The Problem Solver

Trigger Warning: This story contains themes of involuntary memory alteration, psychological manipulation, and grief/loss. It explores AI-driven emotional control and its unintended consequences on relationships.

Sam, praised for his ability to find positive thoughts in every situation, focused on the positive aspects of everything that mattered to him. Whatever the toughest situation life presented, he would say, “I’m privileged to be here; let’s see what life has got for me.” A month back, he lost his mother—to whom he was super clingy—in a fatal road accident. Although upset and crying, he wouldn't let emotions control him; he simply overrode them. He was back quite normal in three to four days, starting to journal about how he’d be deprived of his mother, what lessons he learned from her, etc. He noticed he recovered at ease without constant consolation. He started to perceive the world differently, no longer feeling deserted. When people around felt pity for Sam, he always felt privileged and gifted to perceive things positively. He was back at college—final year of his MS—goofing around, pulling his friends’ legs as he had before his mom's death. Though he felt lonely and sad deep inside, he was getting rid of his grief by enjoying time with friends.

He noticed his friends and others around him could be categorized into three significant types: those who blamed and ranted about problems instead of confronting them; some ignored problems, allowing them to pile up and blast into bigger issues later. More importantly, he observed most never saw the good or positive aspect of a problem. They also didn't take a deep breath, stop thinking about a problem instantly, and then find a solution. The third type kept thinking about everyone’s problems, piling them into their heads, never understanding there are things they can’t control. Instead, they would get themselves depressed by dwelling on these thoughts unconsciously.

Amidst all, he realized his ability to think positively in every situation solved most of his own problems. His friend Jack often admired this ability, being poles apart from Sam. Sam wanted to help people with this skill, using his computer geek knowledge as an advantage. As it was 2088, he obtained a “Happy Emotions, Sad Emotions” nano chip from a neuroscience facility, designed to collect and highlight human memories. He had it inserted into his spinal cord. He had a computer with a server at his house. He uploaded his memory to his server. When he turned on his computer, the chip connected via Bluetooth, allowing him to see a UI of his day's memories. The downside was it only provided signals for happy and sad emotions.

He found an online transcription tool and transcribed the signals. It was surprising to see no sad memories in his folder; he had converted sad ones to happy by thinking positively in almost every situation. Meanwhile, he received a call from a lab person he'd previously contacted for transcription help. The person informed him "how his memories initially sad and instantly turned happy because of positive thinking." Sam then confirmed his assumption about positive memories. He was connected to a nano chip for about a month to gather enough data to train an AI. During those days, he would rush home to upload all signals to his computer as the lab only stored them for 18 hours in their cloud.

He fine-tuned an AI model by uploading his data on how to tackle things (positive thinking). The AI solved problems for three kinds of people: overthinkers; those unhappy with their life who find negativities everywhere; and depressive people (who worry about things they can’t control). The AI fine-tuned solutions: for types 1 & 3, it identified and blocked such thoughts, preventing further rumination; for type 2, it helped find positive aspects in everyday life.

He wanted to help people with his positive thoughts and only delete a memory if it had already made several attempts to replace negative memories with positive ones. The prototype concluded, and Sam planned a tour with his friend to relax. When all his four friends were having fun playing board games, Jack was not getting along. It wasn't that he disliked company; he ruined even simple things. He took jokes seriously, overthinking. He had this same problem with his girlfriend, and other friends started deserting him. Jack and his girlfriend often had tiffs over small things. Sam also remembered Jack once saying, “If I were you, I would be so peaceful, man, and you know "my downsides". I find it super hard to deal with things smoothly, man.”

Meanwhile, Sam's beta version of the prototype—a wearable band—was ready. Whenever Sam found Jack, he was always occupied and even short-tempered, though good at heart. Jack’s short-tempered attitude made him seem like a villain in almost everything.

The next day, it was Jack's birthday. Sam gifted him the wearable device, explaining how it would solve his problems without even Jack noticing it. Sam demonstrated that the wearable had two basic buttons: on or off. How it should act in various situations, detecting happy or sad, etc., was automatically programmed. It was the first customized solution for Jack from Sam. For Jack, it worked in two ways: first, finding the positive in every situation. Second, for chronic or deepest stress, or stress from overlooking things, it tried to induce positive thoughts. If the respondent was still not responding, it would delete his memory for good, to get rid of depression.

As it was the final year of college for Jack and Sam, companies started approaching for campus placements. Jack showed good signs. He answered patiently to interviewers, particularly scoring highest marks in “stress management” and “group discussion” rounds. The interview panel was enthralled by his performance, and he secured five to six placements .He was overwhelmed by different options . On the other side, with no fights and a lot of banter, his friendship circle expanded. Sam was happy for him.

He reconnected with his girlfriend. Jack was living his dream life with his girlfriend, and they married after graduation. They playfully fought and pulled each other's legs. He imagined this thought and smiled to himself on his way to work. As a newbie couple, they had several tiffs but they would reconcile soon. But these would bother Jack unconsciously as he loved his girlfriend with no bounds.

Sometimes his wife, Leena, would never text him back; just calling would work for her. When Jack thought about it, it started to hurt his brain. It slowly started erasing memories of Leena in his brain. One day, when Leena was severely ill (viral fever), Jack couldn't stop thinking about her. Despite being introduced to several positive thoughts, when it started to depress him, it completely deleted her memories from his brain—except their college days.

When Jack was back home, he was stunned to see Leena in his house. He asked, “Why are you here at my house? Did you accidentally stop by here while passing by ?” Leena was totally confused. She jokingly said, “I’m your wife now, where else would I be?” Jack couldn’t remember anything. He still believed Leena was playing a prank on him. Leena thought he was stressed about something and playing with her. So, she gave him his own space for about a week, although Jack's activities like “distancing himself from Leena,” hanging with his friends, and coming back home late kept bothering her.

When Leena couldn't cope anymore, she called Sam. Sam initially had no clue what Leena was talking about. Sam logged on to Jack's account’s UI interface—an app that tracked Jack's brain activities and neuro interactions. Sam went through Jack's dashboard, where it tracked the conversion of negative into positive thoughts (finding positive in every situation) and memories that were erased despite several attempts of inducing positive thoughts in his brain. He found, “Jack was constantly worried about his wife’s illness, giving rise to negative thoughts, a battle between negative and positive thoughts. Finally, it had to delete a memory to make him relieved of stress.” Sam enquired Leena whether she had fallen ill recently. She said, “Yes.”

Now, Sam stands devastated and unable to convince Leena that his solution, intended for a good cause, had turned out to be a dystopia for Jack.