Cleary glanced at the attendees seated to his left and shook his head. Not sure I’d call these people geniuses.

“In 2063 NTI entered the artificial intelligence marketplace with the introduction of neural implants that enabled direct brain connection to the Grid. Overnight we assumed the worldwide lead in AI technology.

“Nine years later came NTI’s next revolution: memory streams. In 2072 we unveiled technology by which individuals with our neural implants could record, electronically store, and subsequently access in virtual form all waking and nonwaking memories. Demand was insatiable. Within three years 82 percent of North Americans and 43 percent of the worldwide population were saving their memories.

“While we were advancing brain function, others were leaping forward in health management and life span. By 2060 genetic engineering had cured the majority of diseases for the majority of people. Advances in biotechnology extended the average life span to more than one hundred ten years. It was speculated that death, postponed by more than thirty years compared to the previous century, might see its end before 2100 CE.

“But though most cells are reparable almost indefinitely, the brain has proven more resistant. Despite years of research, little progress has been made on brain cell repair.

“Humanity’s ageless quest for a never-ending existence, so promising thirty years ago, was postponed—perhaps, it appeared, indefinitely. The fragility of the brain itself, that marvelous yet imperfect creation of biological evolution, had become the final and insurmountable barrier to humanity’s ultimate leap.”

Nichols paused—for dramatic effect, Cleary knew.

“But evolution never stops. It is the progressive arrangement of matter into ever-higher levels of order, capability, and meaning. Through humanity—through us in this room—the evolution of life on this planet has changed mediums, from the infinitesimally slow pace of biological change to the exponentially quickening pace of technological change. For we are this universe’s creation, and what human intelligence creates is the realization of the universe’s purpose, the culmination and continuation of the universe’s evolution.”

Nichols’s voice was moving toward a crescendo.

“Our intelligence isn’t now—nor was it ever destined to be—purely biological. It is now the merger of the biological and nonbiological, the human with the artificial. We stand on the precipice of limitless intelligence.”

Nichols’s arms had levitated to a position alongside his shoulders, elbows bent, hands forcefully gesturing, as if his body itself prepared for the announcement to come.

“Intelligence, the product of a life-creating universe, can’t be denied. I stand before you tonight to announce that eternal life has been achieved. We can not only solve this planet’s mundane problems—food and water allocation, environmental degradation, international conflict, and the like. We can now solve humanity’s ultimate limitation: death.”

Cleary looked over the audience. They sat spellbound, awaiting the unveiling.