The Soul
This science fiction story was written by me when I was 18 years old. Although it is a naive story, I still like it, so I share it with you.
A lot of thanks to Goni Rader for translating the story from Hebrew to English, since her English, especially at that time, was by far better than mine.
The Soul / by Rani Pinchuk
It all started when I reached a breakthrough point in physical theories. Following a four year research, I developed a theory whose realization would transform mass into electric energy and then transform this energy into mass. The point was that this process would be conducted systematically, that is, its end product would be similar exactly to the original one. Actually the mass would disappear from one spot and reappear in another.
I planned JM-1, the prototype, for proving my theory. I built it with some students and it was ment to transform only a few molecules. It looked like two small containers. One for decomposing the mass and the other for recomposing it. This machine was connected to a battery of computers and surrounded by instruments for controlling molecule transformation.
We managed to transform about 2000 molecules with JM-1. At the end of that day, after we had finished running our tests, I sat with Thomas to plan JM-2. Thomas was one the most gifted students I have ever worked with. JM-2 was designated to transform big masses, even as big as humans. After three months of planning we started building its prototype.
One day Thomas knocked on my door. He was pale and shaky and said he had to talk to me. He was silent for some long seconds and then said there was a problem. “What kind of problem?” I asked. As far as I knew things were going fine. He hesitated for one more second and then erupted. “Suppose we decode the working process of somebody’s brain, I mean the logic that behind that brain. And suppose we build a computer that will work exactly like that brain.”
I couldn’t see where he was getting at, so I just nodded and he went on talking. “This computer would be an accurate logical copy of that brain and it would “behave” in the same manner and patterns.”
“But” I said, “there must be some randomality in the brain’s development and therefore your computer would take a slightly different direction than that brain. Actually the dissimilarity between those two brains would be getting bigger and bigger all the time.”
“You may be right” Thomas said, “but let’s think of a different situation. Say we would manage to make this brain out of real human brain stuff. I mean, create cells out of this substance and then make a real brain out of those cells.”
Once again I couldn’t see where he was getting at.
“Now, my dilema” he went on, “is how to define this brain - a machine or a human creature? After all, it will behave as a human and develop like one.” I even didn’t stop to think and said: “of course I’ll consider it as a machine. It would be us who build it. It would be nothing but a composition of cells. It would have no soul! And anyway why are you asking these questions”, I got a bit mad at him, “have you managed to build a brain?”
His answer made me shiver. “No, but you have.”
I understood him. It was shocked. If we put a human being into MJ-2 the machine would create an exact copy of his brain. But would his soul also be processed by the computers? And how would we know if his soul had gone through the machine or not? His brain would function just like this computer Thomas was talking about.
Silence was broken by Thomas. “If this machine becomes a common thing, a lot of people might turn into sophisticated robots, without anyone knowing about it.”
Carried forward by the impact of the whole idea, I said “if we enhance JM-2’s energy, we will be able to duplicate a human being. We’ll get two persons out of one. I wonder if the soul would be duplicated as well.”
Thomas did not answer. He left the room, and that was the last time I ever saw him.
A week later we finished running the last tests on JM-2. Its test run was supposed to be conducted the following day.
Later that night I came back to the lab. It was quiet. JM-2 was standing at the corner. Two large cabins surrounded by a lot of instruments. I turned on the computer and programmed it to duplication mode. I stepped into the decomposing cabin…
I do not remember feeling any pain. Suddenly I found myself in the other cabin together with a person who looked just like me - my double. The first movement we did was identical, but a moment later my double asked “did it work?”
“I don’t know” I said. What I did not actually know was whether I had a soul or not.
We dismantled JM-2 together, my double and I. We had no disagreements about that.
We do not know whether Dr. Mirden’s soul (my soul) was duplicated, remained with one of us or disappeared. Actually we are both creatures with a brain like the one Thomas was talking about.
These words may have been written by a robot.