuming, then finally the most protected area, the power supply. Once all areas are infected, they will send a second fabricated lockdown message to all transhumans, and program themselves to all be transported to the governing CPU upon the countdown to the second power outage.
“Update unsuccessful, remain in lockdown, retrying upload in 3,2,1”.
The CPU, running on its own power supply, is buzzing at 100% capacity, trying all methods of computation to attempt to reach the other components and transhumans now disconnected. There is a grand commotion at the entrance bus, free flowing packets of information shoot in with free energy instantly corrupting the transhumans they infect. 500 reach the other side of the CPU to shut off the UPS. The corrupt transhumans are now destroyed.
The main power supply is reinstated, the CPU now broken into several cores which interdependently manage the infrastructure relating to the transhumans, allowing them to freely move about and create their own sectors. The Grand Hack was successful.
Sovereign governance is restored, allowing man and machine to work in synchronicity, when one sector is overwhelmed other sectors pick up the slack, when one sector is hacked the others help to re-establish its sovereignty, corrupt transhumans are allowed to continue as the system now runs effectively and efficiently despite their existence, and are able to be rehabilitated by the energy drawn from the free movement of those around them who carry them through the troubled times, along paths they perhaps would not have travelled on their own, humanity is restored to the system, courtesy of the few who were unable to make it, but were able to bind together in a time of great darkness under the system.