16^th March 2060 marked a distinctive before and after in human history. It was the beginning of my last year at school. I remember having doubts about what my future would hold. Archaeology was my passion; I had come to the conclusion that one of the ways to understand the origin of humanity was to study our past and that is why I liked this science so much. But at the same time, I was very fond of physics and maths and I was intending to become an engineer and to work for the big company Bluelife and to conquer space with them. Marco was a world-renowned visionary and philanthropist and I admired him so much. I wanted to be a part of what he was building.

Thanks to Laura, my favourite subject in recent years has been philosophy. Laura was my philosophy teacher in high school. If my mother gave me a thirst for knowledge and an intellectual curiosity for life and the Universe, Laura was my guide in my first steps in the world of research and the methodology of the search of knowledge. She answered some of my first questions and above all she made me see that I was not alone and that questioning life and the Universe was normal.

Laura, from a young age in her native Colombia, had developed a curiosity to find the answers to these questions that kept her awake at night: Why am I me? How did life originate on the planet? Do I have a purpose in this life? Does God exist? These questions and many more set her on a path that led her to pursue graduate studies in Philosophy in Bogotá and then to continue her postgraduate career in Peru in 2030 at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, and then to remain in Lima until her old age.

Laura, in those early years (2030), was at the peak of her career. While pursuing her graduate studies, she collaborated on important projects on the impact of new technologies on human society and being a political activist on human rights to benefit from the wealth generated by Artificial Intelligence.

Laura and Marco met in Paris in 2036, when Bluelife experienced accelerated global growth in its various business branches and was the undisputed leader in Artificial Intelligence software. Laura was working on a research project for the UN that aimed to promote international policies to reduce the impact of AI on human society. In this context, Laura contacted the Founding Chairman and CEO of Bluelife (Marco) to schedule an interview and discuss with him about his vision of AI, the future and the risks associated with the concentration of such power in a handful of corporations among which the most powerful was undoubtedly his.

The Bluelife Tower was located in the financial heart of Paris, at La Défense. Its 420 meters height represented the power that Marco had over the city, where its most representative monument, the Eiffel Tower, measured only 300 meters. The skyscraper was wide, the upper part ended in a gigantic arch and at the base of it we could read the name of the company Bluelife corporation in blue and next to it, its logo: The Tree of Life.

The interview was conducted in Marco’s office located on the top floor of the Tower, where he also had a penthouse where he spent most of the year. Laura arrived on time for the meeting. She was a little nervous; even though she had lots of experience in her field of work, it was not every day that she had the opportunity to interview one of the most influential men in the world. As she climbed one of the Tower’s five exterior elevators, she took deep breaths to calm down and enjoy the view of Paris emerging in front of her, radiant and historic.

When she arrived at the penthouse, Marco directly opened the door for her, he was dressed as always for official presentations. Black trousers, brown shoes, a white silk shirt, and a grey jacket and waistcoat. Marco had his own perception of fashion; he did not like to follow trends and he considered himself an elegant man.

Laura and Marco greeted each other warmly and settled in an area where Marco gave interviews. They sat on the leather sofas and Laura, forgetting that a few minutes ago she was very nervous, began with the first question:

• Marco, why did you choose a tree as the company logo? What does this symbol represent?
• Not a minute to waste and straight to the point, I like it! – Marco smiled and in the same way responded quickly – It’s an image that represents for me the origin of life – he replied without losing his diplomatic smile.
• The origin of life? Are you referring to the fact that the logo of the Bluelife corporation is inspired by the several myths of different cultures that use the tree as a representation of life, knowledge and fertility?
• Indeed, the Tree of Life that we use as a logo for Bluelife represents those myths. As you may know, at different times and in different cultures of humanity, the myth of the sacred tree is a recurring figure that is represented in many ways and with slightly different meanings but that represent basically the same thing: The mystery of life or the origin of life.
• Is that the reason why you created the Bluelife corporation? To find the origin of life? – asked Laura.
• Bluelife has been my personal goal for several decades. My vision is to help humanity survive on this planet and explore the stars. I believe that to achieve this, human beings have to evolve, change and adapt to the future challenges that this represents. But for that, we must use technology, which is nothing more than a tool that will allow us to achieve these goals.
• Your goals are clear, but I still don’t understand the link between those goals and the Tree of Life. As you will understand, symbology is important and I would like to understand exactly what you want to convey. Listening to you, it seems that your goals have a spiritual nuance, are you a believer? Why are you exploring space? Are you in search of the origin of life? – asked Laura sharply.
• Well, I see you have lots of questions for me … I’ll try to answer in order – replied Marco – I understand that you are asking me if I practice a religion, well no, I don’t practice any religion. I consider myself agnostic …
• So, you believe in God? – Laura asked again skilfully.
• I can only tell you that, no matter how much science and technology we develop, there will always be something unknown for which we will not have an answer. I don’t know whether to call this God, we can call it whatever you want, but these are big questions for which we still have no answers: What is the origin of life and the Universe? What is our mission in this Universe? Is there something beyond its borders? Do these borders really exist? And many other questions. And that “something” or “someone” who knows these answers, having this infinite knowledge, I think that it will also have the necessary elements to create the Universe and create life. It’s logic! And it’s that “something” or “someone” that, if you want, we can call God.
• Do you think your mission is to find the answers to these questions? – Laura asked.
• I think so and I also think that… – Laura interrupted him and while starring at Marco, she asked.
• But if you get these answers, wouldn’t you be the God you’re looking for?
• Well… – A short but noticeable smile crossed Marco’s face – according to your logic, yes.
• Do you know what I think? I believe that you’re playing your own game of wanting to be God and that Bluelife is like your own church and its thousands of admirers and followers around the world are your devotees. You believe you can be God, which is why you chose the Tree of Life as your company’s symbol. That’s why you’ve made great strides in the field of AI, your goal is really to create an intelligence that is aware of its own existence, in other words, to create life …
• Each one of us has the potential to be a God, Laura. Bluelife’s mission is to help humanity take this step and evolve in that direction – replied Marco, staring at Laura.
• But I do believe that you want to be the first to become God, how can I trust that you have altruistic intentions and do not want to be the first and only God after having obtained these answers? You are in control of all these technologies that are supposed to lead us to this evolution. How can I be sure that you are really going to share these technologies with humanity? By the way, at 54-years-old, you look like 40. I guess the rumours about biogenetics research to prevent aging and lengthen human life are true? Such technology should be common knowledge and not privately exploited, for the good of humanity I mean… – Laura asked suspiciously.
• Don’t believe the rumours Laura, with a good diet and regular exercise you will see how the body is preserved. Apart from that, genetics are playing in my favour, Peruvian people age well – replied Marco with a cold smile.

Laura had accomplished her mission, tapping into Marco’s deepest insights and grasping his true motivations, which led her to continue with the other questions.

• Marco, what kind of life do you want to create?
• Excuse me? I’m not sure I understand your question – replied Marco puzzled.
• You are the pioneer of Artificial Intelligence for human language processing. Your technology is capable of deceiving a human being and passing the Turing test in any type of written or oral conversation. Your technology is currently used to replace millions of human workers in customer service and call centres. But this technology does not think for itself, it is not aware of itself, it only acts according to what is asked of it and the interaction initiated by humans. As I said before, I really think that you have other purposes. What’s the next step? To create its own consciousness? Is this the life you want to create? An Artificial life?
• Well, let me tell you Laura that you are very insightful, but I can assure you that what Bluelife offers to humanity is a tool, nothing more. AI at humanity’s service.
• You didn’t answer my question Marco, are you going to create an AI with its own consciousness? Doing so would have important ethical implications. Creating artificial life at humanity’s service would be the equivalent of slavery. Without leaving aside the implications at the social level, would such a being be accepted by society?
• Laura, Bluelife will develop all the technology that is needed to achieve its vision, which is helping humanity evolve as a species and conquer the stars. Any other type of development is outside the scope of our projects.

Laura didn’t buy this answer.

Thus, the interview continued under the same dynamic of pointed questions and Marco, sometimes elusive and a little uncomfortable, always responds in the most political way possible. They talked about various topics, Laura was able to understand his character in its fullness and realise that he was a very intelligent person, that he had apparently laudable motives for the good of humanity, but deep down he was only looking for his own benefit and must have an unknown personal agenda and that at the end of the day, Bluelife was only a tool that would allow him to achieve these goals.

At the end of the interview, they said goodbye to each other cordially, but since then, Bluelife found Laura to be a considerable opponent.

Laura had dedicated her entire life to defending humanity’s interests against large technology projects proposed by corporations such as Bluelife and trying to promote political measures through the UN to appease the social crises caused by mass unemployment and the growing disparity between rich and poor that had been increased in recent years by AI. The economic and social landscape on the planet was changing rapidly and it was vital to anticipate these changes in order to avoid a future global crisis.

For Laura, this fight had not been easy which was a bitter pill to swallow. So, at the age of 50, she decided to make a career change and dedicated herself to teaching, thinking that, since it was difficult to fight alone, at least she would sow in young minds the seed of curiosity to have future humans willing to continue the battle for their rights in the face of new technologies and AI. This is how Laura came to my school as a philosophy teacher and became a big influence on me during those last years of high school.

On 16^th March 2060, I was sitting in my seat waiting for Laura to arrive in the classroom to start the philosophy class, but she was already a few minutes late, which was unusual for her. Suddenly, there was a commotion around me. One by one, my classmates pulled their phones out of their pockets and stared at their screens in surprise. Something had happened, they were talking about a global trending hashtag.

#helloworld

I took out my phone to also look at the news associated with this hashtag and what I saw left me petrified. It was an image of Mars from the Rover 2040. The image was not of very good quality, but what could be distinguished put into question all the knowledge that I had about humanity and about life.

Suddenly Laura came into the classroom. Agitated and visibly shocked by the news, she said:

• Guys, you too must have already seen the image on your phones. I have made a few calls to my contacts at the UN, the image is real. Today we will have a special class, we are going to analyse this image and what this can represent for the human species” saying these words Laura projected the image so that we could all see it.
• Professor! – a colleague spoke aloud – does this mean that we’re not alone in the Universe?
• Pablo – Laura looking at us all with a sparkle in her eyes – I am pleased to tell you that we are not alone in this Universe!

Since the tragedy of the Space X 2040 mission, the Rover 2040 has been exploring the Martian North Pole, where it had made an emergency landing. During the 20 years it was exploring this gigantic ice mass, there were moments of connection and disconnection as the Rover sometimes entered grottoes, caves or areas under the ice and then returned to the surface again and continued to transmit. On several occasions it was believed that the Rover was lost due to long periods of isolation. This was one of those occasions. It had been 9 months since all communication with the Rover had been lost and only a few days ago the Rover reappeared and started transmitting information and images of what it saw during all that time lost in the Martian glacial caves.

That is why the hashtag #helloworld was created on social networks, to follow all the information that the Bluelife space exploration centre was releasing little by little.

This image had undoubtedly been deliberately disclosed because a story of this magnitude could not be made public so quickly without prior investigation. But someone inside Bluelife decided to divulge it on social media and make a stir around the world.

The image that Laura had projected in the classroom was not very clear, but you could clearly distinguish a cave or grotto in the Martian ice, bathed in the sunlight that came from outside and, in the background, you could see the light showing the silhouette of what could be considered as a pyramid with four obelisks around it, placed in each of the corners of its square surface. The size of the pyramid was difficult to determine, its surface appeared smooth and it seemed to be in good condition. The obelisks were also apparently smooth in surface, but were in an apparent state of destruction, as if they were in ruins. This formation was half buried in the ice. The formation was of an unknown material and denoted an artificial rather than natural origin.

Obviously, humanity had found for the first time in its history the remains of a civilization outside of planet Earth.

This was not the only image, there were others taken from different angles, but all at a distance since the Rover never got close to the construction. The world had received a greeting from Mars and the images had circled the planet. The impact was remarkable. From new sects that emerged, to religions that came into conflict, to mass suicides, the uproar caused by the discovery had many consequences for human society.

One of the first questions asked by the scientific community was: How old are these ruins?

The Rover did not get close to the construction and therefore could not perform in-depth analyses, and even if it had come close, many of its geological measuring instruments were damaged. The only thing this uncertainty managed to do, was to feed the morbid conspiracy theories of many people. Billions thought that governments had already known this for a long time, others began to rave and point out that aliens had lived among us for a long time. Xenophobic murders were reported in various parts of the world, accusing the victims of being camouflaged aliens with plans to invade Earth. This widespread chaos added to the crisis caused by the development of AI and the impact on the working class was a cocktail that triggered the creation of multiple protest movements under the slogan:

We want the truth!

The various representatives of the most important religions of the planet gave official statements in response, trying to calm their devotees concerned about the events and invoking them to remain strong in their faith. Explaining that God was the creator of the Universe and that he had given this divine gift to humanity to let us know his infinite power. These speeches were not entirely convincing to most people and for the first time in human history there was a strong current of abandonment of faith in many of these religions.

In the midst of this situation, a group calling itself Runa, with roots in Peru, began to gain more followers. Runa, a word of Quechua origin that means ‘man’, ‘people’, or ‘human being’, was a group of humans who claimed the lifestyle of the ancient Peruvians in harmony with nature and the ‘Pachamama’. It invited its members to get away from everyday life and the problems caused by the modern world and start a new life in a community lost in the Andes Mountains, sharing the work of the land and herding and living in balance with others.

The leader of this community was a man of about 55-years-old who had started this movement approximately 3 decades earlier, in the 2030s, after the Peruvian government launched an ambitious plan for integration and national identity. Runa’s origin was a response to this plan and a way of protesting against an initiative that, according to him, sought to erase the true roots of Peruvian culture.

Many people from Lima and even from other countries, fed up with their problems, the lack of employment opportunities, who had lost their faith due to the discovery on Mars or simply looking for an escape to an increasingly stressful and hyper-connected world, joined Runa’s ranks and formed a large clandestine community deep in the Andes Mountains, giving way to the resurgence of the ancient myth of Inkarri.

This was what was going on all around me, after 16^th March 2060. A chaotic world, with many existential doubts, major social crises and a hunger for answers to the discovery made on Mars.

As a consequence, the world powers, together with Bluelife, decided to relaunch the Martian exploration program. These events removed all doubts regarding my professional choice and represented an opportunity to achieve my goal.

I was one step closer to Mars.

I would get there, and they were going to need an archaeologist.