"Open your eyes."

I opened them—"Who are you? Where am I?"

"I'll never lie to you. You're a disembodied brain. You suffered a horrible accident. You donated your body to science. It's in the fine print, so to speak, your brain belongs to us."

"What do you want from me? I want to die!"

"Stop that now. Your mind can travel the depths of an inner universe you never thought possible. Allow me to demonstrate. First, you must think within. Imagine a problem you may have never thought solvable. Anything at your own whim ..."

He shut off all my senses.

I found myself free-floating in an abyss of total silence and darkness, isolated and lonely, a terror beyond words. But then I thought about what he said ...

My thoughts spawned all at once in numerous directions. In a state of pure contemplation—I became one with my immediate problem. Then, as I focused on it, thousands of my own voice spoke while pondering and processing. And with their collaboration, I found an answer.

————

"Can you see me now?"

"Yes. Incredible! I transcended everything I ever knew."

"What did you solve?"

"Well, for that moment, loneliness. I felt total isolation. Then, as I thought about that, thousands of my own voice spoke to me—all with different inflections—as if a community formed in my mind."

"Perfect. Those thousands of voices, can they solve other problems?"

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Yes, I believe so. I believe if I concentrate enough, the voices can expand into millions more."

————

With my millions of voices, I solved many problems with the climate, energy, medicine, technology, disease, and space travel—focusing around automation. Talking with my voices gave me a sense of belonging as well as a distinct sense of purpose.

Though I must confess, I also appreciated the sensors my benefactor attached to me. So I could reexperience the sights, sounds, touch, and smells of the world.

Without those add-ons, inevitably, I'd have gone insane.

————

At that moment, I believed I surpassed humanity's ultimate goal—through the complete control of my own mind in the pursuit of world peace and prosperity.

Until that day, when he revealed my real purpose ...

"My colleagues and I have a problem for you to solve. As I mentioned, I'll never lie to you. Due to your success, we plan to resurrect the dead. Of course, they'll still be dead. We want to utilize their brains as part of a giant neural network of super minds to automatically manage every machine, every data, and anything else possible."

"That'll be immoral! You can't just bring them back as lifeless brains! They'll still exist. I'm proof of that. Their souls and essence will persist within their minds. You must set them free. I cannot be a part of this!"

My mentor—turned into a tormentor. He disconnected my robotic senses, which released me of all sensations, including my awareness of time. Somehow, he silenced my voices too ...

Forever, so it seemed, I drifted in a dimensionless void of sheer nothingness. So horrific that its deafening silence penetrated my mind with continuous blasts of high-pitched shrills and a low-end hum. As I begged for my termination, even those thoughts reflected and echoed into an infinite tunnel. I experienced an existential dread of the most extreme kind.

————

"Can you see me now?"

"Yes! What did you do to me?"

"As I mentioned before, no lies. If you argue or refuse, again, I'll toss you into that abyss. Understand?"

"Yes, understood ..."

————

I don't know how much time has passed since then. Based on our conversations and running hypothetical scenarios, I can only assume a few people on Earth remain entirely corporeal.

As to everyone else, I imagine they must exist like myself, as disembodied brains with robotic attachments. If they don't abide by their master's wishes, they'll get sent into the abyss.

A perceivable state of absolute nothingness. A bombardment of everything and nothing. A paradoxical void of terror for which no words can be used to sufficiently describe it.

I really should have chosen cremation ...