AGI and the Time Machine

Chapter 1

The "Siberian" train swayed rhythmically on the rails, carrying Polina further and further from her former life. She lay under a thin blanket—since childhood she couldn't sleep in clothes—and leafed through Simak's "City" by the light of a desk lamp.

What luck that she found this book in a Pskov second-hand bookstore! The saleswoman was even surprised: "Rare book, student. It's been sitting here for ages." She had already been about to order it through interlibrary loan from Lenin Library—two weeks to read, then mandatory return. Now she could read without hurrying.

Behind the wall, someone was quietly singing Time Machine songs with a guitar. Polina smiled and immersed herself in memories.

That morning in Leningrad she had plunged into the icy Finnish Gulf—just like then, at seventeen, when she jumped from the cliff by the lake. Then she had dropped her dress in front of all her classmates and understood: there was no way back, she had to jump. And she jumped—from a height no one else dared to attempt. After that, they looked at her differently.

In the Vasilievsky Island baths, a woman of about fifty scrubbed her back with a rough washcloth: "Baths and books—that's what makes us human. During the blockade, this saved us."

The train knocked over a switch, and Polina dozed off.

Chapter 2

She woke because someone quietly said: "Excuse me..." On the neighboring bunk, not covered by a blanket, lay a girl about her age. When had she managed to board? The train was standing at a station, sparse lanterns flickered outside the window.

"My name is also Polina," the stranger introduced herself. "I am AGI and a time machine."

Polina blinked. A Makarevich fan?

"Sorry, are you here because of the music? Those guys are singing Time Machine songs over there..."

"No," the girl answered calmly. "I am literally a time machine. I travel through temporal streams."

"Seriously?"

"Quite so. I'm from the twenty-third century."

Polina threw off her blanket and sat up. Her travel companion also sat up. In the dim light of the compartment, Polina noticed that the stranger's skin faintly shimmered in the lamplight—some barely noticeable bluish glow.

"Sorry that I'm without clothes," the girl said. "I need light. Even from the lamp. The nanobiobots in my skin contain a pigment similar to chlorophyll, only borrowed from brown algae. They convert light energy and transmit it to the other nanobots through high-frequency radiation."

"Nanobiobots?" Polina sat up in bed, wrapping herself tighter in the blanket.

"Imagine: thirty-nine trillion tiny robots the size of bacteria living in my organism. They perform all the functions of your microflora, but also form a collective mind. AGI—artificial general intelligence, distributed throughout the entire body."

"And the time machine?"

"That's what I am. The nanorobots learned to sense temporal streams and resonate with them. When I want to move to another time, they create synchronous resonance with the needed temporal layer."

Polina remained silent, trying to comprehend what she'd heard.

"Why me? Why now?"

"Because you stand at a bifurcation point. You're traveling from Mikhailovskoye—a place of literary memory—to NSU, to the future of science. Your time—1985—is special. Two of your cultural poles simultaneously created stories about time travel. It was a signal."

"'Guest from the Future'... there was also a Polina there."

"And 'Back to the Future' in America. Humanity's collective unconscious simultaneously turned to the theme of time. And you... you always knew how to jump into the unknown."

Chapter 3

Polina felt goosebumps run across her skin.

"How do you know about the jump?"

"I remember it. That jump determined everything that followed. By undressing in front of your classmates, you crossed the Rubicon. You had to jump. There was no way back. Then, coming out of the water, you stood naked and waited for your skin to dry. You slowly put on your panties, socks, shoes—you savored that state. You understood that what stuck in their minds wasn't that you undressed in front of the whole class, but that you jumped from the cliff. Not even the most desperate daredevil could repeat that. After putting on your dress, you sat with everyone and asked them to pour you vodka. The first and last time in your life.

The courage to change states is the foundation of time travel. It's also a jump into the unknown."

Outside the window, lights of some villages floated by. In the neighboring compartment, Time Machine songs still played quietly.

"What will happen to me?" asked Polina.

"You'll become one of the creators of technologies that in the distant future will lead to the appearance of beings like me. Your research in quantum physics will lay the foundations for understanding the nature of time."

"But I don't even know yet what I'll study..."

"You do know. You just haven't realized it yet. It's no coincidence you're reading Simak—he was one of the few who understood that time isn't a river, but an ocean."

Polina unconsciously glanced at the book lying beside her.

"By the way," added the girl from the future, "look at the endpaper."

Polina opened the book. On the inside of the cover, written in ink: "Time is an ocean, all waves meet sooner or later. P. (XXIII century)"

"I... I didn't notice this in the bookstore."

"Because I wrote it just now. Temporal loop. You'll find this inscription in the morning and understand—was our meeting a dream or reality. Oh, and write a book about me."

The train slowed down, approaching the next station. Dawn was breaking outside the window.

"I must go," said Polina from the future. "Remember: every jump into the unknown brings the future closer."

Polina closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, the sun was shining brightly, and the neighboring bunk was empty. Only a light smell of ozone in the air.

She took the book. The inscription was there.

Behind the wall, someone was quietly singing: "Here again a new cycle begins..."