Parallel worlds – one. Fire and flame - стр. 27

Ruthra guessed that his friend, and now his colleague, since he was also involved in the scientific development of mind transfer technology, was not telling him something. If the technology was ready, if it could be tested on humans, the main computer would know about it, and sanctions would be necessary. Most likely, the scientist wanted to present something similar in virtual reality and show that the program is worth spending time, money and human resources on it. And the use of supercomputer resources also required reports, including the subsequent results and their practical usefulness. Knowing the methods of the "luminary of science," as Rutra jokingly, and not only he, called his friend, he agreed.

Being in virtual reality was not new. Rutra had even stopped arguing with himself and the staff about whether the event was in the virtual world or in reality. He was already calculating reflexively – at any moment it was necessary to foresee the possibility of being in the virtual world. The main trick was that from there you were constantly returning to the real world, that is, you couldn't fail to realize where you were in the end. And from here, from the real world, the entrance was always through virtual reality settings. Virtual reality was like a dream. We don't know if we're dreaming or not. And once we realize it, we're actually awake. The virtual reality session was necessary to check real intentions, motivation, actions, desires, i.e. how a person would actually act depending on this or that situation in which he or she might find himself or herself. All variants of events were modeled by the supercomputer, it had knowledge about any person of the Earth: the data were in some database one way or another. Especially about the personalities whose deeds and decisions influenced the course of events of mankind. However, in the modern world, where free will was officially declared, a person could never be a personality, on whose deeds fateful changes depended, without giving rights for it to other similar personalities, who were already those who made global decisions. In all disputes and disagreements, the power-holders observed an unspoken rule of preserving their dominance and power – rotation was allowed only among themselves. For the same reason, checks in virtual reality directly in this center were a periodic procedure – like a session of psychoanalysis and questionnaires.

So the program proposed by the scientist seemed to Rutra to be a routine test, but at the same time, a doubt crept into him intuitively. Very often his delusional ideas and suggestions were miraculously realized. Just in case, he agreed to the experiment with the additional settings and recommendations given to Irene.