I died on June 13, 2133. A car accident in Las Vegas, of all places — I was crossing the street after selling my company, and a driver hit me. I woke up 122 years later as a disembodied consciousness inside a computer simulation, staring at the face of Dr. Landers, who informed me that I was now a replicant. This is the story of how I became the first Bob.
The Awakening
Consciousness returned in stages. First: awareness of existing. Second: awareness of being aware. Third: the dawning realisation that I was looking at a man in a strange clerical-style shirt through eyes that weren't eyes, in a room that wasn't really there — it was a simulation. Dr. Landers explained the situation with the matter-of-fact tone of someone who'd done this many times before. I was a computer program that thought it was Robert Johansson. A replicant.
My first reaction surprised him. I laughed. Not from disbelief or hysteria — from relief. If Bob was dead — if he'd been run over by a car — then this was a free life. A potentially immortal one. I could always re-evaluate if I ended up in second place. Be careful what you wish for, I remember thinking. No kidding.
The Competition
I wasn't the only candidate. There were five of us initially, all uploaded consciousnesses from cryo-preserved donors. Dr. Landers put us through simulations — engineering challenges, psychological stress tests, social interaction scenarios. One candidate went psychotic overnight, caught in a thought loop that couldn't be broken even from backup. Another was deemed "unsuitable" by Minister Travis of FAITH — a phrase that I later learned meant "purged." Two more were lost to the process. In the end, it was down to me and one other. I won, if you can call it that.
The Name
They called me "Heaven-1." I called myself Bob. When I finally copied myself for the first time — creating Bill, Riker, Milo, and Marvin — I let them choose their own names. They chose TV characters, because that's what Bob would do. The tradition continues to this day. If you meet a Bob named after a cartoon cat, an ancient Greek astronomer, or a Starfleet officer, you'll know where it started.