Science fiction : Cast in the real time game

Science fiction : Cast in the real time game

Real, that is for a while, until a realisation sets in the mind based on patterns, that what you are doing is actually a sequence of actions preconceived by a real time game, where it wants to beat you always, in real life. Until the point, you do not accept defeat and cry, and cry while begging on your knees. Because the developers of the game believe human will is like a wild horse, that can be wrangled and broken. But they somehow forgot to consider one factor about human will. That it draws its strength from many factors which are abstract, the most important one being : Character! 

Horses have personalities, and it can be changed. But humans have character, it is almost impossible to change. 

And when you wrangle a man/woman with good and honest character, it is like entering into a combat with the conscience of the universe. Only a fool will challenge the conscience of the Universe. The other abstract factors include : Honesty, Faith, Respect (respecting women in particular ) , Love for fellow humans, Determination, Courage ( now courage comes in different forms. A murderer also needs courage, a lover needs a lot of courage and a humanity loving person needs tremendous amount of courage) Compassion, Little bit of, and a well balanced Ego, Lot of self respect and most important of all, Fear of death. But fear of death does not mean cowardice, not at all. It means, thinking before doing anything, and always choosing right over wrong, because you fear the conscience of the Universe that will punish you ultimately for your acts of malice.

But as the game advances and most of the subjects, who are being used for testing the live performance of the real time game against the real human beings, there are a very few, say 2, in million, who somehow recognise the pattern of the game, and realise that the life they are living is not real, it is actually a game based simulation that is testing its ability to think ahead of these humans and beat them at every step. Their thoughts, their imaginations, their dreams, their perceptions, even their body movements are artificially controlled, and this is where the game gets interesting and reaches a climax. 

Where a human being is simply living his/her life and engaging in its chores, but the lunatic and dastardly maniacs, who have developed the game are treating these humans nothing more than an asset of the game, and manipulating real life scenarios based on the inputs of the game, to check its efficiency that depends on single objective: Beat these humans at every step, until they feel, worthless and weak. 

Alas, evolutionary dispositions counteract the plot of real time strategy game, by offering special advantages to few human players. 

This is a short sci fi about these humans where the game thinks and acts real time and tries to beat them at every step. But there is a twist in the game and that is what makes it interesting: In order to manipulate environments that these humans interact with, the game hires real men/women who always work for the developers of the game so that they can manipulate the situation that these humans are about to interact with in real life.

A sort of checkmate that always manages to beat them, because it knows their thoughts, and thoughts precede actions. So the game should always win. Which it does, but barring few exceptions, and this short science fiction is about these men and women of character.

And the developers of the game wish to achieve one objective: Play God who knows even the thoughts and wishes of these humans. But God’s algorithm is neutral; it is not based on the thoughts of a lunatic.

PLEASE NOTE: This short science fiction is based on following movies:

The Bourne Identity : 

Where the main character’s every move is countered by agencies via satellite imagery and geo targeting of the protagonist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bourne_Identity_(2002_film) 

Kingsman :  The secret service

Where a self obsessed megalomaniac wants to control human thoughts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsman:_The_Secret_Service

Blade Runner : 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner 

Rick Deckard, an ex-policeman, becomes a special agent with a mission to exterminate a group of violent androids. As he starts getting deeper into his mission, he questions his own identity.

This short scifi also draws inspiration from the word megalomaniac that means : A person obsessed with power and wealth, and a passion for grand schemes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalomania 

It also seeks inspiration from : Mega-Lo-Mania, a 1991 real-time strategy game by Sensible Software.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega-Lo-Mania

The real time simulation begins, in a small and old restaurant in downtown, where four friends are having lunch, and one of the friends drops his glass of water, and his girl friend sitting beside him, helps him with her glass of water. The boy named Tact, accepts it and resumes concentrating on his lunch.

After the lunch, all of them leave the restaurant and head to their respective homes/rooms. And Tact, on reaching his room, removes his still wet shirt and places it in a basket, and gets ready to take some rest, a sort of siesta. He wakes up after an hour, and thinks about the incident where he dropped the glass of water. He senses something very strange about this incident and tries to recall every moment that preceded the moment when he dropped his glass. He recognises something that is perplexing and proves the hegemony of an unknown force trying to manage his actions. He thinks about the glass for long, almost 4 hours. Finally he arrives at a conclusion, and he wants to test in real life to prove its authenticity. 

As of now he does not know he is a part of the game that manipulates situations in real time and knows his every thought, even combs his memories and stacks them as it pleases. Which means, whatever Tact realised from the incident where he dropped the glass, the real time strategy game, already knows about his thoughts and through his thoughts about his every next move. 

Although by design and concept it is meant to be a game, in actuality it is a one sided game, where a heavyweight professional boxer ( Is the real time strategy game ) is in the boxing ring seeking moments of pride from boxing matches with a kid who is only 10 years old. 

Now, either the heavyweight boxer is addicted to seeking self assurance about being the best by organising boxing matches with a kid who is 10 years old, or it is natural evolution trying to prove that it will one day manage to outsmart every move of the real time strategy game, by developing something called, parallel thoughts. 

In the evening, Tact plans to meet his girlfriend. He is dealing with this thought, when he looks at a red covered, paperback book that belongs to his girlfriend. He had borrowed it a couple of weeks ago. 

He sees the book, but as of now there is no thought associated with the book, except its visual recognition by his mind. Anyhow he gets ready, and his girlfriend agrees to meet him at the rendezvous point exactly at 05:30 pm.

He locks his room and takes the stairs to reach the ground floor. As he exits the gate, he turns left to get to the main road, but then for whatever reason, he decides to turn right instead, to reach the main road where he can easily find a cab.

He is now on the main road, waiting for a cab. It is already 04:30 pm. He waits there for almost 30 minutes but he is unable to spot even a single cab. His girlfriend calls to ask him about his location. 

Tact replies, “ I am waiting for the cab, but I am unable to find any. Usually there are many cabs plying on this road, but right now they all appear to have vanished. I will walk, so I may be late by a few minutes, I hope that is ok?”

His girlfriend immediately answers, “Oh darling, yes that will be fine. I will wait for you at the agreed spot!”

( At this point Tact doesn't know that the real time strategy game has already checkmated him. It manipulated his thought and without allowing him to realise this, it forced him to take right . And via smart networks ( smartphone based location, sat cameras, online traffic management, smart apps etc. ) it then caused traffic jams at certain points that blocked all entry points of cabs bound to the road where he was standing. Not only that, it routed online cab booking requests to cab drivers, who were heading in his direction. And blocked every cab that otherwise, he could board and reach his destination. It is manipulation at an advanced level.)

At this stage Tact is unaware of it. But the dropping of the glass incident, has made him skeptical, and as he is walking to meet his girlfriend, he enquires from few shop owners whether there was something unusual about not finding a cab at this hour. And almost 98% of them say, yes, it is unusual. 

And now, Tact feels something is not correct. But he still wants to be sure. And only time shall tell, if he at all can. Because the real time strategy game can even read his thoughts. And he is unaware of it at this stage.

Finally, after having walked for almost an hour, he meets his girlfriend who had been waiting for him. They both hug each other and Tact holds her in his embrace for longer than usual. Then as he removes his arms, his girlfriend looks at him and asks him if everything is fine.

He looks at her eyes, her deep eyes, where he often likes to wander and forget all his worries. Then after a few minutes, he assures her everything is fine.

Then they reach the same, old downtown restaurant and order some hot chocolate. Moon ( his girlfriend ) holds his hand, and asks him about the book and if he found it interesting.

Tact smiles and answers, “yes I liked it and I am still reading it.” 

As he said this, the visual interaction with the red covered paperback book, as if by some external stimuli, appears in his memory and makes him feel he has already had this conversation with her in the past. The real time strategy game is actually manipulating his photographic memory, and rearranging his perception of sequences, to create a false impression of a reality that never existed. But he realises this and it will change everything!

( Somewhat like the movie Blade Runner )

At this point, he asks Moon if they could go out and take a walk. Now, Moon is sure something is not right with Tact. So, she accepts his offer without any protest and she holds his hand, and both start walking under the evening streetlights. Unable to restrain herself, Moon asks Tact to share with her whatever was worrying him.

Tact, looks at her, stops walking, holds her closer to his chest, and places his chin over her head. And says, “yes there is something I want to tell you, but before I do, please watch these movies : Blade Runner, Kingsman, The Bourne Identity, and try to know whatever you can about real time strategy games. Then I can explain things better and they would seem plausible. And I am glad you had physics as your major subject and you believe more in science and scientific probing. And you are not someone who is too obsessed with black magic, superstition and illogical beliefs. Will you do that for me, Moon?”

She looks at him and replies, “ I think I have watched all of them, and I know quite a lot about real time strategy games. It tries to beat the real time gamers by conceiving a strategy in real time that is far advanced than the moves of real time gamers. But I will watch them again. I too have wanted to tell you something for a long time now. I am glad you mentioned it. Today something very strange happened. Tact, I have been feeling this for quite sometime now, but I did not know how to share it with you.

Do you know something Tact? I wanted to walk today, and that is why I left early, then a cab stood right in front of me and asked me if I was going downtown. While I was wondering how the driver knew I was going downtown, I boarded the cab. After a few minutes I realised I wanted to walk and not take the cab today. Yet I boarded the cab Tact. I was worried for a while. It was at this moment I thought of Newton and his laws and the recently published paper on electromagnetic waves of the human brain. Rest let us discuss whenever you want to. And as you mentioned, after I have watched these movies and read more about real time strategy games.” 

Tact, agrees and then they walk towards Moon’s home. Tact waits at the gate until her mother opens the door and she waves her hand at him, and both her mother and she wish him good night.

“Good night!” Shouts Tact loudly.

Tact, saunters on the pavement, sometimes walking slowly and thoughtfully, at times jumping from the circular glow of the street lamps cast on the floor of the pavement, into the next glow of the next street lamp waiting to bathe him in its light and make him feel a little happier.

Finally after hopping from one glow to another, he reaches the road, where he had waited for the cab, and he decides to wait and observe the flow of cabs for a few minutes.

And, what he notices surprises him. After every every 30 seconds, a cab passes by him. And in 10 minutes almost 16 cabs go past him. This convinces him more about the credibility of his theory. But he wants to test it further, because he wants to be sure that he is thinking in the right direction and not ignoring or missing the details that matter.

He opens the lock of his room and without opening his shoes he almost dives into his bed and lies there with his face facing the ceiling. He closes his eyes and falls asleep. But in his subconscious mind he is dealing with all these thoughts and pushing himself to arrive at a sensible solution.

Yes, a much needed sensible solution, and not any other solution. And there he sleeps in his bed, with eyes closed, but awake and dealing with thoughts that want to be the pirates of his memories, his emotions, his life, his will, his choices, his imaginations, and in advanced stages, even distance him from his girlfriend by creating an emotional gulf between them. But somehow, he always manages to love her, because he knows she loves him equally as much, and this memory is irreplaceable and imperishable. This is a struggle in his subconscious state , and when he wakes up next morning, hopefully, he will realise it is actually a fight he ought to win in reality. And figure out a way to do so.

And its seed has already germinated in his mind and hopefully it will lead him to this realisation. Hopefully it will!

Finally, the Sun peers through the laced Summer curtains, and beams of light cover Tact’s face. He stands at the edge of the bed, then walks towards the window and looks at the bright sunshine and the people walking on the streets.

He boils some water and prepares his morning tea, with a few loaves of bread and honey. Just to feel a little well off, he also boils a few potatoes, and tosses some spinach and carrots on top of these boiled potatoes, and leaves them to cook for a few minutes.

Then he starts his computer and runs a few calculations.

“There it is!” Is his instant reaction after having run the calculations for more than 2 hours. Now he is convinced that the glass did not fall, it was made to fall, he did not turn right, he was made to turn right, the red covered, paperback book did not occupy his thoughts while he was conversing with his girlfriend, but he was made to think of it.

But how did he realise it?

Well that is his secret, because somehow he has sensed that his thoughts are being logged and then situations are manipulated in real time to first confuse him, and in advanced stages make him so weak that he lacks confidence even to take the next step. A state where he will be so dependent on few people that he even will not have the will to lift a glass of water, because he will be scared that it might fall. A pathetic physical state where he is just a reflection and nothing else. A mere reflection, whose situations are taken to such extreme that he agrees to be a situationally born prostitute with no self respect. And this begins to worry him and pity the minds of people who  have developed this real time strategy game with a malicious intention to turn humans into beggars and these helpless, situationally forced prostitutes whose self respect is squeezed out of them at such a slow rate, that they do not realise it until they are trapped in its sodomising influence. Where every prostitute who once was a girl/boy with dreams to fly a jet plane or be a doctor, is now a victim of these intentionally manipulated situations, and whenever a customer undresses him/her, the pilot in him/her dies, the doctor dies too, and finally one day he/she dies as well and now he/she becomes a shadow that does not need any light to be cast. 

And no matter how often he/she is undressed every day, he/she feels nothing. Because the system, called the real time strategy game, has robbed him/her of one very crucial aspect of human life, “Self Respect!” And with this loss the wild horse in him/her, assumes the form of a horse with personality, but no character, and in this moment, the person is assassinated and now he/she doesn't mind being undressed at all, because he/she feels naked all the time. 

Ravaged by the savages, who are accomplices of Satan, in Saints clothing. And this thought worries Tact, and he continuously thinks about Moon and hopes she too is not a victim of these savages.

While Tact is preoccupied with these thoughts, he hears the doorbell, and this breaks his thinking spell. He gets up, and opens the door.

“Ah Tact, I could not wait to see you. I was thinking of you all night.” Says Moon as she holds him in her arms and drags him towards the table and closes the door behind her, by literally kicking it with her right foot.

She kisses him and then holds him in his arms and then stays still for a few minutes, until Tact asks her something, “how about some tea and spinach soup with a lot of garlic and carrots?”

“Ah that will be great!” Answers Moon. 

Tact kisses her on her forehead and walks towards his kitchen, which is actually a wooden partition separating his bed from the rest of the room- Technically one big room, that is half bedroom, a quarter of the room is kitchen and a quarter part of the room is a bathroom with toilet. And Tact believes only a just emerged butterfly from her cocoon and his girlfriend, Moon, can understand the design, and living in such a room; and still being able to be yourself.

Moon watches him bringing the soup and tea, and as he places them on the table, with a cup of tea for himself too. Moon holds his finger, that was trying to free itself from the round keychain like grip of his cup, and kisses his hand, and then grabs her bowl of soup and begins taking sips of soup with a spoon. 

It is not a typical soup spoon, but a teaspoon. And with this spoon it will take her, almost 25 minutes to finish her soup. But she loves it this way, because lovers love spending time together, and any reason that facilitates these desires, is a welcome reason. And in the romance between Tact and Moon, this tea spoon always appears to be this good and beautiful reason. Tact does this on purpose too because he loves spending time with her, and the tea spoon offers this opportunity. And by now Tact has realised that Moon too does not mind it either. So it will be right to say that in their case, love is not in the air, love is in the tea spoon and the soup!

Then, unexpectedly, Moon places her soup bowl on the table, and asks Tact to pull his chair closer to hers. Tact gets up and pushes the chair towards his left with his right hand, and then comfortably re-occupies the chair, beside Moon. So close that he could hear her breathing.

And Moon asks him to listen carefully,

“Yesterday when I was about to go to bed, Aramax and his girlfriend called me saying they will be leaving for a mountain tour. Whereas, the day we had lunch together, they told me they were here for more than two months and they could not think of taking a break, because they had several deadlines to work on. And when they were on the phone their voices were delayed, as if they were thinking twice about one thought and then speaking. Sort of dual thinking, which causes  a noticeable delay in word delivering frequency. I did not say anything and I wished them all the best.

But when I asked you about the red covered, paperback book yesterday, I had decided before leaving my home that I would not talk about it, because I knew you would take more than a month to absorb the content of that book. But when I met you, this was the first thing I referred to. It was as if someone prodded my thoughts in this direction and via the centre of the brain that controls motor movements it forced me to say what I had decided not to refer to. During the time when I was with you, I did not realize it, but when I reached home, I realised it when I sat in my chair. It was then I thought, perhaps my memory is being managed by someone. And I know exactly how Tact.”

Tact, who is still holding the tea cup in his right hand, looks at her and responds, “Well Moon. Now there is nothing I should explain further, I am sure we are victims of the same system and I have every reason to believe we are being used to grow the artificial intelligence of real time strategy game. That knows human thoughts in advance, and then based on previous experiences and access to human memory. Via permutation combination, it lays out the game plan to checkmate the real players i.e. you and me in this case. Given the fact that it knows our thoughts, and it has a complete record of our previous experiences and access to our memories, it will always know what we will do in situation A and in situation B. And to check its accuracy, it will sometimes block all our possibilities, to look for other alternatives that a human mind can think of in a real time scenario, and sometimes serve us with the options easily, again to test that it is correct about our personality assessments. Then as it evolves, it will become a tactical and thinking synthetic brain, that can be used to make anyone's life hell.

( If in right hands, better as well. But as of now, it is hell for sure! )

For example, I like helping people. But of late I have been coming across too many beggars. Too many. It is as if the system wants to know, which faces and appearances appeal to me the most when it comes to expressing sympathy. It also knows a lot of other details by engaging us in these real time situations, which are simulations of a game that is learning and getting intelligent. So, I have stopped helping people, because they appear to be a part of the game. Hired by its developers to map every mental expression of the target subjects.

At this point, Moon interrupts him, “You know, this Summer, I went to market when it was as hot as 47 degrees. I usually do not feel thirsty when I am out. But one day I felt extremely thirsty but my thirst was not for water. Instead it was focused on something in particular. As if the system had learned to trigger these urges in me and then, when it knew I am at the spot where this drink is available, it triggered this thirst and I craved it. I gave in to these urges couple of times, but then I realized something is not right. And this moment of realisation was very special, don't ask me how I realised it. That will be our secret. Right Moon! At least for now that has to be our secret, remember the movies: The Bourne Identity and Blade Runner.”

“Yes I do sweetheart!”  Replied Moon.

“There are a lot of other incidents that helped me realise it. So the technology no doubt is amazing. But it has a major flaw. And when a person realises it, if that person under natural circumstances would buy that drink, say 7 times in a month, after this realisation, this person would never drink it. Because he/she feels cheated and baited. But I am sure there are many who never realise it. And by never I mean never. 

So Moon, let me kiss you please, before the game knows I want to kiss you.” Requests Tact.

“Please do. I do not care whether the game knows it or not. We cannot live in fear and stop doing what we like. Thinking, whether it is a liking induced by the game or it is our own desire. Something that we want to do, because we love it. So kiss me Tact!”

And he pushes the bowl aside and holds Moon in his arms and they do what they felt like doing. Now, whether this was a desire injected by the real time strategy game or their own desire. Remains a secret that only Tact knows as of today, and even the real time strategy game is unaware of it. Because Tact has learned something amazing and revolutionary when it comes to the thinking processes of the human brain. 

For now, as he is kissing Moon, he feels he is the luckiest person in the world, and at this moment nothing else matters. As for the realisation and how his brain sensed it when the glass fell, is a secret he knows better than anybody, even the creators of the real time strategy game.

And he feels, this technology can have many useful applications in medical science. But, will a megalomaniac human being, be able to overcome his/her temptations and be willing to become a philanthropist who wants to rescue humanity, rescue love and lovers alike? Because this technology can make a person very, very powerful, almost like God or should I say: like Satan!

Afterall, justice without power is inefficient; power without justice is tyranny. Justice without power is opposed, because there are always wicked men/women. Power without justice is soon questioned. Justice and power must therefore be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

He smiles and then holds the bowl of soup in his right hand, and offers the tea spoon to Moon with his left hand. And as she holds the tea spoon, Tact smiles again, as she begins to savour her sips, of now, almost cold soup.

Then, as they are busy talking and figuring out a way to free themselves from this neural lock established by mapping the frequency of brian’s wavelength. Moon says something extremely fascinating, “Tact have you noticed that in old scriptures, mythology and history, most of the powerful men and women have worn gold crowns. And gold is one of the fastest and best conductors known to humans. I think it has the capacity to either enhance the reception of this thought probing frequency or alter it so that it cannot be tapped into. And if you observe the life of King Solomon, and the handling of the Arc of covenant, there are clues that could help us resolve this. I know, I know, you are not too religious, but you are still pious. Haa haaa, that is why I consider you to be my better half already!”

At this point, Tact looks at her and scratches his head and acknowledges the potential of her idea to help them come out of the situation they are in.

But at this point, Tact makes a sudden confession as well, “But Moon, at times it seems to work to our advantage, there are moments I have felt it. As long as it does not manipulate the situations and is granted as a gift to a person who knows how to handle power for just causes only, it should be a great power that they ought to accept readily. So let us wait and see how it evolves and where it leads to. In the meantime we can also work on our options too!”

Moon, who is a person with a strong sense of forethought, asks him to discontinue being a prey to synthetically generated situations, which will never end, and it will force him to live in a world that is unreal, making him feel it is real. 

Whereas it is not, and for the real time strategy game this will be the ultimate victory and for humanity, it will only mean one thing, “game over!” 

“Now do you want that? And don't you want me to love you in real time without having to ask yourself whether it is based on our own desire, our own free will; or it is a urge that germinates within us because real time strategy game is still using us as subjects whose existence is nothing more than the components of the game?”

Tact, thinks for a moment and agrees with her, and they begin working on the solution. 

Moon realises that via their thoughts the real time strategy game now knows what they are upto. So she expects and prepares herself for the worst. Tact realises this and holds her hand, and then leads her to his bike. He puts on his helmet, and as Moon holds his shoulders as a confident pillion rider, they dash towards the main highway; and the real time strategy game chases them via its smart networks of auto  piloted cars, and AI managed lanes and traffic signals, and they keep speeding ahead while the real time strategy game keeps creating a new maze with every new mile covered by them. 

It has been almost 5 years now, and both of them are still on the highway because the real time strategy game has blocked all the lanes and gullies that lead to their homes and to Tact’s room. So for now Moon and Tact are like Neo from the famous movie, The Matrix. 

Matrix did end in the concluding scene, but in real time strategy game where people have sold their souls in return of few pleasures and some money, for the two lovers, the game continues endlessly, but they do not mind being tried to their maximum limit as long as they are together on the bike, that exists in reality. Where Moon and Tact are the actual reality. And Moon’s hands on Tacts shoulders, offer him a feeling of contentment no money can buy.

The real time strategy game is seeking them to know how Tact realised it. How!?

But, Tact and Moon are love bound travellers who do not travel on the waves of time, they travel beyond the realm of time, where only they exist along with the real time strategy game. 

Maybe this is the power of love. Human love! And the real time strategy game will never understand this, because its developers are loveless and cold.

For true love always safeguards and protects honour. And love is all about faith, just like the maid that loves, goes out to sea upon a shattered plank, and puts her trust in miracles for safety. And for now, both, Tact and Moon, are in the most tempestuous sea having placed their trust in a plank and believing in the miracles of safety.

The fictitious situation explained in this short science fiction may be a reality in 2075. And to know more about it and love in 2075, I wrote the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. Explore it to know if Moon and Tact manage to survive the moves of the real time strategy game eventually; or they end up being trapped forever in its infinite maze of new turns and twists.

In the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075, the names of characters are different, the plot of the story is different, but the struggle of human emotions and feeling of love is far more intense. And there are a few technological wonders that have been explained in great detail!

Explore the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075, and know where the bike eventually stops and how Moon and Tact manage to escape from the real time strategy game. A scifi romance, that will enliven the romantic within you. And I guarantee you too shall believe that romance has been elegantly defined as the offspring of fiction and love.

Let me know if you too believe in this kind of romance and if you too felt like praying for Moon and Tact riding their bike of hope and true courage.

Until then, let me join them in the maze. Whroom, whroom, whroommmmmmm!