Paradise project (ePub)

Adam, a former corporate manager and now a business consultant, is diagnosed with cancer. The news comes along with growing frustrations in his life. Some time ago he decided to try his hand at being a writer. He has spent years creating, correcting, rewriting, crossing out, finding inconsistencies, researching sources. He saw the meaning of life in his new work of writing, thus overcoming his mid-life crisis.
Adam had high hopes for the created work, however, the result was not that of a failure, but not too loud. Readers received the novel warmly and with interest, but the problem was that there were not many of them.
Depressed and feeling some malaise, the young man suddenly learns of a disappointing diagnosis, and experiences it all in a short but vivid binge on the banks of the Arno.
Under the influence of the mood and alcohol, he accepts an offer from a research organisation to take part in an experiment. The foundation, with a speaking name of 'ExoBrain', hoped to boost creativity by means of artificial intelligence linked to a living brain and promised the 'test subjects' not only a generous stipend but also the chance to become 'a better version of themselves'.
One day he arrives at the clinic, breaking the anaesthetist's ban on alcohol three days before the operation, and in a not-so-slight hangover he goes into surgery.
The first person Adam sees after the operation is the doctor, Lilja, who pours him cognac and coffee and leaves him for a while with the open question of where he is and why he has absolutely no memory of the girl.
After confirming that the patient is fine, Lilja tells him that the anaesthetic during the operation was not entirely successful and Adam has been in a coma for 15 years.
In 2035, Adam finds himself famous as the hero of the 'Schrodinger writer' meme, author of a book which has been translated into many languages and published in millions of copies, and most importantly, author of a book that Netflix has made a hit TV series based on.
Adam's life becomes like a fairy tale - he gives interviews, meets with readers, writes a new book for which he immediately receives a hefty fee, learns about the world of 2035, falls in love with Lilya and is reciprocated.
The climax is the presentation of the new book, which takes place exactly one year after he comes out of his coma, and at the author's request is organised in the house in central Kiev where he was once born and now has a fashionable hotel.
That evening he sits on a balcony overlooking the Golden Gate, drinking wine and talking to his beloved. The writer feels a wave of absolute happiness sweeping over him.
The next chapter takes us back to the year 2020, where we learn from a conversation between two ExoBrain researchers that all the events of 2035 were a simulation generated by an artificial intelligence, processing the thoughts, memories, feelings, emotions and desires of Adam Bogdanov's subject.
It turned out that the project was looking for volunteers among people who were creative, but suffered from serious illnesses with certain risks. And each subject signs a clause stating, among other things, that the company has the right to dispose of the information obtained during the experiment and after the subject's death.
The ultimate goal of the programme is virtual immortality, the complete preservation of personality for later resettlement in either a virtual environment or a new body.
But, impressed by the simulation, the scientists come to believe that this is the moment when they seem to have discovered paradise. Or rather, understood how paradise could be embodied. A personal paradise for each individual. And they open a new line of business in their division of the global research corporation, the Paradise project.