[ WP ] `` You will feel what she feels , live when she lives , and die when she dies . ''

`` You will feel what she feels, live what she lives, and die when she dies.'' 
 
 I stared at the reflection of my own face. `` And I'll really experience it? All of it?'' 
 
 `` Every sensation.'' 
 
 I blew into a tube which pushed my chair closer. 
 
 `` Will it age?'' 
 
 `` She's replicating the aging process even now, while she's off. You'll always be the same age.'' 
 
 He seemed to sense my hesitation. `` We want you to experience as normal a life as possible.'' 
 
 I blew again, slow and steady, and the chair whirred in a large circle around him. Around the thing he'd built. 
 
 `` But I wo n't be able to control it?'' 
 
 `` She'll function autonomously, yes.'' 
 
 It was, for lack of a better word, an android. There were no circuits and wires here, though. Well, only in the brain. Otherwise it was wholly organic. She could breathe and eat and even, if I went through with this and donated my own eggs, reproduce. And I would feel it all. 
 
 I stared at the sign on the wall. 
 
 Virtual Integration Capabilities and Artificial Responsive Intelligence Utilization Systems. 
 
 Vicarious. The name was apropos, at least. 
 
 `` We do want you to be the first. Your parents were so certain.'' The doctor looked anxious. `` It would take years to cast a different model. It would set us back...'' 
 
 `` Do n't guilt the girl into it, Matt. It has to be her decision.'' 
 
 `` No, it's alright,'' I said. `` How will you know if something goes wrong?'' 
 
 `` Wrong?'' 
 
 `` What if she's making decisions I would n't? Something dangerous? Or...'' I trailed off helplessly. How to express every possible contingency? If I did this, I would quite literally be giving over control of my life to someone else. Something else. 
 
 `` She's you,'' The doctor said, gently. `` As close as we could come. Programmed with your own past choices, likes, dislikes, memories. Even strands of your own DNA.'' 
 
 From across the room, the other doctor, the quiet one, spoke up. `` We ca n't guarantee that you'll always like what she chooses. But her choices will closely reflect what you would have chosen, in the future, if you'd experienced the life she lives.'' 
 
 I felt my brow furrow. When you're paralyzed from the neck down, with sensation only in your head, you're hyper aware of every change in expression. 
 
 `` We do n't mean to rush you,'' the quiet doctor said. 
 
 `` But,'' the first doctor broke in. `` Well, you've had three years to think about this.'' 
 
 `` I know,'' I said. `` It's just a hard thing to wrap your head around. What is'free will', anyway?'' 
 
 They did n't answer. No one can really answer that. 
 
 I closed my eyes, and made up my mind. `` Okay,'' I said. `` I'll do it.'' 
 
 They closed in before I could change my mind. 
 
 When I woke up, I could walk.
