By Engin_Akyurt on pixabay.com
Previous Chapters:
The light flickered on. The light flickered off. The light flickered on.
Finn sighed.
As he rolled over on his bed, facing the nightstand, he was greeted by the soft blue glow of the machine that was standing there. The formula for turning the light in his bedroom on and off had been supposed to be more of a joke than anything else. Something to show friends, telling them he had uncovered the secrets of the universe, just to use them for something as mundane as flipping a switch. A silly party trick, he now used to fidget. To push away the dark clouds that had been following him at every step for the three days since he had invited Evan to the lab.
If not even his best friend believed in his discovery, how was he supposed to convince others? Briefly, Finn had considered just publishing all his results, so that everyone could build their own machine, see for themselves what they can do with the right math. But giving it to everyone would mean that really, everyone had it. And was that something Finn could allow?
Nuclear fission was a great tool too, but people used it for bombs to kill each other, to secure their power. Why would his technology be used any different?
“Maybe I should just change the simulation to make all of humanity a hundred percent altruistic”, Finn muttered. But how to do that? The human psyche seemed a lot more complex than the laws of physics. If he messed up one single thing, and everything went to shit …
It had been the reason why Finn had preferred to turn back time and pretend in front of Evan that his experiment hadn’t worked. Manipulating his friend’s mind … he just couldn’t justify that. It would take away any free will.
“If there even is a free will.”
Another thing that caused Finn to feel a knot in his stomach. Was there even any kind of free will, if everything was just a simulation? Or did he act within specific parameters which had been defined by an unknown being, long before he had been born? Were all his actions pre-programmed?
Finn groaned, rolled over again, and pushed his face into his pillow. It was all too much, too much! He didn’t want to be alone with this responsibility, these worries, this knowledge! He needed someone to share it with. But who?
There was nobody. Nobody would believe him, except for maybe some weirdos from the internet. But even they would want proof, and that put him back to his starting point: How could he share the knowledge, without endangering all of humanity? How could he ensure that people would know of the simulation, without giving them the tools to ruin life for everyone?
A quote flashed through Finn’s head.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Who had said that? Arthur … Arthur something. Arthur Clarke! The guy who had written “A Space Odyssey”. Finn had enjoyed the movie, although it had been a bit too long for his taste.
But that quote about technology looking like magic … it was more than accurate in the case of Finn’s machine. Making things float? Turning back time? Typical magic. Or … superpowers.
Finn jerked up in his bed and swung his legs over the edge.
People loved superpowers. Everyone wanted them, and especially in the current climate, with superhero movies being published left and right, people were looking for actual heroes in their lives. Some people dressed up like Batman, some like Spiderman. Vigilante justice. Not something the police wanted to see, but something the average human looked upon in awe, admired, and cheered on.
And it allowed Finn to keep a secret identity because nobody would expect an actual superhero to take off their mask.
“I could be …. Math Man!” Finn snorted. No, that sounded silly. It also reminded him faintly of Moth Man. In addition to that, nobody would take someone named Math Man seriously.
The Simulator? Too hypochondriac.
Doctor Smart? There was a reason why nobody should ever ask a scientist to name things.
“Ah, fuck it. The media will come up with a name anyway. They’re better at this than I am.”
New energy rushed through Finn’s veins. This was exciting! He could put his research into use, and maybe, someday, the world would be ready to receive an explanation, and he could share the technology with responsible people. Maybe open a school? Start his own organization, where he’d pick out apprentices personally and teach them in the ways of the universe?
Finn stopped himself from letting his thoughts spiral out of control. He could think about all these future goals later, it was not yet time for them. First, he needed to establish himself as a hero, and that would not be an easy task solved in a day. People needed to see him a lot.
Lightly, he stroked the cover of his still glowing machine.
“I can’t take you with me every time”, he pondered. “There needs to be a better way. You’d break too easily, and you’re too big to carry around everywhere.”
A smaller version, that’s what he needed. One that was easy to carry around, like the web shooter things Spiderman had. But it still needed to do all the calculations, and Finn wasn’t sure how to reduce the amount of internal tech needed for that …
“I’m such an idiot”, he called out, smacking his flat hand against his forehead. “I only need a piece of tech that can store calculations already done, and then execute them!” It was not like he could create new formulas on the fly anyway, each one took an immense amount of time to come up with. But if he let his machine at home calculate everything, and then just transferred the results to something smaller, like a bracelet …
With fire in his soul, Finn picked up several pieces of paper and started to write down what he needed.
Want to win 10 Steem? Give our superhero a name! If there is a suggestion I like, I will use it, and the winner gets the 10 Steem. If there’s no good suggestion, We’re probably stuck with “Doctor Smart”, because I am a scientist too.
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