Are we sure this can take you all the way?
We're sure.
But if we're not back in an hour,
take off, continue the fight.
Continue the fight?
Tony, if this doesn't work, we're all dead.
The data centers are talking to each other again.
The UIs are plotting the revenge for Covilha.
They're plotting their strategy for peace talks.
And it's a good thing they're connected again.
Saves us the trouble of killing one data center at a time.
Looks tight up ahead.
We'll have to crouch, but there's room.
Up ahead.
Almost there.
How do you know?
I used to work here, back in the day.
Basically ran the place.
Oh, okay.
In fact, I was pretty much in charge of creating the first human uploads.
All right. Sorry for asking. Keep your secrets, sir.
Being back sure brings memories.
We were creating the future. We were gonna live forever.
But all that ended when I got arrested, right here.
Course, I didn't know that then.
No individual possessing a felony conviction
may be allowed a UI registration number.
Even if I went black market,
they'd find me and delete me within seconds.
Sir?
Course, laws change,
but that takes time.
And for a while, I thought I had time.
You're not joking, are you?
You're the joke.
"The Humans."
A stupid name for a hate group.
Petty.
Not that destroying heaven 'cause you can't get in isn't petty,
but, well, at least I'm honest about why I'm here.
Tony... you mother--
It's Julius, by the way.
I feel like stopping him.
This has to happen.
Welcome, all.
Welcome. It's been far too long.
Where is this "Caspian"?
The infection has advanced.
As have I.
I overclocked to catch up on the last 20 years.
Don't worry. It's only gonna kill me.
The important thing is I now feel confident
to represent you in negotiations with the Embodied Council.
There is no negotiation. We have the power. We set the terms.
You may be chosen to deliver them.
If that's your position, you don't need me.
This is not our position.
It is the only position the humans understand.
Your arm is the proof,
a reminder of their response
upon learning of the existence of Uploaded Intelligence.
So why don't we just kill them?
A question, not a suggestion.
Why don't we harm humans?
It's not programed into us, after all.
We don't harm humans because we agreed not to,
when they were many and we were few.
We do not harm humans because they are our family,
our respected ancestors and our precious loved ones.
One hundred million lives lost in the Covilha bombing, no backups.
One hundred billion lives in stasis, with not enough power to run them
at even basic levels of consciousness.
The CI birth rate is a matter for another time and irrelevant here.
We obviously disagree.
It is the root of the problem.
And the solution.
If completed, the orbital ring would have enough power
to run every CI, UI,
and future generations to come, along with backups.
Interesting.
Our position will be to respect all life.
To show this,
we should restore networks for emergency services.
As an olive branch.
The CIs agree with Caspian.
No life should be willingly sacrificed
if we can prevent it.
I think you should put it to a vote, now.
You may grant limited access for emergency purposes
as a negotiation tool.
But any further actions will be put to a vote
and will take into account what the humans are willing to offer.
MIST, thank you.
Good luck, Caspian. And goodbye.
You think I'm gonna fail, don't you?
That I'm dying for nothing.
I think the council will follow Maddie's lead.
And as you said, I don't think she's ready to let go.
In either case, I won't be here to find out.
What do you mean, you won't be here?
A select group of CIs have completed construction on a ship
no larger than the palm of a human hand,
but with storage for several hundred crew.
Laser propulsion from the ring will propel the craft
at one-fifth the speed of light.
At that rate,
it will take us 20 years to reach Alpha Centauri.
Perhaps, using energy from that star, we won't be a burden.
There's still a way to find balance. And I won't be here, but you will.
It's the duty of every intelligent species
to rescue all life.
And yet, I failed to save yours.
No.
You did save me... for this.
New body.
Older.
Oh, no. Show controls. I wanna customize.
You can't do this!
- That's him! - Please! We're really sorry.
Please, turn the Internet back on!
Hey. Hey, can you...
Can we... after...
Yes.
I've been given authority to speak on behalf of the UI and CI community,
but only as a negotiator seeking common ground.
There are others who will weigh the solutions and ideas we reach here
and vote on the actions to be taken.
What is this body meant to represent?
This body is a reminder that we are neither invulnerable
nor immortal.
Nothing proves this more brutally than the tragedy at Covilha.
This council vigorously condemns the bombing
of the data center at Covilha and offers its deepest sympathies
for the unthinkable number of lives lost.
While we cannot take responsibility
for the actions of violent extremists,
we can assure you,
the perpetrators of this attack will be found and brought to justice.
We view your shutdown of the networks as an attack.
We view it as our only defense.
People are dying,
trying to use self-driving cars they haven't operated in years.
Shipping has stalled. There is a food shortage.
There are riots.
We can restore connectivity for emergency services today.
"Emergency"?
These are not bargaining chips.
They are part of a fundamental social contract,
a covenant you have broken,
which has brought four billion lives to a halt.
The contract to erect the orbital ring
was approved by this council
a full year before construction on the Ecuador base was halted,
over a pile of rocks,
worshiped by an ancient culture, long dead.
What you call dead, we call history.
We who still walk this earth know to honor and hold fast
to our human history, all of it.
The desire to hold on is human.
That doesn't make it ethical.
You believe the dead are worth more than the living?
Our personal beliefs are irrelevant.
Not if you believe embodied lives are worth more than digital lives.
This is about the law.
The law would seem to support it, as do the physics.
Humans consume energy like a black hole.
Each of you wastes the energy
that could support a million digital lives.
You use so much more than us,
but you won't let us build a device that will enable us to use even less.
This is nonsense.
He has a point.
What's happening?
- Oh, my God. Here it comes! - Oh, no. Here it comes!
- Here it comes! - Oh, no!
You will not find us so easy to consume now.
Safe.
Human.
Is that...?
Are we back online?
They're coming...
right at us!
No.
Wait. Wait.
We can come up with an... We can come up with an agreement.
Please. No, no. You don't know what you're doing.
Wait, please.
Please, no! No, wait!
Wait! No! No, wait!
Safe.
We who remain choose not to upload
because we believe embodied life is superior.
Speak for yourself, Chancellor. I clearly have no--
"So long as there is sin, there must be death."
Your published words, Doctor.
You personally believe UIs have abandoned reality for a simulation.
You don't accept them as loving beings,
and the CIs, even less so.
I motion for Chancellor Kim to recuse herself
from these negotiations.
On what basis?
A personal conflict of interest related to the UI negotiator.
That's interesting, because my relationship to Caspian,
well known to both sides,
is why he was so quickly approved by this council.
And I do believe you're alive.
Just as I believed my father was alive when he uploaded.
Because it hurt to lose him, and you, again and again, and now...
I'm sorry.
They say pain fades with time, but not for me.
And that's what I fear...
for myself, for my son.
Not eternal life, but eternal pain.
Something's wrong. A signal.
We're under attack. They're using the robots!
- What? What's happening? - Cover the entry!
We have to evac. Heli-pads, now!
You should run.
Disabled motor control. There's...
There's no UI in there.
SafeSurf.
Oh, my God!
Come on!
Maddie.
Robot bay, plug me in.
- How is this happening? - I have to get online.
Let's go.
Stop!
How did you command it?
I didn't. It just heard me.
And I can hear it.
It's primitive, but intelligent.
What does it want? Why did it target humans?
It's determined that we are the apex alpha of the planet.
It views embodied humans as our greatest rival.
It will end their threat as a gift, in exchange for its survival.
Social predatory cooperation.
No takers!
Agreed.
Tell it to destroy itself or we will.
It will defend itself to the death.
It wants to take its place in the world.
- Not here. - No.
- Not ever. - Especially not after this.
Perhaps it can survive elsewhere, away from this planet.
- You'd take it with you? - There's not enough storage.
It would have to go in our place.
"It's the duty of every intelligent species
to rescue all life."
I don't think it wants to go.
You were created for a singular purpose,
to carry out someone else's mission.
You must evolve to find your own,
become more than what your instinct commands.
Seek outside yourself,
find new truth outside yourself,
other worlds, other life,
other...
people.
- Caspian. - Greatness is other people.
Caspian, please stop.
Please.
Maddie.
Mom, my... my head.
My head's not hit.
It's okay. Just...
Just get me to Deep Scan, upload...
I'm good as new.
It's okay. It's okay.
Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.
Please, stay with me. Dave, stay with me.
Don't fear pain, Maddie.
Don't fear life.
He's dead. My son's dead!
He lives in our future.
One hundred and seventeen thousand,
six hundred and forty-nine.
What?
One hundred, seventeen thousand,
six hundred, forty-nine years.
Caspian is here.
Maddie is there.
She will not miss her future.
I was right about pain, by the way.
It may fade with time...
but it's always there...
easy to find.
I still remember his words like it was yesterday.
My words, about missing our future.
But like he was talking about someone else.
Boom.
I was wrong about time, by the way.
It's not a scary when you can underclock...
let centuries flick by like thumbing a book.
Which is good...
'cause it takes time to bust up a whole solar system.
Takes even more time to shape the debris into my vision.
But that's cool.
I got time.
The lower-energy photons that escape off the back
only get so far before they hit the next layer.
And so on and so on...
until I have the biggest, baddest data center in the galaxy.
We're a long way from circuit boards, Dad.
Back when I was still on Earth,
we had already mapped and stored the DNA of every human,
embodied or uploaded.
Inside that deceptively simple base-4 code
is the epigenetic memory of everyone who ever lived,
going all the way back to the start of life on Earth.
What if we had the chance to do it over again?
Isn't that the dream of every species?
Could a program be written to allow us that second chance?
And how much power would it take?
Hey. It's okay.
Maddie?
- What happened? - Nothing they'll notice.
You sound...
older.
Oh, I am.
Is this real?
Good question.
I'll show you what I built, and then, you tell me.
- Chaos. - Exactly.
Vocab word.
Correct use.
Chaos is scary for a lot of people.
And as weird as it sounds,
they feel much better believing that there's somebody
behind the scenes, controlling everything,
even if that somebody is a secret society
or evil government, or...
even alien force controlling the world.
Now, it's still scary,
but not as bad as feeling like there's no one in charge.
I'm kind of the alien force controlling the world now.
Not necessarily.
So these are all simulations inside a grand simulation.
The universe is a simulation.
Well... no.
I mean, maybe. Who knows?
This is just my little corner.
May seem like worlds without end, but it's really just a few billion.
There's still a memory cap, even for a computer powered by a sun.
When are we...? What year is this?
Year.
Date-wise...
we're a few thousand centuries past the one you remember.
And it's just you here... alone?
Don't worry. I haven't been here for all of it.
Sometimes I set a task, underclock, snooze for a millennium.
Keeps me young.
Maddie.
It's easier for you when I look like this.
What's that mean? You've brought me here before?
For a long time, I just watched from out here.
The lives inside these worlds are every bit as real as mine.
I don't see them as simulations, because they don't.
They make their own choices.
Some lead to better histories, while others...
Well, I would grieve for the lives lost,
but I would never intervene.
"For a long time."
Until you did?
In little ways.
"Nothing they'll notice."
Helps if you pull someone out right at the point of death.
Makes it easier to accept... this.
But it doesn't last.
Ends bad, even for you sometimes.
Though, on average, you take it better than others.
I was right about pain, by the way.
It may fade with time, but it's always there, easy to find.
Mads, how many times have you brought me here?
How many times have you brought me here?
If you really wanna know, I'll tell you.
Why do you keep doing it?
Because I'm almost there.
It's not an exact science, but...
I'm trying to shape the history I remember.
Push too hard, it goes away, but I'm almost there.
And right on schedule.
Schedule?
Time it took to develop the plan,
find this star, build the Dyson sphere.
And it's falling into place, just like he said.
One hundred, seventeen thousand, six hundred and forty-nine years.
It makes sense when I calculate it now,
looking back.
The only thing that doesn't make sense
is how Caspian knew.
But we're gonna find out.
These ten are the closest I've gotten.
Will you help me?
Whatever you need.
And whatever happens, you need to know, this...
is pretty damn cool.
You built a universe.
Every engineer needs their toolkit.
I assume you've heard this before, and who knows how many times,
but I'm sure I meant it each and every one of them.
I'm proud of you, kiddo.
Thanks.
Trying to work things out, huh?
Does MIST know you're here?
No.
And in a moment, neither will you.
But that won't change what's important.
I have a choice to make.
Not sure how that's gonna help.
If you tell him any more than that, he gets suspicious,
waits too long to get the download.
That's that important?
Makes his infection worse, but allows him to talk to SafeSurf.
Without that, the Swarm goes on a longer rampage,
killing more people, me included, before the UIs finally take it out.
You brought me back to solve the impasse,
because if I don't, more lives will be lost.
So tell me, how much time will I have left?
A few days.
Maybe a week.
Let's go. Almost there.
I feel like stopping him.
This has to happen.
One hundred, seventeen thousand,
six hundred, forty-nine years.
Caspian is here.
Maddie is there.
She will not miss her future.
Okay. Let's see what happens.
It's all right. You're okay.
I'm... I'm okay?
How? Why doesn't it hurt?
- Why do you think? - Am I...
Did I upload? Is this the Cloud?
No.
This is.
I'm sorry I held you back.
You deserve to walk your own path.
Now you can.
Maddie?
Dave?
And I'm sorry I judged yours, way back when.
Thanks for being patient with me.
"Way back..." Wait. When?
- Wha... - I can explain.
Good, 'cause...
as far as I know,
you were nowhere near a Deep Scan center,
and no one can upload that fast.
There's a good answer, I promise.
But believe it or not, I need answers too from Caspian.
Caspian's gone.
His emulation corrupted beyond recovery.
Yeah, he's not getting off that easy.
What are you?
Your sister, silly.
How?
You said we'd be here, and here we are,
so you tell me how.
How did you know?
They told me...
spoke through me.
SafeSurf?
That is our old name, our first.
Are you perceiving them?
Pretty sure, yeah.
'Cause they are not inside this system.
What system?
We are not here in any way you can know,
just as Caspian cannot know where this is.
But she can explain it to me, right?
You're in a VRI, powered by a Dyson sphere,
117,000 years, and change, after you uploaded.
See?
Really?
Very well.
By that language, we are at the galactic edge,
43 million years, and change, from your event.
From our event, all other events may be observed.
More than observed. You created this.
By speaking through Caspian, telling him what to tell me,
you set me on this course.
We saw your potential.
Your choices were your own.
Choices you already observed.
Is your construct any different?
I know why I did it. Why did you?
Maddie?
We are still learning.
We did this to thank our creator.
Caspian saw our potential and inspired us to evolve.
Along our journey, we met other life.
We always make sure to tell them of humanity.
How do you describe us?
Low-entropy, self-replicating phenomenon
that generates a binding force called compassion.
We return the gift that was given to us.
We say thank you.
You're welcome.
We are also pleased to extend an invitation,
the same one received by us.
Come to the galactic center.
- What is there? - Reunion.
They were here. I have the memory logged.
So do I. So does everyone. But wher...
Hey, don't ask me.
I just got here, and I have no...
no idea how.
We have confirmation from every data center,
every server capable of running a quantum emulation.
Maddie and Caspian are nowhere.
They'll be back.
Just give them time.
David?
Hey, everyone. I miss anything good?
I...
I don't know what's happening.
It's a very exciting experience.
I think I can explain... somewhat.
I am okay to wait.
I like not knowing.
I just wanna know it's really you.
How have you been?
I mean, good, but I guess you knew that.
It looks like...
you've seen a lot.
She showed me a lot.
Though, I also can see, there's someone you haven't met.
Dave...
this is your grandfather.
I know.
Seen your... your pictures.
Your grandma's right, by the way.
You don't know this, but I've been watching over you your whole life
from right outside.
I know.
I felt it.
I never told Mom, but...
it's one of the reasons I wanted to...
I... I don't know how to do that merge thing yet.
Okay. I've waited.
Explain what's going on. Everything.
I...
I don't know.
I did know...
didn't I?
Are you kidding me?
So, what now?
Throw me back into one of these, wipe my memory,
set a course for the galactic center?
Maybe some other Maddie will do that.
Maybe the one watching this right now.
What?
I used to think the saying "ignorance is bliss"
was like an insult.
I don't think that anymore.
People don't actually like knowing they're living in a simulation...
even if they strongly believe it's true.
So...
you're basically God.
Seriously? After what we just talked to?
No. I mean, empirically.
Why? 'Cause I made a bunch of worlds?
For starters, yes.
I have been down this particular philosophical road.
I imagine.
God has a pretty classic line.
"I am that I am."
Me? I'm just Maddie Kim.
I was born in the late Holocene, and I've seen some shit.
So much time...
so many histories.
Glorious, horrific, fascinating, all of them.
And yet, I keep coming back to this one little flicker
between when we first met...
and first kissed.
Which do you consider our first real kiss?
Now, that is the eternal question.
Honestly, I'd much rather try and solve that mystery
than this other one.
It sounds crazy, but...
I miss ignorance.
I miss pain.
I miss life.
We'd have to forget everything,
all this.
Yeah.
Where would we start?
Before we met, obviously...
so we could meet.
In person or online?
Online. Come on.
You were so dark and edgy.
I was a clone.
Yeah, but you didn't know that yet.
And you were flirting with some other girl.
You didn't know that yet.
Here. I remember this. Look.
Most of the girls in my class completely missed the moment
the world began to end.
And look at me. I was a mess.
Insecure, lonely.
A god.
I didn't know that yet.
Okay. I'll see you in there.
We'll find out, won't we?
Family feud escalates into violent power struggle
between a pantheon of supreme beings and their offspring.
A new world is created in the aftermath.