Time’s up. It’s morning. I’ll enter the simulation later. On my ceiling, I can see a screen showing another world. It would look similar to my world if the technology isn't outdated. I need to go to school. The one thing I dread the most. Not because of work, activities or just school itself. I dislike talking or being with others. I feel like I can't fit in. They all just seem so normal. While I have a difficult time talking clearly and what I want to say, even saying things I should not have. I don’t want to be me. That’s not all though. Well, that’s enough of thinking like that.

  “Time for school!” My mom yelled. She was watching the news about AIs not being a threat after it being thought of as one for decades. I came out of my room and started putting on my shoes and sweater and left the house.

  I arrived at the metro. It’s about a 10 minutes walk away from home. The two 3-D stickman statues still seem to be there. One with a shovel, the other with a pickaxe. They seem to be mining. I see it so many times going to school and I don’t even know what it’s supposed to represent.

  After a metro delay and a short walk, I arrived at school. The school is two stories high, with three basement floors. I don’t know why they need that many. There is also a field behind the school about the same size as the school. The school’s in the shape of a rectanglar prism. The entrance is pretty big, I would say about three and a half meters and old.

  Inside the school, there are two hallways on opposite sides, classes in between. My class is on the third floor. Inside my class, there are 27 desks, two are unused, a smartboard on the wall to the left of the door, a smart whiteboard that spans the entire wall in the front, and the teacher’s desk next to the smartboard. I arrived early. I saw my desk in the middle, next to all the loud people. I wanted to change spots, but we have assigned seatings.

  Oh great, more people are coming in. A few go to the seats in the far left facing the smartboard. The next three go to the desks in front of me, talking and also trying to get me in their conversations.

  “Did you hear more and more people copied their minds on a computer?” One of the guys asked. His name is David. He was wearing the school uniform, which was pretty much a navy blue polo with the school’s logo and a sort of pants that are great for hot and cold temperatures. Many students and parents were complaining that the previous uniform wasn’t warm enough for winter so now many schools in the world use pants that can both be warm for winter and cool for summer without needing multiple pairs. It uses technology that detects the temperature outside and changes the heat inside so the wearer isn’t too hot or cold. This kind of technology was a big hit around 10 years ago.

  “Pretty sure it’s dangerous, like what if the computer gets corrupted and your data gets deleted, right, David?” Another guy added.

  “Nothing like that happened yet! Only thirty got deleted out of fifty thousand who uploaded their minds on the internet!” I responded.

  “That’s because people just started uploading their minds in the past few years, more will die. Who knows, what if more died and it wasn’t reported?” David said. I wanted to say more but the bell rang, it was 8:45 AM, class started.

  “Classes started, please take your seats, that includes you too David, Alex and Oscar.” The teacher told the three kids who were in front of me. The teacher was in his mid-thirties. He is wearing khaki pants with a matching polo with medium-brown thermal-insulated Van shoes.

  “We are going to do an assignment for this class so take out your laptops. I’ll send the link in a minute.” The teacher announced.

  I took out my laptop. It was a newer model compared to most of the other students. It said Wednesday, December the 15th, 2060. I got a pop-up from the teacher with the topic of Should we as a civilization expand outwards in space or on the net?

  This was a debated topic when people first could live digitally. My dad was one of the leading scientists that produced technology capable of copying all the brain’s data and transmitting it in a supercomputer. There was a problem, however. A brain's information is too enormous, therefore, the first three years only allowed fifty thousand to live digitally. When they get their minds uploaded, the physical body dies in the exact moment so it feels as if the copy is still the real one. However, since they abandoned their physical bodies, they no longer have to eat or sleep and they can still inhabit machines so it’s not too much of a problem.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The assignment asked us to write a persuasive essay in one hour and then the next hour we had to present and debate our opinions. I’ll go with expanding outwards in the net. My dad once made me a simulation of the year 2017. I enter it as an escape. I just see a lot of pros about it. If we get rid of our bodily limitations, we can also remove our lifespan! There are pros to the other option also. Just like how there were one million inhabitants on mars by the year 2050 and has more than five million now. Earth isn’t big enough for us anymore. I wonder what the rest of the class will pick.

  “Let’s present our essays now.” The teacher got everyone’s attention.

  It has been an hour. A few already raised their hands. The teacher picked a student on the left corner to go first. Her name is Amy. The teacher also picked who went second and third.

  “I think we should expand outwards in space because we already did so with Mars, we have about 5 million people there and we are running out of resources on earth. We need more space as we grow bigger as a civilization,” Amy took a quick pause. “Living on the internet is riskier than space expansion, it’s too new. We don’t know all the risks of it, while for colonizing planets, we’ve done it for decades now.” She added.

  David went second. “I agree with her too, Mind uploading is too risky. It’s too new, we don’t know the risks yet. Also, We can collect more resources and energy to power our technology even more if we colonize the solar system and galaxy. I view this as a better option.”

  The third student talked. “I also think we should colonize space. There are many more known benefits for it than Mind Uploading which has more risk than benefits.”

  What do they mean risks? I mean, the chances are only 0.06% right now. Are they so used to safer methods? Now, everything must have a risk of less than 0.001% or it feels unsafe. Why are they too afraid of just 0.06% a few decades ago, a lot of things were a lot higher than 10% and people decided it was safe. I guess Mind uploading is a bit riskier than something like living on Mars as only 2985 died out of five million who travel forth and back the two planets.

  I raised my hand to go next. “Mind uploading has a lot of benefits though. For one, you can live forever, you wouldn’t have cells that grow or die. You no longer need to eat or sleep, you can do whatever you want. Just because the risk seems too high, for now, doesn’t mean it’s dangerous-”

  “Why would you want to live forever? It will get boring real quick.” Someone from the back interrupted me.

  “You can always end your data’s life when you are bored. You don’t need to live forever, just until you no longer want to.”

  “There can also be glitches or corruptions in data storages and you die. Expanding through the galaxy is safer.” Another one added.

  “Only speak after raising your hands please.” The teacher said. “I want to know what sides you are all on. Raise your hand if you choose to expand outwards in space.”

  Everyone except for me raised their hands. I’m the only one who has my opinion. It’s the class vs. me. There’s no way for them to reconsider simulations and living in them then. I give up. Why are they so scared of risk though?

  “Let’s continue with the rest of your essay.” The teacher continued. The rest of their class had the chance to read their essay.

  The bell rang, signalling the end of school for today. I packed up my stuff to leave. Inside my bag is my laptop, lunchbox and my I.D. My laptop contains all my school work, and I transfer most of my old work onto my computer at home so I don’t lose it.

  I arrived at the metro. I saw a news channel on a TV revealing that an incident happened in a data storage warehouse nearby and five human copies got deleted which resulted in five deaths.

  “Too many people are dying from this in the past few years. Can we trust our lives with uploading our minds, killing our physical body to live digitally, and hope it’s not us who gets deleted?” The news host said as if to scare people to try it.

  “Many copies regret mind uploading, fearing that they can die any time.” The news co-host added.

  That’s untrue, they’re just spreading propaganda. Not the deaths, but that uploading minds are dangerous. This sort of technology is just too new. They should wait a few more years just with so much more new technology.

  The metro arrived, and I got on. The ride took twenty minutes. I got out and saw the sculptures again. I overheard people talking about the incident on the news. They were scared of the incident and didn’t ever want to upload their minds.

  After ten minutes I arrived home and got in my room. I opened my computer that simulates another world. I entered the simulation. Here, I usually feel much better after long school days. Instead of debating about uploading minds, they debated whether AIs are dangerous or not. It seemed funny to me, they had different worries than my world.

  “Where did you go, Ambrus?” A tall teenager asked as I turned back around. That was my name here.

  “I was studying for the test.” I lied. I don’t want to reveal that this is a simulation. I’m the only real person here. I would feel bad for them if they thought they were not real.

  “Stop lying, you never study.” He replied.

  “I study a little, you know?”

  “Anyways, come with us to watch a movie.”

  “Sure, let me get my phone and keys real quick.” It isn’t bad here. This world is so much better than the outside. Can’t I just live here forever?