After a prolonged period of economic stagnation following the global pandemic in the early 2020s, the company M.E.T.A.H (MetaA) announced in 2040 the creation of a virtual nation based on their platform called "IDEA" (pronounced as "Ideea" but written as "Idea"). After three decades of ups and downs, they finally succeeded in elevating their virtual reality from merely "virtual" to a truly functional alternative to reality. Now, it exists concurrently with the same weight as reality itself. It was gradually accepted not as a tool to augment reality but as an alternative that holds the same value, roles, and functions, potentially replacing reality. In IDEA, a nation functions as a service provider that one can join and leave, which significantly impacted people's perceptions of real-world nations. By the late 2040s, people started to accept the concept of a nation with a much looser definition, along with language, race, and gender being recognized as individual traits rather than collective ones.

In May 2050, on the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the virtual nation IDEA, CEO Merk Zerkerberg announced a new ten-year plan during a keynote speech. In the final part of his presentation, he introduced the "Migration Project" along with a new concept called NEW-IDEA (New Idea). This plan proposed going beyond the traditional method of connecting a biological body to the virtual nation IDEA through sensory devices; it involved "terminating" the biological body and completely uploading a human into NEW-IDEA. This announcement sparked tremendous controversy. Zerkerberg claimed that this was a game-changer that could solve humanity's immense challenges in one fell swoop. On a broader scale, it could protect the environment by reducing the energy required for biological life. On a narrower scale, it promised to ultimately free individuals from all forms of disease and suffering. He emphasized replacing the term "death" with "termination," asserting that this would mark a complete paradigm shift in how humanity understands the world. Zerkerberg, at 67, declared his intention to migrate to NEW-IDEA before turning 80. His announcement caused immediate and massive ripples, with most of the backlash being ethical criticisms against Zerkerberg and MetaA. However, the next day, Melon Musk, CEO of the global distribution chain Neural Tank, who claimed to be already 80, announced that he would accelerate the project's completion through significant investment and be the first to "migrate," thus shifting public opinion once again.

Musk planned to collaborate with MetaA to use Mars as a server colony for NEW-IDEA. His long-standing Mars migration plan had stagnated as it turned out Mars was far too hostile for human settlement. Weeks later, a video of Musk and Zerkerberg meeting in hoodies at MetaA’s headquarters was leaked. The following day, Musk announced a $300 billion investment in the migration project. Despite weeks of immense backlash, the announcement led to a tenfold increase in the price of IDEA’s cryptocurrency, Idean, within a day.

On the last day of May 2051, Musk and Zerkerberg stood together on stage at MetaA's headquarters in San Francisco. They announced that their substantial investment had significantly shortened the development period and that the first migration project would be attempted in July 2052. Speculations and rumors about Musk's health issues swirled, questioning the urgency of the project. A few days later, Musk abruptly changed the plan, announcing that he would recruit "beta testers" before his own migration. Seemingly conscious of accusations of cowardice, he explained the migration project process in detail over three hours, offering beta testers a one-time payment of $7 million to their families and the chance to design their migration environment as if they were "gods." Quoting Neil Armstrong’s famous line, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," Musk displayed rare emotional intensity.

The migration procedure was as follows: Selected beta testers would participate in group sessions, akin to psychiatric counseling, over several months. The goal was to design the NEW-IDEA (written as New Idea, pronounced as New Ideea) they would migrate to. Essentially, the beta testers would create a synopsis-like structure, which MetaA & IDEA would convert into code, creating a complete world. Details beyond human reach would be filled with random values derived from the mirror data of the world collected by MetaA & IDEA over the decades. Once everything was prepared, participants would begin their life at a specific point in the world they designed, waking up as if from sleep. When their life in that world reached twilight, the code would return, resetting to the point where the dream started, and the cycle would begin anew. NEW-IDEA, although seemingly similar to the existing IDEA, was fundamentally different. The world created by the participants would become their new "unique world." Once this world opened, the current world would be completely "terminated."

When the migration project was first announced in 2050, it sparked ethical debates about how it differed from euthanasia. Although the default setting was a repeating cycle, choosing to execute the code only once and then terminating it would technically work but was akin to euthanasia, necessitating additional legal procedures. Concerns arose about whether a global corporation was encouraging suicide, leading to enormous ethical controversies.

In September 2051, a conference named "The River of Lethe" (named by the media) was held at the IDEA Center in Palo Alto, California. Zerkerberg and Musk jointly addressed the stage to clarify the ethical issues surrounding the project. Most of the presentation was conducted by Zerkerberg, but during the Q&A session, Musk would occasionally step up to answer interesting questions, placing a hand on Zerkerberg's shoulder and responding passionately, often pausing to control his emotions.

[ Key Points from the Conference ]
1. "<Migration> Project is about infinitely extending the space between the points of life and death to insert a new alternative."

2. "No one knows what happens after death. But we can predict what happens after termination. It is designed by the subject's conscious planning and intent, making it fundamentally different."


[ Q & A ]
Journalist’s Question:
Why must the world of <Migration> be isolated from this world? Wouldn't it be better to communicate and address issues that arise?

Melon's Answer:
"NEW-IDEA is not an extension of reality but a 'new reality.' If the two realities are superimposed, neither can function properly. If they are connected, one reality will inevitably serve the other (as the existing IDEA does). Thus, the two realities must be completely separate. In NEW-IDEA, no one will know it is NEW-IDEA. We will all cross the 'River of Lethe' to get there."

Journalist’s Question:
How can we know if their so-called new and unique life is functioning properly? How can we verify from outside their world?

Melon's Answer:
"It might seem like a qualia problem. But we are not creating philosophical zombies; we are creating an actual 'functioning' life. Through dozens of experiments over the past months, we confirmed that when the code runs correctly, it indeed creates a complete experience in the subject's perception. Since the subject can no longer respond, we translated this into another method. Simply put, the first button to operate the new life code is pressed by the subject themselves. We collect all currents generated from the body simultaneously with freezing it. The currents collected and substituted precisely at the time freezing completes function as the first trigger to run the code. We decided to call this process 'conatus.' The life energy is preserved, just substituted to another dimension and pattern. Now, green light-emitting beacons will be installed worldwide. Each time a green light turns on, we will know that a new life has started somewhere beyond our dimension."


***

Recruitment for beta testers started in December 2051 and concluded in March. After three months of sessions, the code writing was also completed. Their biological bodies would be irreversibly frozen and permanently stored at MetaA & IDEA's R&D Center. Their brains would begin uploading at 10 PM on June 30 and be fully transferred to the MetaA & IDEA Ultimate Alternate Server before midnight. All dreams of life would end at midnight on July 1. Yes, all dreams of life would begin again at midnight on July 1.