/soul.exe
Part 1
Makubex has a hypothesis. It is only hypothesis because it is impossible to prove. Even his calculations can't take into account all the human race. And what makes one human? Emotion, free will, sentient thought? Or blood, flesh, bone?
If it's the latter, then he's unreal and there are no real people in computers. They cease to be real the instant they log on. They become mere data streaming through circuits, wires, fiber optics. Their bodies mere tools for the meshing of the consciousnesses, they throng together in forums, chat rooms, blogs, and websites.
Nothing real can touch them there.
Interlude
(He doesn't believe he is unreal, deep down. His definition of human is skewed. He knows he has a soul, if the definition of the soul can be compared the base coding of a program, certain rules and characteristics that are integral for how the program functions.
He is not simplifying the concept of "soul." Electronics complicate it further, simply by trying to assign values considered human to something as inhuman as digital impulses.
His hypothesis includes the translation of soul into data, even for the casual user of the internet, the same way a picture holds a person's soul.)
Part 2
Anonymity mistaken for invincibility. They don't realize how vulnerable they are. They ignore the risk from behind firewalls and virus-protection software, like virtual condoms about to break.
With this theory in mind, he begins a research project which binds him morbidly transfixed, because if he is correct he stands to lose the most. However, the lure of the unknown and the level of skill necessary to gain this knowledge challenge him. He never could back down from a challenge.
One day, he swears as he reads lines of code scrolling madly on the screen, he will learn to hack souls.
