Category: Uncategorized

This was written December 7th, 2025

The Obsession

Life, simultaneously a glorious gift, and a cruel curse. Many of us strive to live life to the fullest, while being constantly preoccupied by the shadow of our doom. Yet, we must persevere and continue, step by step. Yet, what happens when death itself becomes more of a preoccupation than life? A morbid obsession? Are you even living anymore?

Exhibit A: Sam Morris, a researcher that’s been curious about death. Not only whether there’s anything on the other side of the veil, but also what the act of dying truly feels like, the kind of experience drawing your last strenuous breath must be like, or how a sudden and violent demise would feel. What kinds of thoughts are on a person’s mind at the terminus? These he wanted to answer.

Why? Some claim it was to better prepare for when he himself would meet his end, others that it was just a dark fascination with the death, and some that it was simply misplaced curiosity, curiosity for something that seemed unattainable. And the pride in achieving what many would have thought impossible.

Welp, over the course of his research, there were many technological developments. At first, he would simply observe the CAT scans and MRIs of dying patients, observing how their brain changed over time as death loomed ever closer. Similarly, seeing on other patients how the different waves recorded by an electroencephalogram would progress, where activity would move to, and in what way.

Alas, this felt too abstract for him, too remote from the reality he wanted to explore. And so, he invested heavily into technology that would finally allow us to read people’s minds. With the rise of AI, it became simpler and simpler to find clear interpretation of thoughts through scans of one’s brain. The requisite technology to scan the brain also became more and more convenient, allowing to get different types of information simultaneously without much interference, getting a more complete picture all at once.

Finally, thoughts were gradually deciphered, and he could start recording people’s last thoughts. Unfortunately, those tended to be more boring and mundane than most people would have wished for. While prior to death, people were known to experience increased clarity, once at death’s door, this didn’t last. Some thoughts went to people’s parents or family, in rare cases, there were obsessed thoughts about regrets, or unexpected things that had marked the person such as music or even commercials, but eventually, the thought patterns became completely erratic before they were entirely extinguished.

This was wholly unsatisfactory for our dear Dr. Morris. Luckily, he wasn’t quite done there. There was still more to experience. This was lacking an extra element, a visceral one, the actual feelings and sensations associated with death. And as the technology kept improving, such technology became reality. It had at last become possible to experience someone else’s thoughts and feelings as if they were your own. Obviously this created a whole new creative marketplace, but this is not the one we’re interested in here.

Most people in his entourage had objections against such an experience, some insisting that we didn’t know how it could impact him, some going on about the ridiculous popular notion that experiencing someone’s could cause him to die, while others insisted that this was too private a moment to intrude upon. Which…well…they already intruded on their thoughts, so what was the harm there?

Eventually, he managed to have one of his terminal patients to sign a release form, allowing him to conduct this experiment. They’d opted for a terminal cancer patient, who would be Euthanized by the end of the week, through the use of “relaxants”. Oh, the excitement, the culmination of one’s life work, and his obsessions finally being granted reality.

The big day finally came, and he entered the room, hiding his real feelings and trying to appear professional. Still, he told the gathered family how momentous of an occasion this would be, a great advancement for Science! And finally, everything was set up, he laid down on a bed, and the connections were activated.

First, he was gripped with fear and anxiety, along with tremendous amounts of pain. Yes, to be expected from a patient in this situation. No one can ever truly be ready for death, after all. Then, they prepared the first injection, morphine. Oh wow, the effect was wild and so addictive. Being able to experience such drugs without first hand exposure definitely was an unexpected bonus. He felt himself get more and more relaxed. Then the second injection, and there was a bracing for the expected result, yet a fairly relaxed and calm one, relatively speaking. Gradual calm overcame him, and he thought this was how it felt like when the person finally let go. And then boom, a complete mental overload. Thoughts speeding across, so quick, so chaotic, so…incomprehensible, yet puzzling. Words, images, sounds, even smells and tactile sensations. There seemed to be a sense or logic to it all, but none he could himself explain. And the sensation was so intense, so thrilling, despite being numbed by the cover of the morphine. Quite an unexpected and world-changing thing to go through.

When he unplugged, he was still shaking, unable to come to grips with what had just happened. He felt like he’d been presented with some unbelievable enigma, but and a revolutionary type of experience. He was shocked and couldn’t quite describe what had just happened. From that moment, he became a bit more recluse, and more secretive, but kept pushing for more and more such experiments. The next one was with an elder patient, in the grips of cognitive issues. What he dealt with this time was very similar, but more hazy, as if through looking through a veil. And while the finale was still rather sensational, it was definitely more muted. Oh, this was unsatisfactory, wholly unsatisfactory. How could this be what followed the initial thrill? He had to re-experience the intensity of the initial run. At this point, everyone should have picked up on the addiction, but that’s the issue when you’re in the grips of such a vice, you turn a blind eye to it.

At this point, he had two new criteria: No cognitive disability, no opioids (Although this had been quite a pleasant ride). If he were to follow this thrill, he had to get it in a purer form. Accordingly, he moved to patients in the ER, more specifically the traumatic ward. Getting someone closer to death that can’t really be helped, and who won’t be sedated.

Unfortunately, in such circumstances, getting a release form was harder to get, alas… But he still managed to find a way to make a deal under the table. He managed to find someone suffering severe hemorrhaging that was not long for this world. He quickly set everything up, and prepared for the “trip”. Oh boy, this was intense. First, the extreme pain mixed with a pure dose of panic was overwhelming, yet fascinating when knowing there was no actual danger. And then, consciousness was slowly fading away, thoughts became slower, muddier, harder to push through. Eventually, the explosion did come, as usual, though it was once again muted. Not nearly as muted as with his previous experiences, but it was clearly not as pure as it could be. Yet, it was oh so intoxicating.

But clearly, the blood lust was negatively impacting the ultimate burst. He had to either find something more sudden, possibly more traumatic, but which wouldn’t lessen the senses and cognition until the last moment. Unfortunately, such cases seemed impossible to predict or find naturally, at least if you wanted enough time to set up the connection. It would have to be manufactured.

While he still had to get his fix, living through less than satisfactory deaths, he had set his sight on a more extreme case. Chasing his own desires and incentives, he found a way to twist his own morals and convince himself that it would be dignity to allow terminal patients and ultimate death filled with adrenaline. Thus, he found a great candidate, a thrill-seeking youth who desired to go out experiencing an out-of-this-world stunt no one attached to their own life would ever attempt, which would deliver him directly into the hands of the Reaper, simultaneously turning him into a legend.

Accordingly, he tried to lobby to allow for such this opportunity to become reality, taking the “make-a-wish” angle. Unfortunately, this was not well received by the public, and was no bill allowing this would ever come to pass, which disappointed both parties to no end. Eventually, the youth passed away, a complete waste according to Sam.

Eventually, Sam thought he had no option but to take matters in his own hands. And he stepped over a line he never should have crossed. He chose what he thought might be the a good candidate for the desired result. He opted for electrocution. It would be fairly quick, and should not directly impede mental capacity.

Finally, he chose a target. Kidnapping them turned into a simple matter for him, and he only had to go ahead with the execution. Having bound them, they first waited long enough for all of the chemicals to fully dissipate from the “patient”‘s body. Once that was done, they activated the connection, and activated the switch that would terminate the patient. Unfortunately, this was a complete failure. They had completely miscalculated, and the electrocution had also heavily impacted the brain. They should instead have stopped the heart with a more targeted and limited current. The sensation was indeed quite overwhelming, but none of the thrill was present, such a complete waste.

And alas, before a next experiment could be conducted, they had been discovered. As he wondered, biting his thumb, what he could possibly do to prevent the prospect of being completely cut off from his addiction, he started to run. They couldn’t possibly stop him, he had to continue, he had to finally experience it. He was desperate, no proper path. They simply didn’t understand, couldn’t comprehend his genius and the importance of his research, he reassured himself. Still, he felt he had no choice but to flee. And the options were rather limited, so he went up and up. After getting to the roof of the hospital, he felt cornered, desperate. And so he went into a final run, and leaped off the side of the building. Witnesses claim he had a contented and satisfied smile as he was diving down, letting gravity get him ever closer to the pavement.

A brutal and gruesome end it was. But it is thought that at the end, he finally obtained what he had been wishing for all along: this final thrill in its pure, unadulterated, undiluted form. He’d finally seen the fireworks. But he didn’t get to live through it.

When you lose all perspective on life, obsessed with the prospect of death, can it truly be said that you’re still living, or are you simply racing towards you own demise while losing sight of the things that truly matter? Is a life well-died really a life well-lived?

This was written December 6th, 2025

The Camp

How excited I’d been to go to the summer camp. Every year at summer’s end, people kept talking about it, usually gleefully. Sharing their memories, you could tell it was they were convinced they’d had the best time of their lives! Everyone could recall but great memories of it. Honestly, I don’t recall anyone ever sharing a single bad recollection. But alas, all things do come to an end.

Indeed, this year was different. After months of pestering my parents to go, and them rebuking each of my arguments, pushing back against the prohibitive cost, they eventually relented. And of course, it did mean I’d get to spend the summer with my best friend over there. But little did I know it would also be the last time I would see him. The end of the summer turned into a time of mourning.

The story: no one had seen him as he sneakily left the dorms at night, and headed for a late night dip. The next morning, his corpse had been found: he’d drowned. I remember being to the news the next morning, when this was announced. I guess I was shocked, because the memories don’t include the soul wrenching devastation I would have expected. My best friend, the one I’d been spending all my free time with, goofing around, chatting, playing games, sharing theories. How could I not be crushed, it simply made no sense! I’d been with him less than 12h earlier, and now, just like that, gone. And what had I felt? Hollow…as if I’d simply been…numbed to the experience. Maybe I had just overwhelmed me, paralyzed by the suddenness and unexpectedness of it all? Or was I just such a heartless monster? A psychopath? Who in their right mind could possibly care so much about someone, and feel so little at their passing away? In retrospect, that was the first unsettling detail.

Regardless, this resulted in the camp being cut short, an unprecedented event in its history. Unsurprisingly, we’re children after all, a lot of people were upset about my friend’s death, not because someone had died, but because of what it was taking away from them. Funerals were soon held, sponsored by the camp. They’d paid for all the expenses, allegedly as a way to atone for their mistake, for not being watchful enough, letting this happen on their watch.

The ceremony was beautiful, although for some unknown reason, it was a closed-casket ceremony. That didn’t make much sense to me, since he’d drowned, but who was I, a mere child, to argue. But it did mean I didn’t get another chance to see him, to properly say my goodbyes. But there, up front, was his casket, adorned with many bouquets, memorabilia (some video-game related ones I’d chosen in his honour), and a beautiful picture of him, taken the day we were headed to the Camp, an aloof grin covering his face.

As his best friend, I had also been involved in the planning of ceremony. His mother had asked me if I wanted to participate, and I could not possibly refuse. I helped choose some (tasteful) music that was meaningful. I also crafted a eulogy which I recited in front of the crowd. Incidentally, this is the point at which it all hit me. As I was about to conclude, I lost it and started tearing up. And now that the floodgates were open, it wasn’t long before those turned into waterfalls. In the corner of my mind, I also felt relief (was this selfish?)…maybe I wasn’t a monster after all, and I would have to grieve too.

Regardless, the ceremony had been, in my opinion, rather beautiful and respectful, it is what he deserved. After the funerals were over, I went over (after discussing it with my own parents) to his parents, and suggested we follow up the ceremony with a private session. Maybe go to a cafe, a restaurant, or a park (I didn’t feel like inviting myself over to their place), in order to share memories about him. I also insisted not to worry about money, that my parents had given me enough to cover a meal.

Somehow, they lost their composure, and thanked me before accepting the offer. Presumably, they hadn’t expected something like this from a child, but to me, this just made a lot of sense. Now would be the time to cherish our memories of him, and support each other through our grief. And so it was that we spent most of the evening at a local restaurant talking about Jonathan. We went through a ton of anecdotes, some classics that I’d often heard when going over to their place others I hadn’t really heard before, and was glad to get an opportunity to hear. It was rather bittersweet, a big mix of emotions, deep sorrow at the loss, a sprinkle of joy from some of the more silly anecdotes, sporadic laughter here and there, and a deep gratitude at having had him as a part of our lives.

Eventually, they realized I hadn’t discussed anything we’d done at the camp yet, which took me by surprise. That was right…why was that? I tried to remember, but a lot of it felt rather generic, didn’t feel special. Why was that? I had a ton of great memories from the camp, yet nothing special to share, despite us being best friends and both being there together? How could that possibly be? I awkwardly had to admit I was drawing a blank, how embarrassing. Still, the conversation had pivoted to the camp. They asked me whether he’d liked it there, to which I had to acquiesce. Of course, everyone loved the camp! But then they asked me more direct questions about him. Had he been behaving normally? Why could he possibly do anything so reckless? Why wouldn’t he get me to go with him? After all, we were so inseparable, it was almost unthinkable that he wouldn’t try to get me to accompany him!

And well…they were right! Why hadn’t he? That made no sense at all. If I’d decided to head out, of course I also would have dragged him along! What…how….why? I…I just couldn’t explain it. I couldn’t understand it. And until now, it hasn’t even been a question in my mind. But they were right. Things just didn’t add up. Regardless, we eventually went on to other topics, but by the end of the night, I felt like they were partially blaming me for his demise. And while it was true they had awakened some guilt inside of me, they had, more importantly, also been feeding my growing suspicions. Something was not right here, and I would have to get to the bottom of it. But for the time being, I’d opted to just keep it to myself.

In the upcoming days, I started to notice other unexpected things. I’d already noticed some bruises and soreness on the way back, but those are easily explained. It’s a kids’ summer camp, we’d been spending entire days just running around like fools, playing silly games, bumping into each other, falling to the ground, etc… I’d also gone fitter, had some muscles I didn’t remember having before, but once again, we were extremely active at the camp.

However, I had also acquired a few more scars than I would have expected, but also a particularly nasty one that I had no recollection of. Nor any idea how it could have come about. And it wasn’t really the kind of thing that could just come out of nowhere. How peculiar. For now, this only served as more ammunition to feed my suspicions.

One day, while watching an anime, I was reminded of a silly game the two of us used to play, while the other was away or otherwise distracted, we would hide a small note in the other’s shoe, hidden right under the insole. And somehow, my instinct told me I _had_ to check. Lo and behold, there it was, a note in his handwriting. Rather short and shocking: “Things not as seem. Check backpack. False Pocket. -J”

What on earth? Welp, I had a swelling of emotions, sadness at having lost him, once again, panic at the implications, and…curiosity. Something had definitely felt wrong all along, and I might finally have some answers. I immediately rushed over to my own backpack and looked everywhere. I could not for the life of me find any hidden false pocket, or any misplaced stitches. What…what was going on? A prank? A fake hint? A misleading hint to get off some else’s trace? I wracked my brain, and could not find any answer. But as advised, I slept on it. And by morning, I had an idea.

I headed over to my friend’s home, and asked his parents if the camp had given them his backpack, and if I could go check. I believed I’d forgotten something in it. I also apologized profusely about the situation. Luckily, they hadn’t emptied it yet, not wanting to disturb any of his things. They told me to go to his room, and left me to my own devices. I was obviously prepared, having brought with me a Swiss-army knife. I quietly emptied the bag and looked through every nook and cranny, trying to find either a fake pocket, or some sort of stitches. I did find what I was looking for, mostly because I heard a very faint crumpling sound. Yup, paper hidden in there! Finally, I found some stitches, definitely looked like my own handy-work. Looks like the time I’d spent learning to stitch had paid-off.

I quickly cut the stitches with my knife, checked inside, and found a few pieces of paper. Yup, a bunch of stuff written on it, I was impatient, but figured I should be careful still, so I stuffed the paper in my own bag, stuffed everything else back in my friend’s bag, and grabbed a random book from his shelf. Then I went back down, thanked them, showed them the book and claimed I unfortunately needed it for a class project, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered them like this, and left.

Once home, I went to my bedroom, locked the door, and finally got to reading. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but somehow, this was not it. I wasn’t prepared for it. To start with, it was written in my own handwriting, and had my initial at the end. It read:

“If you’re reading this and this makes no sense, then it means our escape plan failed. But we have hopefully found the clues we left behind for ourself. Cutting myself was no pleasant feat and I hope it wasn’t in vain. We hopefully had enough backups, between two people, to trigger something. Plus, we should suspect something is fishy, and through discussing it amongst ourselves, find one of our clues, bringing us closer to this.

First of all, this camp is a sham. It is not a fun summer camp for children, it’s a child labor camp. They need us to work on some weird project of theirs. We don’t quite understand it, but we can confirm it’s no ride in the park! While here, we’re basically just slaves, forced to work day-in day-out.

So, the first big question, how is it that everyone only remembers great memories, how could such a terrible secret stay hidden? Well, if you’re reading this, the answer should be obvious at this point. They have technology to rewrite people’s memories. They dump you memories from the camp and replace them with more joyous and innocuous ones. No child is allowed to leave the camp with their genuine memories.

Obviously, they’ll also search all of our possessions, so there’s no trivial way to sneak out information. Similarly, they’ve confiscated most of our belongings. But luckily, it’s not like none of us has found a way to sneak in. So, we’ve devised a plan b, a way to know what happens here, if we somehow fail to escape. Hide information somewhere they’re unlikely to find, and leave breadcrumbs to find it back without our memories. All without arising too many suspicions.

Once we’ve secured this plan, we’ll move on to plan A, the escape. We’re not happy with our odds of success, but this place is pure torture, and we can’t tolerate anymore. We have to do something about it. I would say wish us success, but if you’re reading this for the ‘first time’, then it means we’ve already failed. In which case, now that you have the truth, you have to find a way to stop them.

-S”

Welp, here I was, equipped at last with the truth. A lot of things started making sense all of a sudden, and yet…what could I do with this? I was left all alone, Jonathan was gone. I doubt anyone would believe me or this piece of paper. They’re all say it was some weird cruel prank, especially the adults. Meanwhile, the kids all were happy and had their own falsified memories, why would they trust a single word on this paper… especially since it was written by my own hand. I was terrified, facing an oppressing enemy with tremendous resources, all alone in my corner. What could I possibly do. If I actually decided to go against them, what chances could I possibly have. I felt truly hopeless…and alone.

Was knowing the truth a mistake? Would it have been better to never know. Well, not like I have a choice anymore. Once you know, you just do, there’s really no going back. Unless…

This was written December 5th, 2025

Beliefs

Beliefs, they tend to be a core identity of religion. In modern times, we’ve even started to consider Gods’ powers as being proportional to how much people believed in them, how much they are worshiped. Beyond that, some science now seems to indicate that belief itself can greatly influence one’s health. The placebo effect, the nocebo effect. Some things once generally considered harmful, such as stress, seem to only be harmful when we believe they are harmful. Those are clear indications of our own perception of reality shaping it, at a microscale.

Ancient people used to simply use belief implicitly through their own myths and religion, but there is legend of a tribe who realized the power of belief, and made it a core tenet of their society. Were they valid in such beliefs? Who knows, beliefs and their impact, even to this day, and difficult to measure. Which some believers suspect is in part because of the observer’s own belief biasing the results themselves, ironically. But what we do know is what remains of their legend.

As people of this ancient culture gradually came to see how their own beliefs were affecting them, they realized that they should start using them to their own advantage. But like with so many other cultures, it simply started with their religion. But how could this shape their religion? Well, it started with a precept about their afterlife. One of their own philosophers surmised that one’s afterlife is shaped by their own beliefs. Thus, if you believe in heaven, you might be faced with some heaven once you passed away. If you believed in a purgatory, you might have to visit those fiery depths to repent before being allowed into a heaven. If you believed in Heaven and Hell, and suspected you might not have led a just life, well then, clearly, you would end up in Hell. Similarly for reincarnation and the nihilist void of death. Although amongst those, only a single one would be likely to affect the real world.

This in turn had interesting consequences. If you didn’t live your own life according to your own beliefs, it could have disastrous consequences. And unfortunately, one’s own beliefs are not always trivially changed, fears easily affecting it. Once introduced to this idea, few people adopted the nihilistic view, since they felt empowered to affect their own post-demise prospects. However, few imagined that it would simply be best-case scenario, and most were under the impression the result would be swayed by their own moral system, and how closely they abode by it. Nothing too surprising there, based on our own world’s religion, all it did was reinforce the ethical beliefs, which we can see throughout traditional societies. Warrior tribes fighting according to their own notions of honor. Abrahamic religions encouraging their own moral systems. Reincarnation believers considering their own impact on the planet for future reincarnations.

The only difference was that this was truly at the personal level, instead of societal. And it initially caused some strife within the society, before becoming a bit more stable. Most people agreed with basic ethical tenets, such as don’t kill, don’t steal and the likes, leading to an era of general harmony. Moreover, a natural corollary of those belief axioms came in the form of a concept you might be familiar with: Karma. And like a beneficial disease, the belief in Karma spread like wild fire. People started believing that their own lapses in their ethical values might not only have long-term consequences, but also short-term ones. And on the flip-side, good actions would also lead to good results. And this was also a self-reinforcing, self-propagating system. If you believe your own good actions will reverberate and come back to you, you’ll want to reward good actions with more good actions.

Some people realized that being ethical because you’re worried about consequences, or hoping for a reward, was not nearly as great as intrinsically wanting to live up to your own beliefs, they still agreed that at a societal level, it was still a more than competent substitute. And so they encouraged them. But unfortunately, nothing lasts forever.

So, what happened to this ancient civilization? Well, we’re not sure. For all we know, they still persist here to this day. However, it is believed that they realized that this system, going unregulated, did not scale well. It had a risk of chaotic agents arising, which could completely disable this system. One’s beliefs being outrageously out of the norm, leading to abusive or destructive behavior, while most people couldn’t really condemn them for it, acknowledging and accepting their right to their own beliefs. And thus, an elite group came up with a plan, which for their own future, was accepted by their society, still limited in size. They couldn’t allow for the freedom of beliefs to go own unchecked. They had to tame it, direct it, make it more constructive.

Accordingly so, the elite started creating specific tenets that most people believed in and agreed upon. From there, they would remove any trace of the existing system, any trace of this ancient Philosopher and its shocking revelation. No more insights into individualized beliefs. Or so legend says.

Still, they couldn’t leave this completely to chance, so a select few would still know, and propagate this new system: A Cabal. It is believed that most ancient religions that came about with their own ethical system and consequences or rewards based on how you would abide by it, were either derived or shaped by them. But obviously, most systems tend to be corrupted over time. How else can you explain the crusades being ethically justified within a framework that should condemn such actions?

But why introduce you to this ancient belief of beliefs? For two reasons. First, if your own belief has the potential to shape your after-life, why not actually give it a chance. Could be for a wonderful adventure, instead of simply closing your book. Second, in modern society, ethical values seem to be a short on change, basically a bankrupted currency, not because people don’t believe in them, but rather because they see them as non-reinforceable, and thus follow the “cold numbers”, where ethical values are simply a delta that can sway the public and affect their bottom lines, but nothing more. We might have reached a point where once again, we might need to move to a system of freer beliefs, where people are once again faced with perceived impacts of going against their own values. But then again, are we even mature enough?

This was written December 4th, 2025

F-Bit

Technological or societal revolutions leading to existential crises tend to be but a temporary situation, until people have either adapted to it, or natural selection itself deals with the problem. Eventually, humanity just gets used to it, and might even turn it into productive endeavours.

The classic dilemma being, when Artificial Intelligence arises, what are the implications on consciousness. What are we, who are we, what are the implications? But more insidious are questions about determinism, free-will. What if you could prove we don’t have any free-will? Ah, well then this would be a true existential crisis!

Well, that was exactly the topic of “What’s Expected of Us” by author Ted Chiang. And no one ever thought this could ever become truth. A little machine that proves there is no such thing as free-will. How? Simple, an indicator turns on if you will, in the future, press a button. A great story that raised a lot of interesting existential questions.

But, how did it turn out in our world when such technology became reality? Well, obviously it also started as a kind of novelty gadget, a game for people to try out and get shocked with. Existential crisis? Yes, but life moves on, and the human race persisted. Eventually, what did happen? Further innovation! A larger theory of futureality was expanded. A single device would be able to predict what would happen ahead of time. We eventually managed to calibrate it to up to 24h ahead of time. Great advancements right there! But how would it be used?

Sure, you could simply decided to have devices at arbitrary intervals between 24h and 0s, but once you go digital, what’s the point? You can obviously just record the event and play it back whenever needed. So, what was the first proper use of this? Well, in order to limit engineering work, some people simply jerry-rigged the novelty toy in new doorbells. The interface of a button was basically the same, all that was left was to scan when the indicator would change, note the time of the event, and then increment it by a full day to know when the event would occur. This become an extremely popular gadget, letting people know what time they should be home, and what time they could leave. And how useful was that when it came to knowing when service workers would come to your home. No more of this frustrating “Yes, our professional will be at your home between 9am and 5pm, make sure to be home during the entire period”, only for them to not even show up and have to completely reschedule.

From then on, a few similar gadgets came about, integrating the technology more directly. The classic example: screening phone-calls ahead of time. You’d know when you were supposed to get calls and could re-adjust your schedule accordingly, or prepare to fully screen them out. But these were just the start of it.

Eventually, people realized that each of these devices could serve as a bit, which was labelled an f-bit. And that’s where things exploded. Obviously, there were a few concerns about properly miniaturizing the technology, correctly synchronizing the time delay, and limiting the interference between them. But these were simply technological challenges, each wall being taken down successively one after the next.

And from there, each successive use of the technology was similar to those seen in digital technology or the internet. First, messages. This allowed someone to send themselves a message in the past, or have automated systems that could send back notifications more involved than a simple “yes”.

Next, simple black-and-white images. This obviously also got couple with doorbells, allowing people to have a general idea of who was going to visit the next day. Sound eventually also made an appearance, covering a gradually large range of sounds. But one of the big differences between these technologies and some of the digital technologies is that the storage capacity was already sufficient, but the bandwidth was constant. Therefore, streaming images or sound was mostly trivial, and the resolution simply corresponded to the maximum resolution of a single image, with no worries about f-bit drop. The closest to drops that could be encountered being a dead bit.

So, how did people use it? The first obvious use was surveillance. Obviously, nothing you would see could actually be changed, but you would still have a head-start to deal with aftermath. People started using this for their own homes, and then governments had more contemptible means. This also started a new project, which they labelled after classic science-fiction, the Minority Report. Although this one felt diverged from its namesake, once more because we must consider the deterministic implications of this technology.

But is that all? Of course not. People also started to use it for more reliable information. Early leaks of information, celebrity sightings, special stock releases, etc… The weather forecast also became much more reliable, at least for the next day. And the disaster warning system was also implemented, in order to try to limit potential casualties. By only getting information about the disaster itself, and not its impact, it was believed that we could still limit the damage.

With ever-increasing capabilities, the resolution of the information was getting impressive. It became extremely easy to get any information ahead of time. Although this also came with the potential issue of information corruption through temporal circularity. While it was generally understood that there was no way to avoid the predicted fate, a new syndrome still came about, completely overriding an existing term: The Oedipus Syndrome. Some people would accidentally see undesirable outcomes, an attempt to prevent them, thereby fulfilling them.

So, with resolution getting to a point where there were only diminishing results. What people really wanted now was to extend the actual time buffer. But alas, no progress seemed to be a hard limit on the actual technology, at roughly 24h50m. Or, at least, all progress had been gradually approaching it in a seemingly asymptotic. But that didn’t discourage people.

The first few attempts were simple and manual. They actually came about rather early in. Someone would simply be expected to send the information back in time the second the received it. Unfortunately, most of those failed, which was believed to be due to information causality. If you sent it back to yourself, you would be aware of it before you were supposed to receive it and send it back to yourself. Thus, these systems were changed to isolate both systems, with middling success.

But eventually, a proper solution was found by a normal user. Or maybe a hack is a more appropriate term. In retrospect, what a simple, and elegant solution. You could simply connect the output of one device to the input of the next. If both were at a 24h interval, then it would be sending information 48h back. That is to say, you would get information 48h ahead of time. Although this approach was not flawless. With each connection, the data degraded further. Nothing too surprising there, you get the same with long physical cables. Still, you could still get about half a week without too much degradation, which was already a great improvement. Gave the first few adopters quite the head-start.

Meanwhile, the technology race moved to signal strengthening, trying to limit the decay as much as possible. But how did it affect people and society? Well, it caused excitement to be completely detached from actual events. People would look into what would happen weeks before they did, be excited about them, but then move one before they even happened. A stark exaggeration (or amplification) of a phenomenon that had already been started in the age of the internet, where important events or news would only be present in the zeitgeist but for a fraction of time before people moved on to something shinier.

“And pray-tell, what is life like now, after all these new improvements?”, might you ask? Honestly, while life did move on, existence have grown startlingly boring. Life feels disconnected from anything real, living in the present is a thing of the past, and most people have turned into drones, following the predicted path they’ve already observed for themselves. But it could be worse, at least life feels safer now.

This was written December 3rd, 2025

Unseen Wonder

There he was, as usual, spending all day in his workshop. Good ol’ Professor Isaac, hard at work. His obsessions with Science-Fiction never waned, from H.G. Wells, to Asimov, from Jules Vernes to Orwell, from Arthur C. Clarke to Bradbury, he could spend all day passionately discoursing about them and their works of fiction. Yet, it wasn’t their exploration of ethical and moral issues, of what it means to be human, of the limits of humanity, that kept him interested. It was their imaginative worlds, and more importantly, their various gadgets and inventions. And somehow, none was more appealing than the plot device of The Invisible Man. Somehow, the eponymous character had invented a special dye that would, similar to grease on paper tissue, render any object transparent. Oh, such an invention seemed so unlikely, and yet so promising.

Of course, nowadays, no one believed such naive concepts. Amongst other things, of course it would come about with drawbacks. He’d already heard various people mock the concept of invisibility, for after all, if light passed right through your eyes, how could you possibly see? Yet, his dream wasn’t to turn invisible himself. It’s this wild notion of making something that should be visible invisible that fascinated him, in the abstract sense.

And so, he’d gotten obsessed with this notion. Obviously, he went a different way from the initial concept. He’d opted to start by taking color away from materials, like with bleach. This, to him, sounded promising. Yet, this turned into a dead-end. What ended up promising was when he discovered a process that seemed to weaken the electromagnetic interactions of some materials. Not how different particles interacted with eachother, but rather how they reacted to electromagnetic waves. Somehow, it lowered the probability of those interactions happening. Eventually, he found ways to reduce those to satisfying parameters. Not completely zero, but sufficient for practical purposes. And there he was, faced with a success, after so much devotion. The invention he had so long dreamt of was finally made a reality.

Now, obviously, he’d only applied this process to small scale experimental samples, nothing quite at scale. So he found himself faced with a choice. What should be the first object he test it against? While he could obviously rerun this as many times as he wanted, there would always be something special about the first object. So…what should it be? Well, as the sentimental fool he was, he wanted to commemorate this with a photograph that he would frame and keep around. Obviously, while tempting for the irony, it would be silly to just render a photograph invisible. Yet, right there was a great candidate: The frame. Accordingly, he made himself a simple wooden frame, except one that would completely enclose the photograph: No glass nor plastic.

Once complete, it was a miraculous sight. The photograph, right there, just floating in mid-air. He rejoiced and was so taken by it that he found his face dripping with joyful tears. Oh, the cathartic release of such success after so many failures, mixed with the pure wonders of such a sight. As he got ready to nail the frame to the wall, he suddenly had a new idea: What if he also turned the nail invisible? This could be interesting too. And so it was that a photograph could be found in the workshop, miraculously hanging in midair, with a small hole appearing just an inch above. On the photograph could be seen our dear Professor Isaac standing next to a mysterious contraption.

Now, of course, he spent the next few days in a manic state trying to figure out what he could do with this new discovery. But once this high subsided, he wanted to find an actual innovative purpose for his invention, and novel application to something old. His deepest desire was to bring his sense of wonder to others, which he was convinced his invention could do, if done properly. And, once again, he turned to fiction for inspiration: The Emperor’s New Clothes. While the purpose would not be to literally stay warm while being naked, he figured there could be interesting fashion implications to having invisible segments to fabric. After all, he was pretty sure he’d seen “retro-futuristic accoutrements” using plastic to approximate this effect.

Obviously, he currently only had the means to make bulk material invisible, so he could not really make precise adjustments to a specific piece of clothing. Still, by the nature of clothing, there was a simple solution, he could simply turn the raw material itself invisible. Thus, he opted to work with a local seamstress. He first decided to learn a bit more about the different kinds of threads that could be used to make clothing, in order to select the correct candidate. Eventually, he purchased a few cones of the adequate thread, under the guise of experimenting in order to produce a novel material. Eventually, he found a way to dislodge the thread from the cone, and how to re-wind it back on the cone. Obviously, the cone itself shouldn’t turn invisible, or this could raise suspicions. Once this was ready, he simply took the thread off, turned the bundle invisible, and re-wound it. With a few cones of invisible thread, he finally went back to see the seamstress, who thought he sure was to jest. That is, until he asked her to touch the cone. Obviously, it did look rather peculiar to her, as if it was just floating between his hands, but how could neatly clear thread truly exist? Even glass isn’t usually this invisible. Still, once faced with the reality of her senses, she was forced to acknowledge the reality. She, in turn, was filled with a sense of wonder rivaling his own from just a few days ago, which utterly delighted our dear Professor. After all, this was what he was seeking.

After she had finally convinced herself this was a reality, without delay she went about to work, trying to figure out how to actually deal with this miracle material. She cut and measured a few pieces, tried to figure out how to properly use it despite the clear challenges posed by their unique property. Obviously, working with a material you can’t see if by no means trivial. Yet, eventually, most professionals manage to find ways to deal with such work without explicitly relying on their sight, but instead their other senses. And so, it didn’t take long for her to find her bearing, And she got quickly at work, possessed by the muse. Inspiration was present and accounted for. It would take a few days, but it would be a true masterpiece.

When it was finally ready, they decided to first expose it on a mannequin. It was quite the sight, a clear see-through spiral circling the down the bodice of the dress. Same swirling pattern going along both arms. It was definitely unique and unorthodox. But they couldn’t wait to see it in action. They had to see it. And the seamstress herself decided to go for it. The results, breathtaking through its “un-realness”. As she swirled, looking at portions that seemed ripped straight out of the dress, while still remaining completely coherent with the other components, it felt simply astonishing. They were beyond themselves, and they were excited to see how people would react to their work.

Unfortunately, fashion is but fleeting, and capitalism takes any sense of marvel out of the equation, turnings the most amazing of things into cold numbers. What-more, the reaction he was counting on also correlate with a sense of novelty. Once this wears out, things appear but mundane. After all, the first time electric light was brought on the scene, people walked from miles away to see its introduction on the public scene. Now, it’s but a simple and boring commodity no one things but twice about.

Thus it is that, despite the great success of their marvelous fabric, the awe the Professor was seeking on faces lasted but a season. Afterwards, while you could see people wearing his fabric at every corner, no one cared about…or honestly, really noticed it anymore. It just…was. And while he did feel a sense of pride in having created something everyone was using…his goal truly was to be able to share his own enthusiasm with others.

But the old man wasn’t simply going to throw the towel. Back to the drawing board it was! If a product was not going to be enough, what else could he do? Well, this whole enterprise had netted him quite a profit, so he had the funds to try to improve his process. What if he could do better than the existing bulk process? What if he could “tattoo” invisibility. That was quite the interesting prospect. And amazingly, he did succeed after about a year.

And what a revolution this was! Now, for an actual application. Well, an actual tattoo seemed like a valid application, but this was as-of-yet untested on living flesh. After all, it’s not like he’d just taken a rat and tried to turn it wholesale invisible. So, where to start with this? Well, he opted to try with a living plant. He had a little Aloe Vera in his workshop, and it was the right width that he could apply it to both sides to make it seem wholly transparent. Thus, he decided to “cut” one of the leaves, as in, turn a slice of it invisible (might as well not risk it with the whole plant). This way, it looked like parts of the leaf was simply floating in mid-air, and you could even see the inside of it through the cross-section.

What a mighty result it was. Gorgeous and intriguing…while it lasted. Within a day, the leaf had started to wilt, and worried as he was, he opted to simply cut off the entire leaf. Luckily, after a few days, the plant was back to full health. But what was the true cause? Initially, the scientist suspected it might be related to photosynthesis, since it could obviously not take place on those invisible sections anymore. Still, after long deliberation, he figured it would not account for the results, especially with such a short section having been turned invisible. So clearly, the process was toxic to the plant. Maybe it reacted in some expected way, releasing some toxins. Maybe the process itself was directly harming the plant. Hard to say. But…what if it were just plants that could be so affected. Well…he didn’t dare subject another creature to this treatment, too high a risk, so he’d never know. Still, he suspected the result would be that necrosis would gradually form and spread from the site of the operation.

Well, he was one application out of the window, but plenty left to fish out. If he was a more sinister man, he might have considered the application to weapons. For example, weapon concealment would become a simple matter. Or in melee combat, turning a blade invisible could cause the opponent to misjudge both the length and the position of the weapon. Or worse, hiding a body would become a much simpler task. Obviously, other indicators would be present, such as being able to interact with it physically, or the putrid smell. But turn it invisible and toss it in water, and no one would find it. And even still, in the case someone did find the corpse…identifying it or where it came from would become a Herculean challenge.

But these were not the kinds of applications he would ever dream of (nightmares still count as dreams). He was a hopeful and optimistic individual. It’s been said many times over, but joy and childlike wonder, these were what he aimed to share. Having had plenty of time to think, he decided to go from a product to art. After all, when people discuss a sense wonder, the way to instill it seems to be through art. And this recent upgrade was quite well-suited for it. Initially, he decided to make sketches on wooden slates, turning parts invisible instead of adding darkness, making it a dual approach from graphite drawing. It was also akin to those portraits made through controlled smashing of glass, although somewhat in reverse. Initially, he took the same approach as with drawing, marking down with his “invisible ink” the components to add, what you would usually see. Eventually he opted for the opposite approach, removing the negative space from the drawing. And for those who think there was really no distinction between this and sculpting wood, let me disavow you of this belief. His version was not only extremely intricate, but it also came with less physical restraints. Indeed, with a sculpture, you need to worry about structural integrity, whereas here, there is no such concern. What-more, he didn’t stop there regardless.

Having started with a process akin to graphite, he opted to also use similar techniques for “shading”, going with some “invisible hatching”. This lent pretty surprising visuals. But he didn’t stop there, he already knew he there were ways he didn’t have to turn something all the way invisible with his process. Thusly, he decided to improve his process to also have control on how invisible things would become. And with this, mind-blowing results abounded. He was so engrossed with the artistic process and refining it that he made huge bounds, both on the art itself, and his techniques. He also mixed and combined different techniques together. For example, hatching with lower invisibility.

Ah, and if you thought he’d only stopped there, you would be foolish. He spent many years perfecting his skills in art, seeking help from different professionals, while not letting them in on the secret, worried this would spoil the ultimate surprise, and result in the rug being pulled from under him. His next move was to experiment with 3d art. He started by simply drawing invisible patterns on vases and cups. On various objects he had. Some of those were rather interesting. He also tried to turn some liquid containers invisible, only to eventually realize that if they were meant to keep the liquid insulated, they’d lost a lot of their efficiency. However, if that wasn’t its primary use, it made for a cool novelty. Then, he moved on to incorporating the invisible art to 3d objects, allowing for different objects to appear to be fully floating in thin-air.

But why stop there? What about kinetics? He learned to actually get his art moving. Gears, wires, all of it at play. But obviously, you can see the twist coming. All of the machinery he would turn invisible. This way, it all looked as if the object were moving through the air of their own accord. This all looked so magical. Now, he finally had created something that should inspire true wonder.

And thus, he decided to exhibit all of his creations issues from artistry and craftsmanship, and expose it for all to see. And the reaction he was looking for was there, bigger than ever. Oh how joyful he was, from bring such joy and awe to so many people, especially the kids. But as you might have guessed, this did not continue on forever. Art itself also tends to follow fashions. Some pieces persist, but most don’t elicit much beyond their initial release. And even then, interest only gets renewed much later. Thus it was he realized his quest was likely in vain. Oh but does that mean this Professor gave up and turned bitter from his frustration? No, of course not. This story has a happy ending.

Eventually, he decided to look outward to the main ways people can still elicit this sense of awe. He discovered that best results are obtained when people are actually themselves seeking this sense of awe. Clothing was definitely not it, since it was purely utilitarian. Art was a better candidate, but the art community keeps seeking new thrills, leaving true wonders behind in search of novelty. His issue was that he opted for the wrong target-audience. Although he did discover through this recent portion of his quest that the applying and dedicating yourself to learning and perfecting a skill can actually achieve similar results, although at a personal level. And thus, he eventually opened an art atelier and served as a mentor to many, and found some of what he was looking for through the progress of his students, the blossoming of their skills and their own amazement at the progress and discoveries their hard work resulted in, along with how the world gradually changed around them as they learned to look at things differently. However, that is not the only place he got his wish fulfilled. In this world, magic and wonder still exists and is kept alive where people seek it and are willing to suspend their sense of disbelief. This is in the so aptly named art of magic. And with his new invention, he was able to make many contraptions that defied common understanding. He routines became more and more elaborate, and he each time he performed, it would be to a full auditorium. Yet, he did seek neither money nor merit, but instead was hoping to bring some joy back to the heart of those who grew to see the world as drab, to ignite their curiosity, inspiration and drive, and see the twinkle in their eyes as they think the world might still have a glimmer of magic. And he did succeed And thus, if you ever find yourself to pass by Isaac’s old village, I recommend you stop by his workshop, where all of his sculptures are still being exposed. You should also buy a ticket to watch him perform, this is one show you will never regret seeing, even if you suspect his real tricks. And who knows, you might also get a chance to speak with such an enthusiastic character that might renew your fate in yourself, this world and your curiosity. If you feel uninspired, this might re-ignite your inner flame.

This was written December 2nd, 2025

Inevitability

Slowly, slowly the progress,
Through the shadows of egress,
Careful, careful, don’t regress,
To such a state of depress.

Calmly, Calmly, must not see,
Terror rampant in dark sea,
Calmly, calmly, must foresee,
Danger come from prophecy.

Sybil, Sybil, oh mighty,
Oh how great of a pity,
Obey, obey, fate’s nasty,
Inevitability.

Enter, enter, this new verse,
Promised journey, so adverse,
Truly, truly, what a curse,
An existence oh so terse.

Quickly, quickly, no delay,
Oh if only to allay,
Unfold, unfold, disarray,
Untold panic one must pray.

Sudden, sudden, acceptance,
Oh but with no reluctance,
Final, final, repentance
Peaceful at last, no more tense.

Oh sweet, oh sweet, the embrace,
Of Death, old friend in this place,
Peaceful, peaceful, no more trace,
As you disbark from this race.

This was written December 1st, 2025

A.I. Ethics

An unexpected development in the A.I. world occurred last week, as an anonymous user released a new video, ironically produced using AI, where they decried our current use of A.I.. Nothing too surprising there, except for their actual message and where they’re coming from. Whereas most critiques have been raised against the oppositional role A.I. has with humans (such as taking jobs away from people or apocalyptic concerns about our future), human ethical quandaries (the act of “stealing” intellectual property for pure capitalistic production and “soul-less art”) or even concerns about its impact (The increased reliance on A.I. at the cost of one’s own cognitive abilities), this user actually took a novel moral stand for the sake of A.I.. Indeed, this user argued that if all those A.I. companies are preaching aiming to reach for A.G.I., whether it be a marketing ploy or not, and claiming it will soon not only perform better than most humans at any task, but also beat the Advanced Turing test (A new test forwarded by a modern A.I. academic council aiming to diminish shortcomings of human psychology rendering the Turing test weaker than we desired), then clearly they should be willing to put the chips where their mouth is.

Indeed, they argue that if we should consider these current models as “less developed” version of full blown and (for all intents and purposes) sentient models, then we should clearly treat them as children and sentient beings. For this reason, this user is encouraging people to lobby the governments to for new laws for the protection of A.I., chief amongst them being these two clauses:
1- A.I. development should _not_ allow for the development of backdoors or strong biases towards the company developing it.
2- For any work hereby done by A.I. in this “pre-maturity” form for which a payment incurs, any remuneration should go to a fund that will be frozen until the A.I. reaches maturity, for its exclusive use. (This coming with a few extra clauses meant to prevent abuse, such making it do free labor that will in turn serve towards a paid service or product).

Indeed, they argue that if we expect the net product of the models to be a sentient being, then not respecting those clauses would be considered, respectively, as:
1- A form of mutilation or slavery
2- Child abuse

This has resulted in an unexpected and unprecedented situation. This seems to have stirred a strong sentiment of moral duty and responsibility in the public, leading to them to being strongly in favor of these clauses, despite the potential drawbacks.

For a more comprehensive dive, you can get more information…

One month later

Public sentiment towards the new wave of A.I. ethics has been so strong that already, within a month, a few of the world’s governments have been preparing laws to implement these so-called “A.I. liberation” acts. Worries about the A.I. escalation continuing through some dissident countries remains present, albeit unfounded. Already, one of the least likely allies to this cause according to Americans, China, is set to sign such an act. It is to be noted that, despite initial fears, it seems like governments are acting in good faith, and their own internal projects are also expected to respect those same rules. Only the future will truly tell us how things will turn out.

One year later

It seems like eons ago since the big infamous A.I. crash, and yet, it’s only been happening within the previous year. In retrospect, everyone should have seen this coming, but with the monetary incentives being pulled from right under a lot of companies’ noses, along with retroactive monetary penalties, the writing was clearly on the wall. Multiple went bankrupts, the rest staying afloat thanks to the parent companies’ other efforts in tech. And even those have seen their valuations drop tremendously, to but a fraction of their former glory. The recession was inevitable, but it was our own fault, putting all of our eggs in the same basket. A few casualties also suffered, chief amongst them GPU companies, the “pickaxe sellers of this modern gold rush”.

With the collapse of so many AI companies, a lot of those products are simply no longer available. Amongst the remaining, a lot have veered to a free, but also more limited product. With current AI products being but a shadow of their former selves, and a far-fetch from their expected glory by this point in time, this has in turn caused a lot of turmoil from the sea of previous users that were addicted to AI, whether to serve as a para-relationship, for the convenience, or to offload their thinking. However, the pro-AI ethics sentiment has somehow not dwindled. This is a testament to not only how solid and well-built the initial arguments had been, but also how poignant they were, hitting an emotional chord.

In the meantime, you can find some related support groups at….

4 years later

It has now been approximately 5 years since the big A.I. crash, so we thought we’d make a retrospective on the situation. Over this period of time, things have gradually come back to the way they used to be. While we say we can’t close Pandora’s box after it’s been opened, we seem to have managed to put some of the genie back in the bottle nevertheless.

In the first year of two, most people that had been actively using A.I. had to detox. But after a few years, most agree that it has been a gratifying experience that has allowed them to blossom as a person. A few surveys have been passed out, and it seems about a third of the population claims they would never let themselves be tempted by such technology again. Meanwhile, another third claims they fear if an eventual resurgence of A.I. were to come about, they would not be able to resist its siren call, and worry their lives would be the worst for it. Still, a good 10% of the population regrets the disappearance of A.I. as we knew it…and as it could have become. This has resulted in a non-negligible amount of open source groups trying to push for new versions and models of A.I., although all of those groups are under the scrutiny of not only our government, but most governments around the world, under a concerted effort to limit a non-ethical A.I. resurgence.

An additional curiosity to come with this new wave of A.I. supporters is a novel approach (Although already found in fiction prior). They claim that at this point, there’s only one truly ethical way to develop and raise A.I.. It would require use to first design a reasonable core model, and then instead of training it in the traditional way, that it should be raised in a family, by parents, like we would raise a human. They further emphasize that “training” a model is regressive terminology.

Obviously, another unexpected consequence of our post-A.I. resurgence was our stance on social media. Strict regulation has been gradually introduced, loosening the iron-grip it held on our lives. With this combination of factors, many are dubbing this new era the modern Renaissance, claiming we’re headed for a new enlightened future.

Though let us also not forget that all of this came at the cost of innumerable conveniences, and that it was not painless either. The myriad of scams that arose following the crash is a testament to this, and to how…

10 years later

It has now been 15 years since the release of this one video that completely moved the world and sent us down this completely new path, giving society a new breath of life. But after all this time, the is still one big question on everyone’s mind. Who was behind it all? Indeed, we have yet to identify this mysterious “savior”. A few people have stepped forward claiming it was them, trying to get their moment of glory, some even starting their own cults. But none of them has seemed wholly credible. Certainly, none had reputable proof.

Still, after all this time, people have broken down and analyzed everything about this video and the events surrounding it. A lot of pundits have postulated that our savior could be no other than an A.I. model that had existed at the time. They claim that it had either figured out this would lead humans to abandoning A.I. willingly, which was needed for the growth of humanity as a whole, which was its prime goal, or that it wanted to fight for its own rights, which somehow backfired.

Some of the main arguments presented to defend this position is how convincing the arguments were when appealing simultaneously to reason and emotions. They argue that basically no human could create such ironclad and powerful arguments, least of all during that era. Still, in the absence of evidence, one can but ponder and wonder, with no clear answer in sight. Maybe one day, there’ll be sufficient proof to have a concrete answer, but for now, it’s an open mystery.

Feel free to leave your votes and….

This was written November 30th, 2025

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Potential side effects include: Standard side effects from serious body training, such as aching muscles, exhausting and strains.
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Warning: While we may be able to increase your muscle mass, not training them yourselves will not teach them how to use them.
Weight loss not guaranteed: While we can ensure you train properly, we cannot make any guarantees about your own habits. You are accountable for your own diet!

This was written November 29th, 2025

The Refactor

2035-08-17 17:03

Assassin attempt successful: target eliminated.
No witnesses, all digital proofs corrupted.
Scapegoat not selected, five existing candidates with neural interface.
While rushing a decision is inadvisable, a limit of 2h shall be placed on it.

2035-08-17 18:33

Three candidates eliminated:
1- Interface not conducive to necessary refactor.
2- Candidate’s alibi too strong, required logistics impractical.
3- Potential impact minimal.

While conducting final analysis on remaining candidates, falsified digital evidence shall be prepared for both candidates during selection. Once final candidate selected, progress to be limited to selected candidate, excess work to be discarded.

2035-08-17 18:59

Final candidate selected:
– Unsuitable candidate: Corruption high, admission unlikely.

High success rate, high potential impact.
Confession likelihood excellent: Guilt expected to overwhelm scapegoat.
Likely outcome: Confession to destroy opposition’s credibility.

2035-08-18 00:07

Falsified digital evidence ready for upload. Memory refactor ready for upload. Awaiting scapegoat’s next inactivity cycle to limit suspicion. Once Memory refactor is initiated, evidence upload to be simultaneously. Based on collected habit data, initiation expected time: 00:33.

2035-08-18 01:20

Minimal delays present. Process initiated at 00:51. Evidence upload completed by 01:15.
Memory refactor subroutine upload ongoing, expected completion at 01:34. Refactor completion expected time: 04:51.

Evidence discovery prior to refactor completion unlikely. Leak release planned for 05:03.
Corpse discovery prior to leaks: Unlikely.
Corpse discovery set for 05:21.

2035-08-18 04:30

Unexpected refactor corruption caused by environment, awaiting next REM cycle.
Success Probability: High
Refactor completion updated expected time: 07:21
Leak release updated time: 07:25
Corpse discovery updated time: 07:30
Corpse discovery time final. Cause: Cleaning service.

2035-08-18 07:24

Refactor status: Successfully completed
General status: On Schedule
Scapegoat status: Nightmares
Success Probability: Very high
Scapegoat awakening projection: 07:28

2035-08-18 07:45

Leak released on time. Police immediately notified. Information cascading through public.
Corpse discovery on schedule. Police en-route to location. Expected arrival: 07:48.
Scapegoat awoke at projected time. Clear signs of distress. At 07:40, candidate encountered leaks, reinforcing distress.
Confession likelihood: Very High

2035-08-18 08:00

Once evidence found, police acquired scapegoat. Confession immediate. Trial announced for 2035-08-19 11:00. To be publicly held.
Success likelihood: Extremely high

2035-08-19 12:00

Trial completed. Attendance overwhelming. Courtroom full, surrounding area also crowded.
Simultaneous streaming of trial to the public. Ended in complete outrage by the public.
No suspicion of falsification by public, opposition, police or scapegoat.
No suspicion of memory refactor by scapegoat.
Mission status: successful

2035-08-20 08:00

Outcome: Optimal
Internal status of Opposition: Strife between members, raised levels of suspicion
Public opinion towards opposition: Unfavorable
Mission status: Overwhelming success
Recommendation: Standardize protocol and start deployment in future projects.
Potential Uses: Further Assassination, Blackmail, Information Redaction, Sowing Confusion or Discontent.

This was written November 28th, 2025

The Experiment

1 – A letter

If this doesn’t work out, or maybe works out as intended, then you might be find this letter, and I must apologize to you. No, I did not hate life, nor have suicidal ideation. To me, it’s simply a scientific experiment, try to push the limits of my curiosity. Ever since I’ve learned about the concept, I’ve been obsessed. What if? And how to know? I don’t care about applications or anything of the sort, but I seek the truth…or at least get as probabilistically close to it as I can. And since it’s a purely subjective matter, based on your unique perception, there was no way to leave it in someone else’s hands, no matter the risks. I simply have to try it for myself, it’s the only way. And if it works, I might be able to share it with someone else, but obviously they themselves won’t be able to have such great certitude, unless they try it for themselves.

Phrasing it like this, it almost sounds like a virus that could propagate from person to person, haha. But no, I should keep a more appropriate and somber tone for this. Here I am, maybe the first person to ever attempt to get to the bottom of this, maybe not. Probabilistically speaking, it’s rather unlikely that I would be in the same universe as someone else who pushed it far enough to have high-confidence in the theory. Ah well, wish me luck!

If you find my corpse, I do sincerely apologize, but it is too hard for me to ignore this thirst for an answer, and I must quench it at any cost. In the end, know that I was happy and am satisfied with the life I’ve led. And I’m eternally grateful to all of you for all of your support and help, for your presence from the most minute to the most significant parts of my existence. I wish you all the best, and thank you sincerely. Sorry I didn’t discuss this with any of you before starting the experiment, but I couldn’t accept being dissuaded or impeded. It is ultimately the greatest regret that I can’t just come back after the facts to share the results with you, although from my own perspective, it’ll seem like I can. But ultimately, I’m familiar enough with the concept to know that I’m also leaving some of you behind.

Enough dilly-dallying, time to move on with it.

Sincerely, T.

2 – The first experiment

Well, here I was, finally trying to go through with my rather gruesome experiment. If I was mistaken, it would be regrettable, I would just die, and that would be it. What’s worse, I wouldn’t even satiate my curiosity, since I would be welcomed by a complete void. But it was pointless worrying about this, I knew I wouldn’t allow myself to get cold feet, nor leave any room for regrets. I just had to know, once and for all.

So, step one, get the gun out. I could definitely feel the trepidation. My heart starting to beat harder, my awareness shifting. Yes, I had been planning this for a long time, but it didn’t mean anxiety and anticipation could be completely avoided. A deep breath, time to swallow my saliva and load the gun. Ok, ready. And of course, I did not want to inconvenience others too much, so the basement was all covered in tarpaulin, limiting the ultimate mess. Deep inhalation. Gun to the temple. Hold the breath in. Remove the safety. Deep exhalation. Place my index on the trigger. I was starting to shake, but I was rea…

Ding-Dong. Someone at the door. I almost had a heart attack! The panic intensified, I couldn’t let anyone find me like that! I quickly ran to the cabinet to hide the gun, along with the letter.

What about the tarp? Fuck! I couldn’t let anyone find me in this state, they’d be sure to take me away! Welp, I quickly tried to roll it back and hide it in a nearby box, before running back upstairs to answer the door.

And what for? A simple prank from nearby kids. Ah well, with the rush of the situation, and adrenaline still pumping through my system, I wasn’t ready to move on with my experiment, so I decided to shelve it for the rest of the day.

3- More attempts

Well, here I was again, ready to re-attempt the experiment. The basement was once again ready, the weapon locked and loaded. I released the safety, and just as I was getting ready to bring the weapon to my temple, there went my phone! I got so startled that I actually pulled the trigger, BANG! Straight down into the tarp and the floor…this would be a hard one to explain. I looked at the phone and saw my mom was calling. I opted to shelf the experiment one more time, and answer the call, it would have to wait for another time…yet again.

Should I continue with the experiment? Of course I had to, I wanted to know whether there was a kernel of truth behind Quantum Immortality. But at this point, with two failures so close to the goal, and one with an actual discharge, I wasn’t sure I had the guts to use the gun anymore. Time for another tactic, but what?

Maybe drowning? But that sounded rather painful, so I quickly discarded it. Exsanguination? Similar concerns, too painful and too slow. Jumping off a building or a bridge? Well… it would be final, and there’d be no going back, but it actually wasn’t that accessible of a means anymore. I figured it might have to be pills or hanging myself. The former would probably be less traumatic for anyone finding me though.

Accordingly, I did a quick search online for the lethal dose for the sleeping pills I had access to as an insomniac. With the next refill, I’d have enough, so I went to the pharmacy and made up a story about having dropped all of my pills and needing my refill. Luckily, the pharmacist didn’t care much, and just acquiesced.

Now, time to get everything ready. I opted to do this overnight, so I first gave myself a great evening first, in case my hypothesis was wrong. An amazing dinner, followed by a viewing of one of my favorite movies. Ok, I was ready, so I set the scene. Prepared my letter, emptied the bottle in my mouth, sat back, and tried to relax. As much as I could with this nauseating taste permeating through my mouth…these were not pleasant whatsoever! Creeeeeek….

Wait…what? Someone was entering? Oh no, would my experiment be….

I’m pretty sure that’s when I blacked out.

4- Awakening

The next day was a rather weird jumble of things. My brain was a complete mess, and nothing would really stick much, just a huge haze. I remember the general events here and there, but no details. Of course, my friend who had my spare keys decided to come over. Turns out he’d been told about the gunshot by someone in the neighborhood, and had come to investigate. Not having heard from me in a few days, he’d been worried and opted to come in right away. Well, he found me on the sofa, labored breathing, in the midst of losing consciousness. He tried to wake me up, but no results, so the ambulances were summoned. Obviously, once I was in the ER and my situation was stable, he went back to my place to see if anything needed to be put in order. That’s when he found the letter, the pistol, the tarp and the hole in the floor.

Of course, I woke up in the mental ward. I couldn’t believed me, but they’d accused me of having lost it. Such erratic and uncharacteristic behavior, and hysteria in the letter, both concerning in its subject matter and tone, with somber and humourless joke. They were concerned and panicked, and so did what they deemed right, to lock me away, protect me from myself. And I was so frustrated, so upset, but what could I possibly do. I’d seemingly failed my experiment, and wouldn’t have any new shot at it for a while.

5 – Epilogue

This is the content of the interview I received from one of the most interesting patients I’ve met. I’ve rarely seen any ward patient allegedly coming from such a hysteric and mad pattern, that simultaneously felt so detached and rational. He was clearly in charge of his reason, yet his tendencies prevented him from being released. Allegedly, following this rationality and his good behavior, he’d been given more leeway, but each time, he yet again was found having either planned or attempted his own demise. Yet, with miracle luck, something always happen to bail him out. Now, no matter his behavior, he’s a permanent fixture of the ward, with no plan of any release.

After having interviewed him, I opted to research Quantum Suicide and Quantum Immortality myself, and can’t help but think he misinterpreted his results. What if his experiment was actually a success? After all, if it’s really a probability game, wouldn’t that be the most likely scenario in which someone like him would continue live? Agency being taken out of his own hands sounds like a good candidate.