After about five minutes of my attempts to explain our future site, Sebastian called for a break, and we moved into another room.
A freaking teenage barroom with a jukebox — and judging by the shabby Twister mat hanging on one of the walls — a lot of space for regular parties.
'Okay, I'm beginning to understand Kathryn's discontent,' I thought.
Sebastian took place behind the counter, laid out an impressive collection of snacks from the drawers and freezer, and started fulfilling our drink orders.
I had no desire to cloud my mind, so I asked for tomato juice and started chewing on beef jerky sticks. Giving Sebastian time to mentally decompress, and Annette and Kathryn, sitting a few chairs away from me, time to discuss something in hushed voices.
The option I proposed to the trio could hardly be called anything other than a trade-off.
No, there was a word that described the situation even better - an intersection.
I wanted a peaceful, comfortable life where I could experience the best Earth Bet movies and games. Each week, automatically moving closer to the answers to all my problems.
I wanted to avoid losing my humanity due to social isolation and absolute self-sufficiency.
I wanted to start a typical Worm adventure. Create overpowered-as-fuck super-armor and carelessly troll iconic characters for shits and giggles.
I wanted to be as cautious, responsible, and rational as possible. Especially because my intuition constantly whispered so many not-very-optimistic things. That the Great Filter wasn't only a theory. That the vanilla "Dark Forest Hypothesis" wasn't a very scary one; that the version that includes time and multidimensional travel is.
I wanted to preserve my mind and decision autonomy from my powers, necessities, and theoretical efficiency. So that my wish-fulfillment still had some part of 'my' and 'wish' in it.
I wanted to, as quickly as possible, cheat my way out of my problems, restore my memories, and find my original universe and relatives. Which — given technologies like those from 'Lucy,' 'Transcendence,' 'Back to the Future,' and so many benevolent gods — I potentially could attempt in just a month. Yet, always at a price.
I wanted to stick to some norm, to a reference point. Cultural fulcrum. Like pre-9/11 USA's one.
I wanted to just kill Jack Slash and spend fifteen years leisurely touring other worlds.
I wanted a catgirl version of Cortana who would solve all my problems.
I wanted sex. As the most understandable and pleasant thing after eating and sleeping, and as a compensatory satisfaction of my curiosity about named characters. By some fast, simple, universal, moral, and ethical approach. That turned out not to be as simple as it seemed in the first days, and as was obviously intended by my superpowered build.
I wanted to save humanity. In Worm and beyond. Save Pyrrha Nikos or kill Hitler every hour; drop cures that would save millions. Spread information about how to save fundamental parts of humanity from technological progress; and technological progress from fundamental flaws in humanity. All while avoiding undermining people's free will.
I wanted humankind to thrive in a golden age. To be a wise balance of knowledge and empathy. A union of the best things created by biological evolution, human culture, and the human mind. Straight from the unbelievably optimistic dreams of classic science fiction. Not another mangled byproduct of ideologies and technologies that humankind should have used, not being used by them.
I wanted apotheosis, perhaps the only path to relative security in a multiverse. Yet without losing what little remained of myself.
And of course, I wanted to avoid going crazy from so many incompatible wants and fears. To merge them into something coherent. At the same time, be too genre-savvy to fall into the obvious trap of purchasing unforgettable knowledge that would doom me to see people predominantly as boring cogs in boring machinery.
And along the Intersection of all of this—
"ds—lp," Sebastian said something to me.
"Sorry, again." I looked away from the glass at Sebastian.
"Could technologies from other worlds help?" Sebastian repeated. "To make people smarter. Like nootropics."
I sighed. Already imagining government and corporate supercomputers built from brains filled with nootropics and neural interfaces.
"Modern capitalism and its monopolies. Modern socialism and its bureaucracy. Modern conservatism and its obsession with the past. Modern realism and its amorality. Modern liberalism and its paternalism.
All of them have a similar quantity of pros and cons.
Because their properties are defined less by their ideas than by the quality of their understanding by their Modern audiences.
By the same logic, ANY technologies or ideas we could give humanity would be degraded to the level of modern humanity.
At the very best. Because there are still many — by Inglehart–Welzel terminology — 'societies with high Survival Values' that, for the sake of symbolic self-affirmation, would corrupt, weaponize, and discredit anything good we could potentially gift to humanity. Even the most pacifist things.
And if we try to control things? Everything would be ruined by reverse psychology, the natural causes of social division, subcultural simplifications, and ritualization.
And all of that? It's just the tip of the iceberg of related problems.
For example, personal and social attention spans are very limited in what they can see and process simultaneously. So, the more innovative and complex things we introduce - the less personal and social attention will remain for other things, and the worse would be comprehensive cross-referencing and efficient alignment.
That is one of the many reasons why all revolutions have their own counterrevolutions, and why social development has powerful wave-and-pendulum dynamics.
The main scenario I proposed — unobtrusive sexual-related appeal to American students about the rise of women's and humanity's efficiency through a better understanding of inborn qualities — is what remained after more than 50 theoretical alternatives.
I, of course, with great interest, will hear your ideas about alternatives, but I very much doubt that there is much room for improvement over what I've proposed so far." I spoke while rotating my glass in my hands.
"And if we skip feminism?" he asked.
"In what sense?"
"I mean, if the main future problems are low birthrate and stupidity, why can't we try to solve them independently of feminist issues? I don't know, through free childcare and education?"
"Won't work.
Until recently, children were made for reasons defined by biological evolution and very old pro-biological cultural norms. And feminism is attacking them at the worst possible time while offering zero alternatives except for senilization and free rein for anti-human-rights solutions.
Imagine people have a TV that lets them talk to fictional characters, create their own characters, and, to some extent, go on adventures with such characters.
Just such a TV would be an enormous detriment to relationships. It's cheap, safe, very interesting, and emotionally engaging.
Yes, good relationships would still be leagues better, yet even in such a relatively rare type of relationship, over 90% of the time, people wouldn’t physically touch each other, so — from a subconscious perspective — they communicate at least somewhat similarly to what our TV relationship simulator could offer.
Anyway, even with the existence of such TVs, creating a real relationship would already require some sacrifices. At least in terms of time and comfort. And for the sake of much weaker bonds than before. Because the natural way to form such bonds is all about the first few infatuations, sexes, and subsequent pregnancy and mutual adaptation.
Now, imagine that such TVs exist amid social norms that condemn a substantial portion of what men and women have always found interesting in relationships..."
"Like what I did in the movie, right?" he asked, and I laughed.
"What you did in the movie was condemnable in the 2000s.
I think I was dropped into the second world not earlier than 2029. Almost surely in the 2030s.
By that time, making a movie like Cruel Intentions had already been impossible for 10–15 years. Because, from a legal standpoint, it depicts rape of a non-18-year-old child via drug-facilitated sexual assault after criminal collusion of two minors.
From a 2030s perspective, the movie ending should have featured not Taxi Redemption, but... at least 5 lawsuits and your arrest. If not because of the girls shown in the movie, then because of one of your former lovers who decided to get ahead of the competition and make some money and popularity over a righteous fight with a rich rapist."
"Not sure what's worse, death by taxi or that reality..." Sebastian mirthlessly chuckled.
"Again, the latter would be impossible because you would never do anything so stupid in the first place."
"And my alternative would be..."
"Record of women's consent on camera, sexual tourism, sex workers, legal contracts before sex, vasectomy protection against sperm-thieves, with the possibility to find information about you via inconspicuous glasses with a camera. It depends on your level of paranoia and willingness to spend on lawyers.
But mainly, mention super-TV.
If you cannot have relationships with women as they always were, then why choose a more inconvenient abnormal way over a more convenient abnormal way?"
"What a charming feminist romantic... yes, I could see such possibilities in some modern trends.
And you want to preserve normal things as controllable role-play games and, by making everyone a little more like us... as you said, emotionally intelligent and self-aware..." Sebastian said thoughtfully.
"Something like this."
"...by accusing feminism of... inefficiency? Are you sure you have proofs of that?" he asked.
"A lot of them. At least from my time.
For example, the more countries had gender equality - the fewer women chose STEM universities and careers over social ones. Despite feminism's claims that things should be the other way.
At first glance, such a lie is very harmless. But if you really think about it..."
"They're undermining women's potential..."
"Exactly. If women really do have inclinations that lead them toward social education and work, then insisting that such inclinations are a patriarchal myth prevents many women from finding what they really want from their own lives. And the women who follow those inclinations?"
"—they were robbed of the opportunity to fully explore and develop those inclinations, potential, and competitiveness.
And it's not just about educational inclinations and potential, right? Sexual ones too..." thoughtfully said Sebastian. "You know, I'm not a saint... but I NEVER forced myself on mostly unwilling women. As you saw in the movie, even when my car was at stake. I just didn't need to. Women almost always wanted what I did. And if not, why bother?
Yes, their wants are often not accompanied by absolute confidence.
But how could such absolute confidence even be possible outside fully sterile conditions, without any excitement from unpredictability?"
"No way. Absolute confidence and subsequent consent are impossible even during the choice of ice cream."
"So, if 'for the women's sake' feminism of the future began to take away anyone's normal sexual wants... yes, I think I understand now..."
"Spot on. Therefore, we will mix sexual and educational inclinations, overcharge them, and launch toward cognitive skills, equality, fun, babies, social benefit, and so on.
So when super-TV arrives with its cat-girls and minotaurs, a real relationship won't feel like social charity, but will be just as safe and simple an alternative."
"Minotaurs?" Sebastian asked.
"Oh, yes, it's a funny story. You see, despite feminist propaganda about 'relationships should be about equality and consent,' popular among women entertainment content slowly started to become even more—"
⸻⸻x⸻⸻
"I still don't get it. How are women's sexual fantasies about Minotaurs related to the fight against fascism?" asked Sebastian after a few minutes of my explanation.
I sighed. "Ok, let's simplify things even more.
Educated people usually describe fascism like this: 'Fascism is the rejection of the spirit of the Enlightenment and humanism. Enlightenment counterrevolution.'
Very carefully avoiding mentioning the main reason why, despite the existence of an obviously superior way, fascism became so popular in the 20th century. Because, you know, it's easier to blame others than acknowledge your own shortcomings.
But the fuller truth is this: 'Fascism is the rejection of the spirit of the Enlightenment and humanism, propelled by the Enlightenment's and humanism's misguided approach to the animalistic side of human nature.'
If, at the beginning of the 20th century, humanists and liberals had chosen to continue the Enlightenment in the direction of the animalistic part of human nature.
If they educated society — especially the poor and undereducated — about it. Making all forms of political propaganda less efficient.
If they helped people channel it safely — as it happened in the case of a rather conservative sport approach.
If they do such things as aggressively as their opposition, not mumble inside intellectual information bubbles.
Then, ideologies based on the intoxication, glorification, and technocratic exploitation of the animalistic side of human nature wouldn't have had enough fuel to become anything more than fringe movements.
But instead, humanists and liberals tried to ignore, downplay, revamp, suppress the animalistic part of human nature. Essentially, give away such an enormous part of humanity to one's own competitors.
Anarchism, fascism, Nazism, authoritarian communism, neoimperialism, and other counterrevolutions against humane liberalism mainly emerged because of humane liberalism's own conservatism, stupidity, and shortsightedness.
From the inability to clearly explain to the uneducated about their inborn inclinations and the usefulness of controlling the most harmful of them; and from the inability to create a safer form of their fulfillment.
Exactly the same thing happened with feminism.
If feminism had been honest about women's and men's natural inclinations and desires, including acknowledging that men's natural desire for sex with a variety of young women is analogous to women's natural desire to communicate in pursuit of greater social reliability.
If feminism had created clear and effective rules for the fulfillment of natural female and male desires.
Then, most of the obstacles to achieving genuine gender equality would never have existed.
But many feminists simultaneously wanted to enjoy the perception of the useful for them high-testosterone traits AND vilify men for things like attraction towards eighteen-year-old women rather than women their own age. Wanted classical 'I wish he would use masculinity toward others, but not toward me' impossibility.
So, by its own hypocrisy, feminism created ammunition for pro-animalistic movements against itself and liberalism.
Essentially, financing its own counterrevolution. Which, in my time, perfectly illustrated statistics on political gender division. Because men don't understand how they should manifest masculine qualities under their inconsistent and constant criticism, they relocated to the right side of the political spectrum.
One small clarification. Because most people aren't sociopaths, there are no real pro-mind movements.Only pro-animalistic, essentially about the lower part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.Pro-empathetic, about the highest part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.And unstable imitations of something else. Un-hierarchical rule-based systems require empathy for synchronization."
"If it's really that simple, then why didn't people just... I don't know... do it the right way from the start?"
"Because that kind of stupidity is part of human nature, too.
Think of the steam engine. Only after centuries of lazy experimentation, only when circumstances finally created the right necessity, did someone finally drag his ass and steam engine towards a coal mine.
Before the 2030s, liberalism and feminism were like steam engines burning firewood; leftovers of powerful liberation movements of the past. Just because wood was abundant and cheap. Only when it became scarce—"
"—and we know about the right combination."
"Sorta. We rather know how to reduce increasingly more dangerous use of human ingenuity by the animalistic part of human nature; it's emotional impulsivity, greed, stupidity, and so on.
By principle: 'The better a person understands and safely channels their animal nature, the more liberal and gender-related opportunities they will have.'
Yet, as I already said, its use depends entirely on the quality of the audience. So it's not 'right combination,' or 'answer,' just a prerequisite."
"And hence USA students..."
"Yep. At least they."
⸻⸻x⸻⸻
After a few minutes of our conversation, seated a few chairs away, Kathryn leaned over, revealing to me her cleavage, and asked, "My sis wants to know whether the movie was based on some French novel, and how popular it was in your universe."
"First question - yes.
Second... Cruel Intentions was somewhere in the lower half of the Top 100 films of its decade. Popular. Well known. With a fanbase. Yet, not a cult classic."
"And the most successful movies featuring our actresses?" she asked innocently.
"Why does that matter to you so much? The fact that someone in another universe happened to look like you doesn't make their success part of yours."
"If it doesn't matter, why don't you want to answer? Because 'one of us' was extremely famous in your universe, right? Famous enough that, out of all possible worlds, you chose exactly this one."
"Maybe you're right. Maybe you're wrong. How can anyone know when the only person with the answer has no intention of giving out hints?" I replied with a tiny smirk.
"The ending song is way too good to waste on mediocre actors," she declared, carefully watching my face.
When I merely shrugged and started eating peanuts, she let out an exasperated huff and returned to her conversation with Annette.
"But I was more famous than she was, right?" Sebastian asked.
"Not saying. Now tell me more about your relatives."
⸻⸻x⸻⸻
Soon we returned to the main room. I set the laptop containing my presentation slides on my lap and once again tried to explain our future primary source of income.
First, I explained how future Internet search technologies worked. And why none of them were suitable for us, because the code was too complex for one person, and the hardware requirements were too demanding.
After that, I explained the concept of Wikipedia.
Then I moved on to tag-based descriptions and tag clouds, mentioning that I could import some tag databases from other universes.
"On our site, every tag and every combination of tags will have its own pages containing relevant information. For example:
Tags with the same names as movies, music, games, electronics, or any other goods will contain ratings, reviews, and related discussions.
Those same tags combined with tags for timestamps, chapter titles, versions, and so on, will contain discussions about specific parts or uniqueness.
Tags combining names of devices plus the tag 'Malfunction,' will contain lists of common malfunctions and repair information.
Tag combinations like 'city name,' 'street name,' and 'stores,' will contain information about related stores and their advertising.
In other words, such a tag system could simultaneously function as a search engine, link directory, review aggregator, forum, and encyclopedia.
Sounds simple, doesn't it?
But for that to work..."
"Someone has to upload information to the right pages," Kathryn said immediately.
I nodded but didn't continue, waiting for additional answers.
"Someone also should verify the information on the pages, right?" Annette added. "Otherwise, pranksters fill them with false information."
I looked at Sebastian.
"Dude, my brain's already overcooked for today..." He sighed. "Fine. Synonymous tags. And information duplicates across similar pages."
"Correct," I said. "And many other problems.
Tag-Net requires hundreds of thousands of volunteers. But those volunteers could appear only after such a concept starts working.
Of course, many of these problems could and would be solved by very good algorithms. But here's our main solution...
We'll make money in two ways.
First, through users. Every account gets ten searches and three comments per day for free. Anything beyond that costs three dollars a month.
Second, through advertising. Just send to our email a paid invoice, one picture, and chosen tags, and soon your advertisement will be on the right page. The more competition for certain pages - the higher ad prices.
Of course, during the first days, almost nobody would pay us.
Because the site would contain only Annette's and Kathryn's manifestos. Imported from other universes' rankings of various entertainment content. And my explanations of which mainframes are vulnerable to the Year 2000 problem and how to solve the issues that can and should be solved.
Not bad, but nothing extraordinary."
I paused dramatically.
"Therefore... we'll call the site Half."
"You'd blow up the Internet with that," said Sebastian.
"Half?" Kathryn asked, still confused. "Half the profits will go to the contributors?"
Which I immediately confirmed. "Yep. Half of our weekly profits would go to the best authors and moderators. Up to $2,000 per person.
And if things didn't progress too fast? I'd just start adding content from my world's Internet under the guise of information we anonymously bought from users who believe in our project in exchange for a certain amount of monthly payments."
Annette thoughtfully added, "Isn't this... too much? I mean, don't you want to preserve your knowledge about the future? And such a popular site would... you know what the Butterfly Effect is, right?"
"I do. But as I said, I have far too much to do for slow success and micromanagement.
The ability to quickly kick-start a universal self-developing and self-correcting popular site for which I have almost unlimited content is exactly what I need."
"I'm still not very convinced that something like this would become popular. At least not as quickly as you want," doubted Kathryn.
"Of course not," I replied with amusement. "Because so far I've only described half of Half.
Brace yourself, because what I'm about to tell you will blow your minds."
Then I began explaining the Akinator prediction algorithm, the grandpa of LLM.
How it works. How it was originally used.
How it could be used as an additional guidance system.
To find and simultaneously display similar pages.
To create and show users the percentages of page similarity and connections.
To identify popular unfilled tags and propose to users to fill in related information.
How each Akinator search could be used to display popular search tag-graphs and tag-maps. With the possibility of user-guided unification of tags by the 'Main Tags and Aliases' system.
That every piece of content on the site could be tagged by users, and the number of applied tags could be used as a voting system. That would allow users to easily rate, sort, and moderate content.
That Half will have search with 3-layers of combinable tags: Page Tags; Content Tags; Profile Tags. Available via the site, Akinator, and API supporting users' software.
You have a problem?
Just combine a few words and see its official page on the Internet. The highest-rated solution to it. The best opinions from the highest-rated accounts, or from accounts belonging to people who verified education and work credentials related to the problem.
You have a REALLY unique problem?
Just combine a few tags, create a task, and add some money as a bounty.
Cleaning a park? Writing fanfiction matching a particular set of tags? Receiving assistance from a few specialists currently ranked among the most relevant experts, including scientific ones?
Just a few clicks and a credit card payment.
All of which would also make Half a very convenient blog, Questions and Answers, chat, donation and crowdfunding, scientific, and so on, platform.
When I started getting closer to some really good stuff about collaborating on public tasks. Including via Elis social contracts, with the possibility of creating social games and collaborations of ANY complexity, and with the help of sociological, Hollywood, and scientific experts, Annette finally cracked.
"This is too much!" she fearfully said. "You'll make the modern Internet obsolete overnight. Modern EVERYTHING obsolete!"
"She’s right," Sebastian groaned, looking almost as exhausted as he had the previous day. "This is... perfection. What idiot would use anything else?"
"And because of perfection, we, what, rob humanity of something too beautiful for it?" Kathryn shot back with more fervor than I'd ever seen from her.
"I didn’t say that I'm against. Just... introduction of something like this needs time," Sebastian answered.
"It's not just about time!" Annette stated in a raised voice. "If we implemented all of this, we would become the largest employer in the United States! Do you even imagine such a scale? It would be bigger and faster than with the printing press!"
"And?" Kathryn counterattacked. "Didn't you agree to Max's terms precisely because you wanted something like that?"
"At first, I agreed to listen to a possible charlatan. And then, to someone who promised me veto power over 'global changes that I would consider too radical.'
Even ideas about restructuring feminism, mass-producing geniuses, and social contracts were more than radical. With Half? It's a social and technological revolution on a scale that would reshape humanity! I don't agree with something like this!" Annette shouted.
And I, not without embarrassment, looked away from her toward the laptop.
She wasn't entirely right, yet not entirely wrong, either.
Her words also highlighted a very important problem.
The combination of 'Self-Therapy I,' 'Self-Defense I,' and 'Information Security I' gave me 100-200 years of accumulated knowledge. Which was significant by itself, but not extraordinary.
What was truly extraordinary was that, unlike ordinary knowledge, this information contained literally 0 factual errors or contradictions.
Therefore, while its derivatives were still erroneous due to mixing with normal knowledge and environmental chaos; the theoretical systems fully based on Inspired Inventor knowledge were just... perfect. Too perfect.
And because human minds evolved to find patterns, not purposefully malfunction them, the downgrade of such perfection to 'normally imperfect' forms became an extremely challenging task.
"This is too much," Annette pleaded.
I sighed and met Annette's eyes. "It's not a monopoly. As I've already said, all databases will be public-domain resources. Our more ontological Wikipedia will just have a more complex monetization—"
"Max, your eyes are giving you away," Annette interrupted before I could finish. "You know that I'm talking not about that."
"Just hear me out," I softly said and continued. "It's not a monopoly. It's an enormous RISK of monopoly IF I decide to make it one.
Buy, if I decide to create any monopoly, I wouldn’t need such a roundabout approach via 'open standards.'
Patents, insider trading, digital compression algorithms, micro-electronics innovations, all of that is already within my current capabilities.
It's not a monopoly. Because I don't want it to be such.
Now, I fully agree with you that what I'm proposing is revolutionary. But just because I show a new printing press doesn't mean my press would be the best, or that I would gain control over the printing industry by it.
Yes, I will start a revolution, but overall? It wouldn't be shaped by me.
Again, because I don't have any incentives for this.
This universe doesn't help me with my main problems, doesn't give me what I need from other universes, and doesn't increase my 1-kilogram-per-day limitation."
"If so, why Half so ambitious?" asked Annette.
"Exactly because I don't plan to develop it much beyond the ideas I've already stated.
I need a rapid-building, self-sustaining, highly profitable, socially beneficial solution with universal smokescreen functions.
Also, some information, and enough renown to — as it was called in the 2030s on 'safe for children' the biggest part of the Internet — 'for friendship purposes' gain access to a few celebrities.
The combination of Elis and Half is exactly that. Intersection of so many different things."
"Smokescreen? For what, Annette's requests?" asked Sebastian.
I fell silent. When some things, of course, are so often replayed in my head, the only probability of their pronunciation... felt like final cementing of them in reality.
I sighted and massaged my bridge of the nose. Then I looked at each of my interlocutors in turn.
"It's my... 11th day of my journey. And despite this being my 24/7 reality, it still hasn't fully sunk in. So in your case, I don't think that's true either.
Guys, I can travel between universes," I said, and gave them some time to reevaluate my words.
"I can travel between universes.
That exists.
IN REAL.
Any universes. Right now. With us. In this room.
With aliens, time travel, magic, metaphysics, gods, and cartoon physics. Interdimensional travelers and empires.
Why do I need to solve problems with feminism, fertility, idiots, and inefficient information search and storage? Why do I need a smokescreen? Why are the revolutions I'm proposing so radical?
Because I have no fucking idea who might show up in this universe, when, or whether I'll even be alive after a week. Which obliges me to create... let's call it a Very Basic Safety Net. For myself and for everyone else."
"If this is so important, why don't you contact the authorities?" asked Annette.
"Are you serious?" Kathryn asked incredulously.
"Because all countries would know about this within a few days and would do anything to restore the balance of power," said Sebastian, to which I nodded.
"Also, 2000-2030s showed that the moment things go outside experts' areas of expertise and habit, their competence drops to the level of the social median. Or, because of their overspecialization, even lower and with even worse tunnel vision.
In other words, in a situation like mine, the authorities would be just as panicked, greedy, and prone to overreaction as anyone else. Constantly interfering with the expertise of the only real expert in such matters, who also already possesses the most relevant tools, me."
"And your expertise says that we should simply increase our... overall protection to such risks by becoming smarter?" asked Sebastian.
"Overall immunity. Yes.
As a basic precaution.
Important, not out of its own relevance, so far there are none — except for my senility, of course — but out of the size of potential risks.
Elis and Half...
There are too many REAL potential interdimensional problems to ignore them. But because we don't know exactly what problems we'll face in the future, the only correct solution is to... just make local humanity smarter and saner.
Among other things, raising defenses also against monopolies and outside influence as mine."
We all fell silent.
"Okay, I'm officially switching to Max's camp. I'm still advocating for smoothing things out, but in fiction, the appearance of one interdimensional 'traveler,' typically foreshadows more of them," said Sebastian.
"As if you have voting rights," Kathryn said sarcastically.
"Thanks for trust," I said, "Even without voting rights, his advisory role is important too.
Also, I don’t recommend relying too much on information from entertainment where causality has been severely compromised for the sake of audience expectations, social norms, and narrative status quo.
Spider-Man endlessly repeats, ‘With great power comes great responsibility,’ while every night risks leaving on the streets DNA that, in reality, would be doomed to spread across all the world's laboratories and create an innumerable number of clones and super-serums.
From a legal and ethical standpoint, the American citizens Batman and Superman are guilty of concealing information essential to the USA's and humanity's survival.
Their super-smart friends, conveniently, were capable of absolutely everything except for boosting educational and social progress. Perhaps because the idea that Bruce Wayne could start giving away free food to anyone who answers a few random Human Science questions was too complex for their superminds.
Dr. Emmett Brown constantly talked about and showed to people relatively easily replicable technology that was many orders of magnitude more dangerous than nukes.
All such things are just... unrealistic and unwise. Commercially entertaining.
I, and if you want to help me, you as well, should try to identify every possible risk, and then find where such risks and their solutions intersect into something as universal as possible.
From singular perspectives, undoubtedly, as ugly as a Swiss knife that is too large for comfortable use, yet... comprehensive.
Does anyone have any proposals?"
"Public anonymous tips from some secret organization that knows about interdimensional threats and can prove their existence through information from the future?" suggested Annette.
"I already talked with Max about something like that," answered Sebastian for me. "The more important the technology and information we provide - the more likely they're to be misused, and the less control we'll have over such inevitable misuse." He shook his head, "Such public disclosure will just lead to panic and its use by politicians or even cults."
"Also, don't forget that we have only two weeks before the beginning of the academic year. If we don't show our parents that—" Kathryn began and was sharply interrupted by Annette.
"Academic year?! We're discussing the fate of humanity, and you're worried about the academic year?!"
Kathryn blinked in surprise, then shot back with vitriol, "So far, for some reason, you're the only one who still thinks that making people smarter and giving them a super-encyclopedia is heinously radical.
How charitable of you.
When I'm already considering things from a practical standpoint. If we don't want problems with parents and months of rumors, we should show parents something exceptionally promising already after a week from now."
"For some reason?! Fine, I'll be frank. One of the main reasons is YOU.
Let's assume Max is right. What happens if he suddenly disappears? Would you trust schemers from a movie if you didn't know them?" Annette asked Kathryn, but then turned to me, and by stormy look, demanded answers.
"Socialites," Sebastian quietly muttered.
"First, again, we're NOT deciding the fate of humanity," I replied. "We're... nudging its development. One time, and towards the best direction only possible.
Second, regarding succession... Originally, I intended to handle that via a fund with very strict instructions in such a scenario, but if you want the most reliable option possible..." I said and began searching for the right file on my laptop. "Even if an actor possesses ideal skills, they still can't stray too far, or for too long, from their normal social masks. Which are usually very close to who people really are.
Here is a list of already-famous people who were widely regarded as 'good.' Who, up to the 2030s, haven't displayed major behavioral discrepancies. And who never seriously discredited themselves. At least to my knowledge.
George Carlin. Jim Carrey. Robin Williams. Conan O'Brien.
Steven Spielberg. Matt Damon. Julia Roberts. Tom Hanks. Morgan Freeman. Robert De Niro. Anthony Hopkins. Sean Connery. Angelina Jolie. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Keanu Reeves. Bruce Willis. Nicole Kidman. Steve Buscemi. Gary Oldman. Sandra Bullock. Danny Glover. Brendan Fraser. Patrick Stewart. Danny DeVito. Cate Blanchett. Hugh Jackman. Samuel L. Jackson. Rick Moranis. Sharon Stone. Stephen Fry. Hugh Laurie. Meryl Streep. Steve Irwin.
Stan Lee. Terry Pratchett. Douglas Adams. Matt Groening.
Bob Dylan. Dolly Parton. Eminem. Elton John. Paul McCartney.
Penn Jillette. Bill Nye. Larry King. Roger Ebert.
We offer them a share of the profits in exchange for serving on a Board of Observers with full access to information and veto authority.
If Steve Wozniak leaves Apple, we'll make him the Observers' chairman.
Annette and Kathryn would each own 10% of Half, while Sebastian would serve as CEO. 80% of the shares would be mine as Chairman of the Board.
In the event of my too-long absence, let's say, because I am too busy in my 'secret laboratory,' until I reappear, my shares will be controlled by the Board of Observers."
"And how exactly do you explain that to those people? Or to the public?" Sebastian asked.
"I don't. Eccentric geniuses are allowed to do whatever they want."
"And Cecile?" Asked Kathryn. "I'm assuming you have plans for her, too."
"She'll be something like a liaison, a talisman, and proof of concept for Elis's ideas. A foolish girl whom you turned into... Well. Maybe not Benjamin Franklin. But close."
"You're sure that'll actually work?" Annette asked skeptically.
"He can travel between universes," Kathryn answered for me.
" I can travel between universes," I confirmed my greatest hope and fear.
Annette sighed and asked in a weak voice, "Max, right now, we still aren't deciding anything final, right?"
"Of course not. Right now we're just skimming the most important points."
"Then let's continue tomorrow, you don't mind?" she asked.
"No, let's continue tomorrow."
"At last," Sebastian groaned. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I think my brain is about to explode."
"Weakling," said Kathryn, not sounding very convincing given her own obvious exhaustion.
"Only six hours?" Annette said, glancing at her wristwatch. "It feels like it's been at least days since your morning call."
"Tell me about it. In these two days, I have already questioned reality more than during all my life." Sebastian said with a smile.
Which gave me mixed feelings. A significant portion of the movie's popularity stemmed from the good chemistry between Sebastian and Annette, whose actors had married after filming...
Nah, finders keepers.
"Same. For me, last week felt like years, if not a completely new life," I said, packing my laptop back into the backpack.
⸻⸻x⸻⸻
To unwind a little, Annette and Kathryn sat down in front of the television and resumed their hushed conversations. Not really what I had expected from them from the previous heated exchange, or even on the first day. But they were very smart girls who quickly grasped that the sooner they found common ground, the better it would be for everyone. Foremost for them.
Sebastian, meanwhile, invited me into another room and handed over the promised $25,000. $312,500 in Worm prices. And I gave him my passport, so he could check the details of my cover identity.
Despite his offer to stay for a snack, I decided to head home and sleep for a few hours. A rather good plan which was disrupted by Kathryn's 'interest in my new car.'
Originally, I had intended to give her a little more time to adjust to the situation. But if she insisted, so be it.