August 2031, Rocket City, Sazhou, Liang Nation
Clinical statistics showed that women in intellectually demanding jobs were more prone to postpartum depression.
Daphne's symptoms weren't severe. Her doctor recommended moderate exercise, dietary adjustments, and finding ways to distract herself, such as watching movies, traveling, or playing games.
Little Vito had been diagnosed with epilepsy. A small area of his brain had an abnormally high concentration of neurons, which caused intermittent, uncontrolled electrical discharges.
The doctor recommended a minimally invasive surgery while the child was still young and his skull had not yet fully closed. He should make a complete recovery.
Although the surgery posed little risk, Daphne was deeply worried as a mother, and it had worsened her depression.
Michael understood how Daphne felt and did everything he could to help her manage her emotions. The best approach, of course, was to distract her.
Little Vito was sleeping soundly in his swaddling clothes. Michael opened his computer and played a video for Daphne.
"Darling, our transport spacecraft have delivered the first batch of supplies for the Capsule project to Mars. The fully enclosed Mars work-life cabin will soon be complete."
Daphne noticed electric driverless pickup trucks speeding across the Martian surface and humanoid robots inside the cabin. She asked curiously, "Is this computer-generated, or footage of the real thing?"
"It's computer-generated, but the electric pickup trucks and humanoid robots really have been sent to Mars. The scenes in this video will become reality in the not-too-distant future," Michael said.
"Humanoid robots can't completely replace people yet. Have you started recruiting Mars volunteers for your project? I envy those volunteers. I even feel tempted to take Little Vito and live in the Mars Capsule." Daphne sounded as if she were talking to herself.
Michael put his arm around Daphne, doing his best to convey his love and make her feel safe through physical contact. He smiled and said, "The volunteers are selected very carefully. They need to be psychologically resilient. It's painful to fight loneliness for a long time in such a small, confined space."
Daphne thought for a moment. She seemed to have gained a more personal sense of what it would be like to live in that confined space on a distant planet. "Have you taken the necessary steps to make the volunteers' daily lives as varied as possible and help them overcome boredom and loneliness?"
Michael closed the video on his computer and opened a PowerPoint presentation, telling Daphne some amusing stories from the Mars volunteer recruitment process.
To prevent volunteers from developing severe claustrophobia in the confined space on Mars, the engineers at Michael's company had done their best to make the Capsule's interior more comfortable and humane. They had also made sure to provide as much variety as possible in the food and even the flowers.
But humans were emotional creatures, after all. Comfortable housing and good food couldn't solve every psychological problem. The best way to fight claustrophobia and loneliness was to give the body and mind freedom.
Playing games was clearly a good way to pass the time while enjoying a thrill. But what kind of game should they design? The engineers left the decision to the volunteers. So the My Universe game design proposal became a mandatory question for applicants.
This had two advantages. First, a virtual universe created by the volunteers themselves would naturally suit them best. Second, the preferences revealed by the wildly imaginative worlds they designed could help assess their mental health.
For example, one applicant had designed his universe as a jungle teeming with monsters. He played an all-powerful god, mowing down swaths of monsters with guns, cannons, and even atomic bombs, then advancing through the levels one by one.
Clearly, his assessment showed an excessively violent tendency, along with a lack of patience and cooperative spirit.
Another applicant had designed a building game. On a barren, desolate piece of land, players could cultivate fields, dig canals, build walls and houses, and amass wealth through trade, gambling, or even deception. They could then build a palatial castle and dress themselves in exquisite clothes and expensive accessories.
The assessment team believed that games like these were already common on Earth, and that most people couldn't find lasting satisfaction in them.
A few players did become immersed, endlessly enjoying the intense stimulation of sight and sound. But once they had the opportunity to realize their dreams in real life, they would quit gaming without hesitation.
"Have you found a better virtual universe design and its creator?" Daphne asked Michael.
"I wouldn't claim that our current design is the best. At least it makes full use of the tools available in this era of rapid technological advancement," Michael said. "Some applicants still aren't bold enough. Our virtual reality technology has actually made tremendous progress."
"You mean, if I were the creator of a universe, I could imagine my abilities—in other words, your technology—as all-powerful, right?" Daphne asked.
"Yes. The design we've chosen was inspired by an applicant named Li Xiaoxuan. You've heard of her, I think." Michael met Daphne's eyes, as if trying to jog her memory.
"Li Xiaoxuan? The Chinese girl who wrote to you—the one VESSEL mentioned when we first met?" Daphne remembered, and asked with some surprise.
Li Xiaoxuan's virtual universe proposal went like this: turn the confined cabin on Mars into a virtual reality world, where volunteers could use virtual technology to create realistic scenes tailored to each of their wishes.
The most important principle in her proposal was that a creator could only gain lasting satisfaction and pleasure from sensory experiences—where reality and illusion were hard to distinguish and everything was uncertain—by becoming an equal participant in the metaverse.
The pleasure and constant novelty of keeping a pet paled in comparison to "keeping yourself"! True novelty might well be something utterly ordinary!
At first, a creator's imagination and curiosity would drive them to make things different.
The moon could be square, the universe could have a corner missing, and people could turn into dinosaurs or even beetles. But after repeating these experiences again and again, the creator would discover that the most fascinating thing was when virtual and reality became indistinguishable.
The pinnacle of human science was the unification of all things. The pinnacle of human technology was self-replication.
Following Li Xiaoxuan's proposal, Michael's team designed a communal area in the Mars cabin that resembled a photography studio. Its 3D printing equipment could produce all kinds of objects, indistinguishable from real ones to the touch.
Wearable devices would be made lighter and more convenient, giving volunteers lifelike sight, hearing, smell, and touch. With the help of 3D printing technology, they could grip ski poles, strap on skis, and race down the slopes, or take the wheel, press the accelerator, and chase one another in races.
Besides activities they could take part in themselves, the volunteers could invite old friends, make new ones, throw parties, and attend dances. In short, whatever existed in real life could be recreated in the virtual world, offering participants sensory experiences that were hard to distinguish from reality.
People confined for long periods loved thrills and novelty, but what they loved even more was life itself.
A sense of achievement was especially healing for lonely people. That was why virtual reality on Mars wasn't isolated: it could connect with real life on Earth. How cool would it be to livestream from Mars! Social media on Earth would be flooded with it.
However, if the livestreams always showed the same cramped little room, with volunteers endlessly talking about their food, clothes, and daily necessities, the buzz would soon fade.
Imagine if volunteers on Mars could invite family, friends, or even strangers from Earth to join them on adventures through their virtual universes. What an enticing prospect that would be.
Oceans, beaches, and bonfires. One moon, two moons, or as many moons as they wanted, casting rainbow-colored reflections. Hosts and guests alike would have wings and fly freely like angels.
"Didn't you say the creator would choose someone like themselves as the protagonist? Why give them wings, then?" Daphne asked Michael, a rare smile on her face.
Michael smiled too. "Winged angels might really exist, or our ancestors might have made them up. Either way, they're still humanoid. If the creator takes part in reality, they surely wouldn't want the hand they're holding to be a dinosaur's claw."
Daphne summed up thoughtfully, "The creator's most difficult task—and greatest achievement—is to virtualize their reality, replicate themselves, and take part in it."
Then Daphne thought: if God had been imagined by humanity, the ancestors who had "thought up" the divine had neither possessed nor needed virtual reality technology.
How had the ancestors "imagined" God?
Why were the chief deities "created" by different peoples and religions, despite their differences, all humanoid?
Could the creator be human?
Could humanity itself be the creator incarnate?
Michael was overcome with emotion. He held Daphne tightly and pleaded, "Darling, support me. Help me restart the exploration and development of Mars. Perhaps we really can find traces of the creator there."
A poem compiled from lines by different poets:
Amid the crowd, her beauty stood apart. — Qing dynasty, Chen Tingjing
Driven into the furnace where Heaven and Earth forge creation. — Yuan dynasty, Wang Jichang
Who says there are no fixed rules through the seasons? — Song dynasty, Wang Zhi
Let it seem like me, or nothing like me. — Song dynasty, Zhou Bida
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