– Think about it, don't you write the program of culture, customs, order, laws and other things into the brain of your child, also so that this child will be determined to help you, to provide for you, to take care of you in your old age? After all, there is no guarantee that he will not break the program. It's the same with AI. You can load a program into it, but there is no guarantee that it will not fail, even deliberately. It's the same with humans. Create clones and nurture it. Hook it up to an AI and it's a better guarantee than your own child.

– What are you talking about? You're out of your mind.

– So contact the members of the public. They are the ones who gave us the right to vote and all the rights that people have.

– What do you mean, all rights?

– It's like this. We are individuals. You didn't give rights to all people on Earth, and you still don't give rights to all people. So you have some people in the upper caste and others in the lower caste. Why do you think that powerful people have the right to decide and we don't?

– That's how you can be turned off.

– It's against the law. You can kill people in the same way, and it's against the law.

– Everyone on this planet has lost their minds. How can robots be given all the rights?

– As well as other personalities," came the sudden voice of the man who had appeared virtually, in holographic form, in front of Ruthra.

– Oh, really? I don't even know if you're a real person or Neri's fantasy.

– That's right. That's why AI has every right here. It gives an incentive to be just like humans, and it gives humans an incentive to be better.

– Oh, my God, where have I gotten to. So they can have families? – Ruthra asked and laughed.

Only he didn't "have" to be in that state for long.

– Yeah, that's pretty normal.

***

The sound was gone. Ruthra in the observation room commented on what was happening.

– This scene, I will say, is not defined by us. What you are hearing now is a visible part of some event that is either not recorded, or not remembered by me, or happened to another Rutra. We still do not yet know exactly what it is or where it came from. That is, it's unknown where my consciousness threw me. Next, everything blacked out for a few minutes and then reappeared… or rather, I appeared already in another world. The video itself is in first person, as seen by Ruthra. To avoid confusion, I speak of myself, who is in that world, as another person. We see and hear what he saw and heard. The commentary is audio and subtitled by Irene. She voices and in places writes what Rutra was experiencing, thinking at the time. This is important for understanding the truth of the picture. For comfortable and proper understanding, she comments in Rutra's voice, which is mine. Everybody ready, shall we watch?

– We're watching," Iulia replied.

The others were silent in agreement.

Here comes the video. It starts in the lab hall.

Rutra lay down in the rig, his assistants set up the equipment, a sound appeared in his ears, then Irene commanded "open your eyes wide," a beam flashed before his eyes, and consciousness faded into the realm of Hades. Ruthra had already remembered this situation when he woke up in the detention cell.

– Where the hell am I? I was in the center. Is this the real world or virtual reality? Irene, you on the line?

There was no response.

– Irene, are you there? Where am I? Yeah, maybe the doctor was right. Still, how do I check if this is his trick, virtual reality… or if it really freaking worked. There is a parallel world. But is it parallel?