An Unintended Consequence

If there ever was a man born with the perfect brain, then Hitoshi Handa had to be the one blessed with such a gift. A renowned scientist, humanitarian, environmentalist, multiple-times Nobel prize winner, author of many books, global speaker, and catalyst for meaningful changes in the world, Hitoshi put his brain to good use.

Some said he was the gift of God himself, sent to Earth in the time of need to solve problems no one dared tackle. Others said he was a genius reborn, a culmination of the great minds from the past, such as Einstein, Newton, Galileo, and others - the pop culture even dubbed Hitoshi as ‘Legion’, for they said he possessed all the knowledge and brainpower of these titans of the past.

And it was no denying that Hitoshi achieved some noteworthy breakthroughs, mostly in the field of science. He advanced humanity’s technology to a whole new level; creating solutions for the environmental crisis and resource problem, building a prototype of a quantum computer, constructing a miniature fusion reactor right in his basement, creating a remarkable high tech virtual reality system, like those depicted in books and movies, only his was real… and rumor has it that he even constructed a time-machine.

Hitoshi sipped his herbal tea and winced, burning his tongue. It was the simple things that got him. He could engineer a spaceship, build an AI capable of coming up with its own ideas, but when it came to drinking a cup of boiling hot tea he always forgot to blow.

“I guess that’s proof of my humanity,” he mumbled to himself, thinking of those tabloids that claimed he was an alien. Too smart to be human. They were almost right.

Hitoshi put the cup down, too impatient to blow, and began typing commands on his quantum computer. The excitement surged in him, as hot as that tea. 

If this experiment works, everything we know about the universe will change, he thought as he typed. His basement was not the ideal place to be doing this - it lacked the proper tech of high-end laboratories - but it was the most private. 

And it was best that, for now, nobody knew…

Hitoshi punched enter on the keyboard and pushed away from the desk, the office chair squeaking on its wheels. He stared intently at the screen as the computer crunched his commands. It was fascinating - even though the quantum computer could perform multiple computations at once, it still took it a long time to finish.

Future online, the words appeared on the screen. Hitoshi’s hands began trembling. He wiped his glasses in his shirt, then checked the data one more time. All seemed in order.

“Shit, this is crazy…”

The mini fusion reactor hummed with low bass, pumping energy into the machinery set up in the basement. The cooling system whirred and green lights flashed on the machines, indicating all was good to go. 

Hitoshi absently reached for his cup of tea. He remembered to blow this time.

Part of him didn’t want to do this. Logic dictated, that if you took a peek into your own future then by doing so you would automatically change it. And heavens forbid that you were to run into your future self! How existentially awkward that would be, not to mention potentially dangerous and threatening, invoking a whole truck-load of paradoxes. 

On the other hand, some theories claimed that time was fixed - you couldn’t change it, no matter how hard you tried, willingly or unwillingly. Whatever you did was meant to happen anyway and was already part of the time-space fabric. That version helped to calm Hitoshi a bit, but it made him nervous in a new way, as it implied there was no free will. And that there was something - or someone - who ‘created’ time to be the way it was, unable to be changed. Like a predetermined plan. 

Hitoshi sipped on his tea, still too hot but drinkable. Perhaps I shouldn’t be doing this, he thought. Perhaps some mysteries of the universe are better left unsolved.

Future online, blinked on the screen. Hitoshi sipped the tea, feeling its heat cold against his own excitement.

Who am I kidding?

He put the cup down. It was best he didn’t drink too much before traveling - it always made him go to the loo. Though time-traveling seemed an entirely new dimension of the word ‘travel’, he didn’t want to take the risk. Peeing in his pants would spoil the experience a tad.

With sweaty palms he entered a date into the computer - one well beyond the expectancy of his lifespan, to avoid bumping into his future self - and stepped into the time machine chamber. His heart was pounding, mind racing, and gut brimming with excitement.

He took a deep breath. “Computer,” he said. “Initiate time travel.”

The moment he finished saying that, everything around him changed. There was no lag, no build-up of energy or a countdown sequence, no flash of light or a swirling vortex of time. 

The basement simply disappeared, like someone would turn off the light projecting this reality and switched on a different one. Hitoshi found himself gasping for breath, not due to any physical change to his body, but due to the sheer magnitude of the sight before him.

He stood in paradise.

The first thing he noticed was how clean and fresh the air was. There was no smell of traffic, smog, or sewers, no usual city pollutants. A slight breeze blew in his face, cooling his skin. 

The second thing he noticed was the bright colors. He stood in a park with trees around him and soft grass beneath. There were tall glass buildings beyond the canopies and occasionally an aircraft of sorts would fly over the sky above him. And as marvelous as all that appeared, the colors of the sight stunned him more than the sight itself. Everything looked so fresh, so alive, so real! It was like changing the saturation on a photo, making the dullness go away.

It was beautiful.

And the third thing he noticed, was the people. There were many of them, strolling through this park, sitting on benches or laying in the grass, some alone, others in pairs or groups. Some talked softly, others laughed. Some sat in silence, with a gleeful expression on their faces, others debated lively. But all of them looked happy, at peace. Like they wanted to be who they were, interacting with the people they were with.

Hitoshi felt a slight stab in the heart, as that was what humanity still lacked in his time - compassion and acceptance. But, the feeling passed and he smiled. Seeing the people happy meant that humanity would soon reach this point. Looking around, the world seemed clean, both environmentally and emotionally speaking. 

It brought a tear in Hitoshi’s eye and he wondered if this was a consequence of his actions in the past - he wondered if his inventions helped mankind become who they were in this reality.

“Excuse me,” he stepped up to a couple, sitting on a bench with hands locked. “I’m sorry to bother you, but can you point me to the nearest library or a place with internet? I need to check something.” He needed to learn of the ‘history’ of this timeline, which would be like a roadmap to paradise. His heart jumped with joy at all the possibilities.

The couple didn’t look at him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, feeling a bit bad for imposing on them. “But it’s very important. Hello?”

The man pointed at something, whispering soft words to the woman in his embrace. She smiled and kissed him.

Hitoshi followed the man’s finger. “That way? Thank you!”

He sprang off, running. The excitement was too much to walk. He ran past the people, smiling at them and greeting them - who strangely didn’t greet him back - and then he stopped, frowning. The couple with whom he spoke just a moment ago sat on a bench in front of him.

Did I run in a circle? He looked over his shoulder. No, it was nearly a straight line.

“What-?”

His heart sank, dread filling his gut.

“No…”

He ran past the couple, continuing in the same direction. After a minute, he arrived at the same bench, with the same couple sitting on it.

It was a replication. He was in a program, a virtual reality. The one he created himself.

I should have known from the bright colors… But how? 

Confused at how the time machine was capable of throwing him in a virtual reality, Hitoshi closed his eyes. 

“Computer,” he said. “End simulation.”

He opened his eyes, expecting to be back in his basement to finish the cup of tea and go back to work on figuring what went wrong.

But he was not in his basement. 

“What the…”

Hitoshi stood in a pile of garbage, in the middle of an unfamiliar room. Empty cans, cardboard boxes, and plastic wrappings littered the floor. He gasped in surprise and began coughing, as the air irritated him when he breathed. It smelled heavily of acid and chemical fumes, making his eyes tear up. Through the tears, he could see a computer station in the corner.

“Computer?” he coughed. 

“Yes, User #786904?”

User? That’s not how his AI addressed him. “Where am I?”

“Alpha Quadrant, Regional Cluster M-27, Local Cluster G-99/03, Milky Way Galaxy, Outer Span S-4311, Local solar system ‘The Solar System’, planet Earth, Northern hemisphere, Asia continent, country Japan, Kyoto prefecture, Town of Maizuru, Yukinaga 1950-33 street, apartment B, living room.”

Hitoshi blinked. That’s my address, he thought. But he didn’t recognize the room he was in.

“Is this a simulation?” 

“Negative,” the AI responded.

“What time is this?”

“16:46;22 local time-”

“What year?”

“Second February 2101. The temperature is 32 degrees Celsius…”

The Ai trailed off, but Hitoshi didn’t listen. He couldn’t believe his ears. He was in the future after all! But why was he thrown in a simulation? And why the high temperatures in February?

And why, for heaven's sake, did the air burn so much in his lungs?

“Computer,” he groaned, clearing his throat, “display recent news.”

A holographic screen popped up in the air, showing Hitoshi’s worst nightmares. His heart twisted and thumped as he glanced over the thousands of news titles. They read:

Last snowfall in 2045; Handa’s Virtual Reality - Digital enslavement of humanity?; Environmental crisis beyond repair now, scientists say; Genius Hitoshi Handa disappeared, his technological legacy remains; WARNING - A MAJOR GLITCH IN HANDA’S VIRTUAL REALITY PROGRAM; As humanity turns virtual, nature turns violent; Why have a body if you only use your mind?...

The titles went on and on. He read the stories frantically. 

After his disappearance in 2020, when he entered the time machine, his virtual reality became immensely popular. The world presumed him dead and everyone wanted to have a piece of the genius’s work. At first, the world kept using his technological solutions to solve problems, but with time, more and more turned to his virtual reality as a form of escapism. People neglected their problems, ignored them completely. Neglected the planet. They automated as much of life as possible, so they could spend more time in their fantasies, indulging in a fake reality. Somebody discovered that they could use their own minds to bend the program in any way they wanted and that meant everyone who had access to the VR could be a god of their own private universe. 

But unfortunately, there was a major bug in the system. Once somebody used their mind to control the program, they got uploaded into the matrix, their consciousness becoming ones and zeros - practically consumed by the machine!

Hitoshi nearly fell on his back as he read the reports. Billions of people’s minds trapped in the VR matrix, while their bodies decayed away in the real world, lacking a mind to take care of them. Those people who refrained from using the VR eventually gave into it as well. Seeing their loved ones wither away was unbearable and they wanted to join them in the virtual world. Besides, the planet was in such a toxic condition, the air nearly unbreathable, the water heavily polluted, that it made living a physical challenge. 

Luckily, Hitoshi Handa had invented fusion reactors to power everything for millennia to come, with little to no maintenance needed…

Hitoshi could hardly believe what his eyes saw and what his marvelous brain interpreted to him. 

“I- I did all this…” he whispered.

One article struck him like a sledgehammer to the temples. It said; Hitoshi Handa, the man who disembodied mankind from its soul.

“Is this my legacy? Is this what all my work amounts to? Misused application of my inventions?”

“Handa?”

Hitoshi jumped at the sound of a scratchy electronic voice. He glanced around but could see no one in the room.

“Hitoshi… Handa?”

It was the computer speaking, though the voice was not AI. 

“That is me,” he said. “Who are you?”

Static. Then electronic bleeps and ringing, as if something was trying to tune in the correct frequency. Hitoshi winced at the high-pitched sound which then cleared, revealing a young man’s voice.

“So you did make a time machine, you bastard!” the voice shouted. “This is all your fault! Look at what you’ve done with the world!”

“Who is this?” Hitoshi demanded.

“I am Jiro,” the voice said. “This is my apartment. Well, at least it was up until I got sucked into the matrix.”

What? Was he… a program? “Are you… an AI?”

“No,” Jiro’s voice spat. “I am human! What’s left of me, anyway. My mind was abducted by your VR. You might still find my body lying somewhere around here if the dogs didn’t break in and eat it.”

That awful smell, Hitoshi thought. A sickness rose from his stomach. It wasn’t just the pollution in the air. 

“How could this happen?”

The voice laughed. “You tell me, genius! You’re the one that wrote the program!”

“I never intended for something like this to happen. I only wanted to advance humanity…”

“Well, you sure did that. We’re so advanced now that we don’t even have bodies anymore. One thing’s for sure, we’ve never been more connected - the whole planet now literally shares one giant mind. It’s hard to get any privacy.”

“There are… others?”

“9.254.990.117 to be precise. I was actually the last one to get sucked in by the glitch. You see, I was once a huge fan of your work. Came here, rented your old house - which was turned into a museum at first, then an art studio and finally an apartment complex - to try to figure out what went wrong with the program. Try and fix things.” The voice trailed off for a while. “But loneliness got to me. All my friends and family were either dead from pollution or floated like datastreams in VR. I took the easy way out and joined them. The other option was suicide.”

Good heavens! 9 billion people, all captured by a rogue program! Hitoshi fell to his knees.

“I single-handedly destroyed humanity,” he gasped. “I’m a monster. But wait,” Hitoshi looked up. “If I’m seeing this right now, shouldn’t that make me go back to the past and change things? And if I went and changed them, why does this reality still exist?”

“I dunno, man,” Jiro said. “Don’t know how time works.”

Then he realized. I’m the world’s biggest idiot! “Stupid! Oh, why is it always the simple things?”

“What?” Jiro asked.

“I forgot to take my return module with me! I’m stuck here now, in this timeline! That’s why I couldn’t go back and change it!”

“Nice,” Jiro said. “Way to go, brainiac.”

“I need to reconstruct my time machine, travel back and fix the VR algorithm, or better yet, delete the thing entirely…”

“Handa.”

“What?”

“It won’t work.”

“Why?”

“You don’t have enough time. The air is slowly killing you, that’s how polluted it is. You’ll be dead before next week.”

“What?” Hitoshi frowned. “How did you survive for so long then? You said you were the last one…”

“Life Prolongment Injections,” Jiro said. “ Government issue. I ran out last month. That’s when I uploaded myself here, to survive.”

“Well, where can I get these injections?”

“You can’t. No one makes them anymore because no one lives outside the VR. There ain’t a living human walking the Earth anymore, man!”

“What can I possibly do, then?”

“You can come and join us here so we can kick your virtual ass! There are some 9 billion people who’d like to have a word with you.” 

Hitoshi sighed. Perhaps he should do just that. At least he could give the people a little justice by letting them have him.

But then, his brain sparked an idea.

“Of course!”

“Huh?”

“Jiro! I read that one can use their brain to control the VR, to make whatever fantasy they want with it, right?”

“Yes…”

“So, why not fix the bug that way?”

“Because no one knows what exactly is wrong with it. It’s not like we have Hitoshi himself-” The voice cut short. “Oh. Right.”

“Get me hooked up,” Hitoshi said and stood up. “I’m going in. I think I might be able to figure it out.”

“Okay, cool,” Jiro said, sounding a bit excited. “But what about our bodies? You know, even if you manage to fix the VR and release our minds, where will we go? Our bodies died. Not to mention the environment...”

“We’ll worry about that later,” Hitoshi said. “First things first. I need to get in there and apologize to everyone. Then, together, we can think of something. I mean, 9 billion minds working together? If only humanity was that unanimous in the first place, we wouldn’t need a virtual reality!”