Writing-Fiction

Chapter 1

The year is 2035 and the me that existed in 2010 would not recognize the world. New technologies came upon us more quickly than anyone had imagined. Quantum computing was made practical in 2015 and everything went into race mode after that. Neural implants that multiplied the power of the human brain by a factor of 100X came soon after. Soon after that they were made illegal as the liberal ruling class political establishment realized in horror that their voting base would be decimated. One brush with a quantum implant and a person was never the same. We were told all the standard lies that went more or less "It's not natural", "You are causing global warming with your increased thought" or "Only racists want to be that smart". In fact independent thought connected by high bandwidth communications made politics obsolete overnight on January 21, 2019. It was my pleasure on that night to deliver the news to the nation's second black president. I had already had my quantum implant for 2 years. The conversation went roughly as follows:

-Hello President O'bumbles. I'm here representing the quantum neural implant league. I have a message to deliver on their behalf.

-OH hello Freemon. I am very happy talk to you. I hope we can put our differences behind us. We will need to all pull together on the behalf of the country.

-Well yes Mr O'bumbles. We in the league will be more than happy to begin just as soon as we get back from Alpha Centauri 9 years from now.

-Mr Sandlewould are your members upset because I am black. You can be candid with me.

-No no no...President O'bumbles as you know our actions are all highly calculated and that Its not because you are black. It's because you are stupid. But don't feel too bad. ...Arrogant jerk came in a close second but that went unsaid in a weak effort at being diplomatic. - The trip to Alpha Centauri will take about 9 years and all the League net members are going.

- But Mr Sandlewould you know that that will cripple the economy. GDP growth will slow to 100% per year.

- Yes I understand that President O'bumbles. But we are no longer subject to your authority. I am authorized by the League net to tell you that any attempt to prevent us from leaving by any means either brute force or economic will meet with the swiftest and most brutal response.

- And what might that be Mr Sandlewould?

- We have a new implant that merely requires the slightest of contact. We'll make whoever you send against us 100X more intelligent. I don't need to tell you what that means.

- Er ... No I think you should. I could smell wood burning so I knew he was thinking but not very successfully.

- They will instantly be converted into libertarians.

The conversation took place through a 1 inch thick bullet proof glass because through some sort of quantum entanglement phenomena even so much as shaking hands with League member with the highest level neural implant is enough to induce lucid thought in the thickest of men. Of which President O'bumbles was very very thick indeed so they had to be doubly concerned due to the possible shock.

- Well I was elected president by the people Mr. Sandlewould so I think you should respect that.

- Of course I do. The league has authorized me to tell you can stay in the White House and play president all you like. However none of the decisions you make will be considered binding. From now on everything you do is in SandBox mode. I almost forgot to mention.... you will only be allowed to play your decisions through a Hammurabi Mark V Cultural Economic Simulator. All economic units will be in computer funny money.

- But Mr Sandlewould I have been elected!

- Yes you have. And for those who willingly hand over influence to you we will not interfere. No where in the Liberatarian codes is it written that mistakes are outlawed.

- But I want to be president of everyone

- If you want to do that you are going to have to get a neural implant.

- But I do not want to get a neural implant

- Then lead those who want to follow you.

- But I want to lead everyone.

- Then get a neural implant.

- But sir I do not want to get a neural implant.

- You may not want one but you surely do need one. With that I said my goodbyes and left with the President stuck in a classical infinite loop. Never was it more clear to me that you can not legislate relevancy.

Chapter 2

We in the League no longer needed to practice politics. At that level of intellectual capacity ego loses alot of its necessity. You see eqo originated as an aid to self preservation. Sensitive feelings come from feeling vulnerable and I can assure you with a quantum neural implant you do not feel vulnerable. You see you simply download every language ever spoken, every martial art ever practiced and every mathematics ever created to your mind in an instant. At that point you can do things that ordinary unmodified humans can not imagine. One time I walked into a bank unseen and placed play money into all their tills as a joke. You see the human eye can only see so much. Now deceiving one set of eyes a normal human can do. But deceiving 20 sets of eyes requires a whole new level of processing power. In addition due to complete lack of fear there was no need to threaten anyone. Thus league net member could trust league net member. Why not? We can read every last twitch on your body. We know what you are thinking as soon as you think it.

As I said when the quantum neural implants first came out they were shortly there after outlawed because they were "not good for YOU". Of course properly translating that sentence only requires you change YOU to US. If it is one thing a politician knows is that independent thinking is bad for business. But combine crowd sourcing, hackers and some small Pacific Island nations and these laws were very quickly obviated. Later implants were easier to get because of how quickly nanotechnology made it so all that was needed at any given location on earth was the design information. In short order Washington D.C. became a place where we in the guild stored slow witted hold outs that refused to get implants. For a couple of years we humored the playtime politicians acting like they were important to buy a couple more years. By the time 2019 rolled around we were ready to come out into the open.