The Wizard from Earth Read Online Free PDF Page A

world.
    "Greetings, Matt.  I sensed your presence.  You are leaving tomorrow for Alpha Centauri.  It is well.  I have made a breakthrough on Chan's Theorem.   I fear you would not understand.  You want to know if I still plan to Ascend.  That is why I will not be able to attend your departure.  Keep in touch.  Good luck."
    Matt managed to croak, "Thanks."  And then he was back on the street, beside the flower pot.
    "She seems happy," he mumbled. 
    He remembered the little girl in finger painting class who had smudged a dab of blue paint on his nose and laughed and he had laughed back.  That person hadn't died, but she no longer existed.  Or maybe she still did, but on a level he couldn't perceive.     
    "Matt, you seem agitated."
    "It's not a health problem."
    Matt stood and gazed at the streets, and then at the clouds.
    At last he said,  "If I stay in the Solar System, even if I stay on Earth, I'll be running from the truth.  The truth is, I don't belong here."
    Ivan waited patiently.
    Matt continued,  "I know about the Singularity and Trans-humanism and everything else they teach in school, and I agree, I don't want to stay baseline human forever – how sad would that be?  But things are changing too fast.  Maybe I do need to go to Tian, where they'll start from scratch before they get up again to this level of technology.  It'll give me time to prepare myself."
    "What about being with your friends?"
    "Ivan, you saw what happened just now.  Everyone has become so different from when we were kids.  On a certain level, I don't think I have friends anymore."
    "Matt, I am your friend."
    "That's true." Matt smiled.  "But wherever I go, there you are.  So I may as well go."
     

3.
    Ivan monitored Matt's vital signs throughout the night, tracking Matt's breathing and heart beat and brain wave patterns.  Matt had forgotten to specify a wake-up time but Ivan's sensors registered the movement of Matt's father through their apartment shortly after 6 AM. 
    Ivan contacted Galahad, John Jackson's neural matrix implant, who replied that the taxi would arrive at 7.  Ivan made trade-off decisions by identifying pro and con outcomes, assigning probabilities and point values based on past experience.  Doing so with respect to Matt's morning schedule, he determined that 6:15 would be the optimal wake-up time.
    Ivan then applied a gentle stimulation to Matt's brain stem.  Matt stirred and opened his eyes.
    "What time is it?"
    "Six fifteen.  The taxi to the Star Seed Project will come at seven."
    Matt lay in bed and stared at the ceiling.  Ivan tracked Matt's gaze to a meandering crack.  Matt's breathing was long and deep, a respiration pattern that Ivan had come to associate, based on Matt's previous comments, with reverie and nostalgia.
    "I'm going to miss this place."
    “I have archived photographs as well as chemical analyses of it in case you wish to print a copy when we reach Tian.”
    “I didn't mean just the apartment, I meant Seattle.  There won't be enough printers on Tian to print Seattle.”
    “Printers can print printers.  The supply of printers is therefore theoretically unlimited.”
    “Well, what matters is the people, and it would be unethical to print the people.  Unless everyone in Seattle signs the appropriate release forms, has their memories archived, and then dies all at once.”
    Ivan evaluated the statement on multiple levels.  He determined that the proposal was technically feasible but his sensors detected a configuration of facial muscles consistent with a smile, indicating that Matt was not being serious.  He therefore decided not to offer to circulate petitions online and instead responded,  “You should dress and eat in preparation for your departure."
    "Yes, Mother."
    Ivan's point-weighing system identified that remark as 97.6% sarcasm. 
    Matt swung out of bed and Ivan measured the floor temperature through the soles of Matt's feet.  Matt yawned and Ivan measured