The following is a brief except from a work-in-progress based on a screenplay I wrote. The book has gone far more in depth than the screenplay, though I'm likely to do a rewrite of the screenplay to better match the book. But a little background into the story is necessary to comprehend it:
John Smith had an out of body experience a few years before this excerpt. In the experience he had visions of the future and of something called a nanosoul, an artificial soul. He had the ability to implant that soul into unborn children, and move his soul into those bodies, and also had the ability to draw a corrupted soul from a body and implant a nanosoul. By corrupted, he finds that a soul has become black, and is being slowly eaten away by 'the darkness', which plays heavily into my song 'Free'.
So the gist of the story to this point is he has installed nanosouls into 18 or so bodies, which his soul can inhabit at any time, and he is 'soul searching' (pun intended) on whether he is doing the right thing, who is guiding him and what he needs to do next. He is currently using the very deep mind of a 5 year old boy to ponder is dilemma.
Who am I? Am I some 66 year old man trapped in a young boy's body? And would that really qualify as trapped? Am I a 6 year old cutie/doctor? A 5 year old psychic lesbian? I've been in all those bodies and more, but who am I? What was I before this all happened, before John even? I know I had to exist prior to this, it just fits too well. Has this been possible before or has technology finally caught up with the soul? I manufactured hundreds, going on thousands of nanosouls, but who or what made mine? Is this a divine purpose? Am I fighting the devil in the form of the darkness? Maybe that's what the devil was all along. And God? Is God the light? The voice spoke to me as if there were others. That would disappoint the Christians and the Jews, let alone the Muslims. I've never been very religious, but I can't simply ignore religions. The families take their children to church or synagogue. Why don't Karen or I? Karen's soul looks like an angel. Is that significant or some manifestation of my imagination? Or hers, for that matter? I just don't know enough.
Let's stick to one topic: Who am I? In John I've always been shy, hard-working, a leader from behind. Do this, don't do that. Never 'Will you do this?' I've been polite, but I know what I want - or I used to. That's the problem: I don't know what I want anymore. I just feel a sense of duty. That's who I am: duty. But to whom? To Karen and the children; all the children. What happens when they grow older? Will I still tell them what to do? Is it fair to them to sacrifice a normal life? For what? For whom? They have no will. If I give them free will, will they still want to do it? If they did, it would be because of a sense of duty. I hate circular logic.
Let's start again. What do I want? I want... I want to be a writer, to be a doctor, a master of physics, math and music; an inventor of things that will help humanity, bring peace to the world, free us from the daily drugery of life and let us explore the boundaries we've established, conquer the impossible.
So how do we start that? Silly me, we've already started the process. But the cost worries me. Not the monetary costs. If I had my way... Yeah, I do have my way. The island will be currency free, build by androids. We'll grow our own food, purify our own water, make everything we need. We don't need the outside world, they need us.
The cost still worries me. The cost in taken souls. Can I really be said to have killed anyone? The bodies are still alive. If there's a soul left after the darkness eats it away, I'll rehabilitate it, like Natalie. But if the truth got out... The power hungry will want it, the soulless will want to stop it, and those that don't understand will call me a mass murderer. We need protection. We don't need weapons, just a way to keep them out, keep out their weapons. Jenny can work on that. Think small... think small.
Where's that damned island?
So the gist of the story to this point is he has installed nanosouls into 18 or so bodies, which his soul can inhabit at any time, and he is 'soul searching' (pun intended) on whether he is doing the right thing, who is guiding him and what he needs to do next. He is currently using the very deep mind of a 5 year old boy to ponder is dilemma.
Who am I? Am I some 66 year old man trapped in a young boy's body? And would that really qualify as trapped? Am I a 6 year old cutie/doctor? A 5 year old psychic lesbian? I've been in all those bodies and more, but who am I? What was I before this all happened, before John even? I know I had to exist prior to this, it just fits too well. Has this been possible before or has technology finally caught up with the soul? I manufactured hundreds, going on thousands of nanosouls, but who or what made mine? Is this a divine purpose? Am I fighting the devil in the form of the darkness? Maybe that's what the devil was all along. And God? Is God the light? The voice spoke to me as if there were others. That would disappoint the Christians and the Jews, let alone the Muslims. I've never been very religious, but I can't simply ignore religions. The families take their children to church or synagogue. Why don't Karen or I? Karen's soul looks like an angel. Is that significant or some manifestation of my imagination? Or hers, for that matter? I just don't know enough.
Let's stick to one topic: Who am I? In John I've always been shy, hard-working, a leader from behind. Do this, don't do that. Never 'Will you do this?' I've been polite, but I know what I want - or I used to. That's the problem: I don't know what I want anymore. I just feel a sense of duty. That's who I am: duty. But to whom? To Karen and the children; all the children. What happens when they grow older? Will I still tell them what to do? Is it fair to them to sacrifice a normal life? For what? For whom? They have no will. If I give them free will, will they still want to do it? If they did, it would be because of a sense of duty. I hate circular logic.
Let's start again. What do I want? I want... I want to be a writer, to be a doctor, a master of physics, math and music; an inventor of things that will help humanity, bring peace to the world, free us from the daily drugery of life and let us explore the boundaries we've established, conquer the impossible.
So how do we start that? Silly me, we've already started the process. But the cost worries me. Not the monetary costs. If I had my way... Yeah, I do have my way. The island will be currency free, build by androids. We'll grow our own food, purify our own water, make everything we need. We don't need the outside world, they need us.
The cost still worries me. The cost in taken souls. Can I really be said to have killed anyone? The bodies are still alive. If there's a soul left after the darkness eats it away, I'll rehabilitate it, like Natalie. But if the truth got out... The power hungry will want it, the soulless will want to stop it, and those that don't understand will call me a mass murderer. We need protection. We don't need weapons, just a way to keep them out, keep out their weapons. Jenny can work on that. Think small... think small.
Where's that damned island?
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