The stories collected in this volume are about the coming to realization of our place as observers of reality, which sometimes contradicts our conventional ideas of who we are. We, the observers, are the ones who construct this illusion of the shared experience that we came to know as the world. Memories train our response and color our daily experience, our interaction with the world around us, reinforcing that illusion of a distinct personality. These stories challenge us to think about what would be of our sense of self if we had the technology to replicate and let evolve our mind in a different substrate, biological or artificial.
In "Once I Was Many," a construction robot realizes that the echoes of many humans' lives hunt its mind. Those false recollections are glimpses of many sentient lives, hinting that existence might be more than the successful execution of complex tasks. After all, individuality may be an attribution worth pursuing.
In "The White Wall," a man wakes up in a strange world set by regularities, simple rules imposing on him a routine that he must obey to continue living. Was his previous self, the one he resists forgetting, just a persistent memory of a dream? If so, is this world the only reality that ever was?
The exploration of what might be reality takes a different turn in "Opus Eleven," where two individuals meet recursively at the verge of grasping the hidden truth about their lives, a moment that seems almost at reach but never quite so. Who is the dreamer, and who is the passenger of a dream? Is reality just a dream? Perhaps, this is a mind cage in which only one is the victim and the other, the torturer.
Finally, but not at least, in "Intangible," a boy accompanies his father to a job interview that would change their lives forever. A revolutionary technology is on the verge of disrupting society, and ruthless people offered them a deal that would put them in the improbable annals of history. However, it is unlikely they would ever see the benefits of their sacrifice.
Each story has many layers of complexity. On the surface, these stories explore the idea of extracting our mind from its biological constraints, keeping the schema of our psyche intact while preserving part of or all our memories, and imprint them into a more malleable media. However, under the surface, the stories explore the grief, loss, resentment, bliss, and compassion of their very human characters facing the awakening to a truth not always welcomed or sought.
I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoyed writing them. If some of them resonate with you and leave a permanent memory, this collection has met its goal.
