CHAP 6: Breakthrough

Six months passed. After we sequenced the genomes fully, I discussed with the fungus what exactly we were going to do, and after a lot of discussion, reached a conclusion. The fungus expressed that a fully assured way of not dying would be impossible with only hybridization. After we did some calculations and tests, we reached a hypothetical maximum value of seventy-eight percent efficiency on the duplication of cells in the human body, and after some consideration, we found that the current efficiency was about half that, at thirty-six percent, of course, our estimated maximum value could not, in fact, be achieved, since we were working with an ideal system. The estimated maximum replication efficiency of the fungus, however, was at a staggering ninety-two percent, and the current efficiency was about seventy-nine percent, which was more than double that of the human body, this, we hypothesized, meant the fungus would have double the Hayflick limit of a normal human. Of course, aging has multiple factors to take into consideration, so this did not mean the fungus would simply live twice as long as a human, even if I didn't know exactly for how long this fungus has existed, which is a question I kept for later.

Another factor for biological immortality would be DNA repair. DNA damage can accumulate over time and generate or facilitate mutations, which can lead to senescence, the fungus has a huge number of bacteria from which we could take the best genes for maintenance of the stability of the DNA. The procedures we've already discussed would most likely be enough to keep me alive for at least another two hundred years, and during those years, I could find even more samples, the fungus could grow even more and subsequently get smarter, and it's very difficult we wouldn't be able to achieve at least biological immortality.

So the plan is to find the best gene combinations and start creating stem cells with that DNA, after that, we would take out my bone marrow fully(which I'm pretty sure would hurt a lot, so it's best I find some kind of anesthesia until then), and replace it with the newly made cells, of course, this wouldn't be all, it would also be necessary to create some kind of system that would be able to replace my cells with the new ones(which once again sound like it would hurt a lot), something that we both have some embryonic ideas for, and we'll develop until the cells are done. I started smoking.

(Does the host think it will work?)

I puffed out smoke.

"I hope it does because if it doesn't, I'll be fucked. But we ran the calculations and checked them at least twenty times by now, so at least the math is right, we just need to see if the biology is right."

(I hope the biology is right. I've been using two of the secondary processors to design not only better secondary processors but also to find a way of not overheating the system if we added more.)

Oh, yes, the fungus started referring to itself as "I" not so long ago. In fact, during those months, I've been more and more convinced it is at least as conscious as me, and I still haven't decided how to feel about that. On one hand, I could say I single-handedly created the singularity, on the other hand, I didn't create it, only made it smarter. In a way, utilizing "we" would make more sense considering each cell of the fungus works alone, but makes part of a bigger system, but who am I to judge what it refers to itself as?

"That was a possibility?"

(It was the reason I only made six. The ground isn't a good heat conductor, so most of the heat generated would simply stay there. I wouldn't necessarily melt, but I would definitely break down.)

"Makes sense. Ever thought of water-cooling systems?"

(That is exactly what I have developed, host. Not only that, I have managed to lessen the resistance between my cells.)

"Did you? Didn't know that was possible."

(I didn't as well, but I found a way to organize them so that more cells would occupy less space.)

"Diminishing the space between cells and making communication more effective. It's a brilliant solution, but delicate control over your own organism isn't exactly super easy to come by."

(So it's just easy to come by?)

"I still haven't taught you about sarcasm? I really must be getting senile."

(Then we must hurry our research.)

The fungus was blind, so it couldn't see my smirk.

"Do you think it's about time I taught you more about relationships?"

(I'm always happy to learn, host.)

I'll admit, this is just an excuse. Even if I am cautious of the fungus becoming too conscious, it would be wrong for me to say that I'm not curious about it as well, to be honest, I'm more curious about it than I am cautious. I disconnected the engraver from the fungus and adjusted it. Knowledge about relationships wasn't exactly something you could categorize, so I decided that a mix of psychology and, something I hadn't even come close to translating before, my thought process when talking to others could work. Should I consider it dangerous I'll be basically teaching this fungus how to lie? Yes, but I'll do it anyway, because, in reality, I've grown fond of this being, talking to it feels like talking to myself, but not actually. Now that I think about it, that's probably the most narcissistic thing I've ever thought, am I actually becoming a narcissist in this life? Would be quite a different beat, I wouldn't mind that. I refocused and felt the jolt as the information was transferred to the vessel, and the fungus happily consumed it. I reconnected the engraver to the fungus.

(Host.)

"What?"

(I love you.)

Well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my actions. That was very fast, actually.

"I don't think you quite understand what that means."

(I do. I saw the women in your life before when they liked you very much, they always said "I love you".)

"Life before?"

(Yes, before you were here.)

"Here where?"

(With me.)

"With me as in location, right?"

(No, with me as in the same world.)

"What exactly did I send you?"

I felt a jolt as the fungus sent me information back. I see the problem, the fungus saw the bombs fall, saw as I died, and saw my hell, well, kind of. Apparently, the information about hell is convoluted inside my head, since it doesn't exactly read as the other information, it is impossible to explain exactly, but it feels exactly like the "non-belonging" feeling I've been having. Maybe my time in hell caused the feeling. I can't be sure, but at least I've gained some bit of information. I must have subconsciously sent this information along with the times I was talking to people since I was thinking about my past life. This isn't all bad, however, the fungus knowing the oddity of my existence here can end up being helpful, and it doesn't look like it would spread this type of information around, worst comes to worst, I can develop a way to take that information away, or block it from being accessed.

(Is there something wrong, host?)

"What do you think?"

(I think there must be something that shouldn't be there, considering that what prompted you to ask for me to send you the information was me talking about you not being from this "world", I can guess that it was that part.)

"You're correct. But I don't there's any particular problem in you seeing it. You won't tell it to anyone else, right?"

(Whether you're from this world or not doesn't make a difference. Actually, I already knew there was something strange about you, in comparison to the other humans I have consumed, your knowledge is much more advanced.)

"Well, the humans are very isolated from the world, who knows if their knowledge would be up to standard."

(For you to know the information you know, the technology would be much more advanced, which would mean that a city with water nearby would not be isolated.)

"Fair point."

(Does the host love me?)

"You've seen my thoughts while I talked with those people, right? You must already know the answer."

(I don't believe that applies anymore. From the way you speak to me, you've changed.)

"Maybe, but it doesn't mean I'm now capable of feeling love for people."

(What about the tiny human outside?)

"Well, I have nothing to compare with, now do I? It could be love, not romantic of course."

(Do you feel any kind of love for me?)

"I like you, but I think it's mostly because you remind me of myself."

(Narcissistic.)

"Correct."

(But doesn't that mean you love me?)

"In the same way I would love myself, I guess."

(Then you do. Okay then, I'm happy with that.)

"I don't quite get it, however. Why do you want me to love you?"

(Because then you can't escape.)

"Oh, "love as a leash"? That one is a classic. I don't think you need to manipulate me into loving you, however, I have no reason to leave or betray you, at least you haven't given me any yet."

(But it feels nice. Knowing someone loves you.)

"In the way I felt nice, or in the way a normal human person would feel nice?"

(In the way a usual human would. It isn't sadistic nice, just nice.)

"Good. You're not lying to me, are you?"

(Am I?)

"If you are, I'm not going to love you."

("Love as a leash" really is a classic. I'm not lying to you, don't worry.)

"I'll take your word for it."

(I'll shut you out for some time, have to upgrade the third layer.)

"Oh, that's fine. How long?"

(Estimated time of forty-two minutes.)

"Getting quicker, are we?"

(You know it. Shutting you out now.)

I lost control over the fungus, but it wasn't like I was moving it around before. I went over to the garden and took some potatoes, since the fungus already had made a system similar to what I wanted, making the garden was not hard, so now I had a steady source of vegetables, and since they were grown with full monitoring and control, they were very good, and I have to say, the ingredients really matter when making food. After that was done, I started noting down some of the combinations I thought about. During those months, we ended up sequencing a bunch of genomes, not just ours, which meant we had a lot to work with. After thirty-one minutes, I felt my thoughts speed up again.

(It was faster than expected. I think we can achieve not only achieve longer life in ten years but full immortality as well.)

"What makes you say that?"

(I found a way to solve the problem.)

"Which one?"

(All of them. The real problem is that the human body functions as a complex ensemble of different systems that entirely depend on each other, so simply making the cells replicate themselves better wouldn't work.)

"Correct."

(But I don't function like that. Each one of my cells is fully capable of working alone.)

"I understand what you're saying. But I don't think it is possible to make human cells work fully alone without also destroying the system they're in."

(It is possible.)

"How?"

(Through the fusion of me and you. We could make changes in your anatomy, which would allow a secondary organism to automatically regulate each one of your cells, making them work as a system.)

"It could be feasible through a modified version of the procedure we've talked about. In a way, the procedure would be simpler, but the path to making it work would be much more complex."

(I believe we can do it.)

"Isn't it possible that you and I would become one that way?"

(We wouldn't. In a way, you would become another core, we would work together, but not be the same being, just like now. We could talk without you being directly connected to the core, you would just need to be in touch with me, anywhere.)

"That would be handy. Let's work on that idea."

We started analyzing the genomes we had sequenced, discussing amongst ourselves which combination would be the best, the new processors on the fungus allowed it to run simulations, something that was very handy. Sadly, most of the combinations we discussed were too unstable, or would just straight-up make something similar to a cancer cell, which, while an interesting find, could not be used at the moment. Some of them worked, however, so we used them as a basis for what would be needed for the other combinations, it was tiring, to say the least.

(The little human has arrived.)

"I noticed. I'll have a dinner break."

(I'll run some more simulations while you take care of your little pet.)

"Not my pet, but alright."

I silently noted that the fungus could now feel jealousy, or it was joking, which would be even worse. I left the lab, carrying some vegetables, and went to the kitchen, seeing Alice washing her hands, her birthday was on the sixteenth of June, around 2 months ago, and now she was 10 years old, during those months, she finished some of the books, which meant I had written some fiction books for her, I'd given her Lord of the Flies, 1984, Animal Farm, and The Modern Prometheus, she had to more books to finish, the next book I'd give her would be Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and then The Alienist, when she finished all of the books, I'd give her the full Lord of the Rings franchise, including the Silmarillion and the Hobbit, and we'd follow up on her education. I plan on giving her the works of Sir Terry Pratchett, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, yes, I'm molding her to have the same literary taste as me, but they're good books, what can I say?

"Managed to make some progress on your secret project?"

"Actually, I did. How was the hunt?"

"Managed to catch two caribou today."

"Pretty good. Where are the pelts?"

"I only killed one of them. I left the skin out there, and the meat is inside the freezer."

"Alright, what do you wanna eat?"

"Some soup would be good."

"Yes ma'am."

I started cooking. Soup done, I put down the plates, one full of meat for Bea, and we ate, after dinner, I started my lesson. After this one, the next one would be with much more advanced subjects, and only after she finished the current books, the next lesson would be on my lab as well, I would, of course, hide the human subjects before that. The lesson went well, Alice was a very good student, but sincerely, I was getting bored of our little routine, which is the reason why I decided to make her work with me in the lab, she wouldn't be able to speak with the fungus, however, and I think it's best if I only infected her when I was more sure of the procedures, and could give her immortality, if she wanted it, of course. I've been thinking about it recently, the implications of biological immortality, but then I realized that I probably could not become more insane than I already am, and I've lived a pretty long time, or at least it felt like a long time, in pure numbness, and I don't think there can be something worst than that.

I left Alice to study alone and entered the lab again. I connected to the fungus.

(You're back. How is the little human?)

"She's alright, getting better and better at hunting."

(I felt it. She gave me some blood, so I don't hate her that much.)

"Oh, and what would be the source of such animosity?"

(She can speak directly to you. I can't.)

"Then what are we doing now?"

(This isn't the same, you can't hear me, and I can't hear you.)

"You do understand you could make something like a puppet and talk directly to me, right?"

(I can't.)

"You can't? I always thought you could, just didn't because it wouldn't be efficient or something of the like."

(Maybe I could do it with the upgraded processing power, but I'm sure I couldn't before.)

"Why don't you try, then?"

(I'll dedicate some of my processors to design that. On another note, we should start working.)

"Discovered anything while I was gone?"

(I've run some more simulations and found some more combinations we could use as a basis. I'll send you the information.)

"Alright."

I felt the familiar jolt, then saw the combinations. This is better than the other basis we had, estimated efficiency of sixty-three percent with the maximum being eighty-two, and the DNA repair is pretty effective, not only that, the cells are pretty resistant, and they can duplicate rapidly if stimulated.

"We can go off of this, and try to upgrade it."

(Exactly my thoughts. I've done some other combinations with it as a basis, but still haven't run the simulations. You could make some other combinations as well, then I'll run the simulations. I think we should try to find some kind of relation to see if we could find the best combination possible faster.)

"Alright, you run the simulations and send me the data. I'll do some more combinations, and see if I can find some kind of logic between the genes."

(Will do.)

I started making some combinations, which was still a process as boring as ever. As the fungus sent me the data of the simulations, I started checking for some kind of pattern. I would send more possible combinations to it, analyze the data I received, make some more combinations with whatever kind of pattern I discovered, rinse and repeat. We did this for the whole night, and this was the routine for three more months.

I was smoking while writing down more relations between the genes, I'm sure even my old world did not have such an accurate mapping, but they didn't have such a powerful tool as the fungus, which grew slowly every day, becoming more and more of a supercomputer.

(WE DID IT!)

"What?"

(The theoretical best combination, I found it! Well, best with the genomes we currently have.)

"Well, send it to me."

(Will do!)

I felt the jolt, and saw the combination, my brain watching as everything we'd worked out came together, exhilaration passing through me. Now we needed to work out the procedure to transform my body, which would be much harder, but at least more mentally stimulating than simply writing down genes you thought would work based on a very theoretical set of relations.

(I'll take some fresh cells from you, thanks.)

I felt a sharp pain in one of my legs, Bea barked at the fungus, and I saw quite a big wound on my leg, which the fungus proceeded to bandage, my accelerated healing would take care of the rest. This was confirmation it could hurt me, which made my stance much more cautious, even if it had bandaged the wound right after.

"You could've asked more nicely, and was it necessary to take so much blood?"

(I'm sorry, I wanted to taste you a little, and I know you wouldn't comply.)

"I surely as well would not."

(You taste just as I thought you would.)

"Which is?"

(Tastes like stress, but I like it. I can see why you like nicotine so much now.)

"Did I make a smoker out of you?"

(Maybe. Can I get some more?)

"Of course not. I can lend you a smoke, though."

(Maybe later.)

"I'll hold you on that one."

(This will take all of me, I'll be quiet for some time.)

"Take your time. Perfection takes patience."

I disconnected from the heart and left the lab. I entered the study room and found Alice, who was currently reading the book on biology, which was the last one she needed to finish before I gave her the more advanced lessons, and allowed her to enter my lab, which would be more fruitful than reading a book, but she still needed to know the basics. Alice closed the book, yawning, and then she turned to me.

"Out of the lab? What happened?"

"A breakthrough, working yourself to death makes your productivity lessen, I'd know, I've been there."

"Breakthrough? On what?"

"Biological immortality."

I supported myself on the wall.

"Why would you be researching that?"

"What kind of question is that? It's been one of the most important questions to science since its start, even if people these days don't like to admit that anymore, the alchemists were much more ambitious, and I admire that. Sounded like Victor there for a second, let's just hope my monster doesn't destroy my life as well."

"You're dying, aren't you?"

I sighed and looked up.

"I'm not sure, there are signs that indicate that yes, I'm dying, but there is also evidence that I'm healthy. But I'm not the type of guy to leave things to fate. Probability is a constant, so I make sure to tilt the chances to my side."

"So you're trying to become immortal?"

"Well, I was researching how to live longer, but those things go hand in hand."

"How exactly did you reach that?"

"I'd need to show you, and for that, you have to finish that book."

"So you'll let me see whatever it is that you're hiding?"

"Yes. Maybe you can even talk to it? Pretty sure it doesn't like you, though."

"It speaks?!"

"Not exactly speak, but you can communicate with it."

"So whatever "it" is, it has been helping you with your research?"

"It's been helping me with everything."

"It is the black thing, then?"

"Correct."

"So that thing isn't you?"

"No. But in the future, it kind of will be."

"Is it how you're going to achieve biological immortality?"

"It is the key, yes. My "philosopher's stone" of sorts. Now that I think about it, that's a very accurate analogy."

She got up and went over to me, she tried looking intimidating, but the height difference really only made her look cute.

"You won't end up killing yourself, right?"

I looked down at her.

"That's the plan, yes."

"And if this thing doesn't work?"

I crouched to get eye-to-eye with her.

"Here's a little thought process for you. If you had the chance to have surgery to save you from a terminal disease, but had a thirty percent chance of dying during the procedure, would you take the chance?"

"If you're going to die, wouldn't it be best to die naturally, and not by simple chance?"

"It's always chance. Always has been. A person lives more than the other simply by chance, a multitude of coin tosses. This procedure is just going to be a bigger bet, the coin toss to win all coin tosses."

She looked at me, and I watched as her face passed through multiple emotions, finally setting on anger.

"So you're just killing yourself, planning to leave me alone, what about always waiting for me?"

I put a hand on my forehead.

"I believe you don't understand."

"I do-"

"No, you don't. I have, at best, twelve years to live, and I'll be running a close game since to finish the research for the procedure, it will take at least eight years, eight years I can't even be sure I have. I either die, or I try not to die. There's only one of those choices that makes some kind of logical sense."

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR LOGIC, I CARE ABOUT YOU!"

Kids and their needless drama.

"You think I don't know that? Part of why I'm doing this is exactly because I don't want you to have another person die on you."

She started crying. I hugged her, patting her back. Silence.

After a long time, Alice finally stopped crying, cleaning her face from snot and tears.

"You okay?"

"No."

"Fair answer. I won't die, don't worry."

"You promise?"

She showed me her pinky finger.

"I promise to try."

I enlaced her pinky finger with mine.

"I'll help."

"Sure. Now go wash yourself."

Alice went to the bathroom, and I turned back, picking The Modern Prometheus from the bookshelf. I skimmed over the pages, landing on one of my favorite quotes. "Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it."