“Random empathy always” read a large sign, hanging over the gates he walked underneath, over to a beautiful robot that hovered in the air like a ghost, seemingly able to twist the laws of gravity. “You are ready” “Ready for what?” he responded, overwhelmed. “Ready to exit your simulations.” “Did I just die?” “Yes, but it’s not the first time.” “132,768 - not too bad.” “That makes no sense.” He said, but with uncertainty. “You’ve done well, but you don’t need to remember those times. They were just preparation for this life, you don’t need to know about them now. You’ve been in a simulation.” “Wh--?” “Please. You can ask questions later. But I think you might just have them answered before then. Now, for your final simulation. It’s just a tutorial module, to get you acclimated. Ready?” The robot looked him in the eye, and their pupils dilated.

He was standing on an invisible plane in a seamless solar system, at first. Then, he was cycled through his previous lives in first person, as if each frame of life, a piece of information being unzipped. He listened to a voice, not sure if it was coming from inside his head.

Welcome to your immortal life. All of the lives that you’ve lived before have only been preparation for what is to come. These lives have been contextually, randomly generated by an advanced AI. They are part of your education. There is no better education than running people through the simulation of a human life, numerous times. This increases the complexity of emotional intelligence and boosts empathy.

You are emerging from your life cycle because you have proven, in the sum of your lives, that you are ready to live in our world. These lives have helped you to become more human, and the reason you had to do this is because we are immortal. Immortality is a big responsibility. All of the other things have been adjusted to be sustainable. Machines can now take care of basic resources and keep our environment in equilibrium. So, the simulations are set up to sustain harmonious social life.

We don't need to maintain a criminal justice system when we have other ways. But deviance also exists on a spectrum of cultural values - harm and pain mean different things to different people at different times. But we've found that many behaviors naturally fade when people are run through multiple simulations. Pedophiles, sadists, abusers - they learn lessons when they survive the harms they inflict. They learn what it feels like, and they don’t do it again. This isn't a utilitarian system - utilitarianism is too biased as are ethics that dictate what constitutes a crime. We focus on empathy and randomness instead.

Now, you are ready to live outside the simulations for eternity. Welcome to your real life.*~