“Give him space,” a voice echoed through the high-tech medical lab, snapping me back to reality. The team of scientists around me stepped back, their faces a mix of awe and apprehension. As I turned to my right, the full weight of my situation crashed over me. I was a renowned neuroscientist with weeks to live, now lying on the operating table as the first human subject in a groundbreaking experiment. We had seen promising results in animals, but nothing could prepare us for the human trial. The question haunted everyone: Were we transferring consciousness, or merely replicating it?

My gaze shifted to the medical table beside me where my own body lay motionless, sensors attached yet eerily silent. Panic set in as I could only move my eyes, ears, and lips. Behind me, a soft whisper, “No lapse in activity detected during the switch. Brain activity appears to have transferred instantaneously.”

That experiment was five centuries ago. Yet, it replays in my mind daily. Humanity has since made leaps in technology, colonizing planets and debating the ethics of our advancements. The rudimentary mechanical sensors of that day have evolved into humanoid forms as advanced as money can buy. Why do I stick with this middle-aged version of myself? It connects me to the human I once was.

The inequities sparked by these technological advances are stark; the rich thrive while the poor flounder. As a pioneer of the switch technology, financial worries are foreign to me, but moral ones are not. More and more people opt for the switch as their bodies fail them, driven by a fear of decay over the unknown.

Today, as I donned my worn baseball cap—a relic from before the switch—I pondered the essence of my memories. Are they genuine, or merely dramatic recreations?

Stepping out into the bustling streets, I headed to the courthouse through a sea of protesters. Today, March 11th, 2603, a decision loomed: Could we continue to allow the switch, or was it the first step towards our extinction? The courtroom would soon echo with debates that had simmered since humanity first questioned what it means to truly be alive.