text: The crowds cheered as I climbed onto the stage to accept my Noble Prize. My hard work of the past twenty years had finally paid off. Had my mother and father been alive, they’d have been extremely proud of their son who’d won not one, but two Nobel prizes. I’d won my first prize about six years ago. One of my better books had just come out, and I’d been awarded the Nobel prize in literature for “for my beautiful depiction of the human condition and the ability to weave magical realism with our race’s rich history”. When I’d first started to write, I did not believe anyone would ever be interested in reading my work. But when I’d read out my stuff to my wife and daughters, they loved it. That encouraged me to get my work published and the next thing I know, I had developed a huge cult of fans. The day I’d won my Nobel prize in literature was the best day of my life. Until today, that is. I beamed with pride as the king of Sweden presented me with the Nobel Prize in Physics. In my speech, I dedicated the prize to my parents, both scientists who’d died a few years ago. That night, as I kissed my beautiful wife, she gave me some wonderful news. The best day of my life somehow became even more memorable. My darling soul-mate was pregnant with our third child. Life was good. **50 years earlier**. Olivia stood outside her house waiting impatiently for her husband, Hugo. He'd left early in the morning to meet with his friend Jake, an ex-employee of the state’s science department. She looked around at all the empty houses on the street and thought of her friends and neighbors, whom she missed dearly. The plague had taken away most of them. Only a dozen citizens on the street were still alive, including herself and Hugo. Their radiation monitor estimated that the two of them had about three weeks left to live. By that point, almost all of humanity would be dead. After twenty minutes of restlessness, she saw Hugo arrive in a battered down solar-powered car. The smile on his face told her everything she needed to know. They rushed towards each other. After a long and heartfelt embrace, Hugo spoke, “He agreed right away. Says he’s got less than a week left to live and he doesn't care what happens to the machines.” “Did you tell him what we needed them for?” questioned Olivia. “I did. He said he was happy for us and would not inform the authorities.”. Hugo spoke with a tear in his eye. Jake had been his oldest friend. Olivia comforted him and the two made their inside the house. Their newborn lay sleeping in the crib. Unlike its parents, the baby’s skin glowed and his breathing was steady. Using their lifetime of knowledge, his parents had synthesized a special compound, which gave his body the immunity to survive both the virus and the radiation. Sadly, the substance only worked as a vaccine and not as a cure. The baby was the only living being on the Earth capable of living for more than a year. Hugo and Olivia had kept his immunity a secret, afraid that some of the remaining political groups might try to harvest the child’s cells for a cure. The next day, they traveled halfway across the city to the old government research facility. Using Jake’s card, they entered and made their way to the top floor. As the large door opened, they saw hundreds of humanoid robots. To a layman, these robots were indistinguishable from a human. Although they had no soul, they looked, spoke and acted otherwise. They came in all shapes and sizes and were even capable of giving an illusion of growing old. Before the outbreak, the government had spent billions to create the robots and planned to use them as spies. Now, they just lay abandoned and deactivated. Like they’d planned, the two sat down and began to program the machines. They were determined. Unlike them, their child would not be denied the opportunity to live a happy and complete life. By the time he’d grow up, humanity would be long dead. Without anybody else on the planet, there was little chance of him living a life, much less a happy one. So his parents decided to give him the next best thing. The robots would create an illusion. They would be his family, his teachers, his friends, his colleagues. He would live the most wonderful life without ever realizing that he was surrounded by machines, not real humans. Olivia programmed the machines to forever maintain the illusion and Hugo made sure that they do all they could to ensure that their child lived the best life possible. After growing up, the child could grow up to be whatever he wanted to be and do whatever he wanted. He could become an actor, a chef or heck, even a noble prize recipient.