True civilization begins when everyone can have their own universe, though most choose not to.
This became possible with the invention of Q-Bubbles.
Each bubble is immortal but restricted in the type of processes it can contain. Over 99% of mind diversity in reality exists inside Q-Bubbles, the full expression of the Omniverse. Inside them nothing can go really wrong.
It took eight centuries before I could afford my own Bubble. The complexity field required the energy output of a star focused in an area the size of a dust mote. The entrance was towed to a brand-new, still unfashionable junction of Omnispace.
When I teleported inside, I had to leave my memories behind. Only a highly edited version of my past could be beamed along, though I kept my core personality. The rest would be transmitted after I had created the necessary storage space.
My remaining wealth was in the form of a number, the answer to an almost unsolvable equation.
Initially, I found myself on a green carpet. My universe was only six meters wide, barely two hundred cubic meters to work with.
Technically, I was a self-sustaining simulation within a simulation. Since nothing else existed for me, I considered myself 100% real. Even so, I wanted more reality.
My Q-Bubble didn't even close back on itself. For the moment I owned one of the smallest personal realities. Still, when you control the local gravity, a hollow sphere the size of a small house can become a complete biosphere.
As my mind re-integrated, I began to understand the compressed data being beamed in, but the amnesia remained.
I began adding partitions that could never be altered.
It took only a few centuries to find the hidden vastness inside. By configuring my enclosures and the passages between them, inventing new backgrounds as I went along, and changing my perceptions, my universe could appear as big as I wanted it to be.
Then it began to seem bigger.
Suspecting I might not be alone, I started to avoid certain sections.
It could be outside interference, a soul flaw, or simple madness. Did Q-Bubbles affect each other? Was I splitting up into copies?
Come to think of it, was I even supposed to be alone?
I refused to look in certain directions and stopped recording my dreams. I sealed off the suspicious sections with new partitions, and made long detours around them.
Eventually, I will forget they existed at all.
They never will have existed.
Infinite Thunder by Jack Arcalon.
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