Ch.106106. Gambling.

# 106

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Those who cannot remember the future are likewise condemned to repeat the future.

Mori’s broadcast truly changed many things. Products and companies that wouldn’t have appeared in the world so early became part of people’s daily lives.

Though Mori never directly explained these technologies or products, simply seeing such objects functioning became the key to unlocking previously blocked theories or sparked creativity that had been possible all along but never imagined.

Moreover, wars that would have occurred were prevented, and disasters that would have caused many casualties could be prepared for in advance. Many lives were saved from meaningless deaths, and new lives were born.

But that alone wasn’t enough.

The actual extinction of humanity would happen hundreds of years later.

It was like taking just one step toward a destination so distant that human eyes couldn’t even see it.

Resolving upcoming disasters and wars was beneficial, and future events could be somewhat addressed and prevented as long as records remained.

But human lifespans and memories are finite, while the information flooding the world is overwhelming.

Several years after Mori’s broadcast disappeared, many people were already living satisfied lives, basking in a sense of relief, forgetting about Mori.

Of course, not everyone needed to remember Mori. Even if people forgot, records of the observed future were stored in various places, including the internet.

As long as these records existed and anyone could access this information, there was little reason to worry about the future. Humans are creatures who learn from failure.

However, the fact that information about the “future” was available to many people made some worry.

What if selfish individuals appeared in the distant future who would exploit this information for their own gain?

No, their appearance was already a foregone conclusion. Even now, weren’t people fiercely competing to implement future technologies faster and secure patents first?

The question was whether such malicious actions could be prevented when these individuals appeared or attempted to appear.

Artificial intelligence and computer technology were advancing daily. As information accumulated on the internet, it became harder for people to identify hidden information.

Planting false information and making people believe it was real wasn’t difficult either.

Information about the future was a vaccine, but also a weapon more terrifying than anything else. In the worst case, it could cause humanity’s extinction in a different form.

“—The problem is how to prevent that.”

“What if we build a data center in a location no one would know about, allowing only viewing access?”

“Then people would search desperately. There was talk about uploading to the cloud and distributing asynchronous copies—but I can’t say that’s 100% safe either. In the end, it still requires human handling.”

21st century humanity couldn’t be certain of anything. Humanity’s future had to be staked on uncertainty. And on the most unpredictable variable of all—humans.

“…Honestly speaking, it’s impossible to consider all such variables. With new technologies being announced almost daily and corporate landscapes constantly shifting, is it really possible to preemptively block human errors that might occur hundreds of years later? It seems rather arrogant to think so.”

The people who gathered to prevent the end of the world didn’t disperse even after the broadcast disappeared.

The committee was still functioning well, driven by a sense of responsibility stemming from the sudden disappearance of Mori’s broadcast making the future uncertain, and by curiosity and expectations based on their indirect experience of touching the “future.” Perhaps the only change was their decision to go beyond preparing for the coming end and find ways to intervene in the “future.”

But even to them, it seemed impossible to eliminate variables caused by humans in the future from the current point in time.

“That’s right. Normally, we wouldn’t have given this a second thought. It would be a waste of time. But we’ve seen it, haven’t we? That with enough determination, we can intervene in the future.”

“I think that was a miracle that happened due to special circumstances.”

“Yes. A miracle. It was a miracle. But researchers are eccentric folks who aren’t satisfied until they achieve what they’ve discovered. Even if it’s a miracle. Isn’t that why you still come here? Even though there’s hardly any funding left.”

“…Ahem.”

Having experienced the miracle of the impossible becoming reality, they couldn’t help but imagine.

Just once. If they could just touch the future once more and have time to prepare—this time they were confident they could escape extinction for certain. They weren’t just talking about the doom that came to Mori’s world.

It was an incredibly arrogant thought, as someone had pointed out.

To completely eliminate threats to humanity during one’s lifetime and completely transform the world.

There was no greater honor for an explorer.

It was worth trying despite seeming impossible and arrogant.

Moreover, this idea wasn’t entirely far-fetched.

People who had only experienced Mori’s broadcast as a simple broadcast might not imagine this, but the people here had already indirectly influenced Mori.

Eugene’s project that used artificial intelligence to make something exist that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.

While they couldn’t change Mori, a free-living being, or the world already observed by Mori…

They could intervene to some extent in the actions of robots with artificial intelligence by making them execute commands when “certain conditions” were met.

If they expanded and clarified that range—they believed they could recreate the miracle once more.

After all, isn’t humanity here today because we turned coincidence into necessity and achieved miracles through human power?

So they didn’t give up.

And so the seasons passed one after another.

*

“Sigh.”

Someone’s sigh filled the space. Everyone had intuited it wouldn’t be easy. But no one had expected they wouldn’t even find a direction after several years.

During that time, there had been progress in interpreting and partially recreating items from Mori’s broadcast.

But artificially creating something that could directly observe and intervene in future scenes like Mori’s broadcast was impossible.

They thought it would be nice to communicate with someone from the future, even if not through Mori’s broadcast. But such miracles didn’t happen easily.

“I wish it had appeared right at the top when opening the app…”

It was impossible. Hadn’t the future already changed? Besides, after so much time had passed, they couldn’t guarantee Mori was still alive. It was admirable that he lived so resiliently in such a world, but ultimately it was difficult to survive alone in that world.

So they could only long for the past.

How wonderful it would have been if there was a way to go back to the past?

“…Huh?”

The past?

In the now-empty research lab, a thought flashed through Eugene’s mind as he watched the researchers exhausted from years of work.

The past and present of 21st century humanity had been observed by many people. The same was true for Mori’s present.

But no one knew about Mori’s “past.” Mori himself would have memories of his boyhood, but even Mori wouldn’t remember the time before he was born or between when he fell asleep and woke up again.

Eugene saw hope there. Just like with artificial intelligence—if human thoughts and actions could be guided to some extent, couldn’t they reach similar results, even if not 100% identical?

Much time had passed since Mori’s broadcast disappeared, but the distance to Mori remained great.

If they guided the direction of future and technological development from now on, they might be able to artificially create a being similar to Mori, if not Mori himself.

“…That’s a very dangerous thought.”

The problem was that for this to work, everyone would need to forget Mori. If anyone noticed they were getting closer to the future where Mori existed, the plan would fail.

Moreover, simply making such a plan would certainly cause people to die in the future where such a plan was realized. Hadn’t Eugene already seen how even small plans or hastily written notes from the past influenced the future?

The idea of trying it first and canceling if it seemed to fail was also rejected. Creating an escape route itself would distance them from that world.

Eugene, whose concerns had naturally deepened, shared his thoughts with those who still remained on the committee.

“Have you really gone crazy after being called crazy so many times?”

Naturally, there was tremendous pushback. It was an absurd gamble to stake humanity’s entire future on the uncertainty of possibly meeting Mori or a being similar to Mori.

But it wasn’t completely without merit. As mentioned numerous times, if they could reach Mori this way, a brilliant future would be guaranteed, weighing equally against humanity’s extinction on the scale.

Moreover, for those living in the 21st century present and observing the world and future, human deaths were merely possibilities and numbers.

If those deaths would occur in the darkness of time that couldn’t be observed, they might be somewhat disregarded.

People who have been immersed in one field for a long time tend to go mad somewhere.

The frightening thing is that they can’t stop even while being aware of their own madness.

This was true for Eugene and all the remaining members of the End of the World Countermeasures Committee.

With the exception of a very small number of people, there was no opposition.

A project that began in a laboratory unknown to anyone.

As time passed, AI technology including artificial intelligence developed significantly, and Eugene was deeply involved in the core technology.

In a distorted information world where information created more information, it was easy to conceal past information and make related mentions disappear without a trace.

Soon, Eugene completely erased Mori’s existence from this world.

Since erasing all information from the beginning would make people more conscious of it, he partially distorted and hid information related to Mori and records of the future that were still circulating.

If people found this strange and posted about it online, he allowed the posts to appear but made them invisible to ordinary people.

They had no way of knowing that the comments and view counts were all fabricated by artificial intelligence.

“To start a war… it would be faster to plant it internally, I suppose.”

After controlling information, the next thing these people did was to straighten out the twisted future.

The statement that they could know and deal with the future meant, conversely, that they could make the same events happen at the exact time and place.

At the same time, based on Mori’s videos and stories, they deliberately created the causality that allowed Mori to exist in that era.

Age. Body type. Health condition. Special characteristics. Boys and girls with even the slightest similarity to Mori were all put into cryogenic sleep to be sent to the future.

“…Back then, Mori said there were many other corpses around when he woke up.”

“Come to think of it, they might all be people we killed.”

Perhaps all the actions they were taking now were also included in the timeline.

There was some regret and hesitation with the thought that they might be driving humanity—which could have lived long without anyone’s sacrifice if left alone—to death.

“Ch-Chairman!”

After a long time, when the broadcast that had completely disappeared from the world appeared once more.

The hesitation and regret returned as an equal measure of accomplishment.

Papers scattered amid cheers.

—Until they saw Mori losing consciousness and dying, trapped under heavy debris.